At the NFTS our tutors keep one foot in the industry to ensure that their skills stay current and they can pass on this knowledge to students.
So we are delighted to announce that our Head of Production Sound Fraser Barber led the sound department on the BBC’s latest drama – an adaptation of J.K Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy starring Sir Michael Gambon, Keeley Hawes, Julia McKenzie, Emilia Fox and Simon McBurney.
You can watch the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_Myt40YHiU and watch the first episode on BBC 1 this Sunday February 15th at 9pm.
Fraser Barber said it is “…definitely the best TV production I have worked on.”
APPLY for the NFTS Production Sound for Film and Television course by May 7th deadline: https://nfts.co.uk/our-courses/diploma/production-sound-film-television
SIGN UP for the Production Sound OPEN DAYS on March 5th and March 26th https://nfts.co.uk/sign-me-up/open-days
Blog post
In this blog post you can read about the challenges he faced on the production and how he overcame them.
“It was an unusual production in that the ages of the actors varied with an actor only four-years-old and actors who were quite elderly. The little boy was very active and even though he only had one scripted line of dialogue, he was required to adlib a lot. But we couldn’t put a radio mic on him because he kept touching it and trying to take it off. So I tried a new type of radio microphone with the smallest transmitter in the world; it was a great success because he didn’t even notice it.
“The challenge with the older cast was ensuring that they could fully hear the other actors (Michael Gambon has spoken recently of his trouble remembering lines) and also being especially careful about safety on set.”
“One of the most demanding challenges was the scene when we shot the church service with the congregation singing along to an organ and choir.
“During the recce we realised that the organ in the church we wanted to film in didn’t sound as good as we wanted. So I recorded the sound of an organ at another church, then mixed that together with the sound of the choir …and then mixed that on set with the congregation singing. I think it sounds really good. Of course, we could have just used pre-recorded music - but that wasn’t what the director and I wanted.
“Working with the Director Jonny Campbell was fantastic. He is the most collaborative director I have worked with in 20 years of recording sounds for drama, he is the only director I’ve worked with that has told me he believes that sound is 60% of the film. So as hard and challenging as the work was, it was so rewarding to work with him and the atmosphere he created on set was positive to a degree that you rarely see. It was the most satisfying production I have worked on.”
If you’d like to see more or Fraser Barber’s work, watch his showreel here…
http://www.saraputt.co.uk/clients/profile/?id=342674&name=Fraser+Barber
