For this episode, I invited freelance sound mixer and boom operator Kyle Jacobsen onto the podcast to talk about all things concerning sound! Kyle has over 80 sound credits on IMDB for various TV shows and movies and had a lot of information to share about what it's like to work in the sound department on set. Besides sharing the pros and cons of his job, he also provided listeners with some resources they can use to learn more about the sound industry.
Don't forget to rate, comment, and subscribe!
Follow Courtney on Twitter: @Courtneyj_media
Email: thehollywoodguide@gmail.com
For this episode, I invited freelance sound mixer and boom operator Kyle Jacobsen onto the podcast to talk about all things concerning sound! Kyle has over 80 sound credits on IMDB for various TV shows and movies and had a lot of information to share about what it's like to work in the sound department on set. Besides sharing the pros and cons of his job, he also provided listeners with some resources they can use to learn more about the sound industry.
Don't forget to rate, comment, and subscribe!
Follow Courtney on Twitter: @Courtneyj_media
Email: thehollywoodguide@gmail.com
[inaudible].
Courtney:Hey guys. Welcome to another episode of the Hollywood guide, a podcast designed to provide insight about the inner workings of the TV and film industry in Los Angeles. As you know, each episode we talk to someone currently working and living in LA and find out everything you need to know to navigate the entertainment capital of the world. If you're an aspiring or amateur writer, director, producer, etc, then I'm here to tell you that you stumbled upon the perfect show for you. Once again, I'm Courtney Jonathas, your host. I'm a grad student, nearly completed with my studies in mass communication and this podcast exists because I was fortunate enough to work in LA last summer and wanted to help you all gain a better understanding of how you could potentially make them move there and accomplish your goals. My special guest for this episode is actually very unique because he specializes in one very specific aspect of film and TV. Kyle Jacobson is a freelance sound mixer and boom microphone operator based in Los Angeles. If you look on IMDB he has numerous sound mixing credits for tons of films and TV series. I met Kyle while working on the set of a short film called"Protest." I've mentioned it on the podcast before and he was just super nice and generous about giving me advice. So I'm really glad that he agreed to hop on this show and I know that you guys will learn a lot from him. Kyle, thank you so much.
Kyle:Hey there. Thank you so much for having me on.
Courtney:How's your day been?
Kyle:Oh, it's been going pretty good. Um, picked up a, a repair from a, uh, sound business in town and uh, just prepping up for a short film that I start on tomorrow.
Courtney:Oh wow, that's exciting. Again, just thank you so much. I know that you're pretty busy with your gigs, so I really appreciate you, um, taking time out of your day to do this.
Kyle:Yeah. You know, um, I know that, um, people would like to learn more about the industry. I've been there when I was first starting off and I'm always happy to answer questions about what I do and uh, you know, maybe it can help someone.
Courtney:Great. Sounds awesome. Um, now I usually like for my guests to start out by giving a little bit of an introduction about themselves. So, can you just tell the audience a little bit about your background?
Kyle:Yeah, sure. Um, I grew up in Los Angeles in an area known as the San Fernando Valley. It's kind of the northern area of it. Um, I've lived here my entire life and, um, I went to film school at California State University, North Ridge, which is often located in the valley area here. Um, I had an emphasis in production audio, but I also learned to do post production audio and now I work at a freelance production sound mixing and boom operator on all sorts of projects that need on-camera sound.
Courtney:That is so awesome. And you said that you went to school and you actually studied audio production. So when did you know that you wanted to, uh, work with sound specifically? Like when, when did you have that aha moment?
Kyle:Hmm. Well, um, it was never quite the aha moment right away. Um, I've been interested in audio in one form or another since high school. Um, uh, when I first got started there, I helped, I helped, uh, record the music for my rock band and I had some knowledge of recording there. And then after high school I went into cal state Northridge, not knowing exactly what I wanted to do. Um, but then I got into the film program and I got some passion behind it. I love movies and everything and wanting to make a career out of that or well, like I was thinking about making a career out of it. And along the way, I volunteered to do sound for a couple of the student films and my colleague said that they liked my work and I seem to know what I was doing and I thought, hey, you know what, um, the, the need for this, not a lot of people are into it, but it's something that I can get into. And from there it just kinda snowballed, uh, upwards.
Courtney:Yeah. Yeah. Um, it's really interesting because I think sound mixing is definitely one of those careers that people don't even think twice about or they don't even think about it in the first place. Um, I, I always like to say, you know, people focus on the writers or are focused on the directing. Um, and you know, when I became a PA last summer and I saw you working and I, and I spoke to you, I was like, oh my gosh. Like, you know, this is a pretty good career. Like this is actually pretty cool.
