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One Is Not Enough: Understanding Bias in the Audio Community

The studio owner skimmed my resume and nodded several times. He glanced up at me, back down at the resume, and then carefully set it back on his desk.

“Your credentials are great. The chair of the Sound Recording Department recommended you very highly, and we have a close relationship with him. So, we will hire you… We will hire you, but you won’t last. We will make sure of that.”

He paused, and I waited for an explanation.

“We don’t hire women. Studio policy,” he stated matter-of-factly.

Unfortunately, he was right: I didn’t last. I worked as hard I could imagine meticulously recording patch bay settings and outboard gear levels, setting up drum kits, moving gobos that were many times my weight, and carefully calculating my mic placements. I silently fought my way to being one of the studio’s best assistant engineers. All the while, my shifts were cut, I was offered up as entertainment to the clients and was goaded with sexual comments and sometimes worse.

After a long year of staying simply to prove the owner wrong, I quit. I had realized that by remaining there, I was succeeding only in making myself miserable.

That was my first experience in the industry.

Luckily, that kind of overt discrimination is rare even in an industry that is so male-dominated. For the most part, over the course of my ten-year-plus career, my co-workers have been my biggest supporters and have often become close friends.

Thus I would like to discuss something much more prevalent and subtle than overt discrimination: bias. By this, I specifically mean the assumptions that we make about any group as a whole based on our own previous interactions with members of that same group.

Fei Xu, a development psychologist who has researched this phenomenon, has reported that this is a natural instinct, even a necessary one. This innate human talent for using our past experiences to make assumptions about new things has helped us throughout our evolutionary existence. We have come to recognize that if a new animal has sharp fangs, it is likely a predator and not a friend. We have come to categorize small, round, red things as berries and have then innately known that they will be sweet and a stupendous source of energy. This ability to categorize based on our past experiences has single-handedly lead to our continued survival on Earth.

Unfortunately, it has also led to bias. Our evolutionary programming tells us to trust our previous experiences and draw natural conclusions based on them. Thus, our experience tells us that on the mix stage, the men are most likely the technical employees and the women the clients. It tells us that at sound industry award shows, the men are the nominees and the women are the wives and girlfriends.

As a supervising sound editor, I was once asked to add a Dolby E-encoded printmaster to my deliverables for a project. I had not encountered this request before, so I read up on the process and then made an appointment with our layback department to discuss it. When I showed up for that meeting and began to ask technical questions, the engineer responded to each one starting with the phrase “Tell your boss that he should…” Clearly, it had not occurred to him that I was the boss.

I did not correct him, and perhaps I should have. As uncomfortable as it made me to have him assume that I was someone’s assistant, I knew that his responses were not ill-intentioned. This was a case of an honest mistake based on actual real-life experiences. Most likely, he had never personally encountered a female supervising sound editor.

Furthermore, women are not immune when it comes to bias. I, too, have found myself wondering who that new producer is only to find out that she is, in fact, a sound editor or mixer. We all live in the world as it is, and our minds create the necessary assumptions to accommodate that world. We are not bad people for this. We are simply people.

As you can imagine, it is difficult to not only exist but thrive, in an environment that finds my pure existence to be a surprise. Add to that the constant visual reminder that no one else looks like me, that I am “other,” and you will understand the force of impact that this has had on my professional life. This impact is purely facilitated by numbers, not the environment. As long as there are so few women in audio positions, this issue of bias will remain.

So what should we, as an industry, do? The answer should be obvious: hire more women. Previously, I had thought that there was a general lack of women in the industry because young women were not pursuing audio engineering in school or as a career. However, since becoming a partner in a post-production sound studio of my own, I have been inundated by resumes, requests for coffee meetings, and emails asking for advice from the exact set of young women which I did not previously think existed. Not only are they there, but they are hungry for careers.

So, my request to you is twofold:

First, I ask that you do something scary. I ask that you create a situation in which you will be “the only one.” Put yourself in a position where you are a willing participant in a situation where everyone else is different than you. Go to a mommy and me yoga class, attend a service at a Sikh temple, drive to East Cesar E Chavez Avenue and spend an afternoon chatting with the shop owners and eating at a restaurant. It is important that you do this alone.

You will most likely feel out of place and isolated as if everyone is looking at you even when they aren’t. Those feelings underline the fact that as welcoming and accepting as any environment is, it is impossible to feel completely at ease when you are “the only one.” I challenge you to understand that one woman in a company or even in a department is not enough to claim diversity or to dispel ideas of gender inequality or workplace discomfort.

That brings me to my second request: I ask that you do your best to help women find a place in the audio community. If you are in a position to do so, interview more women when you have a job opening. Suggest female candidates to your boss. Answer LinkedIn requests. Give career advice. Brush aside the idea that your assistance may be misconstrued as a romantic interest. If there were more women, young female audio engineers would surely contact them to ask for coffee meetings and phone calls (a fact made evident by my now-flooded inbox), but for now, you are their best chance for an inside perspective.

More resources for A More Inclusive Industry

See the original post here.

 

Post, Theatre, Foley, and SoundGirls

Working as a one woman sound recordist and boom op in a short film

As this is my first SoundGirls blog post, I thought it would be a good idea to make it a bit of an introductory one. So hi! My name is Iida Aino Viljanen, and I’m originally from Finland hence the difficult name. I’m a sound designer (and a composer but work mostly in sound design), and I work in both audio post-production for film/video and in theatre. I don’t know if many sound designers like to combine these two areas of work (at least I’ve not met anyone else but hi to all of you who also do this!), but I think it’s an excellent way to keep things exciting. Don’t get me wrong, I love working with both, but it’s refreshing to being able to switch between the two as, even though the process is very similar, the work is also very, very different. Recently, however, I’ve been working more with post-production sound, so I’m hoping there will be some theatre projects ahead in the near future! I’ve also done a little bit of production sound recording/boom operating and that’s something I’m planning to do more in the future as I found it very interesting.

I wanted to become SoundGirls’ blogger as I think this is an amazing channel to find about other audio women’s work and support each other. I mostly work with men in my day-to-day life (however I’ve recently been working with more and more women directors yay! But most audio people I work with are still men, so it’s awesome and inspiring to read what other women are up to and what their experiences in this industry are. Weirdly enough I’ve been also really missing writing after graduating from university so writing this blog fills that gap nicely!

I used to work full-time as an Assistant Dubbing Mixer in broadcast in the UK but after recently relocating to Stockholm, Sweden, I’ve been working as a freelancer. I think both work situations have their pros and cons, but at the moment I am enjoying the possibility of working on very different projects which freelancing allows me to do. Although, it’s at times also very stressful as you need to find your own work and can get a bit lonely. I work mostly on my own devices, but luckily I also freelance at a local audio post-production studio a couple of days a week where I can meet other sound people and people in general. So I don’t become a complete hermit!

I’m still quite early in my career, learning something new almost every day, and I’d say working as an Assistant Dubbing Mixer in post-production house after graduating from university was a beneficial and educational experience that taught me a lot about the work itself but also about the industry we work in. So, to any students or new graduates, I’d recommend applying for runner or assistant level jobs and internships in post-production houses or even just asking if you could shadow someone. It makes a huge difference even in your confidence to see how more experienced persons do things. It’s great to learn from more experienced sound professionals and adapt their workflows to your own. Freelancing can be very lonely, leaving plenty of room for self-doubt, and it helps when you know what you’re doing. Even just seeing a senior-level Dubbing Mixer’s Pro Tools template can be very helpful for your own work. My university course at Glasgow School of Art was excellent (would highly recommend it!) and I learned a lot there but working as an assistant was an even bigger learning curve for me as the tv industry really can be hectic, and you must learn to work fast as well as know your Pro Tools.

I know I would find freelancing more complicated and I would doubt myself a great deal in my work had I not worked in post-production house after graduating. Though, I do realise getting these jobs or even an internship can be tough when there’s plenty of other students applying for the same positions. However, my hot tip is to email all the places you know and to research some more. I’ve noticed that runner and assistant level positions tend not to be advertised very often as annoying as that is, so sometimes they might have been thinking about hiring some help and then boom your email hits their inbox. Just remember to include a showreel or an example of your work to your email – even some university work is good or your final project if you don’t have a showreel yet. It’s much easier to get noticed when they already hear your work and skill level.

Recently I’ve been recording quite a lot of foley for short films, and I’ve enjoyed that! Foley is something I’ve only done a little bit previously, but after these films, I’d love to do it more often as it’s certainly fun. I’ve already noticed that I’m looking at items in grocery stores with Foley in my mind wondering what kind of sounds different things could make. One thing which is not fun though is footsteps and specifically cutting footsteps. After vocalising my frustration about this one of my friends told me about this fantastic invention called Edward Foley Instrument which is a Kontakt player compatible VST that allows you to create footsteps using a midi keyboard. To me, that sounds like a dream come true and according to my friend, it’s genuinely life-changing so this is going to be my next investment! At least a video of it looks great, check it out if you too want to cry while editing footsteps.

Oh and as I’ve found out during my foley experimenting if you ever need to record poop smearing sounds porridge works wonders!

Foley recording porridge aka cow poo

That’s about it for this time! As I previously mentioned I have recently relocated to Stockholm so if you’re a SoundGirl living in Stockholm, please get in touch via Twitter or you can find my email address on my website! I would love to meet other audio women here.

I thought it would be a fun idea to finish my posts with little recommendation lists of podcasts, videos, and articles about women in audio that I’ve found interesting. So here goes my first list of recommended content:

Tonebenders – Episode 099. Sound Design for VFX Round Table (Podcast)

(Can also be found on SoundCloud and Podcasts-app.)

Nia Hansen (Avengers films) and Paula Fairfield (Game of Thrones) discuss designing creature and superhero sounds, and honestly, this was one of the most interesting and inspiring discussions I’ve heard for a while.

Sisters of Sound – Episode 15. Sound Editor Claire Dobson (Podcast)

(Can also be found on Podcasts-app.)

To be honest this whole series is worth listening to as it’s all about women in audio – not just in audio post-production but also in music, sound art, engineering, etc. but I thought this episode was especially interesting as they interview sound editor Claire Dobson who’s worked for example on The Handmaid’s Tale, Vikings and Fargo.

LNA Does Audio Stuff (Youtube channel)

My dear friend LNA had enough of the male dominance of Youtube audio tutorials so she made her own channel. If you are wondering about which speakers to buy for your home studio, how to set up a home studio or how to get started with Ableton then check this channel out! LNA is also open for suggestions so if you have an audio question you’d like an answer for or if you want to know how something is done message her or comment on her videos and she’ll make a tutorial for it!

Find more Podcasts with Women in Audio here

If you want to follow me elsewhere here are the links to do so:

Iida Aino is a sound designer and composer based in Stockholm, Sweden. She’s originally from Finland but has spent most of her adult life living, studying and working in the UK and has only recently relocated to Stockholm. She graduated with a Master degree in Sound for the Moving Image from Glasgow School of Art in 2017. Even though she’s still early on in her career her work already includes short films, tv programmes, adverts, installations, and theatre shows. Currently, she works as a freelancer and won the Best Sound Design Award at the feminist Underwire Film Festival in London in 2018. Iida Aino enjoys all things audio (especially spatial audio is an area she’d like to experiment more with!) and loves the way women in this industry support each other. iidaainosound.wordpress.com

Read Iida’s Blog

 

An Underwater Recording Adventure

I recently began work on a new show, and luckily it has already presented tons of new challenges.  At Boom Box Post, we like to consider sound design challenges as creative opportunities. So, when I spotted an episode in which the characters travel via microscopic submarine through a human body, I was excited.  Each exterior shot of the submarine illustrated it moving through a viscous plasma-like liquid. I wanted to call upon the tried and true sounds of a submarine for the vehicle itself, but I wanted to do something unique for the sound of it moving through the plasma.  This was the perfect opportunity to get creative with some recording!

