Bax experienced the high life on BBC One documentary Supersized Earth, working on a ledge at the top of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building. Gettens added “explosions and bullets whizzing around people’s heads” to BBC One’s D-Day the Last Heroes.
Lambert Productions MD Emma Wakefield led the conversation at the RTS Craft Skills Masterclasses.
Building a career in sound, Tony believes, is the same as it was when he began over 40 years ago. “[You] need to do the work at the coal face,” he believes, and work your way up from Sound Assistant to Sound Supervisor.
Sound supervisor/dubbing mixer Kevin Duff and sound recordist/mixer Mick Duffield offered a sound lesson at the RTS Craft Skills Masterclasses.
Speakers included:
Rupert Houseman, an editor on cutting-edge documentaries such as Life and Death Row with Yan Miles, a drama editor who has worked on shows such as Game of Thrones and Sherlock.
Students were given the opportunity to listen industry experts about their craft.
From cameraman Steve Robinson describing how to portray personal moments on camera to editor of BBC One's The Missing explaining how a show comes together in the cutting room, the two-day masterclasses provided advice and insight into the television industry.
TV sound engineers are used to keeping a low profile. Only if something goes amiss do the people responsible for the sound emerge from the shadows. Paradoxically, minus the sound track a TV show would be unwatchable.
This point was made by the two veterans delivering an RTS Craft Skills Masterclass on sound, Chris Ashworth, Production Sound Mixer, and Mike Felton, Sound Designer.
“You only get shouted at when things go wrong,” Felton observed. “Sound is a masochist’s job. Basically you do it for your own satisfaction.”
