Apart from scoring all these great books (best was a book called FILM AS FILM – Experimental Film 1910-1975, as well as some fascinating NZ history photo books)

I also got a couple of DVDs:

Of course the Kong Production Diaries are all available online, and while its funny to skip through the production documentation to see Peter Jackson go from being full of energy on day 1 of the shoot, to the utter exhaustion at the end, its also so good to see the documentation of the sound team, especially dear old Hoppy – Mike Hopkins RIP

Bass set of tines!

An app – I need that 16 step button!

Physical plugins!

via this video:

https://clipmapapp.com/openbeta

Stoked to get this – Korg Phase 8 – I’ve only had a couple of jams with it so far, plugged into my bass rig it sounds great!! Having the tines exposed is the whole point although the attack pop if striking them directly is harsh, as per the photo I was trying using 1/4″ tape to dampen them…

As above I had it sitting on a conga, and if I lightly tapped the conga drum skin it would trigger a chord from the Phase 8. Felt a bit like playing RINGS module…

As I did a pre-order for it, Korg included three custom tines. I haven’t installed them yet but they are tiny – that ruler is in mm. I will find my callipers & measure the thickness but I’d suspect they are only 1mm thick, so I’ll scale some of the tongues for the Daxophone from the Daxo font and get some laser cut. But first I need to RTFM – the sequencer has some very fun interactive aspects to it…

Also need to patch it through some distortion and get in the mode of Konono Nᵒ1

While schedules & budgets often require constant revision right up until the end of the project, a Supervisor also has to manage a very human relationship with each individual on their team. And just as with rerecording mixers, the people who are very good at such roles make it appear easy, almost effortless. I was reminded of these thoughts & ideas due to current work on Black Sheeps, but also reflecting on when we did the original Black Sheep film back in 2006. At the time I was going through a phase of believing that ‘if I can do this, anyone can’ and I got a chance to test the theory out.

A producer friend got in touch, asking if I would be prepared to take on a trainee/assistant. But not just any assistant, they had a request from an important international Producer friend of theirs, who’s son was interested in exploring sound design as a career choice. So they were asking for a favour, for a non kiwi friend… I agreed but with a proviso: if they could find the budget to have one assistant & not a local, then I’d only agree to it if they could also find the budget to have a local trainee/assistant too. It only seemed fair…

They agreed, and I began interviewing young people who were keen for such a role and rather than decide on one, I chose three. I decided to share the opportunity between three locals – so they would each job-share, doing a third of a weeks work each week. And I am happy to say it worked well. I thoroughly enjoyed the company of the foreign visitor, as their perspective on everything – as a visitor to NZ & their home & film culture etc – was interesting to me. And the three locals each got some experience, they each directly contributed to the film. But all of the three locals didn’t
carry on to pursue a career in the field of sound editing. And that is always a possibility with trainees – while as a Supervisor I am partly a teacher, for them its like auditioning a career choice. If the conclusion is that the ‘idea’ of such work is better kept as a hobby then that is still invaluable to learn. Equally if it validates a desire & motivates a life long career then thats a fantastic outcome. But the experience also ended my idea of ‘if I can do this, anyone can’ as it became apparent how each of our life experience, awareness, intelligence, abilities etc vary and in ways that may not be immediately obvious…

Over the years, on every film that I was Sound Designer & Supervising Sound FX Editor on, I also collaborated with someone like Hoppy ie a Supervising Dialogue Editor. One golden rule I have always believed is that you should learn from your mistakes. But the follow up to that belief is that you don’t have to make the mistakes yourself to learn from them. You can learn from other peoples mistakes. So if I observed some issues on some one else’s project and could see a connection to the source of a problem, I would make a mental note to NOT follow that approach.

But the best ‘supervisors’ I ever learned from were film directors. I consider myself lucky to have never worked for any psychopaths (and only a very few who I would never work a second time with) and I don’t think its a coincidence. To make a film requires someone with a vision to pursue it over many many years and they have to bring a large crowd of people with them. They have to share & trust those people with their ideas and constantly provide feedback to them.

I have always been really interested in how directors work. When I first started working I might briefly meet them, but it was only once I was directly contributing to a film and was having run throughs of work in progress, that I got to know some & to ‘pick their brains’ and it was always fascinating to me to learn of their background, what motivates them, what they see as important and their modus operandi. And one director very early on in my career gave me a subtle lesson that I have never forgotten. The project was the first opportunity I got to work on a larger film, an international project – The Frighteners, Peter Jacksons first project for a US studio. Back then we were based at the old Film Unit in Lower Hutt, and I had pout my hand up to design sounds for some VFX sequences that only existed as previz – the tunnel of light. So I spent time creating sounds for versions of scenes eg one where Michael J Fox is at a restaurant and goes to the bathroom. A man is washing his hands in the sink when he has a heart attack, a tunnel of light burst open from the heavens and powers down, reaches into the man & takes his life force, and the tunnel then reverses back up to the heavens & disappears! Quite a sequence to play with, as a young sound editor!! I had a ball & was constantly maxing out the 16 track ProTools that I was assigned… As the production was still shooting, the way feedback etc was managed was that on each Saturday Peter Jackson would come for a visit and sit in with each sound editor & hear what they were working on… As you can imagine I was nervous as hell, but Peter turned up, bare feet & wearing shorts and after he’d visited some of the others he came and sat with me & I played him my scenes. How he responded was so interesting to me. My memory of it was that at no point did he say no. In fact I don’t remember him criticising any of my work – he was very positive. But what he did do was ask questions and clearly identify what he liked most. So I’d been doing things like making rumbles from recordings of a house burning down and from cattle stampedes etc… So he’d identify elements he particularly liked, we’d discuss them & how they could be developed further especially given I only had draft versions of the VFX. And that was that. He left me to carry on & was off to have a run through with the next sound editor.

