Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1541592
M OT I O N P I CTU R E S O U N D E D I TO R S 63 of how powerful and strange sound could be. Even though I hid behind the couch, I could still hear the Daleks. Later at high school and then university, I was playing bass guitar in bands, and we got an Arts Council grant to do some recording. Instead of only being able to afford a few hours in a studio, we rented a TEAC A-3440 4-track reel to reel, a desk and mics and converted our student house into a studio for a weekend. I became more interested in recording than playing in bands, and around the same time I had to face the fact that I did not want to finish the electrical engineering degree that I'd started. I had friends at art school, and I admired their creative way of life. Two of my band members were studying film and they invited me to a screening of Wim Wenders' new film Wings of Desire (1987), and it changed my life. While I was already a film fan, I had never experienced such an intriguing and complex narrative. I left that screening and quit university the next day. I wanted a creative life, working with sound, and so I applied to go to film school. As luck would have it, I was the only person out of 400 applicants who specifically wanted to work with sound! Being accepted felt a bit like fate—I was at last getting to pursue exactly what I'd been dreaming about all through my youth. From film school, how did you find your way into the industry? One of the great aspects of the film school I attended was that they required you to do work experience. I figured the best people to approach were the ones doing all the work, so I trawled through all the credits of film and TV shows and narrowed it down to three people in New Zealand. I targeted those three, researching what films they'd worked on, watching the films and making notes. And then eventually sending off a letter of introduction and asking for a placement. Of course, absolutely no one replied, but I was determined. I summoned my courage and talked my way into visiting a studio in Auckland for a week, sitting with sound editor John McKay as he did sound post on a sci-fi TV series. This was 1990, and he was using Digidesign sound tools, laying off to a 24-track, all locked to picture on a U-matic tape. John and I got on well, and when I finished my film school course, he took me on as a trainee sound editor for six months, and that was all the start I needed! Right around this time, the studio got one of the first Pro Tools systems into NZ (back when it was ProDeck and ProEdit) and I made myself indispensable by learning everything I could about Macs and Pro Tools. I also took over cutting FX and ambiences for the TV series we were doing while John handled dialogue, ADR, and the mix. The first film I got to work on there was The End of the Golden Weather (1991, Dir: Ian Mune) recording Foley with infamous Australian Foley artist Greg Bell (RIP). After having worked on a few TV series, I loved working on film, but it would be a few years before I got a lucky break that really expanded my potential. A dear friend, Mike Hopkins (RIP), had a schedule conflict and was held up finishing another film. The production was therefore looking for someone to fill in for Mike for six weeks on a project based in Wellington. That project was Peter Jackson's first US studio film, The Frighteners (1996)! Being based at the National Film Unit (NFU) was great as I got to meet all the local sound team (including Mike Hedges, Brent Burge, etc.) and I got to work on some previz VFX scenes for the tunnel of light sequence. But the best part was about halfway through my stint of work, the film's US sound designer Randy Thom arrived with his brilliant supervising sound editor Phil Benson. My work studio was next door to Randy's, and I remember the day they arrived as I started hearing the most incredible sounds coming through the shared wall between us! Seeing how Randy and Phil worked was amazing but learning how they thought about sound and their philosophies had a profound influence on me. The following year, I was offered my first film as sound designer (Saving Grace, 1998, Dir: Costa Botes) and from that point on, each project somehow led to the next one. What an amazing experience to have so early on in your career. How did you continue to develop your own sound editing philosophy, skills, and style? I believe the truism that most learning occurs while you're working. At the very start, I learned by observing others, but I am a fast learner, and I love reading and researching. For example, I made it part of my role to know Pro Tools better than my boss. And while I observed techniques, I am also an independent thinker. If I came up against an idea or a particular technique and could think of a better way to do it, I'd try it out and test my theory. So, I think a lot of my skills were self-taught or self-realised, but that was only possible due to the opportunities presented by being immersed in the work. Another aspect is that I have always been as interested in 'why' as much as 'how.' I don't learn things by rote; I need to understand the motivation and reason for their existence. And then I can develop those ideas in interesting, maybe less obvious ways. I also think I've always been a non- conformist. If a crowd is moving in a particular direction, then for me it is very motivating to search in a different direction, because I have always held originality as an ideal. I grew up with a core DIY ethic, and I also like strange things, such as abstract art and experimental music.