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78 M PS E . O R G Les Fiddess MPSE Foley Supervisor, Foley Artist & Foley Editor 234+ Credits | 9 Awards | Started in 1971 > Les was born into an entertainment industry family and began his own journey in 1971. Since then, Les has completed more than 230 film and TV projects for some of the world's leading filmmakers, receiving peer recognition with 30 Australian and overseas award nominations. His career has spanned the full spectrum of sound post- production from LPs and ¼-inch tape, through to the many iterations of computer software and hardware. Over the last 12 years, he has been involved in setting up several Foley recording studios across Australia. In 2000, Les received an Australian Centenary Medal for services to the Australian Film Industry, and in 2017, Les received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Australian Screen Sound Guild (ASSG). y introduction to cinema was about the time I was turning 13 years old. My dad took me to see Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and I was amazed at the size of the screen and the depth of the soundtrack. I have seen that picture more than 30 times and I still think it is one of the best films ever made. Originally, I wanted to become a cinematographer, but the soundtrack on this particular film always fascinated me. I found it difficult to understand how it got onto the film. I knew nothing about the technical processes of filmmaking, but over the next few years that would all change. My first job was with a film production company, Roger Miram's Productions, and they were working on a TV series called Spyforce (1971). My father had just completed acting in an episode and talked to Roger about my passion to work in the industry. Roger gave me the opportunity to work in sound recording and the film rushes transfer bay, where I was under the guidance of Lloyd Colman. Lloyd had spent many years as a location sound recordist on feature films and TV series in Australia and overseas, working on projects like A Town Like Alice (1956) and Age of Consent (1969). One of my first tasks was to splice ¼-inch tape together and start a sound library that the sound editors could use for the track lay. Lloyd was a major influence on me, providing me with an education in the craft of sound editing and the amazing results you could achieve with your imagination. He was my film school. Spending time in the transfer bay and floating around the editing department, I started to absorb knowledge about picture editing. For the next few years, I worked as an assistant picture and sound editor, which in turn, led me to my first feature film as an assistant and then seven years in that role. The transition to full-time sound came around 1977 when I began M Recording FX for Farscape, Simply Sound Studios, Sydney, 1999. Photo by Phil Judd