Oliver Machin
Devon, United Kingdom
About Me
I am a freelance Location Sound Recordist and I work in the UK and South Africa. Whilst in the UK I am based in the South West and can also be London based. When I am in South Africa I am based in Hillcrest near Durban, KwaZulu-Natal but work all over Southern Africa and the rest of the world.
I have experience in everything from feature documentaries and natural history to daytime tv, kids tv, current affairs, entertainment, press junkets, corporates and commercials. In the last few years I have worked on shows like “The Great Shark Chase” for Discovery, "Snakes In The City" for National Geographic, "Talk To The Animals" for the BBC, "Educating Joey Essex" ITV where we took Joey to see the Gorillas in Uganda as well as the ongoing coverage of Nelson Mandela for ABC News Special Events. I have also done commercials for Nikon, AVBOB, Orange and Domestos amongst others.
I also have unique experience in sound FX recording having spent 6months working in Namibia working on Mad Max: Fury Road. I was part of the double Oscar winning sound teams for Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing at the 88th Academy Awards (2016). I recorded the vehicle FX sounds of the various V8, V16 and twin V8 engines of the specially designed and built action vehicles. Those FX recordings along with the sync FX became the building blocks for the sound editors and the final mix.
I started my career at the age of 17 (1995) in the UK when I moved from a farm in Devon to London and started my first job making the tea and dubbing tapes in a post house. Then I moved into production but still with a techy slant until my old boss Ian Cross at Pilot Productions agreed to let me go to the Amazon rain forest ("Treks In A Wild World") to carry the bags and then travel the world ("Globe Trekker & Planet Food") and record sound... although I never did quite agree with his idea that I should have been paying him!
I have worked on Documentaries with Oscar winning directors (Davis Guggenheim "It Might Get Loud"), travelled to the ends of the earth, eaten the finest foods and enjoyed it all... well nearly all of it!
I have been in the industry since 1995.