Reflecting on the experience since, the simple clever psychological thing that he did was positive reinforcement. He steered & encouraged me in directions that appealed to him, but didn’t dictate. He also didn’t criticise. He well knew it was all work in progress, and I am sure had I done something totally inappropriate or a waste of time, he would have said. But as a method of ‘supervising’ me, I totally appreciated how ego was never involved, nor status. It was all positive reinforcement.

So when I started to get the opportunity to be HOD on a film as sound designer/supervising sound editor, I took the same approach. And over many projects & years I got to learn & refine such methods. I always felt that when we are working long hours on a project that human relations are important – you spend so much time with other people, that it is important they are nice humans. So I felt I always chose to work with good people. Accordingly it amused me to get an email a while ago, where someone I worked with was reminiscing about it & described my supervising role as me ‘being interested in peoples work.’ They got the surface level interpretation but the deeper aspects obviously passed them by. So thinking back to having four assistants on Black Sheep 1, I would assign each of them some element to record/edit & then to show me versions as work in progress, so I could provide feedback. And I of course followed Peter Jacksons method of positive reinforcement. I’d always first clearly identify what I liked about their work & encouraged them to pursue those aspects. But what about when they did things ‘wrong’? My approach then, and this might be where that surface appearance came from, is that I would ask questions. Like ‘Ok thats quite interesting that aspect, why did you do that? etc’ And I would listen, because there might be some core idea that was good & worth pursuing & they hadn’t got it working yet. Of if what they said still didn’t make sense,I would make suggestions. ‘I reckon you could try some XYZ with that… or I wodner about trying it from this angle…’ etc… So never saying no. Never criticising. Actively encouraging towards better.

During my years of work as a Supervisor I rarely had major issues but I can think of two where I had to resolve issues that were not created by me, but they were my responsibility to solve. I’ll share them below as they are amusing to me & they were also deep lessons for me – as the saying goes ‘Smooth seas do not make skilled sailors’ so as much as its true that I would have preferred to avoid both situations, after they were resolved I also realised that because of them I had gained specific skills at conflict resolution. Also over the years I observed other people make mistakes as Supervisors. Situations that were mishandled and almost ended up in mutiny. It is again that truism that people who are good at some roles make it look easy, when it defintiely isn’t and potential disaster is only ever avoided by being preemptive.

Three anecdotes below, but what got me thinking about Supervision as a role, apart from work on Black Sheeps, was reading this very relevant article. I’ll quote the part that really struck a chord with me, but I encourage you to follwo the link & read the whole thing.

Why the Most Valuable Things You Know Are Things You Cannot Say

“There is an apparent contradiction at the heart of expertise. Expert judgement is learnable, in the sense that people demonstrably acquire it over time. It is also non-transmissible, in the sense that no expert can transfer their judgement to another person through explanation. If it was once learnable, why can it not be taught?

The resolution lies in a distinction between two fundamentally different modes of learning. The first is instruction: the transfer of explicit models, rules, and relationships from one person to another through language. The second is calibration: the development of internal models through repeated exposure to feedback in a specific environment. Judgement is learnable through calibration. It is not transmissible through instruction. These are different processes operating on different substrates, and conflating them is the source of the apparent contradiction.”

Wow! That is it!
That is exactly why you can’t just tell somehow how to be a Supervisor.

OK some anecdotes & some of my most profound challenges & learning experiences as a Supervising Sound Editor. Funnily enough two of them are issues originating from VFX delivery… and the lack of!

Anecdote 1: [groan] late VFX!!
OK this was one time where I thought I might actually get fired off a project! This was a well funded US production with a LOT of VFX. All through our sound editorial period we would have Post HOD meetings where each HOD would update on progress and it rapidly became apparent that VFX delivery was a major issue. At first we felt we were being lied to – at the meeting we would get info about progress on specific shots and scenes.. And then when the predicted date for delivery of those shots never happened, our schedule would get impacted. Sadly this carried on, right through predubs, and into the final mix. Promised updates simply didn’t happen and it seemed the VFX directors were losing the plot with their vendors. The soundtrack was in great shape, no problems with the Director or the Producer – we were staying on schedule but the issue that worried me was the potential for a trainwreck ie getting final VFX updates on the last day of our mix and them being out of sync. Of course it is only sound that can be out of sync lol…
So by the end of the final mix, we had screened the mix and spent a couple of days doing changes & fixes… but we still didn’t have final VFX for LOTS of shots. So we get to Thursday night, with Friday being our last day on the dub stage. For better or worse, after we knock off work on Thursday I get in a funk about these fckng VFX. I stop at a bottle store on the way home and I get home, have dinner & sink my share of vodka and start writing an email…. After about ten versions I have a good angry draft. I address it to the VFX Supervisors, and the Picture Editor. I cc the Producer, Director, Post Supervisor, the rerecording mixers and all of the sound team. I hit send & go to bed…
Friday morning I wake up with a bit of a hangover and start to remember what I did the previous night… Oh shiiiit… I better re-read that email I sent to everyone at midnight!! It still reads as an angry email, but my point was still valid. MY entire angle was that VFX lack of delivery had now compromised sync on the entire project. When we finished work on Friday & then they do the print master, sync for sound is now locked. We can’t easily change sync on anything. But if even one of all those tardy fckng VFX shots that are now having to be dropped in ‘later’ is one frame different to the existing sync then our soundtrack will get rejected from international QC! I may have quoted getting Al Pacino on their ass if even one shot was out of sync!! So guess what happens?
I sheepishly head into the mix on Friday morning. I sneak in and sit down behind the FX dubbers and try to be invisible… A few minutes later the Post Supervisor comes onto the dub stage, sees me, points at me & goes ” Tim I need to see you in my office, now!’ Gulp. I follow them into their office, they shut the door and the first thing they say “THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR WRITING THAT EMAIL!!!’ I laughed out loud in relief.. it seemed the VFX Supervisors had been totally bullshitting the Producer and “the Producer NEEDED to get that email!!” – I was so relieved, in the moment. But it also had an effect. The producer & the VFX Supers never spoke to me about it but I know the editor well, he is an excellent editor & a friend… But my email put him on notice that sync for the entire project was completely in his hands. A single VFX update could not be one frame out & to his credit, he absolutely made sure of that. I hope it involved some pain for the VFX Supervisors, because they had overpromised & under delivered & through farming VFX shots out to god knows who, they had caused a lot of stress… and an angry email!