This presented an immediate challenge:  we do not own a hydrophone. I looked into buying one, but they are somewhat expensive, and our underwater recording needs are pretty slim.  It didn’t seem worth the investment. I considered using one of my current mics and wrapping it in a water-proof casing, but that struck me as pretty risky.  So, I settled on buying a couple of inexpensive contact mics, a pack of condoms to act as waterproofing, and some heavy duty duct tape to put it together.

About Contact Mics

If you’ve never used a contact microphone before, they are wonderful things.  Sometimes called piezo (pronounced pee-EH-zo) mics, they are what is used for the pickups on electric guitars.  You can buy them as a standalone version, and either tape them to the object you are recording or use the adhesive on the mic itself, thus turning any everyday object into an electric whatever (i.e., electric cello, electric rainstick–the possibilities are endless!)  But, keep in mind that they work differently than all of the other microphones in your mic locker. Normal microphones pick up subtle changes in air pressure as an audio wave passes the microphone. Conversely, contact mics pick up the vibrations of physical matter and transduce those vibrations into an electric signal which can be transduced again into audio.

Thus, contact microphones have no sensitivity to the audio waves passing through the air. This makes them very unique as recording devices (and sound designer tools!) because you don’t need to worry about ambient noise that must be removed later.  A great example of this is that if you were to, say, turn on an electric beard trimmer and skim it across the surface of a cymbal, a traditional microphone you would pick up not only the awesome sound of metal on metal but also the whir of the trimmer’s electric motor.  If you, instead placed a contact mic on the surface of the cymbal, you would only pick up the sound of the trimmer skimming the metal cymbal, because it does not transduce sound waves traveling through air, only those through the physical object itself.

Now, would this particular technology lend itself to recording underwater?  That was a tough call. Would the pressure differences in the water as the mic moved through it be extreme enough for the contact mic to pick up the physical change?  I acquired all of the necessary parts: contact mic, tape, condom (for waterproofing), recorder, and headphones, and then filled a small metal tub with water to find out.

The Trial Run

I learned a lot from this initial experiment.  Dragging the submerged contact mic through the water did not result in any audio.  However, turning on the faucet and letting the water hit the contact mic did. Unfortunately, that audio did not have the sound that I was looking for.  It was crackly (think: rain drops landing with hard splats on a plastic surface), not watery. From there, I tried submerging the microphone near the point of entry of the running water and found that I got a great bubbly sound.  The water pressure was changing constantly as the faucet poured into the basin, but I wasn’t getting the hard hits of the water slamming against the mic itself. I brought those sounds into Pro Tools, and while they were definitely in the vein of what I wanted, the size just wasn’t there.  They sounded too small.

The Final Record Session

So, I took the recorder home and did my final session in my home bathtub.  I submerged the mic and recorded steadies at the point of entry of the water, and then ran the mic back and forth over that area for the submarine bys.  The contact mic, being that it records physical vibrations, picked up fabulously unique splatty sounds for these–just what I was looking for!

Editing the Material

I brought everything into ProTools again and then was faced with an additional technical issue inherent to almost all contact mics.  Because they consist of small capacitors in series, they function at a much higher impedance than a regular microphone. When connected to a typical line input, this creates a high pass filter, thus cutting out any low end from your recordings.  I was aware of this issue and had set up my session with this in mind. I separated the files I wanted to work with, then ran them through a low-pass filter EQ, pitched them down an octave, and also applied both tactics to each file to see which approach brought the sounds closest to what I was looking for.  In the end, I bounced some of each. Here are a few samples:

The Sounds

You can hear the final product here

Kate’s Gear Recommendations

Sony PCM-M10 Portable Linear PCM Voice Recorder with Electret Condenser Stereo Microphones, 96 kHz/24-bit, 4GB Memory & USB High-Speed Port

Neewer Piezo Contact Microphone Pickup for Guitar Violin Banjo OUD Ukulele Mandolin and More

Gorilla Tape, Black Tough & Wide Duct Tape, 2.88″ x 30 yd, Black

Trojan Non-Lub Latex Condoms, Enz 12 ct – 4pk

This Blog originally appeared in Boom Box Post Blogs

 

Post-Production Sound

Post-Production Sound Basics

Job Seeking

Technical/Workflow

SoundGirls Profiles & Blogs

From Making Tea to Top Gear: Lucy J Mitchell, Sound Editor and Dubbing Mixer (UK)

Karol Urban – Sound and Storytelling – Re-recording Mixer

From “Girl Engineer” to Re-Recording Mixer – Sherry Klein

Chelsea Body – Foley Mixer & Editor

Lara Dale, Foley Artist

Bobbi Banks: Breaking Glass Ceilings in Dialog & ADR

Kate Finan – Boom Box Post Production, owner & sound designer

Aline Bruijns, MPSE – Sound designer and Foley editor (Netherlands) 

Pro Audio Girl – April Tucker, re-recording mixer

Shannon Deane – Post-Production Engineer and Stunt Car Driver

Annlie Huang: Music Editor for Television & Mix Engineer

Greta Stromquist: Dialogue Editor and Associate Producer

Helping Filmmakers Tell a Story – Deb Adair – Re-Recording Mixer

Post, Theatre, Foley, and SoundGirls: Iida Aino Viljanen (Sweden)

SoundGirls Panel Discussion: Career Paths in Film & TV Post-Production

Interviews & Articles

Meet Paula Fairfield Sound Designer on Game of Thrones

Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound (Midge Costin)

Vickie Sampson reflects on a 40-year sound editing career

La La Land’s’ (Female) Sound Team Wants More Women Behind the Camera: Young People “Don’t Even Know These Roles Exist”

La La Land’ sound mixer Ai-ling Lee makes Oscar history with an ‘invisible’ art . . . and car horns

Breaking the Sound Barrier: 4 Top female audio professionals share the secrets of success

How to Succeed in Sound Design for Games, Animation and Television – with Anne-Sophie Mongeau & Kate Finan

The industry is smaller than you think’ Grey’s Anatomy re-recording mixer shares thoughts on sound (Karol Urban)

Emmys: ‘Game of Thrones’ Re-recording Mixers Onnalee Blank & Mathew Waters on the Epic “Battle of the Bastards

In the Spotlight… Sophia Hardman, Foley Mixer at Twickenham Studios

In Conversation with Emma Butt

Interview with Sound Editor Lucy Johnstone

Meet Jane Tattersal: Sound Supervisor for Penny Dreadful

Podcasts

Tonebenders Podcast

The Right Scuff Podcast

Industry Related

Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE)

Cinema Audio Society (CAS)

  • CAS has interviews and articles in their Quarterly Magazine
  • CAS has student memberships and the CAS Student Recognition Award

Glass Elevator

  • Glass Elevator is a networking and skill sharing tool for professional women in the industry.  It is a free, membership-based international community. Membership grants you access to peer-to-peer career advancement classes, social events, a searchable database of our Member Directory and an internal Avail Check system.

