ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I was born in Wellington New Zealand in 1959. At the age of eight we moved to Sydney Australia, and by the time I was eleven years of age I found myself acting in a highly successfully Australian sit-com television series, THE GODFATHERS The show lasted three seasons, one episode per week for 72 eps. It was a busy period in my life given that during those two years I also made the transition from primary to high school.

Most of the time I loved the acting, but I loathed the hassle from my fellow class mates, the constant publicity appearances and berating by the general public for autographs etc. We returned to New Zealand in 1973 for one year only. During this time I made a short 8 mm film at my high school in Auckland, about a Maori bully who ends up befriending the weakest kid in the class. We shot the film over three English periods.

Once back in Sydney I completed High school but also acted in numerous soap operas, tele-movies and drama series.

ACTING CREDITS

THE GODFATHERS. 1971 Half hour tv sitcom 72 episodes, Character Mike Varga.
THE SPOILER. 1972 tv drama 1 episode. Character. Kenny
NUMBER 96. 1975. TV series. 12 episodes. Character Kerry Braddon
THE UNISEXES. 1976 TV series. 7 episodes Character Billy.
THE SULLIVIANS. 1977 TV series. 9 episodes. Character, unknown
HOME AND AWAY. 1978 TV series 8 episodes. Character unknown.
PLUNGE INTO DARKNESS. 1978. Telemovie. Character unknown
PHARLAP. 1983 Feature film. Character strapper.
EMMA’S WAR. 1986 Feature film. Character Brian.
STANLEY. 1987 Feature film. Character The main man.
ASTINTATIOUS 1987 Comedy tele doco. Character. Parody of Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver
PANDAMONIUM 1988. Feature film. Character Little Adolph & The paper Boy.

1976 One-year film and television course at North Sydney Technical collage, the first six months was on general film production and in the second six months I specializing in film editing and audio post production.

By the time I was twenty three I made the leap into becoming a sound audio designer in my own right, on the acclaimed feature film MONKEY GRIP. I was at that time the youngest sound worker to ever become the “boss” of a large motion picture sound track

An average motion picture sound track may consist of up to seventy individual tracks all running in sync with the images. Literally hundreds of sounds, and sometimes thousands, each painstakingly chosen, fitted and laid. On that first film MONKEY GRIP I had only two assistants, one foley artist and six weeks to get it all ready for the final mix.

The entire mixing process may take between three to ten weeks depending on the complexity of the film and its budget. However a person like myself, is responsible for the creativity of the audio and the logical layout of the tracks, so that they may be mixed as efficiently as possible. At that time 4 track Dolby stereo was just coming in and the mixing studios charged around $200.00 USD per hour, a lot of money when your there for up to ten weeks.

AUDIO CREDITS ON FEATURE FILMS( AUSTRALIA)

LITTLE BOY LOST. 1980 Assistant sound editor.
DOT AND THE KANGAROO. 1980. Assistant sound editor.
THE CHANT OF JIMMY BLACKSMITH. 1981 Assistant Foley artist.
STIR. 1982 Assistant sound editor.
HOODWINK. 1982 Assistant sound editor
WINTER OF OUR DREAMS 1982 Assistant sound editor.
GOODBYE PARADISE 1983 Assistant sound editor.
MONKEY GRIP 1983 Dialog and effects editor. Sound designer
RAZORBACK. 1984 Effects editor. Nominated for best sound Australian Film Institute Awards
GOING DOWN. 1985 Dialog and effects editor and foley artist.
THE EMPTY BEACH 1985 Dialog editor.
THE SETTLEMENT 1985 Dialog and effects editor.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS 1985. Dialog and effects editor, Sound designer
MOLLY 1986. Assistant sound editor.
WINDRIDER 1986. Effects editor.
EMMA’S WAR 1986 Dialog and effects editor and foley artist. Sound designer.
CANDY REGENTAG 1987 Dialog and effects editor, Sound designer
THE DELINQUENTS. 1987 Effects editor.
YOUNG EINSTIEN. 1988 Dialog and effects re-editor.
PANDAMONIUM. 1988 Effects editor and foley artist.
TROUBLE IN PARADISE 1988 Effects editor.
THE SEIGE OF FIRE BASE GLORIA 1989 Foley assistant and effects editor
DINGO. 1991 Dialog and effects editor, Sound designer. AFI AWARD for BEST SOUND
THE GIRL WHO CAME LATE 1992 Effects editor.
RESISTANCE 1992 Music editor.
JINDALEE LADY. 1992 Dialog and effects editor, Sound designer.
HAMMERS OVER THE ANVIL 1993 Effects editor.
EXCHANGE LIFE GUARDS 1993 Effects editor.
ALEX 1993 Dialog and effects editor, Sound designer.
Nominated for best sound at the New Zealand film awards
BACK OF BEYOND 1994 Effects editor.
ROUGH DIAMONDS 1995 Effects editor.

From 1995 to 2009 I’ve resided in Malaysia and mostly worked for Pesona Pictures, Here I’m in charge of all their post production audio plus I’ve branched out into location sound recording. This was one of the reasons I moved to Malaysia because it would have been very difficult for me in Australia, to make the leap from post production audio to location sound recording, as location audio is a whole career path in its own right.

