An industry questionnaire designed to provide students with a real insight into the working world.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

* in the list bellow- a feature film composer, a post sound designer, a broadcast composer and a musician *

[ profile content accurate at time of completion ]

Name: Chris Mears, composer for film.

What is your job title and who do you work for?

 

Name: Michael Wabro, post sound designer.

What is your job title and who do you work for?

I am a 50/50 owner & Company Director at www.reelsound.com based out of Pinewood Studios

My actual job role/title changes from film to film- but these are my most common credits:

Supervising Sound Editor

 Re-recording Mixer (Final Mix Engineer)

Dialogue Editor

Sound Designer

What was you first job in the industry? 

I started as work experience at the then auspicious Audio Lab- part of the then named 'Video Lab'- in Blairgowrie, Johannesburg, SA. Now it's called the Sasani Group. After a year I got my first break when the main engineer was sick one day, & it all went crazy from there. I helped build & ran their premier cinema dubbing suite (Audio 2) - doing all recording, editing, mixing & selected jingle composition for cinema shorts & commercials.

What do you like about your current role?

Being part of film.

Being able to create a workflow & game plan on really complex films where huge teams of editors are needed- & allocating work the best way.

Being creative

Getting to interact with highly creative people. 

Sharing a vision with a Director. 

That feeling of achievement after a really good sounding part of a mix (especially where very challenging & is acknowledged). 

Bettering actors' performance & picture editors' cuts- by reworking dialogue timings, nabbing syllables & words from other takes, & it all sounding entirely seamless to anyone else.

Hearing people I have never met (eg on a train..:-) talk about how much they like something I have been part of.

What software and hardware do you use on a daily basis?

Pro Tools HD all the way! For editing & mixing.

Other vital ancillary software for specific functions:

Synchro Arts - Titan

Sounds In Sync - Edicue

Sounds In Sync - Ediprompt

Sounds In Sync - Editrace

Soundminer

Source Connect

Plug-ins are vital (wish Apple would understand that)- especially for sound design & mixing. Way too many to mention for mixing- but my fav dialogue mixing tool is:

Cedar DNS One

For Sound design experimentation & general sound mangling:

Native Instruments - Komplete - especially Kontakt & Absynth

INA GRM Tools

Sound Toys - everything they make!

Prosoniq Morph (not available anymore)

Izotope- all their stuff

Can you say something about what you are working on today.

Finishing off the Mix Deliverables for an English film called, "7 Lives".

What does your average working week look like? 

In my situation that is a very difficult answer to generalise. That's because I may be dialogue editing some weeks, mixing other weeks, FX supervising in between, & recording ADR others.

Is there anything you dislike about the area of the creative industries you currently work in?

Egos. Though I find coming from commercials originally- they are far less a problem in TV & film- than in commercials. 

 The uncertainly of work. No matter how good you are, unless you are one of the few people employed full-time at a studio (rare & underpaid)- there is no guarantee you will work all year, or move smoothly from one to another.

Trying to make a living when a Production has high ambitions for sound but no budget. This is a big problem at the moment- the middle part of the UK film industry has fallen away- leaving 3 or 4 top films a year- & the rest all way too low down to get decent production value.

Working with ignorant productions who see our part of the process as entirely uncreative- & more an unfortunate technicality.

The cut-throat / overly competitive nature of the way we compete for work in Sound Post.

The whole American fake smiling-through-the-teeth, "Oh Darling" thing.

Students & fresh graduates accepting work for almost no money, thereby severely affecting the going rates & expectations of productions & putting experienced people out of work.

Watching all the Sound Post Production specific studios closing down due to the current climate.

What do you do to keep your creative juices flowing, what inspires you?

Watching as many different films as possible- even if I don't like those sorts of films or the theme / genre (eg Transformers)- to listen for interesting sound treatments.

Underground music. Non-commercial music has inspired me my whole life. I like to noodle- but more than anything I love hearing awesome new tracks / styles of music- eg complex LFO bass programming in Dubstep. Hearing something & going like, "Wow- how the hell did they do that!? Wish I knew. That would work work so well in a sound design context for X or Y in the film I'm working on".

Hence I love going to festivals & hearing all these obscure musicians I listen to, & hearing by mistake other amazing new talents.

Finding ways of collaborating with musicians for sound design. We have done this before with the likes of Plaid, Funkstorung, Tipper, Otto, etc.

Not reading to many techi forums &/or manuals.

Making tools do things they wern't necessarily supposed to- eg making Waves Xnoise make squeaky alien noises by doing the difference of an over processed signal

Have you one piece of advice to undergraduates?