Anecdote 2: [expletive!] late VFX!!
This was another large US production with lots of VFX, and as we started the mix it became apparent that the two producers were acting as the director a lot of the time, as the director was either asleep or awol… We were in the first week of final mix and it was going well, but VFX were late – some shots didn’t even have previz, they just had still placeholders timed for an element. An exec producer from the studio flew in from New York and came & visited the dub stage, said hi & met everyone and we played a bit of the reel we were final mixing to them. They didn’t offer much feedback as it was all work in progress, so they left & then the producers took them out for dinner that night. I turn up to work the next morning & my co-supervisor DX editor has emailed me requesting an urgent meeting first thing. Ok whats up. He tells me that at dinner, the exec producer had expressed that they weren’t happy with the sound design of the film, and there had been some discussion about it. I asked how they knew this – apparently the Post Super was at the dinner & had told the DX Super, who was almost in tears as they told me. (FWIW this DX Super was not my choice – they were forced on me by the studio… Before the project I had my doubts about their maturity & ability to manage such complex roles… but I couldn’t change it so anyway…)
But I had to decide how to proceed. What would yo do?
Here was what I decided. First, I was not going to get emotional until I actually knew if there was anything worth getting emotional about ie I decided to defer an emotional response until I had the facts. Second, I wanted the facts directly. I did not trust hearsay, or either of the two people possibly spreading rumours. So I contacted the Post Supervisor & said as soon as the Exec Producer arrives, I would like a meeting with them, myself & the co-Sound Designer on the film to discuss any issue they had.
Guess what? So we have the meeting and I mention that I had heard they weren’t happy & that we can address any issue but only if we know what it is. And they go ‘well, its really just this one shot…’ and they proceed to explain how their boss, the head of the studio, was VERY invested in how this one VFX shot plays. It is very near the end of the film, and is at a very emotional point.. It provides a form of closure for the film. And before I can even say anything about the VFX, the exec goes ‘I know you don’t even have a good version of that shot yet but I’ve spoked to the VFX team & they are handing over one this morning.’ So I go GREAT! I’m on the dub stage but the co-sound designer will work on that scene, and once he has a good version ready we will contact you so you can hear it before we take it to the dub stage. And just like that the entire fckng problem was dealt with, without any need for drama. By the end of that day we had the new VFX shot updated & we’d final mixed it such that the exec was super happy.
(I never worked with that DX Super ever again… and they later got fired off a big project, which did not surprise me at all. Be careful what you wish for!!)

Anecdote 3: Credits & egos.
One boring but critically important role of Supervising is to check and doublecheck credits for the sound team are 100% correct. I have always believed credits are ‘given’ by Directors & Producers. They are not taken or demanded. By the end of many months working on a film, everyone knows who worked on the film and its my job to submit a list of credits with names spelt correctly & verified roles assigned. Apart from anything else, a finished film represents everyones work and contributes directly to careers & finding more work. Credits on IMDB are verified, you can’t just go make up roles and add credits. Very, very occasionally I have been given a front credit on a film. I have never asked for it, or even discussed it with a director or producer… and thats across 40 feature films. Composer often gets a front credit, Sound designer rarely.

There is a saying that I truly believe: Ego is the main source of all the suffering in the world.
When I meet someone with a large ego I tend to be repulsed by it. If they talk only about themselves, it tends to be a short conversation. Ego issues can drive people to act in ways that make no rational sense, and likely not even to themselves, if someone else acted like them. I witnessed a Supervisor have a total meltdown over not ‘getting’ a front credit. They burned their career to the ground & impacted negatively on everyone involved, for placement of credits?
The last day/s of a final mix are a very special time. It is the culmination of many many months of intensively hard work for all of the sound crew, and for the director & producer it is the first time they have heard their film fully realised and finished, after many many years of hard work – writing, funding, casting, shooting, editing & finishing their film. But no, that wasn’t to be. This person self sabotaged it, purely due to ego.

Egos are the source of all suffering.

My house backs on to a quite large bush reserve/forest and I often hear them calling late at night… But I learned long ago, that if I go stumbling out in the dark with my microphones, they hear me coming a mile away & silently disappear… So if its calm every day for the last week at dusk, I’ve been setting up a pair of MKH70 shotgun mics pointed out a window and then leaving my SD722 recording overnight. One night I rolled for six hours & only got a short 2 minute burst, but another time captured a 20 minute minimalist symphony!

