Lucy Johnstone is a freelance sound editor experienced in dialogue and foley. She has an impressive list of credits, those of which include: Top Gear, The Undateables, Bear Grylls, Eastenders and Grand Design. http://www.lucyjsound.com/
To begin the lecture, Lucy started with the difference between working on sound for a TV drama, and a factual documentary, which is the money. The more time spent, the higher the budget which in this case will be a TV drama, so for this she made it clear it is all about being quick and efficient. With that she led on to her statement “30% what you know 70% how you are” rather than the worldwide statement “it’s all about who you know”. Johnstone made this point due to the fact that the way you manage not only other people that you are working with, and working for, but also how you handle yourself; remaining calm in stressful situations and not letting employers see you panic, so they know you can handle anything. Enforcing the point that it your skills and work drive are very important. She also reminded us about the importance of different directors having different preferences, so it is always important to ask, and also for you yourself to talk to editors before they send you a tracklay; when all sets are together and there are 5 second handles, when needing to move regions around, it makes it easier for you.
Lucy seems to specialise, and enjoy dialogue, and spoke to us about it being mixed properly before you send it off; ensuring everything is synced, there’s no clipping etc. and all personal preferences are completed. Her experience working on shows such as Grand Design and Bear Grylls has extended her knowledge and has helped to continue to develop her skills. Facing different challenges on different shows, with Grand Design working around a construction site, and Bear Grylls (the experience she spoke about) where they have to sort out the dialogue from each contestant while they’re walking through rain and waterfalls and constant rustling from bushes. And while on the subject of rain she stated that with rain and clapping recordings make sure they have an ending rather than just fading them out; to do this take out the middle to shorten the sound bite to the desired length of time with the ending. While watching a short clip of Grand Design’s that Lucy had worked on she told us to be careful about swearing as there are different rules – so another thing that you should ask the director before starting the project. On the final note she told us to try and get plenty of work experience, as this is how you will develop your skills and learn to work in the business.
Although a few of the things she spoke about techniques wise are things we have learnt from other modules across the course, her business experience and drive is something to desire and I found it really enlightening to hear about her personal preferences and how she has learnt to handle the business from her own experience.