We asked our Facebook community "what one question would you ask of an experienced engineer or mixer?" Some of the suggestions included; can I be your assistant? Can I work with you? Can I come and do some work with you and learn from your experience and insights, please?

In this article, our Expert Panel give their wisdom on how best to get started in the audio post-production industry and to make sure the next generation don’t miss out on the advice they wished they had been given. Read, listen and follow their wisdom….

Damian Kearns

This is not a lifestyle, this is a calling.

This is what I’ve believed about audio post-production from a couple of months into my first gig, back in 1995.

As a wandering zealot in my early years, I worked some of Canada’s greatest cathedrals of post audio. Here is my advice on how to break into audio post-production…

• Read every manual for every piece of gear, that is in use in someone’s establishment, prior to any interview or certainly ask during an interview about which gear or software is in use.

• Remember to listen. Too often people are anxious to blurt out everything they know and this can lead to a missed opportunity for deeper, more meaningful conversations. In my experience, it’s the conversations where the boss does most of the talking that most often lead to career opportunities. 

• Try to get paid for any task you can, right from the start. Some of us older engineers never had to work for free as an intern and there’s a certain level of respect to be gained by asking for compensation for time put in on the job. 

• Every task, great or small, is the most important task you’ll ever do. 

• Don’t make your first job your entire career. By this I mean, set an internal timer to get on to your next place of employment, or go freelance. 

Now, let me give some insight, based on the points I made above.

Read The Manuals - Few people read manuals. That’s what I’ve always found. If they do, it tends to be akin to skipping to their favourite section in a newspaper, rather than reading cover to cover. The approach I take of reading manuals from start to finish helps me understand the mindset of the manufacturer and delve into the philosophy behind the structure of a piece of software or gear. As a result, it’s often been the case that I have been able to casually walk into a room experiencing a problem, press a button, and walk out. Going into interviews with knowledge like this behind me, I was able to speak to engineers and bosses (who were usually engineers themselves at some point) with the greatest level of understanding possible. This, I believe, is foundational to any meaningful career. 

Listen, Listen, Then Listen Some More - Listening is fundamental to getting into and getting ahead in audio post-production. My typical approach with new bosses or new clients is to get them talking about themselves, so I can learn who they are and how they tick. In doing so, in their eyes, I am focussed on absorbing information and wisdom and this can be flattering in a subtle way. 

Getting Paid - Beyond the initial conversation, there needs to be some sort of line of demarcation, in terms of compensation. I personally avoid working for free ‘at all costs’, with the exception of the charity work I take on to give back to my community.

Anyone who formally attends recording classes, engineering classes, or recording school has put the time and money into career development. I respect that. We all should. The freelancers I hire are all treated fairly, compensated appropriately for labour, and I fight to get everyone credited for their work.

What has happened over the years is there have been students who have come to sit in with me, never broached the conversation about work and wages, and walked out the door, never to be remembered by me. That’s not my fault. I had no idea what the person wanted in terms of money or what they were willing to do. 

Every task is important, so money aside, each job must be met with the same zeal. I am often asked what was my favourite assignment ever and I’ve always said the same thing “The one I’m working on now.”

Not only does this make my bosses and clients happy, but also I’m happy when I’m working to the best of my ability. I am known for this work ethic and I have found that it brings me more work, as a result.

In my opinion, there is no such thing as a ‘Sausage Factory’ in audio post-production.

When To Leave - This may seem to be a strange one. Getting in the door is one thing, knowing when to leave is quite another.

Anyone looking at my CV would note that my first three places of employment all occurred within 3 years. The longest I stayed at any of them was 14 months, because of the breathtaking amount of gear and industry knowledge I had to take in.

My fourth job, at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, lasted fifteen and a half years! Why?

There were ten floors above ground and four below and a network that stretched across the country! And thousands of people coming and going! It took many years for me to finally feel I’d gained all I could. And then I moved on.

Going Freelance - I’m fully freelance now and have been for 8 years. I have my own studio that I’m constantly upgrading. I’ve regular clients and a good, solid reputation. This did not happen overnight or even inside a decade. It took a very long time to get to this point and there’s still a lot of road ahead of me.

