Billy T: Te Movie celebrates the life of the legendary Billy T James, New Zealand’s best-loved entertainer. The film explores Billy’s extraordinary talent as musician, singer, comedian, actor, writer and artist . The film tells of Billy’s meteoric rise to national fame and his tragic downfall into ill-health and financial collapse. Featuring digitally re-mastered footage of Billy’s performances and never-seen-before archival images, Billy T’s story is set alongside interviews with his family, friends and colleagues.

Billy T: Te Movie is directed by Ian Mune and produced by Tom Parkinson and Robert Boyd-Bell through their company BTJ Movie Ltd. What follows are comments on the Sound Design of Billy T: Te Movie by Sound Designer, James Hayday from Images & Sound. "It was an honour to be able to work on a film about Billy T, especially alongside Ian Mune and his associates seeing as how they had been involved in much of the original Billy T shows.

There were a handful of stories in the film that really lent themselves to being aided by sound. Two of these were based around vehicles that played roles in Billy's life. The first and probably most important being the pickup truck that took the infant Billy home, and the other being the band van that he toured the country with as a musician. Alongside interviews and archive footage, I could weave in these recordings around the dialogue.

The production chanced upon an excellent Chevy pickup truck that belongs to Rob Webster, a Chevy collector and expert repairman, and an all-round good dude who not only let me attach mic's to his truck but towed my car home after it blew a head-gasket on the way to the recording session, which is another story without any recordings. Check the comments for the different microphone perspectives of the Chevy.

   

Malcolm France offered up his driving feet to helm what became the band van. Ian, the director wanted it to sound like it was on its last legs, so Malcolm generously took to it with a spanner (see above). The best sounds I recorded were during the level check, which was a good lesson... no test runs. If the fanbelt is going to slip or the starter-motor complain then it's going to be when you fire it up, and that's where the personality is. I added a contact microphone for this one to see if I could pick up some engine ticking through the chassis and give us another fader of hokiness, which worked out excellently.

 

The microphone kit was assembled from a mixture of some good quality and fairly robust choices (i.e. what was in the drawer) which all worked well, but next time I'll be taking a look at some other options for the spots. 

 Record Kit: Sound Devices 744T 2 x Sony PCM D50 for External and Internal perspectives, Joe Meek JM37DP large diaphragm condenser in the engine bay Schaller Oyster contact mic on the chassis in the engine bay Shure Beta58 on exhaust.