Women in Post Production PR List

  • If you’re interested in sharing your knowledge publicly and help the ongoing issue of industry panels and events with all men, join this list! More on Why All-Male Panels Matter.

Sites about Post-Production Sound

Designing Sound The Art and technique of sound design

Soundworks Collection is dedicated to profiling the greatest and upcoming sound minds from around the world and highlight their contributions. The SoundWorks Collection was created in 2009 by filmmaker Michael Coleman as an online destination that takes you behind the scenes and straight to the dub stage for a look into audio post-production for feature films, video game sound design, and original soundtrack composition.

Boom Box Post provides insights into the creative sound design process of Boom Box Post’s owners and employees.

Sound Libraries for Post-Production & Music

BBC Sound Effects

The Alan Lomax Collection at the Library of Congress

The Acoustic Atlas collects the sounds of Montana and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, along with habitats and species from throughout the Western United States.

Yellowstone National Park release massive catalog of ambient sounds into the public domain for your sampling pleasure Soundly

Free Sound Effects Library

ProSound Effects

Sonniss.com

You can build your own medieval soundscapes in this interactive website. Based on extensive research on Mystery Plays, it allows you to explore how the plays could have been affected by acoustic changes and sounds.

Film & TV Production Sound

 

The Importance of Good Production Sound

From a post-production perspective

In a tv show or movie, the dialog is the core of the mix. Music, sound effects, and Foley add interest and excitement, but it all fundamentally works around dialog. Dialog is typically how we learn the characters’ names, their relationship to the other characters, and what challenges each character faces. We learn what the story is about and watch that story develop through dialog.

You could argue dialog is the most crucial element of film and tv sound. You can remove sound fx or music from a movie, and you’ll still have a playable movie (maybe not the most interesting movie – but you can watch it). If you remove the dialog track, it would be a tech problem – not a movie.

Poor dialog quality (or mix) can be the difference between the success and failure of a film, too. If you can’t understand what anyone is saying, how long would it be before you watch something else?

Even though dialog is clearly significant, you’d be amazed how many projects have poor (or very poor) production sound. I know the problem isn’t the sound people being hired. I can often tell just by listening to mics whether they had a sound mixer/boom op or not. The problem is the projects that didn’t hire the sound crew necessary to do the job right. The problem is the gear needed for the job that production didn’t want to pay to rent.

The basics of production microphones

To capture dialog, there are two primary types of mics you’ll see in a professional setting: boom and lavalier mics. Here’s how they are ideally used:

Lavalier mic (or lavs). This is a small mic placed on the body. In an ideal situation, everyone with a speaking line will wear their own lav mic.

Boom mic (sometimes called a shotgun mic) or hypercardioid mic. These mics are highly directional (picking up whatever it is pointed at and rejecting sounds coming to the sides of the mic). With proper placement (by a boom operator), these mics do an amazing job at capturing the body of the voice, articulation, and ambience in a way that sounds natural and balanced.

Production sound mixers aren’t limited to these microphones. Many get creative to capture the sound they’re looking for (and remain hidden from cameras). That’s one of the fun parts of the job.

Some ways projects cut corners that negatively affect dialog quality

If a project has poor production sound, there’s a number of consequences for post-production

It adds expenses to post-production sound to fix problems created by production sound.

Time/budget is taken away from other areas of post-production sound. It’s more time fixing problems and less time enhancing or doing creative work.

When there’s only one lav covering multiple people (or a boom covering on-mic and off-mic characters at once), it takes a lot more time and detail work for a re-recording mixer to balance. One person will sound close/present and loud, and the other will sound off-mic/distant and softer. The way to make the two sound alike is to take the person who sounds good and make them sound crappier to match.

When lav mics are placed poorly, there can be lots of weird body resonances that take time and work to EQ. There might not be any high end in the mic to bring out. If there’s any sort of cloth rubbing on the mic, clothes noise, or jewelry, it takes time to decrackle and denoise, and there’s no guarantee it will fully come out with processing.

When someone without sound experience is placing mics and setting levels, it can lead to extra work in post-production to correct issues such as low gain, hiss, and distortion. Booms that are placed too close are often sibilant and need extra de-essing work. A re-recording mixer could spend hours correcting something that would have been a couple seconds adjustment on set by a sound person who knew what to listen for.

When a camera mic (a boom attached to a camera or a built-in microphone) is used, the mic is usually much too far away from the source. It takes a lot of work (de-noise, de-verb, etc.) and the end result is usually still poor quality sound. Camera mics often don’t sound professional, and that’s why a lot of professionals in post-production pass on projects with only a camera mic.

Noisy locations mean noise reduction which means extra time needed for an editor and mixer. If the noise is inconsistent (like wind on a mic), it can also be a challenge for a picture editor also who might be hearing the noise come and go in their edit. Some location noise is unavoidable, but that’s where having an experienced sound mixer and boom op can attempt to minimize the problem.

Needing ADR. The cost of an ADR studio and engineer, bringing in actors, etc. can get pricy very quickly. The #1 note I’ve heard in ADR sessions (from directors, producers, and actors) is the actor’s performance in the studio doesn’t match what they did on set. It feels stale or forced, or it just doesn’t match the feel or intensity. It’s a challenge even for some major stars. Then, you get to the challenges of matching ADR (sound-wise). Some actors are amazing with ADR (and there are engineers who do a brilliant job matching sounds from on set) but what if the whole ordeal could have been avoided?

