So I Know what I want to do now....but...

[rosevision]

I dont know how to get started.....What I want to do is....
1) sound design for tv/film
and
2)Audio Editing
I currently go to school for audio production but I'm going to take some Audio for visual classes....but
How do I get started in Post Audio?

[Uncle Bob]

Get some gear and software.

Do the audio post on a short.


You can read all the books you want, surf the web for months and watch every DVD you can, none of it makes any sense until you actually do it. That's how I got started. The best education I got was, after having done a few projects on my own, watching a real experienced at work for a few days, and having others critique my work.

[rosevision]

Originally Posted by Uncle Bob

Get some gear and software.

Do the audio post on a short.


You can read all the books you want, surf the web for months and watch every DVD you can, none of it makes any sense until you actually do it. That's how I got started. The best education I got was, after having done a few projects on my own, watching a real experienced at work for a few days, and having others critique my work.

Thanks.... truth is I do have gear Pro TOols and the whole works...I"ve been using pro tools since 14 and i'm 20 now..... here is my first ever project I've done just at home... I know how to do the work its just how do I start getting paid from doing it...

[philper]

Originally Posted by rosevision

Thanks.... truth is I do have gear Pro TOols and the whole works...I"ve been using pro tools since 14 and i'm 20 now..... here is my first ever project I've done just at home... I know how to do the work its just how do I start getting paid from doing it...

In that case, persistence and luck. You know what you have to do--you have to get yourself in front of people who might hire you and keep yourself there or on their minds. Staff jobs are practically impossible to come by anymore, so figuring out how to make a little business for yourself is a good start.

Philip Perkins (CAS)

[Uncle Bob]

Originally Posted by philper

Staff jobs are practically impossible to come by anymore, so figuring out how to make a little business for yourself is a good start.

Exactly what I did. My passion is film/video, and I've started carving out a nice little niche for myself, but still do commercials, VO work, the occasional singer/songwriter and whatever else wanders into my studio plus freelancing at other studios; everything from sound effects and dialog editing to basic audio donkey work like archiving, etc. which is when I get to kibitz with those more knowledgeable and experienced than I.

One nice thing about audio post work in your own studio; when you work on those freebee projects to gain experience you can make lots of mistakes and no one ever knows, you just keep experimenting until you get it right.

[Henchman]

Originally Posted by rosevision

How do I get started in Post Audio?

Move.

[JSt0rm]

Originally Posted by Henchman

Move.

^ this

[rosevision]

Originally Posted by Henchman

Move.

Where too? I'm in Chicago now and I heard there is a lot of commercal work here?

[RScott]

I'm sure if I had posted saying that I was in the Atlanta area, looking for audio post work, I would have gotten the same response, move -- there is nothing in my area.

Maybe I'm just a lucky guy, but I'm currently working as the audio post guy for an independent production house in the Atlanta area, just a few years after graduating college.

How did I get this job? Experience helps. For me that meant having worked on location during student and grad student film shoots recording audio and also doing audio post-production for many grad student films. This sort of work you can find readily. Many laments of the post forum are over the abundance of jobs with no/lo/deferred payment. May be a good place to find somewhat interesting projects for your reel while working in a semi-professional environment. Having your own setup helps a ton.

After having a reel, you need to get that reel in front of the right people. That means people looking to hire. By chance, a client at a family member's bank owns a ProTools resale store in town and it turns out students from my college make a decent amount of business for him. He took some time to give me some names of in-town businesses he had worked with recently who might be interested in a post audio guy.

That got my reel into the hands of people who wanted audio work.


Hit the phone book, internet and anywhere else you can find the addresses and phone numbers of production houses in town. Any business that may have ties to film and video is worth a shot. If they aren't interested directly, they probably know the business in the area well and could point you toward other spots.

If you have the time to burn, try to find some internships developing skills you don't already have, like recording for film or music, radio show/commercial production, voice-over recording, etc. Being a one-man-show for audio needs is a big plus.

As you build up your reel of small projects it will open you up to bigger projects and will expand your client and professional contact list.

Best wishes and good luck.

[renec]

move.

not that.

You are not your address. You are your ability.

