An Audience with John Wood

The man who created and recorded the sounds for some of the nation’s favourite TV shows and commercials will be appearing at a special event to launch a media course at Manchester’s School of Sound Recording.

John Wood, pictured, is one of the country’s leading experts in the field of sound post production – the art of adding sound to pictures. It was John who did the sound for films and programmes as diverse as The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour, Peter Key’s Phoenix Nights, Cosgrove Hall classics such as Dangermouse; recent hits Bob the Builder and the animated classic When the Wind Blows.

And John tells me far from enjoying a bit of relaxation after 50 years in the business he’s busier than ever working with Manchester’s top talents including three one-hour specials with Craig Cash and Phil Mealey called Sunshine, with Peter Kay on a new comedy programme and a 1 hour Christmas special of The Royle Family.

‘An audience with John Wood’ will be showcasing SSR’s new course Film & Television Audio Post Production launching October 2008, on which John will be a regular lecturer. The new course promises to be a great opportunity for Manchester’s young people to be ready to take advantage of the massive job opportunities that will be created in this field by Salford’s MediaCity:UK.

Ian Hu, Principal of SSR, said: “For once the people in Manchester are in the right place at the right time. Get on the course now and 18 months down the line the opportunity to find exciting and creative work in this field will be literally just around the corner.”

The event takes place on Thursday 7th August at 6.30pm and will feature interactive demonstrations and workshops hosted by John and other course tutors such as Sally Hesketh who works in television. Sally who regularly works on Coronation Street feels the ‘real world’ aspect of the course is unique.

“Students will be mixing the sound for programmes that I work on,” she says, “and the great thing about this is that they can compare their work to the version that went out on air and see how close they are to the professional standard”.

Computer Games tutor Paul Maunder agrees, “In addition to film and television projects, I will also be setting projects based around sound for computer games. The great thing about games is that you start with a blank canvas. If you decide that the monster at the end of level 2 should sound like a cross between a lion, an otter and a rusty water pipe, who’s to say otherwise?”

When asked to comment on the course, John Wood was particularly reflective, “It wasn’t that long ago that I was doing the sound for high end TV commercials on a budget of £500 and a timescale of a few hours. Fortunately that’s all changed. These days a film will have over 50 people working on the sound for over a year. It’s a fantastic job and I’m very excited about playing my part in developing the next generation of post production engineers.”

‘An audience with John Wood’ is completely free and open to the general public. To book a place or to find out more about the course visit www.s-s-r.com