Sound Mixer Pay:£34,000 Working hours:Variable Production Sound Mixers are responsible for the difficult job of ensuring that dialogue recorded during filming is suitably clear. Although much of the storytelling and the emotional impact of a script are conveyed through dialogue, most film sets are challenging environments for
Mixers because there are often unwanted noises to deal with, or the required camera shots hamper the placing of microphones. It is sometimes easier to re-record actors’ dialogues after shooting (post-syncing), but the majority of Directors prefer to use the actual lines of dialogue recorded
during filming by Production Sound Mixers, Boom Operators and Sound Assistants using multiple microphones and DAT (Digital Audio Tape) or hard disk recorders. Production Sound Mixers work on a freelance basis on features and drama productions.
Qualifications
As the head of the production sound department, Production Sound Mixers must undertake specialist training in sound recording before starting out at junior levels within the sound department and progressing through the sound roles. Sound is one of the best served areas for film and television training in the UK with provision ranging from specialised short courses, to qualifications at HND, BA and post graduate levels. FT2 (Film and Television Freelance Training) offers training for Sound Assistants involving apprentice-style attachments to professional crews,.
What Jobs do they do? In the same way as Directors endeavour to ensure that they have adequate overall coverage of each scene, Production Sound Mixers work with the Boom Operator to select suitable types of microphone (e.g. close-ups or extreme angled shots may require clip microphones that do not appear in frame), and carefully reposition these microphones for each set-up, to ensure adequate sound coverage. If music is required in a scene, Production Sound Mixers also set up playback equipment and speakers for the actors. At the end of each shooting day, Production Sound Mixers may send the day’s sound recording files to post production via ISDN as well as handing over the meticulously labelled originals to the Camera Assistant, who packages them up with the camera rushes. Production Sound Mixers finish work when the film wraps (is completed).