It is a very cool job in general- but don't mistake that it is a very stressful, challenging & uncertain job.

It's one of the worst times to be considering going into sound post unfortunately. There is very little money in it nowadays- rates are falling lower & lower. Productions are becoming more and more ignorant about what we do & why we need to make a living too. 'All-in' Post Production Houses in Soho are throwing our work in for very little to make sure they can make their money in picture post- eg telecine. Productions are using graduates as a threat to us- ie if you dont like the money- we have umpteen graduates who are willing to work for nothing on their laptops at home- so take it or leave it.

It is very difficult to find work. There certainly nearly no full-time jobs left at studios.

If you do go freelance- never get too wound up in actually doing the work so much- that you are not looking out for your next job at the same time.

Be prepared to do ALOT of work experience.

Be pro-active.

Show that you are eager.

Make tea, coffee, etc & offer to take stuff, mail etc. Help keep areas clean & workable.

Be freindly to everyone- especially clients (but never push it- insincerity is the worst thing)

Drop the whole, "I'm so cool with my emo fringe hanging in my eyes & I don't talk because I'm shy" thing. No-one cares. If you reckon you are the coolest thing since Muse- go into another industry- try modelling.

Be humble

(ok sorry- that was way more than piece of advice- but, hey)

Can you provide urls to any sites that show your work?

reelsound/ showreel/ imdb/ 

 

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Name: James Dorman, Composer.

What is your job title and whom do you work for?

Composer - self-employed/ freelance.

TV credits include: Prairie Dogs, Fragiel Planet, Cutting Edge, Grand Desgns, Bodyshock, Restored To Glory, Dinner Date.

What was you first job in the industry? 

Started off as tea boy/tape op in a studio in Wardour street Soho.

What do you like about your current role?

Its what I do, music is my life 

What software and hardware do you use on a daily basis?

Logic, Recycle, Genelec monitors, Apple Mac, Fatar weighted keboard

Can you say something about what you are working on today.

A short film about an arts project

What does your average working week look like? 

Either in my studio writing music, in edit suites to discuss how music is working in the context of programme or meeting producers to try and get work.

Is there anything you dislike about the area of the creative industries you currently work in?

Not really - budgets are getting smaller.

What do you do to keep your creative juices flowing, what inspires you?

Going to gigs/opera, watching films and listening to music.

Have you one piece of advice to undergraduates?

Network and develop contacts. 

Can you provide urls to any sites that show your work?

http://www.jamesdorman.co.uk/

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Name: Liz Liew, Musician.

What is your job title and who do you work for?

I'm a musician/composer. I'm currently on tour with Moby for 3 months playing the violin.

What was you first job in the industry? 

I can't remember. One of my first 'big' gigs was playing with the KLF on MTV on their track 'F*** the Millennium' which coincided with the launch of the film recording how they burnt a million quid. There was a big press frenzy surrounding the gig and was cool to be part of the mayhem!

What do you like about your current role?

I love travelling around the world - we've been to some amazing places on this run - Beirut, Lebanon was great we played at a festival by the Sea, as well as the usual cities in France, Italy, Spain and Germany we've been to Belarus, Slovakia, Dubai and Serbia (we played after the now infamous Amy Winehouse appearance!). I'm currently in Tel Aviv in Israel.

What software and hardware do you use on a daily basis?
I use Logic Pro 8 to make music on my laptop whilst I'm on the road. I also have a small home studio to record instruments properly.

Can you say something about what you are working on today?

We have a show tonight Picnic Festival in Tel Aviv. Hopefully it'll be cooler this evening as it's currently 31 degrees. I'm also co-composing a piece of new music for 2012 commissioned by PRS Foundation which I'm working on as and when I can. Andy my co-composer and I are figuring out how to compose whilst I'm on the road as we have a showcase as soon as I get back, so Dropbox has been invaluable!

What does your average working week look like? 

At the moment it's pretty much travel, show, travel, show...

Is there anything you dislike about the area of the creative industries you currently work in?

It’s either crazily busy or absolutely dead!

What do you do to keep your creative juices flowing, what inspires you?

Listening to music, seeing amazing places, trying to be positive..

Have you one piece of advice to undergraduates?

It’s all about who you know so contacts are essential. That and work hard! 

Can you provide urls to any sites that show your work?

My old website is www.chi2.co.uk. I'm working on my solo website www.lizchiyenliew.com which should be up and running over the next few weeks.

______________________________________________________________________________________________