Kelly-Marie Angell
Kelly-Marie Angell from South Wales may still be an university student but she's already made her mark as a sound editor by being the woman behind Doctor Who's bodily noises in the primetime Saturday night television series on BBC One. As a Foley editor Kelly-Marie makes sure the Timelord has never sounded so good, using snapped celery sticks to recreate the sound of broken bones and mashed melon for blood spurts. She's also worked on the Doctor Who spin-offs Torchwood and the Sarah Jane Adventures. And such has been her talent that she won the 2007 Skillset Conch award for most promising newcomer in the UK within the post-production sound industry.
Since an early age, Kelly-Marie has had music in her blood as a skilled piano player and a grade 8 singer. Her first taste of music technology came while she was still in school during a week's work experience with BBC Wales. As a 16-year-old she was shown what it took to put on a live Christmas concert in St David's Hall in Cardiff. She said: "My interest in music and music technology has always been there. I thought I'd be going into the theatre and do live sound engineering. "I did some work experience on the Chicago musical in the West End about two years ago, sorting out microphones and making sure the balance of the sound is right."But what I learned the most was the huge pressure engineers are under. There is no room for second chances."
Kelly-Marie then did some work for Welsh broadcast channel S4C in the clips and dubs department before a family friend was able to get her a job as a sound engineer on Dr Who during a gap year from her music technology studies at the University of Portsmouth. For more than a year she's worked on the series as a Foley editor - a title named after pioneering sound engineer Jack Foley. Kelly-Marie looks at each scene and then decides which sounds should be used with each character's movement in the BBC show.
"A typical day I'd be sitting at the editing suite. I don't make the noises but I edit them and make sure they match to individual scenes" she explains "Day to day it's not that glamorous and exciting. But it does have its benefits. I went to the Welsh Bafta awards back in April. I've been on the set a couple of times and been to wrap parties. And I've met David Tennant (Dr Who), John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper in Torchwood) and Burn Gorman (Owen Harper in Torchwood)."
At the moment Kelly-Marie is working on the second series of Torchwood and the Sarah Jane Adventures. She is her final year of her degree in music technology. But due to her Dr Who commitments she'll mostly continue her studies from Cardiff, only returning for essential lectures. As for future plans, Kelly-Marie is looking forward to the next series of Dr Who and she has a few feature films in the pipeline which she hopes to work on. She also plans to turn her hand to dialogue editing, working with words rather than natural sounds and increasing her repertoire of skills.
As for advice for any upcoming sound editors, Kelly-Marie said: "Be persistent. It's quite a difficult and competitive field but hopefully it will pay off if you're determined. "Try to meet as many people as possible and turn your hand to as many things as you can. The more experience the better."