Their call is so evocative & plaintive partly due to tonality, but also partly for timing – they space their repeating calls beautifully & sparsely… 

But they also feel slightly mysterious, since in all of my life I have never seen one, I have only ever heard them.
An artist friend Denise Batchelor created a beautiful video work when in very close proximity to a ruru – have a look at the video here
It is utterly mesmerising to see it’s huge pupils move, like an F0.9 camera lens I could never afford…

Below are a couple of pieces my Ruru recordings. I am slowly collecting up a library of NZ Night Ambiences, so rest assured the Ruru will be well represented!

Ruru – Morepork – typical call at night

There are two other kinds of calls that I have recorded them making, one is a ‘creee’ call, and another is more like a clucking…

After each overnight recording, I load the files into ProTools and then skip along the waveform looking for the repeating ruru call…
So imagine my surprise to find this:

Not sure what caused the branch to break but it obviously gave the Ruru a fright as they react…
The wings that you hear are from a Wood pigeon, who must have also gotten a fright.
Ruru wings are silent… and deadly!

Ruru drawing credit via Alexander Turnbull Library.
Keulemans, John Gerrard, 1842-1912. Keulemans, John Gerrard 1842-1912 :Morepork, Spiloglaux novae-zealandiae; Laughing owl, Sceloglaux novae-zelandiae. (One-half natural size). / J. G. Keulemans delt. & lith. [Plate XX. 1888].. Buller, Walter Lawry (Sir) 1838-1906 :A history of the birds of New Zealand. 2d ed. London, John van Voorst, 1888.. Ref: PUBL-0012-20. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand.
/records/23044210

On Sunday I was vacantly browsing FaeceBook marketplace, which at times is like the wild west of online secondhand junk being sold.. And unfortunately you have to be careful. I was looking at a lovely Gretch hollow body guitar for sale locally for $500 and suddenly noticed the same model for sale in Auckland for $1100. And when I say the same model, the photos looked identical including the background, shot on a deck with a particular kind of ferns behind it. The $1100 model had lots of photos including a photo of the serial number inside the guitar. The cheaper guitar only had four photos, ripped from the Ak seller. So for ‘fun’ I message the seller of the cheap guitar & ask if I can see the serial number and guess what? He sends me the same photo of the serial number from the AK guitar. At this point I reported his account & lost all interest… But then noticed this photo:

Conduit!
And lots of it, in different sizes & lengths… and they wanted it all gone for $40 cash!
This morning I jumped in the car & went & picked it up… and I took a battery saw to cut some bits that were too long to fit in the car…

Not sure I can totally predict how all of this will be used but… On the drive home I started imagining handheld chords: five or six shortish pipes tuned to a lovely complex chord… And an ensemble of tones, attached to the roof rack on my car, recording doppler drive bys… And maybe some will even be used as electrical conduit – stranger things have happened! I have also seen it used for creating structures for vege gardens to support netting, so some might find its way there eventually too… But feel free to hit me up if you have some wacky idea? I do want to build multiples of the little potters wheel too, so I need to do a bit of research on appropriate motors and how to mount & control them…

It is UV stabilised as its designed for outdoor use…

A long while later I got a Trace Elliot amp & 15″ bin… and a Washburn acoustic bass, along with a weird old Silver Star violin shaped bass, a replica of the infamous Hofner. All good… until I blew the speaker in the Trace Elliot bin – for a brief moment it sounded awesome, with some minor sparks flying from the cone… I got it reconed, all good. But recently blew the Trace Elliot amp and I haven’t been able to find someone local to fix it (suggestions welcome!!) so to placate my bass playing I got a small Orange bass amp/combo. Its tiny & convenient but it really doesn’t produce the SPLs of bass that are necessary for serious fun… ok as a practice amp I guess, but I always play bass through a Moogerfooger LPF101 and rolling off my bass into the Orange amp just makes it disappear… So I’ve had a vague urge to replace my old Trace Elliot rig and… today was the day!

I keep an eye on every auction at a local auction house, as they deal in deceased estates & lost property ex Police & liquidations etc… But they are also old school. No online bidding. You have to be there to bid & all goods have to be removed by the end of the day, to make room for the next auction. I’ve picked up lots of great gear via them… So todays auction I noticed there was a Gallien Kruger bass amp with a 15″ bin… and further in the auction was a Gallien Kruger quadbox!?! I googled the models and they all belong to the same kit – the amp is actually a bi-amp: it powers the 15″ bin and the quad box seperately… So I went to the auction with no great plan but when the bass amp came up, no one much was interested & I got the amp & 15″ bin for NZ$300!! I think I paid that much or more for the tiny Orange bass practice amp!! I waited for the quad box to come up & got it for NZ$180, so my total for this beast of a bass rig was NZ$480 = US$284! I’ve paid far more than that for a single plugin or synth module… and look at it:

I got it home, hooked it up & powered it up & it sounds great… and makes my entire house rattle!! I only did a quick test with trusty Ibanez bass but tonight will plug in a Yamaha CS01 and maybe my SH101 or TT303 and hear what analog synth bass sounds like through it… with maximum squelch!

