I want to do professional sound.

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

How about "get over it". I have a Kindle and like it a lot but if you need to bring your reference books with you... Sorry that just doesn't hack it.

First off there is only so much you can learn from books with out "doing it" and second the first time I see a sound person "looking up" something it's the last time I'm working with them. It's not that they need to know it all but they need to come and ask me, I don't have time for them to cruse an course on sound ON THE SET.

My general take on Kindle is that novels are great, any book with pictures sucks, and any book with illustrations is flawed. References are kind of OK but you can't efficiently bookmark (at least not as recall fast as a postIt in a "real" book so I have kind of shied away from ebook manuals.

Point is no "eBook" version is NO excuse to not buy the book.

If there was a choice now, I'd probably buy the ebook version. Since there isn't a choice, I'll be buying the hardcopy version.

I agree 'looking up stuff while working' never works... well for these types of activities... But I frequently have 'time' to read up when it is inconvenient to carry around hardcopies.

For example, I read some amount of german sites, or fora. I use to carry around a Duden Wörterbuch... well the 'pocket' version, still these days all I carry around is

www.dwds.de

An online dictionary that seems to be pretty good.

 

[Victor Nhat Nguyen]

just an update... Got both of Jay Rose book ( production sound and post production sound). Heavy stuff in there. I would say that about 75% of the book confuses the heck out of me. I also just bought the light and sound dvd bundle. Hope I can learn much more from the dvd.

 

[Jema]

You've been given very good advise here, and I agree with pretty much all that is said. Read the books, experiment yourself, try to get in touch with experienced sound people, and do your best to follow set etiquette. Remember that there are some rules, and all have exeptions, and that's partly where experience comes in.

Three things that I find important and want to leave you with:

First is to not neglect the pre-production phase. There are times when you might show up on the day of shooting and adapt to each situation (sometimes you are brought in so late to the project that there is no choice) but there is much that can be done before shooting to ease your job later. Many of the books touch on this, but I would like to underline it.

The second, is to always try to listen to your own work in post. If you've done the location sound on a project and others are doing the post bit, contact them to see if you can't sit and listen to how your tracks sound and how they use it. It's sometimes only on good speakers in the post stage that you can really know if something turned out good or not. This is extremely valuable as it's basically feedback for knowing how to deal with similar situations in the future.

Third, is to try and always be humble and realize you are never done learning and honing your skills. Look up some things you're curious about on jwsoundgroup, and you will notice that even those who have been in the job for 30 or more years are actively learning from some who may have just started. The business and technology is constantly changing, and no job is exactly like the other.


I wish you all the luck in your pursuit - work hard and become someone you would look up to!

 

[ryanjf]

I think you'll benefit a lot from reading John Purcell's book that was mentioned earlier in this thread. It teaches you so much about dialogue editing that you'll realize what you should focus on while recording production. Thinking about post sound early on will definitely benefit you, and if you do well during production, lots of the post editors might just recommend you just because they like how easy your recorded tracks cut together. One of the best sound mixers/boom ops I know is great because he is also a great post sound editor as well. He knows exactly what to look for and exactly what needs to be done given a certain situation. Besides teaching about dialogue editorial, the book mentions the importance of metadata, organization, and workflow tasks (FFOA, LFOA, academy leaders, 2pops, AAF/OMF, etc.) The post production forum on Gearslutz and Avid's DUC is a great resource as well. Along the same lines, I don't do too much production sound, but I always always read up on jwsoundgroup to see what issues/topics pop up and continue to learn.

Another big part about professional sound is also learning some of the video editing systems that are out there. Often at times, I find myself teaching a picture editor how to put in window burns, proper QuickTime settings, export an AAF, export a change note/EDL, and placing 2pops. Many picture editors don't even know what these so they look to you to explain what it is to them. While I'm not saying you have to learn the video editing systems front to back, having a little knowledge about how to do certain things in the Avid, Final Cut, and Premiere are valuable in my opinion. Nonetheless, I think this is one of the best ways to start creating relationships with clients. You help them out and teach them, and they'll remember you if you do a good job. Furthermore, each video editing systems has their own set of "issues" that you'll come across on these threads that affect production tracks as well as final mix tracks that get laid back.

Of course, there's also the topic of calibration that's a nice read. The X-Curve will probably come up in your findings as well as Pro Tools and all their boxes of getting sound in/out of systems. And if you want to do sound professionally, you will come across Pro Tools (and maybe Nuendo).

Delivery formats will come up as well, which is also important as these will directly impact the final "sound". This is primarily about Dolby AC3, Dolby E, DTS formats, TrueHD, LPCM, LtRt, down mixes, etc.

This is just a tiny overview of what you might come across. I think it's a lot of fun delving into these things, but I think above all, doing projects (there are even free festivals here on DVXUser that I participate in all the time for free) is the best way to learn. Lots of the people I've done work for here on this forum 4 years ago are still people I work with til this very day. Start building your relationships early on!