How Full English Post Brought a Slice of London to Brooklyn
For many, the words ‘Full English’ conjure up images of bacon, sausages, eggs and beans, primed to deliver a plate of pre-lunchtime deliciousness. But, this isn’t the Full English many have come to expect. Meet Full English Post, the New York based audio post production studio fronted by British export, Kieran Kaye.
Just as a balanced meal provides everything you need on one plate, Full English Post has been designed to offer everything a client needs from audio post production in one place. Bringing together founder Kieran’s experience from working in London’s advertising scene and stateside in New York, Full English Post is a hub for clients, combining Soho sensibilities with an American attitude to work and creativity.
“I never really understood the expression ‘A New York Minute’ until I lived here a while. Things just move here. The people, the restaurants, the workflow, you can’t delay otherwise you might miss out on something else.” says Kieran. Looking to expand his knowledge further, he returned to London to immerse himself in the commercial advertising industry, working with agencies and production companies to refine his craft and experience the creative chaos of the Soho streets.
“When I first moved to London, I’d been working in NY for over five years. I was in a voice over recording session, and was shocked at the slow pace of it. I know the Americans are renowned for being ‘rude’ and say things how they are - but I have to say, the Brits are far too polite!”, he says. “After every take the director would stop and say ‘thank you’ to the talent, then proceed to tiptoe around some direction that hopefully wouldn’t offend the voice talent.it was exhausting! I’m used to New Yorkers saying, “hmmm that wasn’t great, let’s get it again”, which seems harsh but frankly they’re just getting the job done.”
Despite the change of pace offered from working in London, there were a number of stand out features that made the experience more fulfilling and enjoyable. “I do think there’s a bit more sense of community in the industry in the UK compared to the US. When you go around Soho London, you tend to bump into people you know. Maybe you’ll grab a bite and a pint at lunch and have a chat. I wish there was more of a central hub in New York for post production and advertising.”
So, how do you unite the community and culture of Soho with New York’s fast paced nature and leaner, maybe meaner, approach to working? Well, Full English Post has done just that.
Less [Fluff] Is More
The words ‘Less Fluff’ are a guiding principle for Kieran and his team at Full English Post. Speaking to LBB in 2016 before founding Full English Post, Kieran reflected on the culture of unnecessary spending in sound studios within the ad industry in an article entitled 'It’s Not the Size That Matters, It’s How You Use It'. In this he stated, “Do clients care what equipment is used? Or are they just wowed by flashing lights and shiny knobs? My thoughts are the latter.”
This idea led him to start his own studio that’s grounded in the idea of ‘Less Fluff’. Of course clients need to be comfortable when they come into the studio, but to what extent do they need to be wooed by the flashiest, most expensive gear, when the most important factor should be the quality of the work? After all, as Kieran said in 2016, “it’s not the big mixers that make great sounding work, the experience behind the desk becomes much more important than the desk itself. It’s about the talent, not the tools.”
The work created by Full English Post is testament to the ‘Less Fluff’ approach. The studio has worked with brands including Vogue and Genesis, Bushmills and the MTV VMAs, crafting thoughtful, bespoke sonic accompaniments to a number of exciting campaigns. In general, the studio favours slightly longer brand stories, as the extended run-time allows for the team to flex their creative muscles and think beyond what typical advertising might allow for – delving deeply into the creative and using the time to sonically tell the story.
‘Less Fluff’ does not mean less attention to detail, in fact, it has seen the studio create entire time travelling sound journeys within just 15 seconds, evident in its work for the MTV VMAs. Kieran notes, “These were really fun and challenging to work on since we only had 15 seconds to cover all the VMA's, ever. We used around 50 different music tracks that ran through the eras (80's-90s for Madonna, 90s-00's for Brittany), literally using around three frames of each track to quickly 'travel through time' across all the VMA archival clips. Selecting one note/beat essentially from each track to summarise a music era was very challenging and once played all together most viewers probably wouldn't notice, but as far as sound design goes, it really captured the effect of time travel that had a dated undertone to it. Along with consciously curated dated sounding whooshes and SFX, the sound design really made these fast paced spots pop!
A stand out piece of work for Kieran was for tequila brand Lobos 1707. The cinematic spots, named ‘Notebook’ and ‘Barrel Story’ take audiences on the journey of Lobos 1707, from initial drawings of the bottle, to the centuries old distilling process, culminating in the final bottle. Full English Post were responsible for the sound design and mix, crafting a bold, cinematic ode to the liquor.
“It was really well made and they let me be as creative and bold as I wanted with the sound design. It was almost like a trailer, huge sound effects combining both ethereal sounds with real sounds which I personally love. I think the visuals married perfectly with what we added and the final result was incredible.”
DUMBO
For Kieran, relocating the Full English Post studios from to DUMBO was always top of his bucket list, but it was not a decision that was, or could be, made on a whim.
Established in Brooklyn within a small co-working space – a blessing in disguise as it was full of fellow production industry newbies looking for sound designers – before moving to a larger studio with the capacity to welcome new mixers to the team. Kieran made sure to always keep an eye on the bottom line and recalls asking, “if things go wrong, could I walk away tomorrow and make sure everyone is paid without owing anyone anything?”.
The time to move to DUMBO arrived after six years, and Kieran made his biggest investment yet into a slick new studio space and reception area, poised to welcome clients and create yet more brilliant work. But, just as the studio was ready to welcome the world, the world shut down.
Whilst a brand new studio sitting unused, gathering dust might spell disaster for many, Kieran chose to find the benefits of the situation, “I used the down time to flush out the usual technical bugs that come with new studios, implemented systems for workflow that I’d never before had time to research and activate, and I got to work on outreach and hosted webinars. I didn’t want to stop the momentum.”
Embracing the New York attitude of adapting, overcoming, and constantly moving put the studio in good stead as it flourished during uncertain times. But, the English attitude and affiliation to Soho always remained; Kieran hopes to make Full English Post the first post house with a street level facility, emulating the open door, ‘come in and say hi’ approach of the Soho sound studios where he spent those formative years.