Whoever it belonged to also had three bass guitars in the auction and no one was really interested in them, so I got them too… but they each need work to restring and/or set them up, so its a little hard to tell how much use they will be. But again, having not spent too much I can always resell them cheaply & get my money back…

– Strinberg Bass
– Ibanez Axestar headless 4 string
– Ibanez Ergodyne 5 string

The weird shapes of the Ibanez basses makes me think they are from the 80s/90s… and hah a quick google and the ‘Axestar’ is from 1985 lol… and the Ergodyne: “It’s a very ergonomic somewhat lightweight design built off a synthetic material calmed Luthite. They have a single humbucker pickup in about the middle position and piezoelectric pickups in their bridge saddles”

Both the Ibanezes don’t appear to have been played in years… And the Strinberg buzzes a bit so needs to be set up properly…

One last thing. There was a bunch of PA gear at the auction which got a luke warm response, so I ended up buying a Fender PA passive sub with dual 15″ drivers in it for $50 lol… I’ve got an old 300W amp somewhere that could drive it, and for NZ$50 there was nothing to lose… But I do pre-apologise to my neighbours because when I get it hooked up to the Gallien Kruger rig, they may be getting their chakras realigned whether they like it or not!

You can zoom in on the map here

That’s my ‘Hope for the best, plan for the worst’ pragmatic optimism strategy!

One of the things I dislike about camping – apart from having to camp near normies – is the lack of a shower. Sure, in Summer you can go for a swim if there is a beach or lake nearby and its safe (currents/tides/sewage leaks) but my aim with adapting my 4WD for camping is to be able to sustain a road trip for a week or more. Without a shower I tend to alternate between camping for a night and then staying in an Air BnB or cabin for a night, mainly so I can have a shower as I don’t like being grimey for many days in a row, for fear of becoming feral lol… So this solar roof shower idea intrigued me, but I wasn’t sure I was up for DIY so I did a little research and found this:

The Yakima Roadshower!

It is essentially a big black metal container which is permanently mounted to your roof rack, and being black, sunlight will warm it up within a few hours. It has a large access hole in the top for filling, and two outlets – one at each end, which a shower hose can be attached to. But the clever aspect is that it can be pressurised! While the height of the tank provides some flow, the tank also has a Schrader air valve so with a 12v air pump you can pressurise the water tank to get a decent flow of water from the shower. Brilliant!!

So I ordered one online during a boxing day sale and it just arrived, so this week I will install it and give it a first test! They are available in 3 sizes:
4 gallon = 15 litres
7 gallon = 26 litres
10 gallon = 38 litres

I went for the middle size one – to increase capacity the tank varies in length, so you would want to check that the big one fits your vehicle, while also being aware of weight: one liter of water at room temperature (70°F / 21°C) weighs approximately 1 kilogram, so my 7 gallon tank = 26 litres = 26kg. Not a lot but also not insignificant…

While it would be easiest to fill from a tap with a hose, filling it from a lake or river would also be possible if a little more time consuming… We shall soon see!

 
Needless to say but I also bought a small pop up shower tent, so as not to blind the wildlife…

Love his films, he would be in my top 5 directors of all time..

Tomatoes in my greenhouse are just starting to clip!

I was interviewed for MPSE Wavelength Magazine and its just been published – have a read online:
https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1541592-winter-2026/59

Pops Bass Rosin – my Waterphone will appreciate it!

me: Dremel! Now please loan me your concert grand for a weekend

While I wasn’t in a rush to check out of the DOC Kidds Bush campsite, I also knew I had 4-5 hours driving to do as I left Lake Hawea and crossed the alps via Haast Pass. If I had more time I would also have diverted South from Haast & revisited Jackson Bay as it is iconic, but after camping for a night I’d alternated by booking a really nice tiny house at Ross Beach.

I also had plans to do a side trip while driving over Haast Pass – to visit Wilson Creek Canyon (ref #1 and ref #2) but decided to leave that for another trip, as it involved exploring a narrow canyon & getting wet up to the waist…

Once I was over Haast Pass, I stopped to fly the drone at Bruce Bay

And to take Technorama photo #3

Then on to Lake Mapourika for Technorama shot #4

And then drove in to Okarito, and then carried on to Ross…
I checked in to the Ross Beach TOP 10 Holiday Park a really well designed site providing accomodation ranging from dome shaped cabins to tiny houses to campervan sites. Thanks to strategic flax planting each site has a bit of privacy…

I’d booked the Tiny House at the front left, and along with a deck it also had an outdoor bath, so I fileld it up & had a long soak which was incredibly therapeutic!

bliss!

Friday Nov 14th = Day 13

I checked out of Ross Beach, and drove to Lake Kaniere as there was a specific location I wanted to shoot with the Technorama, and just had to hope the weather & conditions were ok…

There were spots of rain, so I got my shots & carried on… I had considered spending another night on the West Coast eg at Punakaiki or Westport, but the forecast was for the rain to set in, so after doing some research I found a great Air BnB over in Tapawera, which was far enough away to have a different weather system…

So I drove to Greymouth & filled up with petrol, then left the Coast and headed to Murchison, stopping at a favourite junk store there, finding a few sonic props…

Then carried on to Tapawera, and checked into my AirBnB for the night, a great set up called Farm Therapy! basically the owner has a life style mini farm with maybe 60 sheep, and they’ve built a cabin & deck, with a seperate bathroom building… I always express my thanks for farmers who add an Air BnB to their property. I grew up on a farm but if you didn’t and don’t know anyone with a farm then it can difficult to ever experience rural life, other than camping holidays etc whereas an AirBnB on a farm usually means the farmer is happy to engage with you as much as you like, and allow access to their animals etc… In my case, I figured it would represent some recording potential, so I lugged my mics over to the paddock with the main mob of sheep & lambs

