Getting Into Post/Sound Design

[pezking]

I am primarily a music guy.

I would very much like to try my hand at sound design for film or tv.

The trouble is I don't have the material to work to.

Can anybody suggest a source for video to work with?

[Ryan Young]

Go to the apple website, download one or many of their trailers. Import it into Pro Tools, clear the sound, and start from scratch.

[pezking]

Do you mean one of the movie trailers?

I'd love to keep the dialogue is the trouble. It seems incomplete without it.

[petersrin]

To be a sound editor/supervisor, you must be able to work with incomplete and imagine anything that isn't already there.

Although the standard is to have dialog prepared already, or at least a temporary track, in lower budget productions (i.e. the kind you WILL start out on, if they have a budget at all), oftentimes they'll have either HORRIBLE prod audio or none at all. In which case, you have to be able to imagine until you can get the actors back for ADR. So suck it up and do trailers

OR, even more to the point, just grab some DVDs, rip them, convert them to MJPEG .mov files, strip out the audio, and go to town. Pick a simple scene for starters.

Read about it. Watch behind the scenes of movies. Or go to school. Offer yourself to young film students. Go to a post house and get a receptionist or librarian job. Wide range of options for learning. These are all things I've done to get in and I'm still not in... cause it's a tough biz to crack.

Imagine trying to get into the music recording industry, then remember that there are half the number of full time post houses for film sound. Alas. Good luck!

[wheresmyfroggy]

Originally Posted by Ryan Young

Go to the apple website, download one or many of their trailers. Import it into Pro Tools, clear the sound, and start from scratch.

This is a good starting point, at the last company I worked at, the whole department used to regularly do this as a team building exercise and for training junior members of the department.

Someone also suggested taking scenes from films and sound prepping them, this is also good practice. Helping with awareness of the importance of Foley and Ambiances to support the dialogue.

If you have the facilities, why not re-record the dialogue lines yourself if you feel they are missing. Practice recording, fitting and matching ADR lines is also a valuable skill in post-production.

[pezking]

Thanks for all the tips guys.

I think I will certainly download some trailers and give it a go.

I had thought about re-recording the dialogue, and this could actually be a right laugh so I'll probably do this too.

It's mainly a bit of fun for me, and to gain experience. Also to find out whether or not I could see myself doing it for a living. I won't be looking for any jobs just yet.

Maybe I'll post up some stuff I've done in the near future

Thanks again

[Eric Seaberg]

Originally Posted by Ryan Young

Go to the apple website, download one or many of their trailers. Import it into Pro Tools, clear the sound, and start from scratch.

Ryan, that's an AWESOME idea!! I'm going to do that for two of my underlings to get them started!

Thanks!!