LETTING OFF STEAM

AMPS Meeting at Twickenham Studios 7/7/00

Sadly the turn out was very poor - about a dozen, including our guests from New Zealand, AMPS member Kit Rollings and his wife Lee. Happily it was a high quality attendance and the UK members made our guests feel very welcome. There was a fine spread of Tony Luptons’ s tasty sandwiches along with good red and white wine to wash them down.

Kit and Lee, like most New Zealanders were very sociable, mingling and talking easily with all present. I had, that afternoon, driven them out to Pinewood Studios where Graham Hartstone gave most generously of his time, taking them on a thorough, personally conducted tour of Pinewood Sound Department’s state-of-the-art facilities. Kit was most impressed and so was Lee; being a sound man’s wife she comprehended most of the goings on.

On our way back to the Twickenham meeting I took them to see Denham Old Village, a time warp curiosity for those who live in the UK but it is exactly what every antipodean visitor expects an English village to look like. During the journey back they also got a good idea of London’s Friday night rush hour traffic.

Back to the meeting, we managed to get Kit to talk to us about his work in New Zealand. He gave a most interesting account of the New Zealand National Film Unit where he started off in the sound department in 1965. At that time the sound department staff were allocated jobs and looked after all the sound requirements for that production ie production sound, FX recording, post synch when required, commentary recording, track laying, final mix and transfer to photographic.

When the NFU ceased being, six or seven years back, the studios and processing lab were sold and Kit started out on his own as a freelance sound designer. He set up a studio and cutting room in the lower floor of his home situated on the hills overlooking Wellington Harbour. He uses Pro Tools and still treasures his veteran Nagra 4S. Although he is in far flung New Zealand (Sydney, Australia, 1200 miles away is the nearest overseas city) he is not in a backwater. Most of the big equipment manufacturers have agencies in Auckland or Wellington who are able to supply all the latest gear and provide the know how to back it up. If problems arise that can’t be coped with, there’s always the internet to fall back on for direct communication with the manufacturer.

According to Kit, there is a reasonable amount of film and TV work going on in NZ. The big job is local film maker Peter Jackson’s Trilogy of Lord Of The Rings.- three features shot back to back involving masses of digital effects and crowds of 800 to 1000 extras. 

Peter Jackson seems to be New Zealand’s film wonder boy. He bought the NFU studio complex and lab, saved the only surviving 70mm cinema in NZ, raised the money for Lord Of The Rings, and has invented a spoken language for the Hobbits.

Unfortunately Kit is not involved with the project but we hope that when it comes to post production his expert sound design talents will be called upon. 

Other productions made in New Zealand and aired in the UK by Channel 5 are Xena, Hercules and Dark Knight. Xena and Hercules use NZ production crews but post production is done in the US. 

With talk about Maori politics, non-linear equipment crashes, tolerant attitudes to downtime caused by crashes, the lasting life of 1/4” tape, digital tape and CDs plus other topics, a delightfully relaxed, informal evening was enjoyed by all who turned out as well as by our guests. Pity you missed it.

BOB ALLEN

FROM HONORARY MEMBER

JOHN ALDRED 

Congratulations on such a fine looking Spring issue, and what an enhancement colour makes, as well as a slightly stiffer cover. Well done! What a change from the 1994 issues of a few pages stapled together. I was interested to read the item about Dolby’s 35 years of hard work. I first came across a Dolby A-type unit whilst I was working in Canada, and made several generations of a magnetic recording without any apparent deterioration. But my boss at that time thought the unit was a waste of money! Back in the UK I was involved with all the preliminary tests which Dolby were making on photographic film sound, and the first Dolby Stereo recordings were quite exciting. They also excited the SMPTE Toronto Conference in 1972 where the system was unveiled. Ray Dolby deserves all the credit he has been given, but his film man Ioan Allen should not be forgotten. He was the engineer in charge of the film programme, and his efforts have been documented elsewhere as I’m sure you know. He has been suitably honoured by the BKSTS and the SMPTE, and I would like to propose that his name goes forward when AMPS are next considering Fellowships. He was a member of the ISO film sound committee when I was Chairman, and I learnt a lot from him. I also helped him with the Russians who hated all Americans - even though Ioan is British.