As the sheep had access to a couple of paddocks, I set my mcis up by the gate and slowly rounded up the mob and sent them through the gate right past my mics…

The area where the cabin was I also shared with a cute little lamb

I left my mics rigged and recorded some great ambiences at dusk, night & i left the curtains open so the sun would wake me early & got up & recorded a dawn chorus the next morning at 5.15am too…

Saturday Nov 15th = Day 14

After checking out of Farm Therapy and drove a back route across to St Arnaud and out the Wairau Valley to Blenheim, stopping first at an excellent junk store JUST BROWSING then egtting some excellent sushi for lunch, and stocking up at Supermarket for dinner…

I then headed to Rarangi, and drove the gravel road around to Robin Hood Bay where I was going to stay for my last night of the trip. The DOC Campsite at Robin Hood Bay is both free and a beautiful wide open beach. I recorded it for a HISSandaROAR library years prior and always meant to come stay here…

When I arrived there were maybe 5 or 6 vehicles parked up, so I drove the length of the bay trying to work out where the best place to set up was.. I eventually settled on a spot, right against the beach and beside a fenced off bush reserve… This was the view from my tent:

A million dollar view, for free!

Making dinner on my little gas BBQ!

As dusk fell I set a timelapse shooting…

Next time I stay at Robin Hood Bay, I will plan to do so during the week. A while after I arrived a group of 4 vehicles turned up & set up camp on the other side the little bush reserve near me… And being Saturday night they had a party with pretty godawful music, but I couldn’t really complain as it was Saturday night & what else would you expect… well, better taste in music maybe. But, to a degree it was their right & the waves on the beach were loud enough to drown them out most of the time….

One aspect I really enjoyed of the few nights I camped out was this: sleeping in a tent means that as far as your ears are concerned you are basically sleeping outside, in the environment.And it was such a welcome reminder of how utterly blissful it is to fall asleep listening to frogs at Lake Hawea, or the waves at Robin Hood Bay… And to slowly regain consciousness at some ungodly hour as the first birds wake & start their dawn chorus.

Something else I reflected on was my choice of tent. I notice a lot of expensive 4WDs with their pop up roof top tents and I have to say I think they are a really dumb idea. The only benefit they offer is convenience – you pull down the little ladder, climb up & the tent assembles itself almost instantly. But heres the thing: a tent is not just for sleeping in! My tent is big enough to have a stretcher bed, a deck chair, and a table in it. So for example when I arrived at Robin Hood Bay it was about 4pm and very hot. I put my awning & tent up in about 10 minutes, moved the bed & deck chair & table in, and then relaxed for a few hours, using my tent like a lounge. There thankfully weren’t many sand flies or mosquitos… so with the front wall fully open & facing the sea, I had total privacy and eg did some work on my laptop etc… My point being that if my tent was on the roof of my car, I would likely only ever use it for sleeping, whereas having a proper tent at ground level is like having a little cabin or room, in an extraordinary location. A few times I’ve stayed places where people are camping in the rain, and it must be a bit weird & claustrophobic to me, if the only place you have to relax is in the back of a van or in a tent on the roof of your car.

I was pretty happy with how my camping set up worked on this trip. The next thing I will do to improve it, is to fit one of those roof storage bags to the top of my 4WD. As it was, my 4WD was constantly jammed full… But I only needed access to the tent and stretcher bed for two of the nights, so they could have been stored completely out of the way, in a weather proof roof bag, until needed. When I arrived somewhere, I had to unpack some of that gear just so I could access the stuff I needed. So thats the next improvement to make, before my next recording trip as I still have a month or so to record rural ambiences before the cicadas start up.

Sunday Nov 16th = Day 15
I packed up everything & headed back to Rarangi, and then to Picton… Checked in for Bluebridge ferry at 1pm and retired to my cabin as we left Picton at 2pm. Having camped out the night before it was great to have a shower in my cabin on the Bluebridge, and Wellington motorway was relatively quiet being Sunday evening by the time we unloaded.. I was home & unloaded the 4WD by 7.30pm Sunday night, happy to be home again!

All in all an excellent trip!

Also funny – before I went on this trip I had my 4WD serviced & got a new WOF. My mechanic mentioned that I would need a new set of tyres fairly soon as all four were reaching EOL. Being a cheap ass I decided to wait until afetr the trip, and as I got home I noticed the front left tyre was a bit flat. I pumped it up at a petrol station and got home ok, but the next day it was half flat again, and I had to swap it with my spare before heading to a tyre company & having a new set of tyres installed.. So I timed it perfectly – getting the maximum use out of the old set, before spending over $1k on a new set of tyres…

Damn!
Costas first feature film was also my first feature film as sound designer back in 1997 & he was so great to work with… RIP!
This was before I even had my own studio – I came down to Wellington to do the film, renting my St Marys Bay upstairs home to Paul Casserly, and working from Sam Negris studio in central Wellington…

One of the tricky sounds in Saving Grace I remember being pleased with, was a scene where the protagonist, played by Jim Moriaty, was sitting in a park with concrete steps, flicking coins up into the air and watching as they spun, and eventually landed and bounced off concrete… After recording lots of coin flicks the solution came via GRM Audiosculpt app, where I discovered that I could ‘freeze’ sounds and extend the one second grabs of spinning coins I’d recorded and stretch them out to the 5 seconds or more as needed… Some volume automation and doppler processing and they were quite plausible!

