Teaching Sound at the Met Film School
For a while now I have worked as the Sound tutor at the Met Film School. The Met Film School is based in Ealing Studios which makes it quite handy for keeping in touch with what is being shot on the UK’s most successful film studio. Ealing Studios has a pretty illustrious past, being home to all the great Ealing Comedies such as the Lavender Hill Mob, and The Ladykillers. The studios are still much used today, as evidenced by the fact that John Landis is currently working there on a black comedy based on the graverobbers, Burke and Hare. Whenever I see John around the studios i have to maintain my professional dignity and not go running up to him blabbering how much i loved Trading Places, An American Werewolf in London, Coming to America, Thriller or any of the other numerous films he has made that had such an impact on me in my childhood especially.
Teaching at the Met is a really enjoyable experience - i particularly enjoy teaching sound for a few reasons - firstly i was lucky enough to be taught Sound at one of the best places possible - The National Film & Television School in Beaconsfield. I really appreciated being taught my subject thoroughly and by a range of people who not only knew what they were talking about, but had many years of professional experience behind them. When teaching filmmaking, sound often comes a poor second to the more glamorous subjects like camera and directing. There are not as many good quality sound courses in the UK as there perhaps should be, and running the sound courses at the Met Film School gives me a small chance to put that right. I have tried to imitate much of the excellence of courses such as the NFTS, Ravensbourne, Bournemouth and the Tonmeister course - all of which regularly produce high quality sound people of all types. We try and give the students a good understanding of how sound can impact on a film, its uses and how it can entirely alter the perception of a scene, as well as giving them practical skills and techniques to allow them to achieve this.
I really enjoy passing on a little of the excellent training i was given, and hopefully make a small contribution towards improving sound standards in UK filmmaking. I am now the Head of the Location Sound Department - this is probably due to there being no other tutors in this subject area! HOD by default you might say, but between the post production sound tutor, Alistair, and myself i think we offer an excellent learning experience in sound, along with all the high quality courses offered at the Met Film School.
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