SNK Studios Meet the Team: Ben Darier
This month, the spotlight is on one of SNK Studios' sound engineer’s, Ben Darier, as they sat down (from a social distance) and quizzed him on what makes him tick in life both inside and outside of work. Not only is Ben an award-nominated ADR Mixer, he’s also clued up in the department of sound design, and editing and mixing ads making him an invaluable asset to the SNK team.
Q> What’s your go-to productivity 'tip' or 'trick' at work?
Ben> Putting the phone away! Also turning off notifications or putting it in silent mode so I don't get distracted by these intrusive nudges. Tighter deadlines usually help as well, which is usually the case for me as short form and ADR work constitute the main jobs I work on on a regular day.
Q> If you could have dinner with four people, alive or dead, who would it be?
Ben> My late grandfather who was an accomplished musician and whom I would have loved to discuss my day to day with.
Sam Harris and Jordan Peterson, who are great debaters and who I believe have very interesting opinions on a lot of different subjects.
Does 'not born' count? Because I would like to have a chat with my great great great grandson/daughter/person to take a sneak peak at whether humanity overcame today's challenges or not, and in what way.
Q> Tell us your favourite project to date you've worked on and why?
Ben> I would say working on the second series of "Hanna", which I recorded the entire ADR for. It was amazing to be part of such a huge project and take care of the recording from start to finish. Also working closely with ADR Supervisor, Adele Fletcher was definitely a highlight for me!
Q> What couldn't you start your day without?
Ben> Glass of water down the throat. Bang. Your eyes open instantly after that.
Q> What is the best piece of career advice you've ever received?
Ben> You should always give your best, even for things that appear trivial, as well as being courteous and fair in your work. I guess it's more from personal experience, but basically work opportunities can come from anything and anyone. There is no project that should not require your full attention once you agree to work on it. Sometimes you get really interesting work from the people you least expect. Also, I like to think that someone could pull out anything I ever worked on and that I would know I gave my best to make it sound as good as possible.
Q> When you were a child what did you want to be when you grew up?
Ben> Ok this one is a bit of a weird one, but I wanted to be a veterinarian that specialised in dolphins. I had a thing for dolphins - loved them. I had dolphin posters in my bedroom, a dolphin pillow cover, dolphin toys, the whole lot. I got sick of them eventually, even though I still think they're pretty cool.