But what I really enjoyed in the film was the script and the core cast. The film explores a character who slowly convinces his new friend & the audience that he is a deity capable of acts of faith/magic… As the film progresses, the boundary between suspension of disbelief and faith, slowly dissolves…

It was also the first film I mixed at NFU with Mike Hedges, and I have a vivid memory of how Mike asked if we could start ambience predubs on a Saturday, and I was so excited I shouted myself out for a nice breakfast beforehand in Cuba St…

I have only fond memories of collaborating with Costa – such a thoughtful, generous man with deep film knowledge… That was also the start of many, many collabs on films with Hedgey. We must have done ok too, as we won the NZ Film Award for Best Soundtrack for Costas film: John Boswell (RIP), Mike Hedges, Me & Chris Todd (DX) and the film also won best Film score for Plan 9.

I also have to confess, when FORGOTTEN SILVER first screened on NZ TV, I was fully sucked in by it. I only started to have doubts at the mention of using egg yolks to develop film, but as per Mulder & Scully, I wanted to believe…

My last direct contact with Costa was back in 2021, when he interviewed me to write a profile for the NZOnScreen archive and wrote this eloquent profile ‘researched and written by Costa Botes; updated on 31 May 2021’

RIP Costa

Got up and drove to Te Anau, and then the long winding road into Milford Sound, passing campervans as often as I could… I knew low tide was at 10.30am and it was a 90min drive according to Google maps… It was when I stopped to wait for green light to go through Homer Tunnel that a kea turned up & I jumped out & got some shots with the 400mm lens on my Canon 5D3.

While I dreamed of reshooting this R P Moore photo….

… I doubted I could access the same vantage point, as he is quite elevated and a lot of development has occurred since the 1920s! But I had seen some beautiful photos at low tide when you can access reflections in estuaries and inlets so thats where I headed first… First shooting with XPAN:

then shot #2 with the Technorama:

This panorama with my iPhone was shot standing right here in google maps

There were tourists everywhere, the carpark was very full so I had put my gumboots on & walked out, got my shots and then got the hell out of there… While the boat trips are excellent I have done them before, so didn’t want to commit the time to it now. So I drove back up & through Homer Tunnel and then took the turn off to Hollyford Valley.

I was surprised at the lack of bird song, but the road in Hollyford Valley follows in parallel to the river so it was also impossible to get away from white noise…

I drove out to the end of the road, turned around & drove back to Te Anau, and then back to Manapouri.

Wednesday Nov 12th = Day 11

I packed up the 4WD and checked out of Manapouri, driving through back roads across to visit my brother at Dipton, stopping to record some ambiences & sheep along the way:

About 4pm I was back on the road as I had a 3 hour drive to my destination for the night – the DOC campground at Kidds Bush, at the top of Lake Hawea. So from Dipton I drove to the edge of Queenstown, then up & over the Crown Range to Wanaka, got some supplies for dinner and then drove up the side of Lake Hawea, arriving at the camp ground about 7.30pm.

I’d guess there were maybe a dozen other campers there, a few campervans, cars with tents etc.. Most were positioned for a view of the lake, so I parked up further back to avoid having any neighbours. I set up my tent & then cooked some BBQ for dinner. It felt great to relax, have a few drinks in such a pristine location!

Once dusk fell, some frogs started croaking & as they were clearly fans of Steve Reich I felt obliged to record them, thereby becoming my own meme:

Later that night I took my 5D, tripod & LED light wand and walked up the gravel road a bit before capturing some more throwing shapes shots…

I don’t need or want an audience when shooting these, as I’d imagine a sane/sober person might wonder WTF I was doing, waving a light around & scurrying backwards & forwards to thew camera… but thats exactly what happened the next night!

Woke up, packed up & checked out of Otago Peninsula tiny house, and drove half an hour to location 1. I found this shot on a previous trip and thought it would make a good first test shoot with the Technorama as the location is remote – there wont be a swarm of tourists there, and the focus & composition can be locked off as the subject doesn’t move…
First I shot it with my XPAN, checking exposure with my Sekonic light meter… I finished a roll of Tmax100 so I fired a few XPAN shots after switching to SFX200, with red filter and without… Then it was time for the Technorama!

I paced out the distance from film plane to tree and set focus on the lens and fired off two shots. I then realised I had not put the centre filter on the Schneider lens, it was still in my hoody pocket! So I put it on, adjusted exposure time for it & took another shot, and reframed slight & fired a fourth. And that was my first roll shot. Interesting the lens and viewfinder on the Technorama are a little wider than the 30mm lens on my XPAN (after taking XPAN shots I put Technorama on same tripod in same position and found I had to move forward slightly to crop out an unwanted fencepost, which wasn’t visible with XPOAN)

It will be interesting to see the impact of shooting with and without the centre filter. My XPAN 30mm lens has its centre filter attached all the time, but the Technorama does not fit in its hard carry case with it attached, and I sure do not want to damage it so until I find a perfect camera bag for the Technorama & all its accessories, I have to remember to put the filter on. But in a way its like my early days shooting with the XPAN – you have to shoot enough that you develop muscle memory & follow a standard procedure, in the correct order…. Having the Voightlander rangefinder makes focus easier – I watched a youtube vid where someone demonstrated how they use a laser distance meter for the same purpose. But I also did not yet have my Lee Filters 100mm set up configured for the Technorama, so for these first test shots I am not using ND grads or a big stopper etc.. I still felt fairly clumsy using the camera, but thats what practice is for!