Get good enough and you can live in a wider array of cities. Be a hack and you may be limited to LA if you want to make your living doing audio.

This is not to say that LA is nothing but hacks (Its not - the best of the best tend to live there) It is to say that there are a lot of hacks in LA.

Audio post production is an incredibly portable profession. Everything can be transferred via ftp. I live in Dallas and 60% of our clientele is not local to me.

I agree with the post above that said to do a short. Start there, don't start by moving.

[soundfx]

Originally Posted by RScott

I'm sure if I had posted saying that I was in the Atlanta area, looking for audio post work, I would have gotten the same response, move -- there is nothing in my area.

Maybe I'm just a lucky guy, but I'm currently working as the audio post guy for an independent production house in the Atlanta area, just a few years after graduating college.

How did I get this job? Experience helps. For me that meant having worked on location during student and grad student film shoots recording audio and also doing audio post-production for many grad student films. This sort of work you can find readily. Many laments of the post forum are over the abundance of jobs with no/lo/deferred payment. May be a good place to find somewhat interesting projects for your reel while working in a semi-professional environment. Having your own setup helps a ton.

After having a reel, you need to get that reel in front of the right people. That means people looking to hire. By chance, a client at a family member's bank owns a ProTools resale store in town and it turns out students from my college make a decent amount of business for him. He took some time to give me some names of in-town businesses he had worked with recently who might be interested in a post audio guy.

That got my reel into the hands of people who wanted audio work.


Hit the phone book, internet and anywhere else you can find the addresses and phone numbers of production houses in town. Any business that may have ties to film and video is worth a shot. If they aren't interested directly, they probably know the business in the area well and could point you toward other spots.

If you have the time to burn, try to find some internships developing skills you don't already have, like recording for film or music, radio show/commercial production, voice-over recording, etc. Being a one-man-show for audio needs is a big plus.

As you build up your reel of small projects it will open you up to bigger projects and will expand your client and professional contact list.

Best wishes and good luck.

I second that, regarding location. I'm in Atlanta also and have done well in this market. Chicago seems perfectly adequate, unless you really want to do Hollywood Blockbusters, in which case you know where you need to be. But the industry as a whole is becoming far less location specific. The internet and bandwidth leaps are shrinking the world. We've all now done plenty of projects with people we've never met or been in the same city with. Its all about talent, word-of-mouth and professionalism.

Oh yeah, and why the hell would you want to move from Chicago? I think its my in my top 3 cities I'd love to live in. Too bad I've established myself in ATL. ATL blows, but at least the weather's nice. Good luck to you. Its a fun business. Sure beats ditch-digging.

[philper]

What I interpret Henchman's remark to mean is that you have a much greater likelihood of getting into post work quicker in LA than virtually anywhere else because the sheer volume of work being done is higher. As someone who has worked mostly in 2nd level markets for many years I can attest to the slower speed at which you can acquire experience and rep when there is less work and only smaller projects (mostly) to do. It is a choice you make that relates to the rest of your life, but the choice has real teeth there is no denying.

Philip Perkins

[Henchman]

Originally Posted by philper

What I interpret Henchman's remark to mean is that you have a much greater likelihood of getting into post work quicker in LA than virtually anywhere else because the sheer volume of work being done is higher. As someone who has worked mostly in 2nd level markets for many years I can attest to the slower speed at which you can acquire experience and rep when there is less work and only smaller projects (mostly) to do. It is a choice you make that relates to the rest of your life, but the choice has real teeth there is no denying.

Philip Perkins

That's exactly it.
If someone says they want to work on tv/film, then at the end of the day, the reality is, that the majority of the tv and fil work is right here in LA.
Unless yo can get a visa, then you can go to London.

That's why I moved here.

[JSt0rm]

Originally Posted by Henchman

That's exactly it.
If someone says they want to work on tv/film, then at the end of the day, the reality is, that the majority of the tv and fil work is right here in LA.
Unless yo can get a visa, then you can go to London.

That's why I moved here.

Lord knows it wasn't for the dust storms

[Henchman]

Originally Posted by JSt0rm

Lord knows it wasn't for the dust storms

I have to say, LA isn't at all what I expected.
I actually am loving it here.

