Steve Finnigan

Steve Finnigan is a local legend of screen sound. As co-owner of post-production studio Images & Sound — one of New Zealand’s largest — he has been involved in scores of productions, from local gems and mainstays of Kiwi television, to big budget Hollywood movies.

Finnigan began in radio. While doing a music degree at Auckland University, he got the chance to work as a junior at radio station Magic 91FM. "I went for it and was really lucky to get the job. I lived in Glen Innes and the radio station was in Takapuna, so I used to ride my bike down to the breakfast announcer's house at 4am. He took me across to Takapuna, and then at 9am I'd catch the bus into town to go to university." The job led to a gig running the production studio at Christchurch’s C93FM, before Finnigan returned to Auckland.

It was roughly another decade before he began to become involved in the screen industry. "I was mixing TV and radio commercials, before slowly morphing more into the long form TV area," says Finnigan. He began working at Auckland's Stebbing Recording Studios, before landing at another legendary Auckland recording studio: Mandrill Audio Post. 

There he got busy as an ADR recordist, which involves rerecording actor's dialogue in the safety of the studio — away from unwanted noises like wind and passing aeroplanes. This was mainly on the international hits Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess, which were both shot locally. 

Finnigan did some ADR recording for The Simpsons, and in 2002 recorded with Temuera Morrison and George Lucas for two of the Star Wars movies. The latter saw him invited to meet the team at Lucas' company Skywalker Sound in California, an experience Finnigan rates as a career highlight.

There have been plenty of Kiwi productions too. In 2000 he began working in a soon-to-be regular role as Sound Post Supervisor, overseeing the sound team handling the sound mix on Mercy Peak. The Cult, TV movie Piece of My Heart and Outrageous Fortune would all follow. The latter proved formative not just for Finnigan, but the local industry as a whole. "Outrageous Fortune is still a big highlight as it was a massive deal at the time — a lot of us in the industry cut our teeth on the series, and still work together today".

If you were to name a hit Kiwi TV show from the last few decades, there's a good chance Finnigan was involved. He counts Go Girls, Nothing Trivial, The Almighty Johnsons, Step Dave, Westside, The Gulf, Mystic and The Brokenwood Mysteries amongst his long screenography.

Much of this work has been with Images & Sound, one of New Zealand’s leading post-production houses, which Finnigan co-owns with Grant Baker — the company's Head of Images. Baker had spent time in charge of Images Post (formerly Video Images) before the company merged with Soundpost (formerly Mandrill Audio Post) in 2007, combining the two companies’ strengths to form a fully rounded post-production facility. Before then, the companies had already shared the same owners and Auckland premises for over a decade.

In his role of Head of Sound, Finnigan has also served as Supervising Sound Editor on many feature-length documentaries, which often chronicle prominent New Zealanders or New Zealand history. The trend is not intentional, but certainly appreciated — "I think it's more of a case of our clients being so prolific in this area. Being able to work with the likes of Gaylene Preston, Toa Fraser, Leanne Pooley, Justin Pemberton and many other great documentary makers is a real privilege." The docos have included My Year With Helen, McLaren and Capital in the Twenty-First Century, plus animated Anzac feature 25 April. 

Finnigan has also continued to record ADR, often on high profile projects. He worked with Martin Sheen on Oscar nominee Frost/Nixon, with Hong Kong action star Donnie Yen on Kung Fu Jungle, and with Himesh Patel on director Danny Boyle’s Beatles hit Yesterday. He also joined Kiwi Toa Fraser for based-on-a-true-story thriller 6 Days. 

The quality of Finnigan’s work has not gone unnoticed. He is a regular nominee at the NZ Television Awards, as part of teams nominated for Best Sound Design and its latter-day equivalent, Best Contribution to a Soundtrack. In both 2010 and 2020 Finnigan found himself nominated three times in the same category. Over the years he and other members of his team have shared the award six times — winning for Kaitangata Twitch, Maddigan's Quest, One Lane Bridge, The Sounds, Wanted, and TV movie In Dark Places.

Profile written by Simon Smith; published on 2 June 2023

Sources include
Steve Finnigan
Images & Sound website. Accessed 2 June 2023
'Editor', 'Images & Sound celebrates 40 years of excellence in film & television post-production' NZ Media & Advertising News Daily website. Loaded 5 May 2023. Accessed 3 June 2023