Fiona McBain

Fiona McBain started her career in the film and television industry in 1988 as a production trainee at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation at Gore Hill, Sydney, Australia. She initially worked in the sound transfer suite and assisted in the dubbing theatres back in the time when most TV was still made on 16mm film and recorded on 1/4" tape! Fiona moved into studio work, boom operating on legendary Australian children's shows "Play School" and "Mr Squiggle". She also worked on live TV shows such as "The Mike Walsh Show" and "Blah, Blah, Blah with Andrew Denton" as well as ABC's long-running studio drama "GP" and location-based "Police Rescue". While at the ABC Fiona also was boom operator on mini-series/television movies such as "Children of the Dragon" and "Frankie's House" which was shot on location in Thailand. In 1992 Fiona left the ABC to freelance as a boom operator on feature films. She worked on many Australian features including "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert", "No Worries", "Roly Poly Man", "Billie's Holiday", "The Wiggles Movie" and others. In 1995, Fiona worked on the film "Ye ban ge Sheng" (The Phantom Lover) directed by Ronnie Yu. The film was shot entirely in Beijing, China and spoken entirely in Mandarin. Fiona prepared for the film by taking an intensive course in Mandarin. In 1996/97 Fiona returned to the ABC as a freelance on current affairs shows such as The 7:30 report and also worked at Channel 7 on "Real Life" with Stan Grant. In 1997/98 Fiona lectured part-time at the Australian Film Television and Radio school and helped the graduates ensure a good location soundtrack for their graduating films.

In 1998/99 Fiona spent time in NYC and eventually moved to New York to follow her passion for music. In 2000 she co-founded the Americana band Ollabelle. Ollabelle was signed to Sony Music by music producer T Bone Burnett in 2002. Ollabelle toured the USA for many years supporting acts like Ryan Adams, Diana Krall, Levon Helm, Elvis Costello, Alison Krauss and Robert Plant as well as on their own at festivals and venues across America and Canada promoting their own recordings. Ollabelle made 3 studio recordings and a live recording. In 2007, Fiona released recording with duo "Then There Were Two" with NYC bass player Mike Visceglia. Mike is a longtime music-director and collaborator with Suzanne Vega. Another of Fiona's musical projects, "The Big Bright" self-released their 2014 recording of New-Wave Nocturnes called "I Slept Thru the 80s" and their cover-songs have been featured on tv shows "CSI" and "Charmed" in the USA.

Fiona has worked as a sound recordist in NYC on documentaries and commercials for 20 years. She is a parent to a 9 year old and is currently back in Australia for an extended period to be near family. Fiona spends her time between Brooklyn, NY and Sydney, Australia.