FILM
Quino Piñero is a Spanish sound engineer, music producer and filmmaker. He has his own record company, SolySombra Recordings.
Hi Quino thanks for talking to TNC, you all set for the Berlinale?
Well, I believe I am set, I am starting to check the programme and checking a lot of interesting stuff going on next week.
Are there nerves ahead of the festival?
I am excited to be involved in Berlinale for my first time, and to go back to Berlin, where I used to live years ago.
What does it mean for you to be part of the 17th edition of Berlinale Talents?
It means a great opportunity to attend great workshops and meeting new colleagues, as well as the pleasure of enjoying some screenings and events of one of the greatest film festivals in the world.
How important are opportunities like this?
I think this kind of opportunities are very important, I will be able to know better when I get there.
Can you tell me a little bit about your work, what was it about Sound Design that interested you so much?
I understand sound design, not only as putting sounds to history but telling a story through sounds. I have directed and produced three films, and for many parts of them, I have designed the audio first, and then I grew the visual side on top of it. In the case of Best Fried Chicken (2018), a short one, this can apply to the whole film.
What was the first film/project you worked on?
Q:I have been filming, playing with cameras and recording audios since I was a kid, but the first film I worked on, which got to be screened publicly was Chigger Ale (Festival del Film de Locarno 2013), a short film by Miguel Llansó and Israel Seoane, about a small Ethiopian man who believes he is Adolf Hitler (real bizarre). I met Isra and Miguel through this shooting when I first moved to Addis Abeba, they needed someone to do the sound, and I was looking for...who knows what was I looking for. Well, nowadays we still work together and are very good friends.
"...keep on working on it, even if you don't have any specific project to work on, make it yourself..."
Do you ever find yourself getting too attached to a project or are you able to walk away once it is done?
I normally get very attached to the projects I do, indeed. But I normally walk away easily, actually, I would normally not watch the film again until the premiere, I think it helps to keep the mind sane.
What are some of the easy mistakes a first-time film Sound Designer might make?
Being disorganised during the sound design process, to start building the house from the roof is a common mistake at the beginnings.
How important is the collaborative process in what you do?
It is definitely very helpful. I think, in a creative process, when adding thinking heads together, one plus one equals ten.
How much has your approach to your work changed since you started out?
A lot, and still changing constantly.
What are you currently working on?
At the moment I just finished shooting a sci-fi short, Human Trash, by Aitor Almuedo, and already getting ready for the audio postproduction. It is taking me around my local scrap yards to record all kind of junk sounds, rusty containers and long metallic echoes. Love it. I am also working on the sound of an intimate film by my friend Michal Babinec, it's about that tough and lonely side of motherhood. So he needs a multilayered ambient composition, droning and building the anxiety together with the rest of the elements of the film.
And finally, do you have any advice or tips for any thinking about getting into Sound Design?
Well, I'd say, keep on working on it, even if you don't have any specific project to work on, make it yourself: go out, record some interesting sounds, play with them in the studio, build a soundscape, take a chapter of a book you like and try to design sound for it...this way you will be gaining a lot of creative and technical experience, and, why not, creating your own pieces of art. This is what I like to do when there are no projects around.