By taking in all the information I could along the way, by building a network of contacts, by being in on the design and construction of at least 12 rooms and a mobile truck or two along the way, I have arrived at this point. If you want to work for someone like me, the best advice I can give you is to honour the path I’ve chosen with the same level of commitment. That may just start the conversation and the journey.

Damian Kearns is an extremely creative, versatile audio engineer. He specialises in post-production for television and movies and has many promotional, pre-production, production and presentation audio credits. This past winter, Damian has led the post-production team as lead mixer for "Fear Thy Neighbour," "Fear Thy Roommate," and "History Erased (season 3),' as well as the UHN podcast “Behind the Breakthrough (S2)”.

Emma Butt

One of the biggest pieces of advice I can give is to do your research. Find all the post-production facilities in your city and find out who the client services manager is.

It doesn't matter if you want to work in sound, the head of sound won't be the person hiring runners. The client services manager will be that person. Make sure to tailor each email to that facility. Find out what shows they have worked on and try to reference any you have seen. It shows you've taken time and effort to get in touch instead of just sending a general email.

Download any free software you can and practise, practise, practise.

If you want to work in post-production sound, get any version of Pro Tools you can afford and learn your short cuts and how the software works so that if you do get a job in a post-production facility, you already know some basics.

If you want to work in sound effects editing, download videos from YouTube with interesting graphics or animations, strip off the original sound and try and recreate all the sound design.

If you can't afford a small recorder when you're starting out, that's absolutely OK, use your phone to record any sounds you need. The main thing is that you start building up your skills and learning how the software works and how to get the best recordings with whatever kit you have.

If you have done a University course and instead want to go the freelance route, finding out all the Sound Supervisors on drama and feature films in your city is the best way to go. Most work with the same crews on each production they are hired for and often need assistants.

Don't be arrogant. When I left university, I thought because I had done a sound course I knew everything. How absolutely wrong I was. University courses give such a great foundation for when you do start work in the real world but they cannot teach you everything.

If a senior engineer offers you advice and guidance, listen to them because they are senior for a reason.

Always remember that any project you take on is the client's hard work and something that they might have been working on for months or even years. You are there to help create their vision not create your own. If they don't like what you have done, take it on the chin and move on.

Emma Butt is a sound editor, ADR recordist and Re-Recording Mixer with 10 years experience on a wide variety of projects from mixing short-form commercials, magazine shows, short films, documentaries and animations to ADR recording for dramas and feature films.

Garrard Whatley

When starting my post sound career, I had already worked over a year in production, moving from P.A. up to 1st A.D., and doing every job in between that I could, including set dresser, prop master, grip, gaffer, and craft services (though I worked boom on a couple of productions, I didn’t really gravitate to sound at that time). I then moved into post-production for about a year, again moving from post P.A. up to Post Production Supervisor.

As a Post Supervisor, I was able to get tours of both sound and video facilities and ask questions of technicians, engineers and artists. I occasionally asked to sit in the back of a room whilst they worked, promising to be quiet; inevitably, they would become teachers and start explaining what they were doing. It was fascinating to learn so much from people that were working in real-time right in front of me!

I would also ask for book recommendations, and learned so much about the history and technical aspects of post-production from some great sources. It was after all of this foundational work that I decided to start my own independent sound company.

There is no one path to anywhere, but the route I took did give me…

1. an opportunity to try a lot of different jobs in an industry I wanted to work in and determine what felt like the best fit for me

2. time to observe those who were successful and take note of how they achieved that success,

3. a chance to interact with a lot of people from many walks of life, some of whom I still work with today, (4) time to study and learn from people who were experienced, thoughtful and generous.

I had heard the phrase “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know” before moving to Los Angeles. Maybe that’s true for some industry positions, but from what I had observed, those who were elevated because of ‘who they knew’ to positions that they weren’t prepared for ...often failed. Now, meeting the right people is important, but being prepared by the time you meet them is more important. So really it’s a combination of who and what you know - and beyond that, proving yourself a hard worker and trustworthy.

And then there’s luck. Sometimes, out of the left-field, sometimes springing from a situation one has created. You meet a person at a party, or comment to someone in line at the grocery about their THX t-shirt -- just be prepared! There may be a long-term job on the other side of that interaction.

We’ve all been through a terribly difficult year in 2020. There has been a lot of loss suffered by so many on differing scales. Now in 2021, there is hope that things will improve.

