About
Richard Hubbard is a Perth-based location sound recordist and CASA-certified drone operator, with 15+ years across location sound, drone cinematography, camera and technical broadcast.
The recording is the easy part. The harder part is everything around it — reading what the director is trying to get, knowing which problems are worth raising on the day and which ones to just quietly solve, and thinking about what the edit will need long before anyone in post has seen a frame. Most of the difference between a usable track and a difficult one is decided in the first ten minutes on location, before a single mic goes up.
Calm, positive energy under pressure — and makes the edit easy.
Being calm isn’t really temperament — it’s having been in the situation before. Aircraft with the engine running, boats, mine sites, two hours down a track in the Pilbara at forty degrees. When something goes wrong in those conditions there are usually three fixes available, and the experience is in knowing which one won’t cost the schedule.
In order to be a beneficial member of any team, you must first be totally independent.
He turns up with his own kit, maintained and ready, so a shoot day isn’t waiting on hire gear or a sub-hire lead time. Every battery is under 100Wh, which means the whole package flies as carry-on to a remote strip without a freight conversation, and there is enough redundancy that a dead transmitter is an inconvenience rather than a stopped shoot.
Sound recordists tend to keep what they know in their heads or their flight cases. Richard writes some of it down: a pinout diagram generator for wiring cables, a guide to terminating a 3-pin LEMO, and a directory of WA drone permissions built by writing to every Perth-area land manager, because no such reference existed. It comes from the same instinct that makes a cable fault a ten-minute problem instead of a lost afternoon.
He holds a Bachelor of Broadcasting Communications and is a member of the Australian Screen Sound Guild — which awarded him Best Sound for Documentary in 2025 for Yurlu | Country. He has recorded for National Geographic, Discovery, ABC, Seven Network, Fox Sports and Endemol Shine, on everything from natural history and travel to drama, reality and ENG, on land, sea and in the air.
For productions coming from interstate or overseas, he makes hiring a local WA crew effortless. Browse the sound and drone services, or see on-location photos from recent shoots.
Start a conversationWinner, awarded by the Australian Screen Sound Guild for Yurlu | Country.
Nominee, recognised by the Australian Screen Sound Guild for Pieces.
