Career Paths in Film and Television Sound

Tour of The Bakery, Sony Scoring Sound Stage, Panel Discussion, Q&A, Networking and Mentoring Social.

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  • 7pm: Tour of The Bakery and Sony Sound Stage
  • 8pm: Panel Discussion
  • 9pm: Q&A & Networking Social
  • 10pm: End

Moderator: Anne Marie Slack – Executive of Organization Services Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE)

Panelists

Karen Baker – Supervising Sound Editor, Warner Brothers

Karen is a two-time Academy Award-winning sound editor. She also has won and been nominated for several Motion Picture Sound Editors awards as well as winning the BAFTA Award for Best Sound. Her credits include Skyfall and the Bourne films.

Onnalee Blank, CAS – Re-Recording Mixer, Warners Brothers

Onnalee was a ballet dancer before getting into audio. Since then, Onnalee has won 3 Emmys and 5 Cinema Audio Society (CAS) awards for her work as dialog and music mixer on Game of Thrones.

Karol Urban, CAS, MPSE – Re-Recording Mixer

Karol has worked on Grey’s Anatomy, New Girl, Station 19, Band Aid, Breaking 2, and #Realityhigh. She has a diverse list of mix credits spanning work on feature films, TV (scripted and unscripted), TV movies, and documentaries over the last 18 years. She currently serves of the TV Academy’s Governor’s Mixing Peer Group as well as on the board of directors for the Cinema Audio Society and is an editor of the CAS Quarterly publication.

Katy Wood – Supervising Sound Editor, Warner Brothers

Katy has worked as ADR supervisor on the recent films such as Sicario: Day of the Soldado and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Katy’s career in sound for film has spanned the last 20 years. Katy has worked extensively in the United States, New Zealand (including the Lord of the Rings series), Australia, and the United Kingdom.

Do you have a passion for sound? Music sound… movie sound… all audio sound? Then you should consider a career in audio post production. Audio post-production careers cover a lot of areas including television, web, movies, commercials, live events, scripted shows and movies, documentary/reality, sports, and more.

Join us for a panel discussion and Q&A featuring some talented women working and succeeding in the world of post-production audio. The evening will end with a casual mentoring and networking session.

Below are just a few of the exciting jobs in post production audio.

Sound assistants or machine room operators prep materials and offer tech support to sound editors, mixers, and engineers.

Dialog editors focus on spoken word. A dialog editor listens to all of the mics for quality, smooths out transitions, fixes technical problems, and removes unwanted sounds from dialog when possible.

Music editors are responsible for adjusting music edits and finessing placement for music in a scene. A music editor also coordinates with the composer on a project, delivers all the music to the re-recording mixer, and often attends mixes (as the representative of the music department).

Sound fx editors (sound designers) are person responsible for non-language sounds. The sound designer has a sound effects library (a catalog of sounds) but also records specialized sounds when needed. He/she adds background ambience sounds and will embellish sounds like explosions, car engines, or guns. The sound designer also has to build sounds from scratch for visual effects or creatures that don’t exist.

ADR Mixers are responsible for recording actors in a studio. The actor performs the line while watching it on a screen and the ADR engineer adjusts microphones and watches for sync (how well the new recorded audio matches their lip movements on-screen). In some cases, ADR is recorded without picture (some cartoons, for example).

Foley mixers are responsible for recording certain non-speaking sounds. The Foley engineer works in a studio with a Foley artist, who makes the sounds while the engineer records it. The Foley team covers sounds such as footsteps, cloth movement, eating, touching or handling objects.

Supervising Sound Editors (or Sound Supervisors) oversees the sound crew working on a project (sort of like a manager). They communicate with directors, producers and picture editors about sound, supervises ADR sessions, and attend the dub mix. Sometimes there are multiple sound supervisors on a project and are split up by element. ADR & Dialog Supervisor, for example, only focuses on those two elements.

Re-recording mixers combine all the sound elements (dialog, voice-over, sound fx, Foley, and music) into one project. The mixer adjusts the levels of those sounds together (similar to the job of a live sound mixer or a music mixer). Sound mixers may work alone or in teams with each person focusing on different elements. After the re-recording mixers adjust for balance (looking at it technically and creatively), there will be a review with the producer, director, picture editor, or other members of the film crew to listen, give notes, and make adjustments.