The BFI Academy is a nationwide program open to young people from anywhere in the UK and from any background, the BFI Film Academy offers a real chance for talented 16-19-year-olds to be part of our future film industry.
In this weeks guest blog, BFI Academy Student Callum Fitzpatrick reflects on a masterclass with veteran sound recordist Jim Blanche.
During one of the sessions at the BFI film academy we met sound recordist Jim Blanche, who has focused on TV series Documentaries which include: Animal Cops: Houston, Square Roots: The Story of SpongeBob SquarePants, Brainiac: Science Abuse and more.
Sound can truly make or break a film
During this session, we were taught/shown the many ways in which sounds recorders do their job in the industry and after he taught us how to use the equipment we were tasked with creating a short clip with a focus on sound. We split into groups and both decided to use dialogue, one group used radio mics while the other used boom mics and hidden stationary mics. After getting our footage we did a screening of the clips with synced audio and we were all astounded by how important sound is as sound it usually something that is overlooked, but sound can truly make or break a film.
The second half of the session we were informed of the two short films we would be making as our final project, we were all able to mark which role we’d like to have in the film, whether that is director or sound or camera operator we could choose whatever role we wanted. When we were told our roles, we split up into our two groups and started working out how we would do our film. What camera we would like to use, what mics, where would we film were just a few questions we started asking. This felt quite strange to me as this seemed like the first time I have had the opportunity to professionally plan a film.
The BFI film academy has given me the opportunity to meet and talk to like-minded people who I look forward to hopefully working with in the near future.
Callum Fitzpatrick
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