The reality of production sound

As a re-recording mixer (and sound supervisor), I get approached with a variety of projects (from amateur to indie to professional). If it’s something I’m potentially interested in, I ask for a sound sample. I ask what mics were used on set. It’s sad to turn down projects because of poor production audio when it looks great, has an interesting story, and has great people behind it. These projects clearly put time and effort into lighting, cinematography, and capturing beautiful shots. If you close your eyes, you would think it was a home video captured from across the room.

I empathize with filmmakers, and I see how these choices can happen. Even some professional filmmakers pay out of pocket and borrow equipment and ask for favors to get their passion projects made. The majority of films made today don’t have the financial support of a studio. We’re in an era where Kickstarter is the financial backing for a short or indie film. Directors produce their own films then pay even more money to be considered for film festivals. It could be a year or more before a film is even considered for a distribution deal. There are a lot of risks and never a guarantee of a return.

Poor audio quality (and especially dialog quality) affects a film’s ability to get into film festivals, get distribution deals, and the ability to be broadcast. At the end of the day, that’s why production sound is worth the investment. Why mess around with the most crucial element of film and tv sound?

 

Karol Urban – Sound and Storytelling

Finishing the Mix

Karol Urban CAS MPSE (Grey’s Anatomy, New Girl, Station 19, Band Aid, Breaking 2, #Realityhigh) re-recording mixer, has built a diverse list of mix credits spanning work on feature films, TV series (scripted and unscripted), TV movies, and documentaries over the last 18 years. Describing herself as “part tech geek and creative film nerd” she enjoys using her language skills to work in both English and Spanish.

Karol holds a BS from James Madison University in Audio Post Production from the School of Media Arts and Design, is on the Board of Directors for the Cinema Audio Society (CAS), is co-editor of the CAS Quarterly Magazine, and serves on the Governor’s Peer Group for Audio Mixing for the Television Academy.

While she is incredibly passionate about telling stories through sound, technology, and the art of the craft, her favorite aspect of her position is “the team sport of filmmaking and television production.”

Her enthusiasm and energy for the job help her retain a high work ethic. She is known for being a hard worker in and out of the studio.

What was your path getting into sound?

I was sight impaired as a child and benefited greatly from surgery. I still, however, have problems with depth perception and naturally gravitate toward sound as my primary sense of distance and spatial location.

I studied dance, piano, and voice as a child and went to the Governor’s School for the Performing Arts for high school. It is a public, county-supported, audition-based high school with a focused curriculum on the arts.  I was fortunate to compose and record in my first recording studio there for the first time at the age of 13. I have been hanging out at one studio or another ever since.

Truthfully, I never wanted to perform. But sound and storytelling always fascinated me and held my attention steadfast.  And I have always obsessed over the movies and loved narrative television. When I discovered you could work in sound, not necessarily music, and in sound for picture, I knew what I was going to do with my life.  Every big move in my life I have made since has been to earn the next opportunity to tell a story through sound for picture.

I graduated high school a year early and went on to Virginia Tech at 17 where I took a lot of audio engineering classes. I transferred to James Madison University and majored in the School of Media Arts and Design with an audio concentration and minored in the music industry.  I left school with the clear goal of becoming a re-recording mixer.

If you had to pick your favorite type of content, role or project what would it be and why?

Personal Sound Assistant Sync

The collaborative aspect of what we do is to me the most precious, as a result, I love to be a part of larger teams as the dialog and music re-recording mixer. While it can be fun to do a single-person mix, especially if you have a very creative and collaborative producer or director, I am truly in heaven when I have a creative team behind me.  Bring in the party. I love to craft the story as a collective.

I don’t really have a favorite genre. I love action and sci-fi, and I adore thrillers. Police procedurals are fun. But comedy and drama can be amazing too. I really enjoy the diversity of genres. It widens my toolset. Basically whatever genre I haven’t mixed in a while is my current favorite. I really do love it all.

The creative problem solving and technical aspect of cleaning and repairing dialogue is enjoyable, but I also love the subtle use of dynamics, reflections, and frequency details in dialogue mixing which can help you feel as if you are eavesdropping on a secret or hearing someone lose their composure. It is sneaky in that good dialogue mixing is rarely noticed while it is being most effective.

I also studied classical piano, voice, and composition for many years. I love music. Being able to craft the music into the final mix is a real honor and joy.

That’s why the dialogue/music re-recording chair feels like home.

A lot of people in post-production sound specialize in a single role (like dialog mixer, sound designer, etc.). How has it helped your career to not focus on one particular niche? Or, do you think there is an expectation now to be versatile?

I began my career in the mid-Atlantic region of the East Coast.  There are people who work in post sound are often asked to perform all the roles (Foley recording, narration/ADR recording, Foley/ADR cueing, dialogue editorial, sfx editorial, and re-recording mix).  Even if you were not working on a project as a single person, you and your team would often change roles to suit the schedule or client preferences. It is a different market for sure.

But, when I first got to Los Angeles, folks would advise that being a jack of all trades does not make you qualified to be a master of anyone. When I looked inside myself, I found that I was truly a dialogue-centered individual and macro thinker. I am an extrovert.  I also love the subjective discussions and explorations that occur on the dub stage. All these aspects helped me excel as a dialogue and music re-recording mixer.

But, over the last eight years, I’ve noticed that the ability to diversify is becoming more valued in LA. In this way, I may have chosen the perfect time to come to LA, with a clear, specific goal on what I prefer to center my focus on, but enough diverse experience and knowledge in multiple fields of post sound to be usefully skilled. I gladly switch roles when needed; a change is often good for perspective.

Can you talk about transitioning from working in DC to Los Angeles? Since you didn’t have a job lined up in LA, how did you decide it was time to move?

I am a true believer in the concept that knowledge is power. I had reached a point in DC where I was feeling a little stagnant.  I wasn’t learning as much, wasn’t experimenting as much, and wasn’t challenged enough. I was struggling to find opportunities where I could make myself wonderfully uncomfortable with a challenge. I was searching for mentors.

