STUART MCCOWAN, SUPERVISING SOUND EDITOR, SKYWALKER SOUND
You may not recognize his name, but you’ll certainly have heard his work! Stuart McCowan is yet another Fife export to Hollywood. Born in the East Neuk, he now lives in California where he works for Skywalker Sound making sure that what you hear is just as impressive as what you see in the Cinema.
When McCowan heard that Glenrothes was to have its first ever Film Festival he said: “Cannes, Sundance and now Glenrothes! It’s a fantastic occasion that Fife gets to have its own film festival and it makes it even more special to me that it’s in the town where I went to college. I strongly believe that film is an art form and to celebrate its magical quality on a local scale really brings home how personal, touching and moving a film can be.”
On hearing that the Glenrothes Cinema was being re-opened after a 12 year closure McCowan added: “Hooray! When multi-plexes started closing the small film houses down it was a sad day for film. Yes you could go see the big blockbusters and sit in stadium seating with your oversized bucket of popcorn, but where’s the love? The re-opening of the cinema in Glenrothes will hopefully encourage other cities to do the same. Bring back the magic of seeing a movie on the big screen.”
After graduating from Waid Academy High School in Anstruther, Stuart studied Radio Broadcasting at Glenrothes College and graduated with a Higher National Certificate.
Soon after graduating, McCowan was hired by Central FM in Stirling where he became the station’s Commercial Producer and presenter of the daily mid-morning show.
He then spent 3 years with the BBC before moving to California where he worked for 3 years in local radio at 95.9 The Bridge (KHBG). In 1999, he joined Skywalker Sound as an apprentice sound editor.
Over the past ten years, he has worked in various sound department capacities, often as ADR Editor*, on films such as THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON and INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL.
Earlier this year his team received an Oscar nomination for their work on Director James Cameron’s 3D blockbuster AVATAR, the highest grossing film ever. McCowan is currently working on TRON: LEGACY.
* – Automated dialogue replacement (ADR) is the process of re-recording the original dialogue after filming for the purpose of obtaining a cleaner, more intelligible dialogue track