Kyle:Yeah. Um, the way that I see it is if you don't work on that, uh, normally, um, there's a lot of jobs that you don't know are there. Um, like with sounds with us especially, it's something that you don't physically see where recording the microphones on our actors and talent rather. And we're doing sound effects in post production. And the whole point of good audio is it's usually something that you aren't focusing on because once you do notice the sound, then it kind of takes you out of the movie or what have you that you're seeing. And we want to make sure that it's nice and immersive for the audience so they don't think about us. And you know, like we're just kind of in the shadows doing our thing. And, uh, we provide a nice, uh, supporting layer behind the directors where, um, our actors on camera and beautiful cinematography and all the other departments that do their jobs as well.
Courtney:Absolutely. I know for me personally, uh, bad visuals are a little bit easier to tolerate than bad sound. So I'm very thankful for you guys that make sure that we get a quality sound for our favorite TV shows and movies. Um, but, but, um, what does a work day typically look like for you when you get onto a, a TV or a film set? Sure. Um, I'll go over kind of a general kind of a workflow for me because different projects require somewhat different workloads. But, um, uh, before I even get to set the day and you know, possibly the days before, I'm only like, um, I'm already making sure that I'm familiar with what needs to be done on set for this project. This includes things like prepping the equipment, um, being familiar with the scripts and the scenes that we're doing for each day, uh, knowing what the wardrobe is going to be like for our count on camera so that I know how to properly hide the lavalier microphones and, uh, doing what I'll need to do with each of the departments that day to work better with them and make sure that we have everything that we need for post production.
Kyle:Um, once I get onto set, it typically starts off with me unloading my SUV and I'm getting my gear on my car and wheeling it over to the location. Um, once I'm there, I find the first lady or the first assistant director and I say my name, who I am, all that. And I get kind of the lay of the land and find out from them like a w like a what's happening when we were first up here, I find a spot around the set where hopefully fingers crossed, I don't need to relocate. Uh, from there, from later on that day. Um, I like to have like a little base camp there and not have to move things. Uh, once I find my spots, um, I started to prep them up by gear. This includes setting up wireless frequencies for the lab, mics, uh, and the contact receivers, um, jamming time codes, various devices like sandboxes, timecode slates, uh, prepping up the microphones and uh, and yeah, just, uh, getting all that prepped right there. Once the gear is prepped, I hand out various pieces of equipment to other people in their departments. So, for example, if I have, um, a boom operator here in sound department, I hand them their boom Paul headphones, wireless transmitter, uh, wireless receivers so that they can hear their audio coming in from my sound cart and, um, all that good stuff. Uh, Canberra Department, uh, I hand them a wireless think box. Um, and that feeds them time code going into the camera. I hand them a wireless receiver, which sends them a reference track of my audio, uh, sent wireless lead to them. And if a production wants to rent out, I often hand them a time code slate and they, they hook all that up to camera and they're in charge of that. And then I recollect that, uh, at lunchtime so that I can read jam the time code so that we don't have any kind of time code drip. Um, are there, I have the context with the handout, uh, the context is a listening device that the director, the script supervisor, and if we're working on a commercial, the clientele, sometimes the first, um, that allows them to hear my audio, um, while we're rolling so that they can hear if there's any kind of hiccups going on. Um, and if they're off set over at video village, they can, uh, you know, be kind of like next to the scene happening without actually being there. And then after that I find our second assistant director, if it's a smaller production, I'll just go for the first aid and I'll talk with them and find out if our talents is through makeup and wardrobe and are ready to get mics on them. Sometimes the order of this can vary depending on, um, like how busy they are, prepping gear and everything. So one piece of equipment may go to someone else before another person. But, um, I always like to make sure that I also have a, uh, like a little piece of paper that keeps track of the gear on. So if the director has contact number one, descriptive writer at contact number two, I know at the end of the day while I'm collecting the gear, okay, I have number two here, but okay, I need to go see the director and get that piece of equipment from them as well. And um, that makes it a little less chaotic when I'm, uh, uh, coding the gear at the end of the day. Once everyone is set there, we start rolling and we have readjust throughout the day for various scenes, et cetera. Um, and yeah, uh, that's pretty much, uh, how I do all of that. Oh. And at the end of the day, I have an SD card, which has all of the sound files on it as well as a sound report. Um, I hand this over to the it, uh, who offloads both of the data from camera and sound. I try to get to there before camera first because my files are way Tinier and that allows the dit to download that really quickly and I can get out of there without having to wait on a massive video file to download.
Courtney:Yeah, yeah. That's um, a lot of responsibility.
Kyle:It can be. But after you've done it for a while, it, it becomes like super easy and you just know the workflow.
Courtney:And what would you say is, um, the most enjoyable part of your job?