[DynaForte]

Originally Posted by Henchman

I have to say, LA isn't at all what I expected.
I actually am loving it here.

Very good to know! And thanks for your straightforward advice to move as well.

To the OP - as someone pushing INTO the post business, possibly a bit further in than you are right now, here's some advice.

First, come to the realization that most success comes from getting contract gigs with a company, as well as work independently.

TV and Film companies are PROJECT based. They keep a low staff and hire contractors for BIG budgets, but don't keep them on unless they're getting solid work year around.

Spend equal amounts of time trying to get your own work, as well as trying to get a job with a company.

Also, your REEL and CREDITS are the two things that will sell you.

If you have good credits and reel it proves two things:

1. Other people chose you to do work, there must be a good reason for it!
2. Proof that you produce a good end product - Your education/certifications are proven through your REEL. If your end product is good, you are good to go.

The key is that your REEL gets you gigs, which gets you credits (and a bigger better reel). Start with free work - it's as hard to get as paid work, honestly.

So, I suggest you push yourself to the limit in Chicago and work on a reel. The better reel you have when/if you move to LA, the better you can sell yourself in the city where you need to sell yourself!

If you are thinking of moving to LA, try to do work (even free work) for groups who are IN LA. It gives you someone to meet when you get there!

Have your own rig, but only expand it when you have the money or you MUST expand to get a particular gig. Don't waste money on a huge system unless a job requires it.

Focus on how to GET the gigs, then worry about what you need to complete them. Getting them is hard, doing the post work is the easy part.

[rosevision]

Great advice thanks everyone

[Henchman]

BTW,I don't suggest anyone move here right now, as it's really super slow.
Way slower than when I moved here 2 years ago.

[Thomas W. Bethe]

The post business is very slow anywhere in the country.

It will probably get better as the economy improves.

Many people who use to work for large post houses are now plying their trade in their houses with minimal equipment. The same thing that happened to the large recording studios is starting to happen in Post. What use to take millions of dollars of equipment and a large facility can now be done in someone's living room. Yes you will always need big studios to do recordings of large orchestras and yes the mixing of feature films will need to be done in a facility equipped for that function but sound design, voice over, ADR and even Foley can now be done in your house with little or no fuss.

Today with ISDN and high speed internet you can be recording in Cleveland with voice talent in SF and the producer in NYC with no problems. As the internet improves who really knows where this will all go. Maybe when the whole country is fiber and everyone has a 100 meg line to their house the director of a movie can use a post house in Atlanta, an actor in Milwaukee and a DP in LA and do a scene with none of them in the same room. It is both an interesting time to be alive and a scary one as well.

Back on Topic

To the OP. Get the best education you can from a recognized four year college, while in college take every opportunity to do outside film or video and start making connections and networking. Some of the people that worked with George Lucas on THX-1138 are still with him so you never know. If things go south and you are out of work for a while you can almost always get a job with a college degree. It may not be exactly what you want but at least you will be making money and have a chance to look for what you want.

Best of luck and let us know how you are doing!!!

[ruy]

you could also try to first get some work as an assistant or boom person in location sound first. the thing about post is that it is harder to network and meet new prospective clients while we are mostly locked in our studios all the time. work on set has completely different dynamic.

[JohnnyFree]

I would say a lot of it has to do with the caliber of work you want. Chicago is a decent sized market (I interviewed at a studio there and almost moved there instead of LA), but as Mark said, if you want to work on MAJOR TV shows and films, then you probably need to be in LA, London or Maybe NYC in some cases, but most of that work is in LA. So that decision is up to you, if you are comfortable doing lower caliber work then you can probably carve out a niche in most major cities.

I would strongly suggest doing an internship though, because you will learn volumes in a short time and a lot of times these places will hire you in some capacity, or give you freelance work from time to time after you intern there. There is no replacement for learning the correct workflow for whatever facet of audio post you want to do from someone with years of experience - it's invaluable!

Also - you can go after a third option (which I'm considering myself at this point) of gaining credits/experience in a major market and then eventually transitioning to a lesser market (therefore sacrificing the caliber of work you are doing) to be closer to my family since LA is far from home for me.

In the end, it all really depends on what your goals are.

Best of Luck!