Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1541592
62 M PS E . O R G made the practicalities of sound editing easier. But it was more the imprinting of the feel of the places and the people that influenced me, and I carried those experiences through the entire post- production for the film. Referring back to the reductive ideas I mentioned earlier, during the final mix of Boy, I had come up with a conceptual idea that I wanted to try, and it was so simple but so powerful, I was intrigued to see how it affected me. The basic gist was this—the film is told from Boy's perspective and, up to a certain moment, Boy sees his dad as a returned hero. But cracks start to appear in the facade and there is a specific moment when Boy first really deeply feels it (spoiler alert): His pet goat dies in his arms after his dad drunkenly hits it with his car. My idea was to also kill every living thing in the ambiences from that point on. Simple right? Imagine waking up after a big night out and there are no birds and no insects. A simple idea with profound ramifications—not that all life had literally disappeared, but that the feeling that life had seeped away. Locations and situations in the film that had felt joyous and full of life suddenly felt empty and still and introspective. I was thrilled with how powerful such a simple mix choice made, but I was even more intrigued to see the film with an audience and observe how that collective emotional impact felt. Guess what? Absolutely no one has ever noticed. Well, I should say no one consciously noticed. Sitting with an audience, I felt the impact, and I think that approach had as much emotional impact as the most heart-rending score, however, it was achieved by stealth. No one noticed, but everyone was affected by it. It fascinates me that we can gently make a change to the entire sonic world of a film but no one 'notices' per se. (*JW's note: More info about the sound design for Boy can be found on Tim's website at www.musicofsound. co.nz/blog/boy-sound-design-for-the- film.) It appears you were a born listener and the environment you grew up in gave you many opportunities to notice your natural soundscape. Was this what sparked your interest in pursuing a career in sound? Coming from a musical family, it seemed that instinctively I wanted to 'create sound' rather than play music. For example, as kids we all had weekly piano lessons and I was a slightly problematic student because even though I enjoyed playing the piano, I refused to learn to read notation. I don't know why. And I still don't read or use normal notation. But my piano teacher carried on with lessons, and she trained my ear, which has served me well to this day. But it's funny how memory is: I don't remember any of the piano lessons, but I remember she had two small sausage dogs (dachshunds) and the front gate to her property had a squeak that would set the dogs barking, signifying the next student had arrived and my lesson was over. I vividly remember this squeak of freedom! Another vivid memory is of playing in the empty grain silos on the farm. The entire structure of the silos was made of metal, and the floor would buckle upward when it had no weight on it. I discovered if I jumped on the bulging parts, they would invert and trigger a massive reverb, like thunder. I've referenced this idea of creating sound through action, rather than passive observation, many times since. In fact, it's really the basis of my career. One of my very earliest memories of not just sound but sound design was from watching the first series of Doctor Who (TV series, 1963-current) on a black-and-white TV. Experiencing the work of Delia Derbyshire and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop both thrilled and terrified me. I would have only been 7 or 8 years old, and it was many years later before I learnt how their genius work was achieved. But it fed my imagination and was my first exposure