Kyle:Oh Wow. It's hard to put it down to one particular thing, but um, the most enjoyable part about my job is, uh, seeing like a lot of the cool stuff that I wouldn't get to see if I were working a desk job or in the office constantly. Like I've traveled across the country to work, even gone to for a job and I get to see some really cool special effects behind the scenes. And I think like the biggest perk is I get to meet a lot of really friendly and cool people, a lot of different personalities, people from all walks of life. Um, actually I met you on set and here we are.
Courtney:Yeah. You know, and that could be good. People like that. Yeah, definitely. Um, being on set is definitely hard work by I think it, it can be pretty rewarding when you just kind of observe the people around you and observed the really great work that's being done on the opposite side, what would you say is the most challenging part of your job?
Kyle:Um, challenges of a department that no one necessarily sees their challenges. Um, um, I think a big challenge would be working at a location that, a difficult recording environment. So sometimes, um, production doesn't take sound into consideration when they focal location or sometimes there is something loud that appears that wasn't there during the location scout. Um, when this happens, I do my best to work around it. This includes choosing one microphone over another, working with a thrift AD to figure out, um, how to work around that noise. Like we like pause at certain moments and go and go again. And sometimes, um, I'll just need to get wild lines from our talent. Wild lines are, um, we have them repeat their lines while they're in character. On the set skills, we have the same like, uh, we have the same kind of acoustics there and it's, uh, one more deterrent for having to do ADR and postproduction sometimes it's necessary just to do, uh, like rerecording in post. But I do what I can onset to make sure that I have everything that I can to cover my bases. In terms of like on set recording.
Courtney:yeah, I've definitely been out in the field recording and it can be really, um, challenging when suddenly a plane comes out of nowhere or there are tires screeching. So I totally understand. Um, and I know you're trained to capture quality sound in a variety of environments, but is there an an environment that you most prefer?
Kyle:Um, if I had my way, I would do the entire movie in an isolated sound booth, but that does not seem very stimulating to the audience. So, um, realistically, uh, I'd say I'd have like two answers for this. One is the easiest one. And then the other is the funnest one. Uh, the easiest one is interviews. So this would be for a documentary or sometimes the commercial does a on camera interview for our product. Um, the set up is usually pretty minimal and straightforward. I have my boom microphone on a stand. I have a wire on our talent. Uh, sometimes a wire on our person that is giving the interview and I'll hook up whatever it needs to camera. I hit back, I hit record monitor levels and the quality of audio and then I listened to a potentially interesting conversation, their story. The second answer, um, is the fun one. Um, that's when I get to work on a narrative project. It could be a feature film, a short web series, a what have you. And it's when I already know a lot of the crew members and sometimes some of the cast and we have a good workflow together. We know how we operate and we have our own like little hive mind that that works together perfectly in the gear for are nice and quick. Um, like for example, um, there's crew members that have been on multiple feature films with on and we have inside jokes and slang for how we want to do something. There's one actor that I really enjoy working with and um, it's Kinda funny. It's uh, he likes his Mike pack in ankle strap on his left leg and whenever I walk up to him for the first day of a new production and I'm like holding up the ankle fabric like, you ready man, I'm like end. He's like all about it. Like, ah, you remember, thank you so much. And um, those are the two kind of environments that I liked the best. Um, this in terms of like a healthy work space.
Courtney:Awesome. Nice, nice little a family that you start to establish, um, when you've worked with a lot of the same people for a while.
Kyle:Yeah, it takes a while. And um, there's some people that um, you don't work as well with and some people that you do work as well with and I'm in time. Yeah. It, they just start accumulating.
Courtney:I know that you're actually a freelance sound mixer. And I wanted to ask, um, what do you think are some of the benefits of, of being freelance as opposed to working with a company or attaching yourself to a company.
Kyle:Being freelance allows you to choose what work and gigs that you want to take and some that you don't want to take and you can negotiate your rates once you reach a certain level. Um, I wonder if the freelancing instead of going to a company, because that's the way that I got started off working right out of film school. Um, and um, the sound warehouses in the studios either weren't hiring at the time or I just wasn't experienced enough. Um, but in time I found freelancing to be very lucrative. And, um, the double edged sword to this is sometimes, uh, when you aren't getting calls and your clients are just, uh, not producing anything at the moment, um, sometimes working can be pretty slow and you just gotta make sure that you plan your budgeting for life, uh, around that kind of, um, up and down, kind of a flow of cash coming in from work and everything. So, and Tom, you learn how to handle it, but, um, yeah. Um, I really like freelancing and I see myself doing this for a long time.
Courtney:Okay. And how do you typically go about getting your gigs?
