BAFTA winning Sound Tech grad: ‘I never considered a career in TV until I went to LIPA’

Abbie Shaw, who won a BAFTA as part of the sound team on Apple TV+’s Slow Horses, says LIPA was her gateway to a career in TV. 

Abbie, who completed her studies in 2021 is one of five Sound Technology grads at leading post-production studio, Boom Post. She joined them in 2022 and is now a dialogue editor. 

Boom Post’s sound team was awarded the BAFTA Craft Award this year for Best Sound: Fiction for Slow Horses for a second year running. 

We spoke to Abbie about the award, how she ended up working on Slow Hoses and why she decided to pursue a career as a techie. 

I really didn’t expect to win. I haven’t been in the industry very long, and it feels like I’ve only just left LIPA. Going to the ceremony and winning the award was exciting as well as rewarding and validating.

Image: The Boom Post Slow Horses team

If it wasn’t for the writers’ strike in the US I may not have worked on Slow Horses. At Boom I worked very closely with my wonderful mentor, Duncan Price who’s supervising dialogue on Slow Horses, but because of the strike two shows came in at the same time and we ended up handling both. So, I was editing ADR (automatic dialogue replacement) for one and editing dialogue on Slow Horses.  

I was originally a musician but started to look at behind the scenes roles when I decided I didn’t want to be on stage anymore at college. I started to find some of the techie stuff in the background more stimulating. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, and someone suggested I take a look at LIPA so I could get an idea of the different roles and careers. I came to Liverpool, looked around LIPA and it ended up being the only place I applied to.  

When I started at LIPA my sound technology knowledge and experience was fairly limited. For instance, I knew nothing about Pro-tools which is used extensively on the course. I had to work hard to catch up with the other students, but the lecturers were amazing and Jon (Thornton) gave me some fantastic insights that I still use every day in my work.  

I never considered working in TV or film until I went to LIPA. In the second year we had a module in audio post production and it was a gateway into an industry I had no idea about. It was absolutely fascinating and I decided this is what I want to do. I then focused my entire third year around it.   

I think LIPA graduates tend to share a similar attitude and work ethic. They’re dedicated, work hard and are usually easy to work with, if I as a grad can say that! I think and  hope, that’s what we share. When you tell someone you studied at LIPA, they’ll often say, "oh you’re LIPA kid? That explains it!" 

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Top image: Abbie with Duncan Price.