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M OT I O N P I CTU R E S O U N D E D I TO R S 89 Adrian Medhurst MPSE Foley Supervisor, Foley Artist & Foley Editor 284+ Credits | 14 Awards | Started in 1999 > Adrian is an Adelaide-based freelance Foley artist and sound editor, who has been working in the industry for 25 years. His Foley credits include The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Last Night in Soho, Mortal Kombat and more recently, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. From 2012, Adrian spent more than five years employed at Park Road Post Productions in Wellington, New Zealand, working on The Hobbit trilogy amongst many other projects. He has also been a re-recording mixer on a few films, including Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, starring Emma Thompson, and a film called Animals. Adrian has received two Emmy nominations, four MPSE Award nominations, an Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Award, and a number of Australian Screen Sound Guild Awards. grew up in Mount Gambier, a smallish town of about 24,000 people in South Australia, in a time when there were only two TV stations to choose from! During my school years, my main interests were music, movies, guitars, and comics. Even as I was completing my last year of high school, I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do once I finished. At home when I was meant to be studying or doing homework, I was more interested in listening to music and film soundtracks, from Slayer, Metallica, and The Ramones to The Lion King soundtrack or Alan Silvestri's "Forrest Gump Suite" on repeat. As with most people working in sound, the original Star Wars trilogy was an inspiration. Being born in 1979, I missed seeing the films at the cinema, and I actually can't remember the first time I watched them, but they have always been there. I used to watch them on VHS religiously to the point of being able to recite every line of dialogue as I watched them, along with the sound effects and music being embedded in my brain. I remember going to watch Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) in the cinema when I was 12 or 13. Hearing the opening music from Michael Kamen's overture gave me goose bumps and hearing it now, I still get transported back to that cinema experience. The music and sound of that film definitely had an impact on me. Even though I was a movie fan growing up, watching many films and regularly visiting the video store, it never entered my mind that it would be possible for me to work in film, TV, or the arts. The world was a different place before the internet took hold. After I finished high school, I remember my mum found an advertisement in the newspaper for the School of Audio Engineering (SAE) which really piqued my interest. So, the year after high school, at age 17, I moved to Adelaide, 430 km (270 miles) from home. The SAE course was a great starting point for learning about microphones, frequencies, recording techniques, outboard gear, etc. The course was mainly focused on music recording and producing and brushed over the roles in film sound post. However, it was during my time at SAE I heard mention of the South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC) located in Adelaide. This was a government film-funding body that also ran a facility with hireable shooting stages, a mixing stage, wardrobe, and art departments, etc. One day in May 1999, I decided that I would drive to the studio, knock on the door, I Young Adrian meeting Darth Vader. Photo by Christine Medhurst