How did Martin Kwok help build the sonic world of one of the biggest films of the year?
That’s what he sat down with the ABC’s The Art Of... host Namila Benson to discuss as part of SAE’s first installment of The Maker Series in Sydney on Wednesday 27 November.
Martin is a sound and dialogue editor working out of Peter Jackson’s Park Road Post in Wellington New Zealand. His impressive resume includes work on The Beatles: Get Back, The Lord of the Rings franchise and King Kong.
SAE students attended the event in person and online, getting an inside look at Martin’s creative journey and the opportunity to ask questions. From a teenager throwing warehouse parties, Martin described almost “falling in” to working with Peter Jackson and his partner Fran Walsh on their incredible catalogue of films.
“I am so incredibly fortunate that I am surrounded by people [like Peter and Fran] who gave me a lot of their time to actually teach me when I was starting out, and so speaking at The Makers Series is my turn to give back, which is great,” he said of the event.
The highlight was Martin’s deep dive into the detailed behind-the-scenes work that went into his “most challenging project to date”, Dune II.
Making Dune II sing
“The biggest problem I had to solve was the crowd work and the immense amount of people on screen,” he told the rapt audience of future creatives of his work on the project.
“The world building through culture was something I relished but also lost sleep over. In post-production, I had to make sure that background cast were speaking the languages the main Fremen characters spoke, too. It needed to feel believable.
“We sourced recordings from people in Turkey, Morocco, the Middle East, Uzbekistan to give some of the background action a real-world sense of that desert location.”
When it came to building the language of the terrifying Harkonnen, the main characters played by Austin Butler and Stellan Skarsgård, he brought in the big guns.
- Martin Kwok on making Dune II soundscapes
Still an active DJ in New Zealand, Martin revealed he returned to his roots to bring one impactful prayer scene from the film to life.
“We recorded a group of about 80 at Park Road Post in Wellington, and we got a bunch of Bluetooth headphones in and did it like a silent disco,” he said.
“We fed the guide track of the rhythm we needed, but which also gave them the freedom to move untethered so that they could sort of really breathe into the space.”
Advice shared with students
The presentation also included a live Q&A moderated by Namila, who was kept busy with a non-stop flow of queries submitted by students online.
“For students, it’s great to have access to people where you can pick their brains and in real time ask them for advice,” she said. “The fact that SAE creates opportunities and events like this is outstanding, and I don’t know that a lot of places actually do it.”
Inspired students took advantage of the opportunity to meet with Martin after the event to ask questions. Martin said his main advice was to make the most of their time at SAE and take advantage of the collaborative opportunities available to them at the University College.
“There are so many different avenues people can go down in the creative industries to not only create content but be part of a collective project which leads to great outcomes,” he said.
“SAE is a school which actually gives people the scope to learn different disciplines that can lead to many different areas of the creative industries.”
For registration details and more information about The Makers Series, visit SAE University College’s website: https://sae.edu.au/makers-series/
