Tia Takarangi-Chan recording the beautiful song which opens the film at the Turanga FM studios

Amidst the frenzied activity of packing and making the rough cut assembly edit of Amiri & Aroha, the music recording, dubbing and voice overs where an important task and a major challenge. Virtually all the sound recorded at Rere falls was inaudible due to the noise of the falls and would require dubbing and post-synching. This is difficult and time consuming work, exact lip synch is essential for the film to be believable and the actor’s performance relies so much on the delivery of the lines in a compelling way.

Recording the music was equally challenging; to get a performance which both works and achieves exact lip synchs is a huge ask of any artist! And Tia and I were absolutely determined to get this right as this song opens the film and is vital to setting the mood of the film. The lights go down and this is our waiata, welcoming the audience and drawing them into the film.


Kristel Day recording the voice over tracks which are so vital to the film but so difficult to achieve; vocalizing inner thoughts in a way that will be believable and meaningful to an audience.