This past week marked the culmination of the Art & Practice of Sound Design with acclaimed sound editor and re-recording mixer Richard King. The workshop was presented by AFI Conservatory’s Editing Discipline Head, Robert Ivison, with support from the AFI Innovative Programs Department, and we are thrilled to share with you an exclusive look at this unique opportunity for AFI Fellows and Alumni.
King has over 100 credits to his name and four Academy Awards for Sound Editing (MASTER AND COMMANDER, THE DARK KNIGHT, INCEPTION and DUNKIRK). Over the four-week summer session with 36 AFI Fellows and Alumni from the Conservatory’s Editing, Directing and Producing Disciplines, King shared his technical process and creative approach on three of his recent projects, DUNE: PART TWO, MAESTRO and OPPENHEIMER, as well as mentored participants through practice exercises. Workshop participants screened the films, which were followed by lectures from King where he talked through and demonstrated the decisions behind the sound design of specific scenes.
“We organized each session so that there was a particular purpose. Everyone had a lot of questions, which was great, which meant they were engaged, thinking about the process,” said King.
Workshop participants were tasked with recreating the sound design for short scenes from BLADE RUNNER, BRAZIL, HOT FUZZ and other films. The process involved doing their own foley and creating or sourcing their own sound effects and more. King then worked with the participants offering advice and feedback, and the final projects were screened on the last day of the workshop.
“All [of the scenes] were fantastic – all done with a sense of fun and creativity and experimentation – they brought a lot to the work. They were given a lot of information, a certain amount of technical information and a lot of procedural information and they absorbed it really well,” said King. “Some of my suggestions they took, some of them they didn’t take exactly as I intended. I wanted them to do what they thought was best. Everyone needs to figure out their own aesthetic – what they think sounds good. I feel like everybody got into that spirit of that idea, that it’s about finding your own voice and your own individual way of telling a story.”
A special thanks to Avid Pro Tools for their generous support of the initiative.
Applications to the AFI Conservatory MFA film program open on September 6, 2024. Learn more at AFI.edu.
About the AFI Conservatory’s Department of Innovative Programs
Innovative Programs oversees AFI’s non-degree, short-term and social impact programs and creates a space where technologists, innovators, storytellers, entrepreneurs and social justice changemakers, among others, can come together to collaborate, create and impact our industry and culture.
Through a range of learning opportunities, Innovative Programs serves a diverse community of aspiring visual storytellers with opportunities to build leading-edge technological, digital and media-making skills, bridge access to professional networks and place participants on a career trajectory.