I found a short, small contract in LA and left a job of 10 years with crazy benefits, paid vacation, and a very decent salary to seek out the challenge. Finding a gig, even one as short as a 3-month contract, while on the other side of the country seemed like a sign.

At the time I was frightened that I wouldn’t be capable of competing in such a large and complex market.  But I knew I would never stop wondering “what if.” Once a few months passed, and I took a couple of professional punches to the face, I recognized I had learned a ton and began noticing a difference in my work. I got excited. There is no other option other than success. Moving to LA has proven to be the most wonderful adventure I have ever had in my life. I love it here. I love the market, the challenges, and the ever-changing, seemingly endless possibilities. There is so much to learn and grow from here. I am grateful.

Can you walk us through an average work week for you? How many hours are you working, spending outside the studio on other work-related demands, etc.?

The amount I actually mix depends on the projects I am on. Sometimes it is 16 hour days and six-day weeks other times it might be two days a week for 9 hours a day. Production schedules move erratically and the day is not over when it is scheduled to end or when you are done… it is over when the client feels whole, and they are done.  My life is a continual game of scheduling Jenga. The terrain is insane. It is awesome and exhausting.

When I am not in the chair mixing, I am still working. Mixing is only part of the job.  I try to be a resource for others as much as possible. I give back to my community through volunteer service in the MPSE, CAS, & TV Academy, edit the CAS Quarterly publication, meet with industry folks new to town, and of course, establish new relationships in the community.  It is a rare day off when I don’t meet up with someone, watch a tutorial on new technology, or volunteer on a project. I keep an ear open for any industry positions available and try to recommend people in my network that I know can tackle the duties and forward their careers.  It is all-encompassing, but I love what I do and I simply never tire of the hustle. Don’t get me wrong, there are days or weeks where I am truly exhausted, but I never dream of doing anything else. I want to be the best I can be, and I feel like I have incredible joy ahead of me in that I have much more growing to do. I am not even close to done.

What are the differences between mixing documentary/reality and scripted?

Depends on your project and your client.

There are certainly workflow and logistical differences, and there also tends to generally be a larger expectation of detail and desire for the school of perspective mixing in scripted media. But the core of what I do is really only made different by the client’s desires and the needs of the film/project.

I certainly will repair, clean, and fit the spec. But the true value in having a re-recording mixer is that you have a professional who is a life-listener and skilled craftsperson. We study and develop sound as a storytelling tool that can steer the minds of the viewers. I certainly have had projects of all genres that demand and expect narrative storytelling in their mix.  I have also had many projects of all genres that look to me for technical audio triage and to emulate their temp track. It is less genre-specific than project-specific.

Can you explain how a 2-person mix works?

 

Karol and Steve Urban on the movie BFFs

There are many ways to work. It depends on the team, the technology, and the project’s scheduled mix time. In the end, however, the goal is to make sound decisions and become four hands and two minds working with the singular focus of intensifying the story through sound. It really is a wonderful way to work.

On a 2-person mix, what are the challenges of working with a mixer you haven’t mixed with before?

Sometimes you don’t know the perspective or tastes of your partner when you are newly paired or the tempo at which they need to work. You have to learn the sensibility of your partner as soon as possible.  Luckily most folks who mix in multiple-seat dub stages are very collaborative and have the ability to morph to the style that works with the team and serves the director or producer. I have certainly been made aware of other ways of looking at things that ended up being the right choice for the project and client at the end of the day.  This difference of perspective can be a complexity and/or a gift.

You’ve mixed over 100 episodes of Grey’s Anatomy. What are the challenges?

We suffer from a lot of set noise as there is a lot of busy scenes with lots of background action…IV stands, gurneys, and of course, paper medical gowns.

You have a reputation for having an incredible work ethic, drive, and energy level. How do you maintain that level of focus? How do you not burn out?

Wow.  That’s a crazy question.  It blows me away that I have a reputation at all. I just keep swimming.

I have had a very specific and pointed goal for a very long time to be a re-recording mixer. It started as soon as I knew the job existed. I knew it was what I was supposed to do. I never took a lot of electives in school or tried a lot of different things professionally because this goal was what I knew I wanted specifically.  I knew it was competitive and I knew I wouldn’t generally look like or come from the same places that a lot of my peers would. I grew up in a town that simply doesn’t have a substantial market for this craft. I knew it was a different world and I was going to have to break in.

Practically every extracurricular activity, club, or group I have participated in has been focused on trying to be in this world. Sound makes sense to me and communicating by putting people in sound spaces is pretty amazing and evocative. I am always trying to make myself worthy and valuable to the opportunity in front of me.

What skills are necessary to do your job?

You have to be at least mildly obsessed with detail, technology, and storytelling. Our jobs are not sprints; they are marathons. You will watch a reel or episode over and over and over again for days, sometimes weeks.  You must remain present and have the ability to fall back into the perspective of a first-time viewer but also switch quickly to the mind of a mixer. You have to be able to see (and feel and hear) the effect of what you are doing while also seeing possibilities.

It is also very helpful to like people and have no ego. It can be hard sometimes because you have to emotionally experience something in order to create and having that emotional response rejected can feel personal. But in the end, you are completing the vision of your director or producer and creating their film/show. You should understand that a person may be inspired by your suggestion at times but may also feel something completely different. Notes are not criticism. They are opportunities.

What are your favorite plugins?

I am loving the Pro Fabfilter Q2 and De-esser right now.  I also love my McDSP SA-2 and NF575. I am still a sucker for Audio Ease’s Speakerphone, and PhoenixVerb is pretty amazing.

What technology are you excited about right now?

I love the new immersive formats. I really feel a naturalness when I hear an environment in Atmos.  And I love the panning precision and full-range reproduction.

What have been the challenges for you as a woman in the field?

