Hopkins is a sound editor and works with a lot of wildlife documentaries. She had a lot of interesting things to say with regards to foley/diegetic audio vs. soundtrack and effects. Making room for each other, merging the lines between the two, sometimes opting for one more than the other and many more concepts. She also mentioned a long-standing idea of hers that there should be a red button feature where you can watch programs without any music, leaving only the diegetic audio. I find this an interesting concept with plenty of potential, although since TV as we know it is slowly on its way out, to be replaced by streaming services I wonder how this feature can be altered to appeal more to the audience of the future, eventually perhaps finding a permanent home on all streaming services as an expected feature.

Hopkins also talked about the technical side of her work. Two things that I took from this were her sentiments on sound choice, and also field recording. With regards to the former, she said that most of her ability to choose sounds comes from experience and knowing when to be subtle and when to be brash is a very difficult skill. Although, she did say that early on in her career she tended to over-exaggerate with more layers than are needed for certain sounds. This is useful information, as optimising the sounds that are already there is a technique that I utilise often, rather than just layering plenty of other sounds. In terms of the latter, she advises a couple of things – firstly, always record more than you need. Also, do your best to isolate – wind is the enemy. She tends to have ambience in stereo, and sound FX in mono, which helps with the mixing process to create focus on certain things.