Michael F. Bates

Michael F. Bates is a freelance sound editor, working primarily on sound effects for drama and dialogue & sound effects for documentary.

Over the last ten years he has worked on films that have been nominated for BIFA and BAFTA awards, won Grierson awards, shown at cinemas worldwide and been distributed by Amazon and Netflix.

He has also worked on documentary and drama television for Discovery, National Geographic, Channel 5, UKTV, Disney+ and the BBC.

Michael is a member of the Association of Motion Picture Sound, Motion Picture Sound Editors and BAFTA Connect.

An interview about my work on James Webber’s debut feature Sorority
https://sororityfilm.com/interview-with-sound-designer-michael-f-bates/

Behind the scenes video from Spitfire Audio about the final mix of The Haunted
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBGEmR7dngs

How I work, creatively speaking

My experience in the industry spans micro budget projects where I’ve had to edit and mix an entire film, supervising in a more traditional sense (budgeting and scheduling the post sound process whilst supervising and working alongside other freelancers and post production facilities to bring together the final soundtrack) as well as working as a sound editor for other supervisors.

I understand that the process of bringing a film to life is a long one, so my goal is to create an inspiring, collaborative environment during sound post.

The reason I am passionate about sound in film is that it holds so much potential for subliminal yet powerful work that can enhance the mood and tone of the images and performances it is combined with.

The exciting part of the process is collaborating to discover what type of approach will work to bring the directors ideas to life.

For each film I work on I create a bespoke soundscape by recording and designing a collection of custom sound effects to provide a unique palette of sounds to work from.

How I work, technically speaking

As I work in Pro Tools Ultimate on a calibrated 7.1 monitoring system I can easily integrate into workflows with bigger facilities or crews.

I have provided sound effects and dialogue editing to sound supervisors and facilities across feature documentary, TV drama and factual.

My large and constantly growing sound effects library is made up of commercial sound libraries, recordings traded with the larger sound community and my own recordings which I make with an extensive field recording setup.

I’m experienced with assembling dialogue from production rushes and re-conforming both dialogue and sound effects to new picture cuts.