It is getting so much better. I have definitely found myself in moments of overt creepiness and absolute inappropriateness. But as the years have gone on whether it be because we as a society are becoming more progressive, other women have paved the way, or because I have become more established, it has gotten much, much better. I just keep forging ahead. I don’t give that crazy a lot of focus. The best thing I can do for equality is to be successful as a woman and be a force for equality by treating everyone around me the way I would want to be treated.  I try to lift others up who share the love of what we do, and I take no mind in their gender, race, or creed.

I still have to discuss my gender as an anomaly from time to time, almost always on a new job and have to occasionally educate people on my knowledge and fandom of a diverse range of genres such as action, horror, and sci-fi. Because as a woman I am often thought of as a strictly romantic comedy or drama person.

But I do have to take care to go out of my way to get to know my co-workers and let them know they can be comfortable around me and that they can be confident that I am an assertive individual. People don’t walk on eggshells around me because I will let someone know if I am uncomfortable or disagree. I hold no grudges and pull no punches. I have been set straight once or twice in my life when I have said something I thought was harmless that had no presumptions behind it that accidentally affected someone in a negative way. We all need to be open to learning from one another without fear or pride. I do believe most people are intrinsically good.

It is paramount to respect your coworkers (male and female alike). While I am aware of situations through the years where I have not been hired because I am a woman or where criticism has been very blatantly gender-biased, I know I am also here in my dream job because of all the wonderful folks, the majority of whom are male, who have given me a shot, had confidence in my abilities and welcomed me into the fold.

It is a weird landscape, ladies.

What advice would you give women in our field?

Be assertive, persistent, and consistent. Respect the contributions of everyone around you from the valet service to reception to account management to your engineer. Show respect and act respectfully. Expect the same in return.  Be humble but also speak and act with confidence and kindness. Some folks really do not recognize what they are saying. Some are uncomfortable or culturally insensitive without knowledge of their actions. Ignorance does still exist. Some folks lack perspective and understanding without intending ill will.  Many people who are considered notoriously challenging that I have worked with were not an issue with me at all because if I had an issue, I stated the issue, explained my issue, asked for a change in behavior, and then dropped it from my memory and became a friend and advocate to them. And while I am not so ignorant or smug as to say it doesn’t matter what others think or do (There is real malice in the world.), I do believe social transformation happens individual by individual. We can be seeds of change by keeping our decisions untarnished by the poor actions of a few and giving each new individual in our world the opportunity to be wonderful.

I believe in equality.  I can’t wait to work in a world where we don’t have to support each other as minorities but we can just support competent, talented artists and craft people and diversity will naturally take place.

If you were to guide someone trying to get into post-production today what advice would you give? What would you advise to find work and build a career?

Don’t wait for someone to give you permission to do what you want to do.  Even if it is for little or no money, get in there. Until you have a professional-level skill to offer, you need to be doing what you can to acquire it. Participate in your community, seek mentors, seek other folks coming up, collaborate, create, rise, and lift up others. Remain open to life lessons. The universe has a lot more opportunities to reward you with when you put yourself out there and participate.

 

How Business Classes Helped My Audio Career

Many business owners in our industry experience the same growing pain: there’s a struggle between doing the work you love and the demands of a business growing larger than you can manage. There’s a learning curve to business, and if you’re not prepared, it’ll cost you work, relationships, and most importantly, money.

In my first years in the field, I watched multiple businesses crumble up close. One studio went into bankruptcy because the owner made some poor choices. Another studio I worked for laid off most of their staff in one day. As I saw this, I was also faced with the reality that I would probably have to run my own business someday. I decided to take a couple of business classes at a local community college and found them so helpful that I completed a business certificate and went freelance shortly after.

Since standard business courses aren’t typically part of the arts/audio school curriculum, here’s a rundown of some useful classes and their application in the field.

Introduction to Business – this trains you how to think in terms of business and business opportunities. Before this, my boss and co-workers seemed more like friends than business colleagues. In actuality, decisions have to be made sometimes based on what’s best for the business.

An intro to business class will likely teach how to write a business plan. This is important if you have any interest in growing a company beyond a “lifestyle business” or plan to find investors or funding for your business. (A lifestyle business is where you have a comfortable income and lifestyle but not trying to expand the business to the max it could be. Most freelancers in the audio industry fall under lifestyle businesses.)

Entrepreneurship – An entrepreneur is someone open to taking more risks than the average business owner. This course was terrific for learning how to look for problems that need solutions, and how to turn those solutions into a business.

Accounting – An accounting course will teach skills like how to track spending, make and manage invoices, and business budgeting. The vital skill from a standard accounting course is learning how to make and read financial statements.  A “profit and loss” statement and a “balance sheet” will give you an overview of how healthy your business is financially.

In retrospect, I would have looked for an accounting class specifically geared towards small business, not for accountants in training.

Sales – This class was learning how to sell but not in a “door-to-door salesman pressuring you into something you don’t want” kind of way. Sales is about recognizing your strengths and what you have to offer and learning how to present that to people who may need it. It’s been a helpful skill to have when meeting potential clients or pitching/bidding on a project.

Helpful takeaways

In our field, the odds are that you will be a freelancer/contractor at some point in your career. Business knowledge and skills are necessary for survival. If you have taken a freelance or contract gig, you are already a business owner.

Before taking business classes, I assumed if my business grew I could hire someone to run it (or teach me how). That mindset is harmful to a business. A lot of business decisions revolve around money, so it’s crucial to understand your financials. A good accountant can help you get so far, but he/she probably won’t help you set rates or know the going rate of an assistant. A lot of this can be learned on the job – but ultimately the learning curve (and any mistakes made) cost you money. When you’re first getting started freelance every dollar counts

Mixing With a Newborn

While I was pregnant (The Audio Girlfriends Guide to Pregnancy) my plan was to take off a couple of months off after the baby was born then go back to work part-time for a while. My husband, who also works in audio, planned to work from our home studio. We figured between the two of us we wouldn’t need a babysitter or daycare. How hard can it be to mix and watch a baby?

Things didn’t quite go as planned.

