Kim Tae Hak, an Audio Production MA graduate from the University of Westminster, was awarded a BAFTA TV Craft Award in the ‘Sound: Factual’ category for the series ‘1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything’.
‘1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything’ is a television series about 1971, a momentous year in music history which was “marked by innovation and rebirth fuelled by political and cultural upheaval.” The entire series was made from old archive pictures and contributors were shot off-camera, meaning that soundscapes were integral to blend between the dialogue, music and sound FX.
Kim worked on three of the six episodes of the show as a Sound Effect Editor, where his role was to reconstruct soundscapes for the entirety of the archive sequences used in the show that originally came with no sound or unusable sound sources. As a Sound Effect Editor, he aimed to create a cinematic scale of soundscapes to bring the archive sequences to life to enable audiences to enjoy experiencing the show sonically as well as visually, taking them back to 1971.
Using the archive sequences, Kim was able to embellish them by creating a sound design to make scenes sonically engaging through storytelling. Some memorable scenes Kim created included large protests, war conflicts, and the atmosphere at various concerts.
He said: “One of the memorable scenes for me was a prison riot scene in Episode Three where I needed to build up the prison atmosphere from scratch. The scene tells an important story about racial inequality as well as police brutality that sparks prison riots and caused many deaths. From a sound design point of view, I wanted to create a soundscape that helped with the storytelling to give a sense of tension as well as claustrophobia.”
Kim is originally from South Korea and moved to the UK for his studies. After completing his undergraduate degree in Music Technology, Kim continued his education through studying Audio Production MA at the University of Westminster.
Reflecting on his time at Westminster, Kim explained how the course helped him kickstart his career. He said: “The course definitely helped me to improve my skills both creatively and technically, but most importantly, I think it was a network that I could develop and got to know the world of the post-production industry at the time. Had I not studied the course, I would have not known my career direction clearly.”
After graduating, he secured a job as a Runner at Molinare Film & TV and moved up the career ladder to his current role as a Dubbing Mixer. In this role, Kim specialises in mixing and sound design in non-scripted content such as documentary feature films and factual TV shows.
Talking about his BAFTA win, Kim said: “It is an honour to receive this recognition from BAFTA for sound design, and I feel privileged to inspire others to follow the same path. This was the first time that I was nominated at BAFTA, and it is amazing to have won it as a first-time nominee. This was only possible due to teamwork, and I feel very fortunate that I have met some top talented colleagues and worked on the series together with them.”
Find out more about Audio and Music courses at the University of Westminster.
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