Sound Technicians

A Day in the Life

Your day as a sound engineering technician begins on the set of a major Hollywood movie. Here, you are simply called a sound tech. You work with the lead sound engineer to set up recording equipment for the day. It is your responsibility to ensure that all of the sound recordists that you work with are using the right equipment and know where they should be for each shot. Before shooting begins for the day, you review recording requirements with the film's sound editor.

Throughout the day, you are responsible for capturing audio and adjusting audio levels on the set. You prepare ahead for each shot as it will be time-consuming and expensive to re-record audio if you don't get it right the first time. You finish recording sound for a major action sequence. You see that a quieter, indoor sequence will be shot after lunch. You grab a quick sandwich while adjusting your equipment on the sound stage. You make sure that your mixing board is configured to capture the best possible sound given the environment and nature of the scene.

At the end of the day, you make backup copies of all the audio that you recorded today. Shooting ended early, so you sit down with your fellow sound engineers to review the day's material. You clean up one audio track that has some unnecessary background noise. Before you head home, you carefully label all of the audio discs so that the sound editor knows exactly which scenes they will be matched with later in the editing process.

A few weeks later, shooting for the movie ends. You now turn all of the audio you have recorded over to the sound editor. You assist the editor as they match the recorded tracks to the movie. In one scene, a large locomotive rushes by, but the sound that your recorded doesn't match up correctly. You search audio archives for stock sound that can be plugged into this scene. Although it can be tedious work, it is essential that every frame of the movie matches up with the sound that you have recorded.

After several more weeks of work, the audio track for the movie is ready. You watch a rough copy of the movie with the other individuals in the sound department. You are able to go home with a sense of pride in the work that you completed on the film.