AUDIO CREDITS ON FEATURE FILMS ( MALAYSIA )

RINGGIT KARSORGGA 1993 Location sound recordist.
LAYAR LARA 1995. Location sound recordist, dialog editor, effects editor. Sound designer.
MIMMPI MOON 1998. Location sound recordist, dialog editor, effects editor. Sound designer.
SPINNING GASSING 1999 Location sound recordist, dialog editor.
THE ENGLISH PATIENT 2000. Second unit location recordist
THE SONG OF THE STORK 2000. Location sound recordist.
CITY SHARKS 2000. Location sound recordist.
PONTIANAK 1 2002. dialog editor, effects editor. foley artist. ADR recordist and editor. Foley, effects and dialog pre-mixing, sound designer. Final mixing supervisor.
PONTIANAK 2 2004 Location sound recordist, dialog editor, effects editor. foley artist. ADR recordist and editor Foley, effects and dialog pre-mixing, sound designer. Final mixing supervisor. Winner of the Malaysian OSKAR award for best sound
WARRIS JARI HUNTU 2006 Location sound recordist, dialog editor, ADR recordist and editor Foley, effects and dialog pre-mixing, sound designer. Final mixing. Winner of the Malaysian OSKAR award for best sound
1957HATI MELAYU 2007 Location sound recordist, dialog editor, ADR recordist and editor Foley, effects and dialog pre-mixing, sound designer. Final mixing. Winner of the Malaysian International film festival award for best sound, judged by an international panel.

Please note that some of the above mentioned films took up to 12 months to complete, and many of them took two to three months.

TELEVISION AUDIO CREDITS ( AUSTRALIA )

THE LONG MARCH 1979 Documentary. Negative Matching, sound editing and mixing.
CHOPPER SQUAD 1979 Action series, 13 episodes. Assistant sound editor.
THE SWIMMER 1981 Short film. Assistant sound editor
DEADLINE 1982 Tele-movie. Assistant sound editor
THE AUSTRALIANS 1984 Documentary series. 3 episodes. Assistant sound editor.
PROFESSOR POOPSNAGLE. 1985, 4 episodes. Sound editor.
THE CHALLENGE. 1986. 4 part mini series. Effects editor.
QUEEN OF THE ROAD 1987. Tele-movie. Dialog, effects editor and foley artist. Sound designer.
ASSAULT AT ROBE RIVER 1987 Documentary. Location recordist, Dialog, effects editor.
C.M.F.E.U 1988 ( Construction, Energy, Forestry and Mining ) Documentary. Cameraman, sound editor and co-mixing.
HOME AND AWAY 1989. Soap opera 15 episodes. Sound editor.
STRANGERS. 1990 Tele-movie. Dialog and effects editor, Sound designer.

TELEVISION AUDIO CREDITS ( MALAYSIA )

36 HOURS TO PARADISE 1998. 4 part Mini series. Location recordist, Dialog, effects editor and foley artist. Final mix.
PANCING PANCING. 2001 Documentary series 26 half hours. Sound editing and final mixing.
KIPAS ANGUN 2002 Half hour sit com. 13 episodes. Studio sound recordist.
RAMADAN WORLD DELIGHTS. 2003-2004 Half hour magazine program 26 episodes. Location recordist, sound editing and final mixing.
SULTAN OF SELANGOR CORONATION SPECIAL 2003. Sound editing and final mixing.
INTERFLAVOUR 2005 Half hour magazine program 26 episodes. Location recordist, sound editing and final mixing.
ANAK PONTIANAK 2006 1 hour drama series 13 eps. sound editing and final mixing.
SINI BERADAP 2006 Half hour magazine program 26 episodes. Location recordist, sound editing and final mixing.
KASSANOVA XXL 2008. 1 hour drama series 13 eps. Location recording, sound editing and final mixing.
DEAR KA TEH 2009. Half hour sitcom. 13 episodes. Sound editing and final mixing.
LA DOLCE AMIRA 2009.1 hour drama series 13 eps. Sound editing and final mixing.
WINDCHUCKER. 2009. Discovery Channel Eye on Malaysia series. 1 episode. Folley artist.
WARRIS JARI HUNTU 2009. 1 hour drama series 13 eps. Sound editing and final mixing.

Please take note that some of the above mentioned films took up to 12 months to complete, and many of them took two to three months.

OTHER JOBS

1977. Six months in the negative matching department at ATLAB AUSTRALIA
1981-1982. Lead singer in the pop band Little Ashley and the Incurables. Played in major hotel venues in Sydney and Melbourne.
PERMANENT DAYS. 1988. Three months. Northern iron ore Pilbara region of Western Australia. This was a theater project which was researched, written, rehearsed and then performed through out this vast region. I drove 20,000 kilometers in twelve weeks. My responsibilities were, production accountant, roadie, actor and lighting director.
I’ve also guest lectured at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School This school is world renowned and has over 30,000 applicants from all over the world each year, of which approximately only 30 are chosen to attend the four year B.A. course.
I gave some lectures for an intensive general course, on film and television, out of Pesona Pictures in January 1998, to around twenty participating students. The course ran full time for a month. My lectures were in picture editing, audio design, film chemistry and physics and the future of digital technology in the feature film industry. At Pesona I’m encouraged to do as much research in to future digital technology as possible, so as to build up a library of research material for the companies’ future reference.

Kind regards Ashley Grenville.