One quote has sustained me well in my own personal loss, as well as in being able to build a business during this tough time:

And remember: if you don’t try, if you don’t show up, if you don’t take that all-important first step… you’ll never know what great things you might have accomplished.

The question, "what do I wish I knew way back then”, is a tough one to consider for someone who believes that our experiences, good and bad, make us who we are. And I am sure there will be many wonderful answers to this question! So, I am choosing to focus on one area that may be helpful for those starting out: the sound of your space.

When I started, I was borderline obsessed with the technical aspects of how the room was supposed to look on an SPL meter or Dolby output plot. Trying to adhere to those results as if they are holy writ can be too constricting, though.

I wish I had instead started with this analogy…

Film sound is like having a big backyard to play in; TV is like a smaller yard but still with plenty of room for play; Web sound is smaller still and you need to choose where you arrange things wisely.

The technical aspects of the way the room should sound is part of the fence around each of these yards.

Film - The one that needs the strictest adherence to level (as well as EQ) is Film. It is most important that your room translates well to a theatrical setting so that there are no surprises for you or your clients once it screens. After tuning your room, being able to get into a large theatrical stage to compare apples-to-apples is the best way to do so if you can make it happen. I found that I needed to pull my room level down 1dB to get a perfect match.

TV - For TV, EQ is important, but level can be a little more subjective. We already know that the room needs to be 6dB lower for TV. My initial mistake early on was that, when tuned to 79 dB, program material running at -24 LKFS (or LUFS) sounded hot in my space - so I simply adjusted myself to hearing things 'hot' for a couple of episodes... before realizing of course that the real solution was to lower the sound in the room to something I felt was a comfortable listening environment.

This took me, psychologically speaking, from relying on staring at the meters on the screen to making sure I was hitting -24 (because it ALL sounded too hot to me), to instead simply listening to and enjoying the mix process, and each time hitting -24 without ever having to refer to any meters. For TV, it's also helpful to have low-end speakers (or an actual TV...) to listen to portions of the mix, in case there is any question.

Web - For Web, it's a matter of lowering the room level much more substantially, and having even less headroom. So mix judgments there may have more to do with frequency rather than the overall level in adjusting dialog against music or FX. Web mixing, to me, is the closest of these three to music mixing.

So - yes, get your room in shape, but don't become boxed in by it. Tune your room to standards, then, where appropriate, tune it to you. You get a much more pleasant and robust way to enjoy the yards you get to play in - and the worlds we get to build.

Garrard Whatley owns Seismic Post Audio in Los Angeles and has worked as a Supervising Sound Editor and Re-recording Mixer for 24 years. His first company RocketWerks was located in Santa Monica, primarily catering to independent films. Still working on indies and larger film productions, he has added television series work over the last 10 years, bringing a cinematic sensibility to his broadcast work. Seismic Post Audio is also home to software development for post audio applications, with an eye toward making Pro Tools session organization and navigation faster and easier.

Graham Kirkman

For me, it's about getting a foot in the door of a post company even if it's not necessarily in audio. Maybe that's starting as a runner. Go for it and then drop hints at every possible point that you want to work in audio.

• Show the mixers your interest and let them know you are passionate about audio.

• Teach yourself the DAW of choice in your own time and let people know you're doing it.

• Eventually, your enthusiasm will rub off on someone important, and at the time you least expect it, you'll get a chance to prove yourself. Just be the readiest you can be so you don't flunk it when the chance comes.

I wish I'd known that who you know is more important than what you know. I would have spent less time at each place I worked for and would have moved around more. That way I would have built up more contacts in the industry than I have now, and more contacts are better than less!!!

I wish I'd known that it's more about your ability to get things done as well as possible in a tight timeframe rather than slaving away for too long on a particular edit only to run out of time later on. We all like to impress with our editing/mixing chops, but the mixer you are handing your work onto after 8 hours of tracklaying will be more impressed if it's all done with a few audible edits rather than only half-done with none.

I wish I'd known that it's not a cure for cancer or brain surgery - at the end of the day it's a TV show - chill out some!!

Graham Kirkman has been mixing, tracklaying and recording VOs for over 25 years now working on many projects ranging from Features to Advertising and everything in-between! In September 2016, Graham decided he wanted to be his own boss and started Luminol Audio Ltd. and he has been doing all things audio ever since.