Next I headed into Dunedin & got some excellent sushi for lunch at JIZO just off the Octagon, and then I headed South, stopping at Lake Waihola to eat lunch & take a break…

This image makes me laugh as in such grey light it feels bleak, whereas on a sunny hot day I presume there would be kids climbing on it & jumping off etc…

My destination for tonight was the Catlins, an excellent fairly remote coastal region that I’d been to once or twice before. My plan had been to camp and I’d been considering Purakaunui Bay DOC Campsite as the landscapes looked amazing, or Papatowai DOC Campsite but the weather forecast was for rain overnight and I wasn’t really prepared enough to cope with packing up a wet tent… So I changed plan and decided to book a cabin at Whistling Frog which turned out ok. As it was a Sunday night there was hardly anyone else staying, and along with a campground with cabins etc they also had a restaurant & bar, so it became an easy choice… The weather and light wasn’t great for shooting photos, but before I got to the Whistling Frog I had an important stop first: a visit to The Lost Gypsy.

I had never been before but friends raved about it and I had watched this great little doco. The owner & creative genius Blair has created a fascinating gallery of his own automata inventions. I asked if it was ok to video some, so I’ll add a little compile of some favourites below. This must be such a fun place to take kids, as it is so visually fun and interactive! When I arrived & paid my entry fee I mentioned I had a Waterphone in my car & would show them after I’d finished having a look at the gallery… Heres a quick look at some of his works – shot with permission on my iPhone, sumimasen!

After spending a hour of exploring all the great works, I went & got my waterphone & bow & friction mallets & gave Blair and Sandra a demo, and then let them have a play… We then sat around discussing all sorts of sonic things for half an hour.. It was so excellent to meet Blair, such a talented artist with an inspiring outlook on life. They were overdue to close the gallery by then so I departed for Whistling Frog, and enjoyed staying in a little cabin and was pleased to discover they Emmersons Pilsner on tap!

Monday Nov 10th = Day 9

Its always nice to wake up on a Monday morning and feel autonomous! No rushing off to work… But the weather had not improved, with grey overcast skies & more rain threatening… I packed up & headed back up the road a bit to a lookout over a gorgeous remote bay:

Around to the left from here, out a windy gravel road are Cathedral Caves but access was closed. Access to the caves is usually only possible at low tide but it seems the road & area is totally closed at present…

I headed back South, through farm land and out to the Coast to one of the most Southern points of the South Island – Slope Point, which is infamous for these trees, shaped by decades of Southerly winds

From here I headed into the city of Invercargill and as I was driving through farmland came across this sculpture:

Low poly bull is almost like an ad for lab grown beef – ‘it’s still rendering!’

I headed into Invercargill but when I went to visit a favourite antique store – Hubbers Emporium – the lights were not on, but the front door was ajar so I poked my head in & asked if they were open, only to learn the owner had passed away a few days prior! David Hubbers obituary is here and what a fascinating life he led! Theres a great interview with him at Southland Tribunes substack – it turned out it was his son I spoke to, so I hope he does carry on his Fathers legacy.

I went & got some great sushi for lunch at the new Central Mall in Invercargill, but the weather wasn’t getting better… I had planned to drive out to Riverton and drive around the South Coast and visit Cosy Nook, Orepuki etc but as it was raining I changed plan & drove through backroads across to Manapouri, where I was booked to stay for two nights. I planned to drive right into Milford Sound the next day, but when checking out accomodation options in Te Anau, everything was both expensive & heavily booked. On whim i checked out options in Manapouri, which is a 15min drive from Te Anau and found a great place to stay – booking a self contained unit at Manapouri Holiday Park which scales from ten sites, cabins etc through to the units like I rented, which had their own kitchen & bathroom.

For most of the drive to Manapouri it rained, but as I drove alongside Lake Manapouri there was a break in the weather and OMFG the view was incredible!! I raced around shooting photos for half an hour – the layering of mountains & low cloud, backlit by late afternoon sun was gorgeous!!

As it was still only about 5pm I decided to drive to TeAnau and see what the clouds etc looked like there… And oh boy did I soon realise what a great choice I’d made by not staying in Te Anau! There were tourists everywhere, and while I can’t criticise them for being there – they were doing the same as me, to a degree – I do wish the groups of Chinese tourists would have some more self awareness. For example, I parked & walked along the waterfront a bit. The lake was so full that it was swamping some trees so I took my XPAN and fired some shot, bur about 50m from where I was a group of maybe only six Chinese tourists were being so needlessly loud it was annoying AF. It should be the same for everyone: if you are the loudest person in the room or place then have some self awarensss and STFU! It seems it is a well known & common issue as I have heard Japanese say the same, of Chinese tourists in Japan. We get it, its exciting & fun to be on holiday, but look around and listen. If everyone else is being respectful and communicating at a normal level then perhaps you could also be respectful? The cliche used to be the ‘loud American’ tourist and while that +6dB phenomena definitely exists, Chinese tourists seem to be more like +12-16dB. Don’t get me wrong, kiwis can be loud too. A friend once described the sound of a loud drunk kiwi as being like listening to a skillsaw cut through plywood and thats fair, but loudness is context based. A pub or bar with music is a loud place. A beautiful scenic lake is not. Shhhhhh! FFS!

I headed back to Manapouri to make dinner and get ready for shoot the following day. I planned to visit a location of my favourite R P Moore photograph at Milford Sound, which I own a print of: