MERCER MACWILLIAM HUGHES
FILMMAKER
RECENT WORK
2024
To close 2024, I recorded for several shorts/indie features, including NI Screen Funded short Growing Pains.
October to November I had a smattering of dailies as a sound assistant on HETV productions, How to Get to Heaven From Belfast, In Flight and Nostalgie. In August I was a trainee on the HBO show, Sweetfoot.
March to August, I worked on Series 9 of the BBC/ITV drama, Shetland, filming in Glasgow/Shetland.
This was through the ScreenSkills Trainee Finder scheme.
Feb-March, I was a dailies trainee on NBC Universal's live-action How to Train Your Dragon, at Titanic Studios, Belfast.
I started 2024 by recording sound for a speculative documentary with Farset Films. This involved a live script reading to an audience, from a large body of cast/contributors.
In the same month, I was the Sound Mentor for a BFI Academy shoot delivered by Cinemagic.
2023
- Recorded sound for 3 films showing at Belfast Film Festival in Nov 2023.
- Haunted Ulster Live, an Indie found-footage feature, which also screened at Frightfest, London.
- Double Vodka & Blackcurrant, NI Screen Funded Short
- Everything Looks Simple From A Distance, NI Screen Funded Short, winner of LUMI JURY award.
Working with other sound departments, I was a boom operator on an indie feature in Omagh, The Spin, and trained under mixer Simon Kerr on NI Screen Feature, HouseJackers.
2022
- Sound recordist for BFI Network shorts in London (Just Passing) and Nottingham (Swole).
Just Passing screened on Channel 4.
I'm looking for more opportunities to record sound on ambitious indie features, and to work with larger, collaborative sound teams.
Haunted Ulster Live (2023) (Feature)
On Halloween night, Gerry Burns teams up with popular children's presenter Michelle Kelly to investigate poltergeist activity in a haunted house in Belfast.
Director Dominic O'Neill
Producer Will McConnell
Sound Recordist Mercer MacWilliam Hughes
1st Assistant Sound Daniel O'Mahony
Sound Designer Chris Muldoon
A pastiche of a 90s TV broadcast. The cast-count was large and scenes usually played out in single takes without coverage.
Involved a creative approach to visible/diegetic audio recording devices (presenter mics, DJ mic, communication systems).
- Screened in New Irish Horror section at Belfast Film Festival 2023
- Debuted at Frightfest London 2023
Double Vodka and Blackcurrant (2023)
Capturing the messy hangover from the night before, this slice-of-life short focuses on the relationships of four friends as they try to recover and reflect.
Director Dean Conway
Producer Joanna McClurg
Sound Recordist Mercer MacWilliam Hughes
1st Assistant Sound Daniel O'Mahony
Sound Designer Mercer MacWilliam Hughes
A dialogue-rich script with elements of cross-talk and improvisation at the forefront. Two booms were used for the maximum possible coverage.
I also sound designed the film, involving a complex mix of overlapping voices to draw out important dialogue from noise.
- Screened in New Irish Shorts section at Belfast Film Festival 2023
SOUND SAMPLES
First Story - Commercial (2023)
Director/Producer Ellie Rogers
Everyone has a voice. First Story helps students find theirs.
Commercial for London-based creative writing charity.
Shea and Hannah (2021)
Director Dean Conway
Director Dean Conway
Producer Ross White
The morning after a one night stand, two young people ruminate on life and relationships.
Just Passing (2023)
Director Sophie Austin
Producer RCL Graham
Iris Prize-nominated short film. Del, a workaholic struggling with her mental health, wants to escape the numbness consuming her. But does she need to try a different tack?
Some things I love about sound...
Sound is an embodied experience.
Sound is felt when rich vibrations fill a cinema.
I am drawn sound's power to physically compel and transport the viewer, through atmosphere and illusion.
Recording clean, crisp dialogue is a uniquely satisfying experience.
To boom a shot is to dance among the stars,
immortalising their performance.
As a musician, I am fascinated by this melody and rhythm of an actor's dialogue. The timbres and tempos of voices, sound design and music serve to entrain our heartbeats as we experience a movie.
