Why is sound so important in television and film? How does sound help bring audiences into a screen world? What’s the workflow followed by screen professionals when creating, capturing and editing sound for a production?

In our free virtual workshop, students discover the importance of sound design from Hardball sound designers Serge Lacroix and Liam Whiting from Post Op Group. Serge and Liam will take students behind-the-scenes of the award-winning television program, Hardball, to share the process of planning, capturing and editing a soundscape. Your students will learn about how foley sound is captured and be inspired to create their own foley soundscapes after the session. 

Originally from Montréal, Canada, I have been working in sound since I was 19 years old. Over the years, I have designed and created sound backgrounds and mixes for television shows, movies, documentaries, and commercials as well as mixing several studio music albums. I have been in Australia for 25 years and I founded and own a production company whose focus has been non-fictional TV programming - you might know it better as reality TV. Try watching a TV show or movie without the sound and you’ll see how important sound is to the whole experience.

Liam Whiting

Hello! I’m Liam Whiting, a Sydney born composer and sound designer. Sound and music have always been an important part of my life, having played music from a young age. While studying sound and music design at UTS, I collaborated with animators, discovering a love for composing and storytelling. I joined Post Op Group with Serge in 2018 and have since been involved in many television and feature productions. Hardball is a heart-warming and hilarious series. We would like to show you how we brought this show to life, through sound design.

Our classroom resource will support students to continue exploring sound design following the workshop.

Curriculum Links

• English Yr 4: Use a range of software including word processing programs to construct, edit and publish written text, and select, edit and place visual, print and audio elements (ACELY1697)
• English Yr 5: Use a range of software including word processing programs with fluency to construct, edit and publish written text, and select, edit and place visual, print and audio elements (ACELY1707)
• English Yr 5: Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations for defined audiences and purposes incorporating accurate and sequenced content and multimodal elements (ACELY1700)
• English Yr 6: Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations, selecting and sequencing appropriate content and multimodal elements for defined audiences and purposes, making appropriate choices for modality and emphasis (ACELY1710)
• Media ArtsYrs 3-4: Use media technologies to create time and space through the manipulation of images, sounds and text to tell stories  (ACAMAM059)
• Media ArtsYrs 3-4: Plan, create and present media artworks for specific purposes with awareness of responsible media practice (ACAMAM060)
• Media ArtsYrs 3-4: Plan, produce and present media artworks for specific audiences and purposes using responsible media practice (ACAMAM064)
• Media Arts Yrs 5–6:  Develop skills with media technologies to shape space, time, movement and lighting within images, sounds and text (ACAMAM063)

This virtual workshop is co-developed and co-presented by the ACTF and ACMI and celebrates the 40th anniversary of the ACTF.

This virtual learning session is supported by the Strategic Partnerships Program through the Department of Education and Training.