Jamey Scott

I believe that even though the dynamics of how to develop a career path in post sound are constantly changing, the core principles of what we're doing do not.

For example, there are far more avenues for work than there were when I started pursuing this field. With streaming networks on every corner, thousands of video games in constant production, online videos, VR development, etc, there are way more opportunities for sound people than there are people good enough to fill them.

If you hold true to the core tenets of being good at your craft, constantly learning new things, and being the kind of person that others want to work with (kindness is king) then there's a pretty good chance that you'll be able to maintain a very long and plentiful career that can be very rewarding and pay pretty well too.

You just need to be able to adapt to the needs of the marketplace so having a wide and strong skill-set and a great personal disposition can keep your career flowing down a river of ever branching possibilities.

I think the ultimate goal of all sound people should be to be able to thrive independently and be your own boss. That's what the future of this business looks like to me.

Up to this point, the industry has been a system of structured gears and cogs, and it's good to have bosses and mentors to nurture your craft and teach you what's important and how to get things done but eventually, I believe you should forge your own path and I see the opportunities to do this opening up very rapidly.

Learn how to run a business. Establish your own client roster. Build and run your own facility. Work your butt off and then help others rise up to the point where they can run an independent existence.

There are no rules that say you can't live your life and make great things outside of the established system and the barriers for doing so are crumbling daily, so I'd say it's important to set eventual goals for yourself and I believe that being an independent free-spirit in the sound world is a good ultimate goal.

Jamey Scott is a multi-talented, creative sound engineer and post-production facility owner. He’s been working as a creative sound designer, re-recording mixer, foley artist, dialog editor, ADR recordist, game engine designer and implementer, and composer, contributing pivotal roles in excellent independent films, award-winning animated shorts, and some of the most successful and influential video games in the industry’s history including WB, Sony Pictures, Riot Games, Google ATAP, 2KGames and Epic Games.

Karol Urban

Never ask someone to "give you work” or “give you an opportunity". Ask them what they need and how you can help. Make yourself the answer to their problems.

Do your research and learn who is doing the incredible work that you admire. Listen to the story of their journey. Find out where they came from and how they got to where they are today. This research will contain the advice you need to lead you down a similar path.

I wish someone had told me that as soon as you are mixing for pay, you are succeeding as a mixer. I spent a good amount of my career working, wondering when I would become a successful mixer.

While I have vastly improved. step by step, with every project I have completed over the decades. Looking back, I can see that I was succeeding much earlier than I allowed myself to realize. Knowing that and having that confidence would have helped me develop more effectively.

I also wish I had known that even the most accomplished greats have had projects from clients who perceive their function as mixers as purely technical.

You have to find and develop creative opportunities by working on a wide range of material with many different teams.

Foster relationships that recognize the potential of sound in storytelling and look to mixers as creative collaborators. The crucial thing to always remember is your service to the filmmaker. You are working to create their vision, not yours.

Karol Urban is a re-recording mixer for television and feature films. While mainly focused on dialog and music, her path has afforded her the benefit of also mixing sfx and single mixer productions. After focusing principally on documentaries in Washington DC, she moved to LA where she found true joy mixing scripted productions.

Kevin Dallas

This is a tricky question and one which sits heavily with me. As a one-man outfit who operates from a home studio, I’m not set up to easily pass my skills onto the next generation.

There are many courses available that will give a decent grounding in post-production and/or sound design.

But here is the key.

Even after completing a course expect to get an entry-level position in a facility and work your way up. Although a course can teach you fundamental skills I don’t believe it will prepare you for the pace and deadline orientated environment of post-production.

Dealing with clients and talent comes with experience, mixing half an hour of television in 8 hours for transmission the same day is something you learn on the job.

When it comes to what I would say to myself when I was starting out, contacts and reputation are everything in this industry, so my advice is to make contacts and be nice.

• You can have the best skills and the most expensive studio, but it’s no good if you don’t have any contacts.

• Get to know and be known by as many people as possible. Someone who is a runner right now could be an executive producer one day and will remember you.

