Easy Money for Sound Engineers

[spioraid]

Do field sound for a movie production. Easy compared to dealing with crappy bands who can't keep tempo and the pay is better.

I can't tell you how many field engineers completely suck and get away with it because of all the technology that fixes stuff in post. I started a gig today and our sound guy totally screwed us over by not showing up or responding to phone calls.

We couldn't shoot at all today because we were without sound and didn't have anything MOS lined up (without sound). The company is about to dish out some major bucks for 1 guy to come in with a field mixer, recorder and a friggin' boom mic. Of course this is AFTER I volunteer for the Camera department.

The indie industry needs good audio guys who know their craft. They are prized if they can polish a turd.

Just a thought.

 

[darthjujuu]

fascinating o_0 where do i sign up?!

 

[abt]

You forgot to mention that it is super boring.

 

[spioraid]

You forgot to mention that it is super boring.

Depends on the shoot. Also depends if you're getting paid a lot too.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

And it's physical as fuck, although it might not sound like it. Just try to hold a long boom in awkward positions for eight hours straight.

 

[Ermz]

That's cool, but like live sound it's for a particular sort of person. I engineer music because I want my contribution to be valued artistically as well as technically. I don't get my jollies holding a boom for 8 hours on end then fixing sakata and traffic noises in post. I edit drums and guitars for 8 hours on end, fixing beats that barely resemble themselves with the subsequent aim of getting enough 'fuck me that sounds awesome' reactions to get the band signed.

I've had a friend totally get messed around by an indie film company before. Their expectations were entirely unrealistic, and he absolutely hated the procedure.

 

[Soundlurker]

^ +1

 

[darthjujuu]

i'm still interested. i deliver pizza 5 nights a week, wrestling with a boom sounds a-ok to me.

exactly what kind of technical qualifications would stuff like this entail?? I know a buddy of mine went to new england art institute for engineering, graduated a two year program, ...and now his digi-board stays at my house... haha. The only work that came out of it for him was some occasional gigs doing ...the rough work, related to live sound applications. for example...setting up staging, dragging gigantic road cases around, maybe running cables ...etc.

he got me into one of these jobs once... he said "wanna help work on the sound for paul mccartney when he comes to fenway?!" and i said well obviously, and....between the four of us that he brought, literally all we did was hang pipe 'n drapes to conceal storage areas that might be an eye-sore for the high paying sir paul fans. but, it was still $300 for a day of work. i was pleased.

I'd imagine this (field sound engineer for whatever indie-film) would be the type of thing someone like him could work his way towards, but for someone like me that's totally self-taught and only has experience producing heavier bands... wouldn't i hafta know someone to have an in?

 

[greyskull]

films/post is where the moneys at these days.

 

[Glenn Fricker]

Sign me up, too!

 

[spioraid]

i'm still interested. i deliver pizza 5 nights a week, wrestling with a boom sounds a-ok to me.

exactly what kind of technical qualifications would stuff like this entail?? I know a buddy of mine went to new england art institute for engineering, graduated a two year program, ...and then gave me his digi board. haha. The only work that came out of it for him was some occasional gigs doing ...the bitch work, related to live sound applications. for example...setting up staging, dragging gigantic road cases around, maybe running cables if he's lucky, etc.

he got me into one of these jobs once... he said "wanna help work on the sound for paul mccartney when he comes to fenway?!" and i said well obviously, and....between the four of us that he brought, literally all we did was hang pipe 'n drapes to conceal storage areas that might be an eye-sore for the high paying sir paul fans. but, it was still $300 for a day of work. i was pleased.

I'd imagine this (field sound engineer for whatever indie-film) would be the type of thing someone like him could work his way towards, but for someone like me that's totally self-taught and only has experience producing heavier bands... wouldn't i hafta know someone to have an in?

It's an industry standard to hire people who:

a) Work hard
b) Either know what they're doing or be under someone who can teach them

A stupidly small rig compared to your average I/O desk is what's needed for the field. A 4-6 input mixer, a field recorder, LAV mics for the actors and a shotgun mic on a boom pole. Ideally you'd have a boom operator and a sound mixer, but it's possible to do both (like I'm doing for my job right now.)

If I were a sound mixer, I'd hire as a boom op someone who knows how mics work, is somewhat physically fit and can take orders. If I were a producer I'd hire a sound mixer that knows the tech aspects for audio (frequency rates, handling reflections, sample sizes, etc.), can run gear and cables and works well with other department heads.

The rest, as they say, is experience.

On my last feature length project our sound mixer was also a sound designer, and showed our tech director some really good techniques for cleaning up sound in post. He gave specific notes on which takes were good or bad and what was required to make it adequate for post. His advice saved a ton of audio we got from shooting in a jail cell all week.

Ideally if you know how to fix audio on post you can tell what's good enough on the field. There are too many field mixers that assume everything can be fixed in post. This makes the post-sound designers life much harder because someone did a crappy job.

For these indie projects if you can do field mixer AND sound designing in post, you're worth gold. Honestly and truly. I've worked with too many sound guys who just didn't give a crap because they wanted to be camera guys.

 

[darthjujuu]

It's an industry standard to hire people who:

a) Work hard
b) Either know what they're doing or be under someone who can teach them

A stupidly small rig compared to your average I/O desk is what's needed for the field. A 4-6 input mixer, a field recorder, LAV mics for the actors and a shotgun mic on a boom pole. Ideally you'd have a boom operator and a sound mixer, but it's possible to do both (like I'm doing for my job right now.)

If I were a sound mixer, I'd hire as a boom op someone who knows how mics work, is somewhat physically fit and can take orders. If I were a producer I'd hire a sound mixer that knows the tech aspects for audio (frequency rates, handling reflections, sample sizes, etc.), can run gear and cables and works well with other department heads.

The rest, as they say, is experience.

On my last feature length project our sound mixer was also a sound designer, and showed our tech director some really good techniques for cleaning up sound in post. He gave specific notes on which takes were good or bad and what was required to make it adequate for post. His advice saved a ton of audio we got from shooting in a jail cell all week.

Ideally if you know how to fix audio on post you can tell what's good enough on the field. There are too many field mixers that assume everything can be fixed in post. This makes the post-sound designers life much harder because someone did a crappy job.

For these indie projects if you can do field mixer AND sound designing in post, you're worth gold. Honestly and truly. I've worked with too many sound guys who just didn't give a crap because they wanted to be camera guys.

awesome info dude, thanks a ton. some fascinating insight.

 

[gabriel g.]

Yeah it is true. You can make some money with audio-design (and tracking audio for TV and Movie-industrie)

But tracking audio for that kind is sometimes very difficult!!!!
Ever tried to get a surround image, or getting some nice dialogs on "windy" mountain?

Post production is totaly FUN!!!!!
1. NO LOUDNESS WAR
2. YOU NEED DYNAMICS
3. you can use the strangest things, to give something a sound, and sometimes it works, and you truly think that that thing makes that sound!!!

For example.
Exploding head -> exploding melone

I think only a small group of people know how an exploding head sounds

Sometimes it is even more fun than mixing some good music!!!

 

[James-Doolan]

Worth noting that the budgets for big name games are now becoming larger than some Hollywood films im sure there is money to be had there somewhere and i can only see that particular area expanding in the future