Sound Workshop

SOUND WORKSHOP 

by Josh Tomany

     I went to the sound workshop this past Sunday and I do not regret it. Even though sound isn't necessarily the field that I want to go into it is extremely important to understand it and to make sure everything is being done in a film to produce the best sound possible. What I learned from these professionals in the four hours I was there I will surely carry with me into future projects and hopefully have future connections in the industry.  

     One thing that I need to say is that the turnout was a blessing and a curse. I understand that it was Cortaca but the lack of people was truly disappointing especially knowing how much effort and time it was to get some of these working professionals to talk to us. That being said I will say that having as many professionals as students there made it an extremely hands on and personal experience, and I think the speakers were more candid and open with us then if it was a lecture type presentation. After the Q&A type portion of the group we split up into even smaller groups, some going to post sound and some going to locations sound. Knowing the challenges and experiencing first hand the devastating feeling of bad location sound I chose to go to that one to benefit myself and my future projects. Fo those who couldn't make it here are some things I gathered from the workshop in general.

1) NYC is a freelance city

2) The industry is often "Quantity over Quality" and the turnaround is extremely tight especially in Network television. 

3) Attitude, timeliness, connections, be fast, develop self discipline

4) The importance of the Union and how and why to join. 

5) Think about the environment you thrive in when picking a job to do. 

6) LISTEN

     Obviously there are many specific tricks I gained especially in the location sound portion but learning about the environment of NYC was really helpful. I didn't know if NYC would be a place I could work in and I always dreamed of LA but now I am definitely considering it an option , and seems more appealing when I consider other factors in my life. It was also really helpful after and in-between moments of "learning" to just talk with the people about the industry in general and what it's like working in the field and how to make it as a human being who wants to make a living and also live. Very helpful, and couldn't be happier that I chose to go. 

Some sound speed on a Saturday

I am a firm believer in that every choice you make affects the path your life will take. I sat in my bed Friday night thinking of what I wanted out of the weekend. I knew that we would be shooting the Stopover City title sequence and scootering pickups most of Sunday, and also had my 10 AM-noon WICB Best of Broadway show before all of that. So basically Saturday was my only time off; therefore I had a choice to make about how to spend my Saturday; I could either:

a.     go to the Cortaca football game and have a mediocre time whilst freezing my butt off.

b.     sleep in and regain some strength lost from overworking the whole week.

c.      attend the sound workshop held by multiple Ithaca alumni and professionals in the field.

After a fair amount of late night internal debate, I decided to attend the sound workshop. I reasoned that there are a ton of opportunities to sleep and have fun with friends, but it’s not everyday that professional location & post sound mixers come in to talk with students freely (it literally only happens once a semester). I also don’t know a ton about on-location sound mixing but would really like to improve in case I ever needed to do emergency sound mixing for a film.

So I woke up the next morning (at 7:30 AM because my roommates were blasting music in preparation for the game, *sigh*) and made my way over to Park to learn! I thought I would experience some fear of missing out (aka FOMO) but the workshop was so interesting that I forgot all about the other potential plans I had.

The workshop began with the sound mixers in a panel discussion, including both location and post-sound mixers. They spoke not only of the sound industry, but also of the overall tv/film industry workflow. The panelists had a lot of very helpful/inspirational things to say—some of which I wrote down in my handy-dandy notepad. Here’s a few pieces of advice they gave (all 8 of) us:

-it’s really important to invest in your own equipment—that way you get more practice with the equipment.

-(more audio-concentrated but) know signal flow; that helps you troubleshoot a live recording session if something isn’t working

-learn how to manipulate mics

-“it’s all about listening”

-the turnaround is a lot faster in television than in TV.

-fast problem solving is the key to making yourself irreplaceable

-if & when you’re a freelancer, you have to be accountable for yourself

-figure out what type of work you thrive in and what works for your personality*

*I found this piece of advice most significant for people of all concentrations. I am still unsure of where my “calling” is in the industry based on my personality. On the one hand I love doing art department but it is extremely difficult with little to no budget, and I am not interested in producing because I don’t enjoy bossing people around. Location sound is not something I’d like to pursue as a career but I would definitely like to get a better handle on it so I could run sound on a future documentary passion project(?). I am getting quite off topic, but that’s how most of these posts go.

the 1 picture I sniped: mama & baby mixer--SO CUTE

After the panel, we split off into location and post-sound mixing. Four people (including myself) meandered off to 269 for the location sound where Jeff Pullman and David Rosenberg worked with us on refining skills such as boom and lavaliere placement, in addition to little tips and tricks in making our location mix the best it could be. While most of the mixing stuff went right over my head, it was extremely helpful to learn about the microphone manipulation tips. It definitely inspired me to refresh on the pickup patterns of different mics to be better prepared for shoots. At the end of the workshop Jeff generously offered for any of us to shadow him on Madame Secretary in the Big Apple, which I will definitely do (hopefully) over winter break.

Overall, it was a very intriguing workshop and I feel that it was time very well spent.