Kevin Dallas is an audio specialist working remotely from his custom-built garden studio "The Dubshakk”. With 20 years of experience in the film and TV industry, he provides sound design, mixing, recording and editing to complement the storytelling. His credits span all genres; from feature films and Documentaries to Specialist Factual, Comedy, Formatted Entertainment and Children’s.

Nathaniel Reichman

In the early 2000s, I was the music librarian for the well-known film composer Michael Small before he passed away. I arrived at Clinton Studios in New York City early one morning with suitcases full of sheet music, in preparation for an orchestral recording session. The orchestra contractor was an older man who was a legend in the business. As soon as the session was safely underway, I sat on the couch next to him and noticed that he had a high-end device for doing wireless day trading (this was just a few years before the smartphone era). I looked at him while he was typing away, acting on small movements in the stock market. He stopped for a moment, looked up at me and my fresh face and said, “Hey son, there’s no money in music, you know that, right?"

He’s right, but for this article, I want to refine his offhand comment.

What he meant was that there’s no money in music services. Much of what we do in audio post-production, music production, mastering, film mixing etc. is a service provided to a client. That client, in whatever form they may come to you (director, composer, advertising executive, writer, label manager), is one step closer than you to the actual ownership of intellectual property.

My advice to young people now is that no matter how appealing being a producer or engineer may seem, get into the system as an intellectual property owner. Even in the smallest way. Join a performing rights organization (ASCAP, SESAC, SoundExchange, etc.) and at each step along the journey, be creative in both art and business and get your name in the royalty chain.

Years later, when you’re in-between projects, you’ll be really pleased to get quarterly checks for additional income.

Nathaniel Reichman is a New York-based, Grammy-nominated producer and mixer, who has worked extensively in television, film, advertising, and classical music. He is lead mixer at Dubway Studios in NYC, a graduate of Bennington College, and an alumnus of the art school Fabrica in Italy.

Paul Maunder

Actually, getting into the industry is the first challenge you’ll face when embarking on a career in audio post. Having taught students for a number of years, I have a few tips for you to take into consideration when starting out:

Do a specialised course - I am perhaps slightly biased on this one as I run a Sound for Visual Media course at Spirit Studios in Manchester and teach on a number of the degree courses there too. However, the knowledge these courses provide, give you a solid foundation in the core concepts and practices involved in audio post-production.

When choosing courses, make sure you’re being taught by someone who is actually still active in the industry. This is the only way to ensure that the knowledge you’re gaining on that course will be applicable and relevant.

Also, it’s critical that you put in the hours to practice and refine your skills actually working on projects. The most successful students are the ones who put in a lot of additional time outside of lectures, practising what they’ve learned.

It’s true that employers are more interested in what you can do, rather than what course you’ve been on, but you have to gain that knowledge somehow and so being in an environment where you can ask questions and be given feedback is extremely beneficial when first learning the skills required to be able to work quickly and proficiently. Also, it’s the hands-on experience with equipment such as control surfaces that is invaluable.

Low Paid Work - Do low or no paid jobs but be selective! In the early stages of gaining experience in audio post-production, taking on low paid work or doing some projects for free can be a way of getting practice working on productions and building up demo material for a showreel.

Be wary of people looking to take advantage though, and look out for the old ’This will be an opportunity to gain exposure’ line. You are unlikely to get any worthwhile exposure from these kinds of projects so treat them purely as experience and practice for yourself.

Don’t go freelance straight away - Working for yourself is an attractive prospect but when first starting out it can be very difficult to find enough work, especially when you have no proven track record yet.

Look for employment with a company first. This will allow you to refine your skills and gain a lot of real-world experience without having to find clients yourself. Inevitably, you’ll establish contacts along the way as you work on various productions with different producers, video editors, composers, directors and so on.

A few years down the line you may feel that you’re ready and able to go freelance but in the early stages the job security and regular, reliable income may be a better prospect.

Look At Avid’s Accredited Courses - Consider doing the official Avid Pro Tools courses. I’ve seen a lot of discussions online where people knock the Pro Tools certification courses, calling them unnecessary. In such a discussion someone will usually say ’No studio I’ve ever worked at has asked me if I’m Pro Tools certified’.

This might be true but I’ve seen people who have worked with Pro Tools for years doing things in a very long-winded way because they don’t know a shortcut or aren’t aware that there is a better way to do something.

