Refuge - A Duty to Care - Streaming Now

Documentary

Date: 2024

Roles: Location Recording, Dialogue Edit, Post Production Audio, Composer

Refuge: A Duty to Care gets a close-up view of a secret haven for animals involved in domestic violence, and the surrounding stories of those trying to escape from violence while protecting their animal family.

This award-winning film is now streaming on TVNZ+

The mix and production on this film was very interesting as aesthetically we made it sound as if there is very little to no mixing going on to help maintain the feeling that the filming is spontaneous and immediate. The reality is that the pet refuge is incredibly noisy and chaotic, and so there was actually a lot of post production to get the footage useable and to create a coherent and compelling story. For my work, I was awarded Best Sound Design at the Independent Shorts Awards.

Being allowed access to the refuge to meet and record the animals was a real privilege. The best story of my time there was this stubborn cat who didn’t want to meow for me. That is, until I told them what the fluffy thing was covering the shotgun mic - a dead cat! That got him talking…

I am proud to have worked on this important and meaningful project.

Thanks to everyone who has already watched this and shared it around. Your words of appreciation are very kind.