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I recently answered some questions for SoundGirl Kelly Kramarik, a student in the Recording Arts program at UC Denver for her thesis about versatility in the changing world of audio.
I would consider myself a master of post-production sound – which means I could work as a re-recording mixer, sound editor, music editor, score mixer, Foley engineer, sound designer, or dialog editor. Some jobs I’m hired to do a bit of everything and other jobs just one specific role (sound editor or score mixer, for example). Being versatile is important.
In post-production, I’d say people consider themselves masters of certain types of content (in addition to a trade). There’s mixers or editors who specialize in commercials, promos, episodic TV, reality TV, major film, indie film, etc (at least in Los Angeles).
This is a tough question because we sometimes don’t have clear job statuses. A good analogy would be an actor who doesn’t land many gigs but still auditions and takes classes and pursues it as a career while having another job. That person can still say he/she is an actor.
I was a mixer (by title) after three years in the field but at that time I did other audio-related gigs to make ends meet. As a “mixer” working as an employee at a studio I had other responsibilities. I remember weeks where I spent a day recording ADR or voice over, a couple days mixing, some time in the machine room or assisting, and sometimes selling stuff on eBay for the studio. It was probably five years into my career when I was mixing primarily and no longer doing other side gigs.
“Regular basis” is tough cause clients come and go. When I was totally freelance I’d have ten or more clients a year; now I have a stable mixing job and 2-3 additional clients. As a contractor, you don’t want to take too many clients cause if they call to book you and you aren’t available or can’t accommodate them they quit calling. You have to balance clients who hire you once a month with clients that hire you for a month straight but never hire you again.
For me, it’s more about finding clients whose schedules will work together versus having regular clients. I’ve worked for people who don’t mind if I work on other projects during my downtime. In those cases, if I’m on standby (waiting for materials to show up or waiting for client approval) I can edit or mix another project. I’m essentially billing two clients at once for my time. I also charge a four hour minimum for on-site work with my freelance clients. If it takes an hour to get to a studio and you only work an hour it’s a lot of lost time.
Make friends with other mixers and engineers and maintain relationships with past colleagues and clients. I have a couple groups of friends/colleagues who will recommend each other for work when they aren’t available or need help. I hire them when I need help or have a cool project and they do the same for me.
Not now – but the first few years of my career I had to diversify to make ends meet. I relied on other skills – such as classical music recording and quality assurance testing for audio products – to fill in the gaps and help pay the bills. Over time I had more mixing work and needed less of those other gigs.
For someone coming into the field today, it’s absolutely necessary to have different revenue streams to sustain, though.
In a lot of ways career success and “moving up” has not happened how I thought it would when I was in school. For years I looked for opportunities that would advance my career and then I hit the point where the next step up looked to be overly demanding, political, or self-sacrificing. Now I don’t want to sacrifice my health or my relationships over work. If my kid is sick I can take the day off work without concern and I couldn’t do that in a lot of my old jobs. This job probably wouldn’t have been my idea of “success” until my priorities shifted.
The people I find the most discouraged in the industry are the ones with specific expectations of what they want their career to be (versus going where the work takes them). I never planned to get into post-production or to be a mixer but it’s turned out to be a great fit. I thought I’d be a sound editor because I wanted to work alone. Watching other mixers looked stressful! But, I was always open to an opportunity to learn something new. When I was in the mixer chair to learn I really enjoyed it and had the skill set to thrive. You never know where things will take you.
Another great article by SoundGirls: The Good & The Bad of Balancing Work and Parenting
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The mission of SoundGirls.org is to inspire and empower the next generation of women in audio. Our mission is to create a supportive community for women in audio and music production, providing the tools, knowledge, and support to further their careers. SoundGirls.Org was formed in 2013 by veteran live sound engineers Karrie Keyes and Michelle Sabolchick Pettinato and operates under the Fiscal Sponsorship of The California Women’s Music Festival, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. In 2012, Karrie and Michelle participated in the “Women of Professional Concert Sound” panel at the AES Conference in San Francisco. The panel was hosted by the Women’s Audio Mission (WAM) and moderated by WAM founder Terri Winston. Terri brought together five women working in live and broadcast audio. The groundbreaking panel (which also included Jeri Palumbo, Claudia Engelhart and Deanne Franklin), provided young women and men a glimpse into life on the road, tips and advice, and a Q & A with the panelists. More importantly though, was how incredibly powerful the experience was for the panelists. We had all been in the business for 20 years or more, yet most of us had never met before that day and within minutes we bonded like long-lost sisters. We were struck by how similar our experiences, work ethics, and passions were and wondered why our paths had never crossed and how our careers would have been different had we been there to support each other through the years. Each of us are strong on our own, but together we were even stronger and a powerful force. We were empowered. Each of us had been asked hundreds of times in our careers: Are there other women doing sound? How did you get into sound? How would a young woman go about getting into sound? Through creating SoundGirls.Org, we hope to establish a place for women working in professional audio to come for support and advice, to share our success and failures, our joys and frustrations, and for empowerment and inspiration.
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