In my opinion, the Avid courseware is well structured and offers a lot of very useful workflow improvements which could easily pass you by if you learn the software just by using it. Also, you’re in a classroom (or online) with somebody who can answer any questions you have, beyond just what’s in the book.

My Story - When I first started working in audio, it was for a small production company that specialised mostly in video production. There were 5 video edit suites based on Avid Media Composer and shortly after I came into the business they decided to build an audio studio.

Up until that point, they’d been mixing the video soundtracks within Media Composer, which only offered very basic audio functionality at the time. My boss had heard about Pro Tools and invested a lot of money into a Pro Tools 24 Mix system. This was the latest technology at the time and it provided DSP on two cards inside the computer called the Mix Core and Mix Farm cards.

The problem was, I was the only sound person in the company and after the equipment provider installed everything they gave me a 30 minute run through on it, I was left to figure the rest out for myself. It took me two days to work out how to route a signal from the voiceover booth through the Tascam TM-D8000 digital mixer, via the ADAT bridge audio interface and into Pro Tools.

It took me another couple of weeks to realise that plug-ins existed and could be used in sessions for things like EQ and compression. Nobody was there to instruct me. It would have been useful to have a mentor to show me how things worked and to instruct me on best practice.

I read through the entire Pro Tools reference guide twice and found it very useful but the one thing you can’t get from the manual is any guidance on best practice or tips from someone who has had years of practical working experience doing the job.

Personally, I’m actually quite glad that I had the opportunity to figure things out for myself but it took me much longer than it would have if I’d had some instruction. My computer was the only Mac in the building, a Powermac 9500. The I.T company who provided support for the rest of the business knew nothing about Macs so I had to figure any issues out for myself, including networking. All of this provided me with a real understanding of how these technologies worked but again it was something of a time consuming and arduous process at times.

My advice from all of this is to take any opportunity you can to learn from others with more experience but also to combine that with your own learning and experimentation. Read the articles and videos on Production Expert as it’s an extremely valuable resource. Also, as boring as it may seem, read the manual. You’ll be surprised how much you’ll benefit from it. Technologies advance and change quickly so it’s important to stay on top of the latest developments and never stop learning.

Paul Maunder is a certificated Pro Tools expert in post-production sound, and outside of the studio, he also works on location heading up film shoots.

Rob Walker

Studying at University or a shorter professional learning course, will give you a good start but be prepared for the fact that everyone else trying to get into the industry will also most likely have studied too. It won’t necessarily give you a headstart, but it will give you skills and confidence to know what you can do and how to go about tackling a project. Wider general computer, IT, networking and file management knowledge can be an asset so don’t be afraid to skill up in those areas, it could set you apart when trying to find a way into the industry.

Starting as a runner or assistant is a good route to certain types of position but is also a long road to a fully operational role. Having a degree or other course behind you won’t let you ‘skip’ this stage but it may well serve you well in the long run. It is more suited to working in broadcast, advertising or in house facility mixing. It can also be tricky to move from an assistant position to a mixer position because there are very few assistant mixer roles. Some of the larger facilities employ Mix Techs who have normally come through the facility and been promoted.

Make connections with people who are making things while you are studying or running/assisting, as if you eventually go freelance, they are likely to become your first clients. Starting as a freelancer is very difficult but not impossible if other routes don’t work for you. It will probably take several years to build up a client base big enough to support you financially full time. Most freelancers typically have staff positions first with facilities or broadcasters which enabled them to build a client base first.

You need to be prepared for about 5 years of just learning on the job to get to a good standard to be flexible enough for most types of work. You’ll be impatient and think you are better than you are - I certainly did. That’s doesn’t mean you don’t have ideas and skills and lots to offer, but you have to serve some time learning how the industry works on many levels outside your software and speakers. People skills are vital as are good ideas and creative problem-solving.

There are many reasons your career will go in a certain direction that has nothing to do with your skills in audio post-production. Being in a place where the type of work you want to be involved in is carried out is important, especially when you are starting out.

Most opportunities are passed on by word of mouth so you need to get yourself into those conversations.

Record sounds every week and you will have an amazing, unique sound library in a few years time, and you will know it better than any library you can buy.

Whichever way you decide to go, the most important thing is to stick with it. There will be many obstacles but if you can just keep going you will get there eventually.

Rob Walker works in cinema, sound installations and compose music and has over 25 years experience creating sound and music by myself and in collaboration. He is drawn to edgy contemporary subject matter and strong creative directions.

Simon Jones

I started as a runner (tea boy in my case). It was 18 months before I was even allowed to do anything remotely related to sound or touch the equipment. However, during that time they got me in to do some Foley, which I was quite good at, so I got rented out to Pinewood by my boss to do Foley on a feature, which was a great experience and an insight into how things were done there.

I didn’t get university training, but I’d been recording and mixing music since I was twelve on quarter-inch tape and messing with analogue synthesisers, so when I got the interview for the runner position, I knew most of the answers to the questions I got asked, such as “What is this microphone?” It was a Neumann U87.

So to sum up, my advice to young people wanting to get into post-production sound would be;

• Be prepared to do anything (within reason) within a sound facility/environment. Don’t think you’re above making tea and coffee or sweeping the floors - I did.

• Live and breathe sound and/or music as your hobby outside of work to get a competitive advantage.

• Do your homework

• Be prepared to work long hours, unpaid overtime to do the best job you possibly can.

• There are mediocre people in the industry - make sure you’re better than them!.

As to the question, “what do you know now that you wish you had known 20 years ago?” I remember my first boss saying to me was “Never assume anything in this business!”

Simon Jones is an experienced Bafta Cymru award-winning freelance sound designer, dubbing mixer and Foley artist. He has his own small studio with Avid S6 and Pro Tools where he can tracklay, premix, record voice and foley, or he can work at your place. He is also musical and composes for TV and digital media.

Tim Nielsen

I grew up in the midwest of the US and had no access to the world of Hollywood. I decided to apply to film school, entering into the graduate program at the University of Southern California (UCS). The three years I spent there, certainly grew my circle of connections, my network. But I wouldn't say they prepared me for a career in film sound.

I found that I still had to learn nearly everything on the job. This is not to say 'avoid film school' but I do think these days that if you have access to an entry-level position, in a company that values you, offers you genuine access to learn in exchange for your enthusiasm, you may be better served that way.

But such positions are still hard to come by. Too many companies will gladly take your free time and offer you little in return. So make sure from day one that your interests are also being served. Find a mentor, someone who will teach you without expectation of return.

A set of technical courses on the software of the day, masterclasses and online training may prepare you 'technically', but working in an actual post house will teach you the reality of this job, the ins and outs.

Sadly internships are harder and harder to come by. But they are still the best way I feel to gain entry and knowledge into an industry that is still difficult to break into today.

I wish that I had understood from the very beginning that it's not about the gear. It's not about the microphones, or the plugins, or the software. That would have saved me tens of thousands of dollars and years of chasing the technology.

I'm not saying that technology doesn't play a role. But as an up and coming designer and editor, I had convinced myself that I 'needed' the expensive German microphones that cost thousands of dollars. I had to have the latest solid-state recorder. I can't even count how many EQs and compressors and reverb plugins I have purchased over the years, that sit in my plugin folder completely unused.

Technology is a tool, it is not the end game.

Tim Nielsen is a Sound Designer, Supervising Sound Editor and Re-Recording Mixer at Skywalker Sound. In addition to his film work, he’s an avid sound effects recordist and enjoys writing about and teaching others about sound effects recording and design.

Roundup

We hope that the advice from our expert panel will help you, whatever stage you are in your career development in audio post-production.

Here are some takeaways for you to consider…

• Learn the equipment, even if you don’t own it

• Study, whether that its informally, or through formal courses

• Listen, then listen some more, especially to your clients.

• Show your passion

• Be the solution to a problem

• Network, network and then do more networking

• Learn time management, you often have a fixed amount of time to do a job, and you will need to prioritise and do the critical work first.

• Remember it’s a small industry, so always be nice, whoever it is.

• Learn how to run a business, you will become a freelancer at some point

• If someone is paying you, you are doing something right.

• Your role is to develop your client’s vision

• Going to college does not bypass the runner/assistant stages of your career development, but the knowledge and networking gained will not be wasted.

• It’s not all about the gear, it’s about your skill and expertise.

What About You?

Do you have some advice to add to our Expert Panel? If so do add it to the comments below.