Before having a baby, I thought I’d be better prepared for parenthood than some of my non-industry friends because I had survived studio life. I’ve worked the night shift for years, and most of my career has been irregular schedules and over 40 hours a week. What I discovered, though, is in my pre-parenthood days working a double shift meant you deserve a day off and a cocktail. With a newborn, Golden Time (working beyond 16 hours) is just called Monday. And Tuesday. And there’s no weekend or days off. The recovery time you get really depends on how much help you have – and the sleep patterns (or non-sleeping patterns) of your baby.

It’s true you can have time to yourself while an infant sleeps but in actuality that “free time” can quickly get taken up by basic needs like eating, showering, or catching up on sleep. My grandiose plans for bringing Baby J to work at night or updating my plugins while he slept was never even an option (although some parents do manage to do it!)

The first work project I took on didn’t go as planned. It was a Sundance Film when Baby J was two months old. It took me two weeks to do EIGHT HOURS of sound design. I expected it to be difficult but it went so much deeper than just being sleep-deprived! I later learned about factors like mom brain or mom fog (a real condition due to hormone changes during and after pregnancy). It makes it difficult to focus long periods or remember details. Also, women’s brains change attention when a hungry baby cries (which doesn’t happen to men)  The two combined make it incredibly difficult to get into a flow or stay focused on a single task. Like everything else, it gets better over time.

After ten weeks of maternity leave, I went back to work part-time. I could have easily taken off another month, but it was nice to have a few nights a week to talk about compressors and upmix plugins instead of diapers and swaddles. By six months I felt comfortable working from home on occasion. It was only possible with someone else handling child care (husband, babysitter, etc.). Now that Baby J is a year old it’s much more manageable to take on more complicated gigs or even gigs out of town.

I did learn some things that saved me as a working parent:

I used to wonder how I would manage to be a parent and having a career or if it’s even possible. It’s definitely possible – it just takes being flexible, patience, and accepting things won’t always go to plan. There’s also times you’ll have to put your family first or have someone available who can in those moments (like an unexpected doctor visit or illness).

The one thing I didn’t expect about becoming a parent is how rewarding it is. I’m still proud of my career accomplishments, but they don’t carry the same significance as they did before. Watching someone smile the first time or recognize that the sound of an airplane means there’s something in the sky is pretty amazing. It’s a challenge but worth the effort.

Dealing with Difficult People

We’ve all had it happen. Someone you’re working with is moody or doesn’t seem to like you. You get yelled at for something that’s not your fault. How do you handle it?

The majority of the time if you’re in a professional environment working with a team of professionals everyone can put their differences aside enough to get the job done. It’s the people who don’t put things aside – who continue down the path of drama or difficulty while you’re trying to work – that cause problems. We don’t know if it’s a personality trait if we triggered someone on a touchy subject, or we just caught him/her on a bad day. The problematic thing is at the end of the day it’s not our job to play psychologist – we’re professionals hired to do audio – but sometimes we have to navigate around people issues or their politics to get our actual job done.

The issues

Sometimes people will project their problems onto you. I worked with a producer on a tv show who came for mix reviews only to have me do the same fixes over and over. Then he would give up saying the mix still didn’t “feel right.” After six weeks of that, I questioned if I was a good enough mixer to do what he was asking. I later found out he was miserable on the job and treated others the same way.

Sometimes you’re setup to fail, and there’s no way around it. I engineered a bizarre ADR session where the producer got upset anytime I adjusted the mic pre. It was like trying to live mix and having to ask for permission to move a fader! We were already in session when it happened. The talent was on the clock, and we had a tight deadline, so I left the mic pre where it was. We lost some takes because he didn’t want to lower the gain for screaming lines (clipping the mic pre) or raise it for whispering (resulting in a high noise floor). I thought about stopping the session to have a discussion but decided it was better to lose a few takes than not get the job done.

Sometimes you’re an easy scapegoat (especially as a runner or assistant). When I was an assistant, I had mixers blame me for stuff so they wouldn’t look bad in front of their clients. Early in my career, I worked on a remote recording truck, and the producer blamed me for a tech error that was entirely his fault. I kept my mouth shut because the truck was my ride home! They never hired me again, and I was terrified my reputation would be shot over something that wasn’t my fault. It didn’t affect my career at all (other than the learning experience).

The solutions

Focus on getting the job done knowing sometimes there’s no good solution. At the end of the day, you may look “bad” to some people or your work may suffer in quality or it’s just not a great project, to begin with. Others will understand you were in a no-win scenario. It happens to everyone.

The first thing we often ask is, “is it my fault?” It’s ok to ask to decide what to do next – like, would apologizing help? But if you get your head stuck in analyzing (i.e., “could I have done something differently?” or “Is it because I’m a woman?”) it’s taking a stressful situation and making it harder to think clearly.

You can win over some difficult people. As a mixer, I try to find a way to make everyone comfortable in the studio whether they’re in a great or bad mood. I feel out someone’s mood by asking questions about the project or their job. I try to find another topic to talk about by being observant – maybe they brought a newspaper or have an interesting cell phone cover or got a friendly call from their kid. I worked with a producer who used to be extremely picky and somewhat rude when she was in a bad mood. I learned to take a ten-minute break and ask about her other film projects or her hobby. That generally could reset the tone for the rest of the mix.

Some people’s moods or attitudes won’t change but you can still accommodate them. Some clients are so busy they feel they are “losing” a day being at the mix (this is often the case for directors or producers). Some people find audio a chore. One producer told me he’d rather go to the dentist than sit through an audio mix! Sometimes the solution is to work as fast as possible so they can get out of there. That’s one of the first things I try to assess. I’ll cut the chit-chat and get down to business if that’s what’s best for them. Sometimes in those situations, you can work to build trust in working alone so they can do other things (one skill you need as a re-recording mixer is the ability to mix while people talk on the phone behind you!)

There are times when you can and should speak up about someone mistreating you. No one should feel threatened or unsafe on the job. I worked with a producer who out of the blue would yell and berate me about “mistakes” I had made. It scared me, actually. After it happened a couple of times I went to management and refused to be in the studio alone with the guy. It was a risk – in other scenarios I could have been fired but I knew the studio would have my back. We work in an industry that does things in an unconventional way but that doesn’t mean it’s ok to put up with anything and everything.

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