AUDIO POST SKILLS
POST
our students are quite music centric,” he says. Finding an interest in post is more likely to happen at the end of their degree.
SOUND OF MUSIC AND MEDIA
Bray at Clear Cut puts it another way: “The feeling is, too many of the courses are music based first, post-production is either an afterthought or an add-on at the end.” Then there are the more general BAs, “media courses are very much about the editorial, creative,” she says.
At Brunel, they’re developing a joint honours degree for Music and Sound for Film. Niki Ashby, programme lead for Film and TV Studies says: “We want to know what the industry needs are so that we can help to address them.” Ashby and her team regularly talk to industry professionals about skills gaps and what they’re looking for in recruits.
“Industry liaison people are really important; I can’t emphasise that enough. It’s
valuable for both students and industry to connect, to speak with each other.”
Natascha Cadle, Co-Founder Envy Post
Brunel’s BA in Film Production has sound design as part of its first assessment. By the second year, they’re learning about DAWs, thinking in terms of sound in a script, through to mastering. In their second year, they make four productions, with one role being sound design, when they are expected to do everything from on-set production through to dialogue, foley, sfx, music, and, if necessary, ADR. They can also explore sound design for specific genres.
Although soft skills are an essential part of the Brunel BA, there’s nothing like being in the working world. Summer placements are on offer, with funding for those who find it too much of a financial stretch. By the third year, they have to go into industry, either for a full placement, or work experience.
Sky offers placements for Surrey’s Tonmeister course (see side bar). While Vaudeville Sound has bases in LA and Vancouver which both take students on placement from the University of North Carolina. “They have to work for us for three months and the university constantly checks in,” says
Tonmeister placement year at Sky Production Services
John Cochrane, Senior Manager of Finishing at Sky Production Services has been overseeing a third-year work placement for students on Surrey University’s four-year Tonmeister Music and Sound Recording degree for the last seven years.
TV post production isn’t necessarily on the students’ radar, so Sky gives a talk in their second year to open their minds to this career path. “This is about Sky lending its initiative to a future talent pool for the industry,” says Cochrane. One or two students work at Sky each year. “I was very adamant this was not going to be about cheap labour for menial tasks. They are made a really integral part of the department,” he says. “I wasn’t just looking at a few weeks of shadowing here and there. I wanted something more structured, more meaningful.” The first few weeks are about serious shadowing. And it’s hands on: week one they are on Pro Tools. Within a month or two they’ll be working on podcasts, greeting the client, recording, editing, perhaps mastering and delivering. “We introduce them not just to where the buttons in the menus are, but what the meaning is.” They learn some of the history, to help make sense of the world of audio post. This, together with a grasp of how the technology and the software is built, gives them resilience and adaptability. “We don’t issue cheat sheets, we get them to understand what they’re doing which means they can adapt….Pro Tools is just a tool, it’s their creativity that matters,” says Cochrane.
Peaky Blinders S6 - full audio post at Molinare
By the end of the year, they’ll have done editing, mixing under the guidance of an editorial mixer and they usually complete a project on their own. Some get a broadcast credit. Three have been taken on full-time after their degree, including Tom Nursey who now has credits for Rosie Molloy Gives Up Everything and Hitmen. “It’s been a mutually beneficial thing,” adds Cochrane. “The students are 19,20 ish, they often understand swathes of technology, so the training flows both ways.”
Spring 2023
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