Alastair chats to Haresh Patel, a highly experienced location and post production sound engineer whose credits span film, television, documentary and commercials, and who also teaches the next generation at the London Film Academy. The two have worked together many times over the years on shoots, and this conversation grew out of one of those long waits between takes.
In this episode Haresh traces his route in, from a childhood spent in the school art room to the four track Portastudio he saved up for, and reflects on what the democratisation of equipment has done to the industry. He is generous about what today's students gain from affordable kit and free tutorials, and clear-eyed about what they lose when the undo button removes the need to commit to a decision. Along the way he offers a distinction worth keeping: be sceptical, not cynical.
Haresh Patel Takeaways:
- The democratisation of equipment is a genuine good. A student turning up with the same recorder as a veteran creates an instant bridge across a thirty year gap
- What computers quietly remove is the decision making process, the analysis and the experience of failing. If a button takes the problem away, the problem stops teaching you anything
- Editing on tape meant cutting once and living with it. Measure twice, cut once applies to audio as much as to wood, and treating digital edits as physical makes you faster in the long run
- Be sceptical, not cynical. Older practitioners have a body of mistakes behind their we do it like this, but it is worth checking your own cynicism
- The apparent reluctance of Gen X towards new tools is often a communication problem. The reasoning behind the process rarely gets explained to the person hearing the shortcut
- The defining challenge for anyone learning a craft now is distraction. Reducing the noise and focusing on one path is harder than it has ever been, at any age
- Nobody else in the universe hears things the way you do, which is a good reason not to get too stuck in anyone else's way of working
- If a so-called nostalgic process or piece of equipment gives you something as an artist, no one, old or young, gets to tell you it is wrong for you
Haresh Patel Links:
Generationally Speaking Links: