No.8’s Audio Department Keeps Pushing for More

No.8’s sound department has been around since late 2019, bolstering the company's ability to provide full-service post production capabilities under one roof. Over the next three years, the department has gone from strength to strength, working on spots for Nike, Corteiz, and Fifa, plus music videos for Ed Sheeran and Slowthai. Headed up by Sam Robson, partner and creative director of audio, the four-strong team is working on continuously delivering audio excellence for its range of diverse clients. 

“When I joined in late 2020, the department was practically a blank canvas for me to do what I wanted with, which as exciting as it sounds, was also a little daunting at the same time. Building something great doesn’t happen overnight, but three years on, I’m proud to say we now have a team who I’m confident can not only execute great creative, but also work collaboratively alongside each other as well,” says Sam. 

Thinking about the team’s growth and evolution, Karen Noden, audio EP, remarks, “Our client base has expanded rapidly due to new members of the team and the experience they bring which has been great from a production perspective. The pandemic forced us all to work remotely; however, this was a blessing in disguise as it led us to improve the sound designer’s home set ups, which can now produce studio quality work.”

The sound department used lockdown time to their advantage and further expanding their capabilities. “Although the number of physical studios at No.8 hasn’t increased, with our strong WFH capabilities, we can now offer more ‘rooms’ without all engineers needing to be in the building at the same time. Funnily enough, we’re literally in the middle of building and kitting out a tracklaying suite, which will help with studio overflow and be beneficial for our junior engineers to get more hands on experience. On top of this we’ve also gone full circle and finished refurbishing all our studios, in particular our cinema room which sounds incredible and is another exciting service No.8 can offer,” adds Sam. 

Karen notes that No.8 has increased the amount of producers across all departments, which the company intends to keep growing. “We often get asked to help on music briefs so that is also on our radar,” Karen says, “for future plans.”

The sound department has done so much impressive work in its relatively short life that it’s difficult to land on just a couple. Still, Sam has his favourites in the set of Nike films he worked on together with George Castle, senior sound designer, and a spot featuring the ever-entertaining DJ Khaled. “The three Nike spots George and I worked on last year were a great set of films to be involved in because they were all beautifully shot by directors Rubberband and are very different from each other in terms of stories. They were also very filmic in terms of look and feel which set the bar very high for when adding sound design to them. I also had great fun working on a global campaign for Sun & Sand Sports which featured DJ Khaled flexing his sporting muscle in all sorts of ways.”  

For George, it has to be the Corteiz spot. “I love this spot as it is a piece of work that really allows the sound to breathe. No.8 also worked on the VFX, which was useful as it allowed for a seamless workflow within the same building. The ad is high energy and really gave us the opportunity to push our sound design up to 11.” 

Having recently worked on a Dolby Atmos audio mix, the process has given the audio team more creative possibilities when it comes to the way they mix. George explains: “We worked on an Atmos mix for Volvo as their new car features a Dolby Atmos surround speaker system. This was a fantastic experience as Dolby allowed us to reference the mix in a car that they had on site. We could perfect our mix in the studio using the latest immersive mixing tools and then check how it translated in its final playback format. Working in Dolby Atmos opens a whole new world of possibilities when mixing as you have a lot more freedom in terms of where the audio is placed, allowing you to encapsulate the audience in a 3D space.”

Next on the radar for the creative and determined team is a foray into feature film. “We are currently in audio post for ‘BLACK DOG’, directed by George Jaques and executive produced by Oscar-winning David Parfitt. It was an incredible experience,” George says.

“Working on a feature film is quite different compared to an advert, due to the sheer length of the project. A feature film usually has a team of designers who split the work across different departments such as dialogue, foley, sound design and mixing; you will also have a sound supervisor overseeing them all and we also get to final mix at Warner Brothers new facility, Dea Lane Lee, which is very exciting! This has given us momentum to grow the long-form arm of the audio department and we are already in discussions for the next one,” he adds. 

In just three short years that encompass a prolonged lockdown too, No.8’s team has taken on challenges and used them to their advantage. Not content with simply delivering great work, the team is constantly looking for ways to excel at both the work they produce and the client experience. It’s clearly working too and we can’t wait to hear more.