Kyle:The vast majority of my gigs, um, are either callbacks or referrals and clients that I've amassed, uh, throughout the years. Um, sometimes crew members that I get along with really well, the devil, they'll get me off for a job. And, um, sometimes the, sometimes I'll find jobs on various production resource groups on like Facebook for example. There's a ton on there just for the Los Angeles area alone and a lot of the major cities throughout the country and the world actually, uh, they also have those. So people will post op jobs like, Hey, I'm looking for a gaffer on these dates, here's the rates and the location. Um, I'll respond to the ones that are per sound and our local here in Los Angeles or southern California. And if the rate is really good, I'll, I'll reach out to them. Um, there's also websites like staffed me up, production based. Uh, some people find that these are good ways to get jobs. I personally haven't been able to find work off of those if I had for one reason or another. Um, but I've always found that the referrals are the best way because it's coming from a person that knows that you are good at what you do and that vouching for you is definitely a pro. Um, when going out for a job with people that you have worked with before.
Courtney:I was looking at your equipment list and I noticed that it was pretty extensive. Um, so how long did it take you to amass your collection and how, um, did you sort of go about, uh, continuously upgrading it over the years?
Kyle:Ah, ah, I started collecting gear back in the fall of 2012, um, I started off with just PMD six 61. It's a little, a two channel recorder, kind of like a Zoom H4N. Had rode NTG three shotgun microphone, a boom Paul, a couple of XLR cables and a pair of Sony MDR 7506 headphones. And I started off with that on an initial investment and then from there I was able to work on more jobs with that equipment and I was able to invest in more pieces of equipment that I found that I needed at the time. Uh, that's something that's pretty important when you're shopping around for gear. It's really nice to like have all the bells and whistles and all the like accessories and the top of the line. Sam Recorder is like, trust me, I would love to have a sound devices.
Courtney:Scorpio, the one that, uh, just got out. Um, but I know that I'm not at the level where I need that right now and there are better things that I could be spending my money on that I could be using right now or I can just put it into my savings account or into my, uh, retirement accounts. Um, so just like know what you need at the time, what would need in the future right away that can help you potentially get more jobs and helps make your job a little bit easier. It's a bit of a balance right there. Okay. And are there any resources that you would recommend to anyone? I'm currently listening to learn more about, um, more about sound and how to produce quality sound. Uh, yeah, actually. Um, there's, there's a couple of different places that I recommend. First off, if you're interested in sounds, I highly recommend a book called the location sound Bible. It's written by a fan that a sound mix or names or recovery years and it's got a ton of info pertaining to how our gear works. Um, how to go about doing your job with the workflow, what responsibilities that you have as a production sound person, whether it be a sound mixer, a boom operator, or a found utility. And it teaches you how to grow your business and properly budgets and stuff. Um, I really, youthful website that I've found is j w sound group. Dot Net. Uh, this place has literally everything you need to know about sound. It will take you many, many years to read. Absolutely everything on it, I sure as hell have not. Um, but what's really cool about it is that there's a search function on there and it's all this massive form of sandboxes from around the world talking about year or talking about their experiences, uh, talking about the industry. And you can just search for your question on there and you're more than likely to find it on there. And if you don't find it on there, you can, um, create a membership, make a new post yourself. And there's also a JW sound group on Facebook as well. So if you don't want to create a, an account on there, they also have a version on Facebook that's not as extensive, but you'll get pretty fast results if you are asking questions. And uh, there are some youtube channels that I'd recommend to our listeners that are interested in audio. Um, there's a video of Mantis, uh, Curtis Judd and he has another channel called Curtis Judd audio. Both of them cover audio, one to one just pertains more to like a gear reviewing it, how it works. And then the other one is more like techniques and there is a UK sound mixer called Matt Price. He also has our website, I believe it's called a found rolling.com. And um, he did a lot of onset videos teaching you how to like for example, like how to jam think timecode and to certain cameras, uh, particular techniques with like hiding microphones in places and just kind of like going over what he does as a sound mixer. Um, yeah, I'd say that those are the places that I recommend starting off. And then, uh, making friends too, like make friends with sound people. And just pick out their brains. Trust me. Uh, we're pretty open books because whenever people uh, come up to us with a question and we're like, oh my goodness, you are actually interested in what I do. Yeah. What call you more? Um, uh, yeah, just um, those are the ways that I'd go about, um, alerting sound about to do it all over again. Awesome. Awesome. That was a lot of great information. Um, and what advice would you give to someone who doesn't live in la? Maybe they live in some other random state, um, but maybe they want to move to la one day and work in sound like, well, what kind of advice would you give them? This advice can go for a lot of people, not necessarily just sound department, but, um, my advice before you start your profits of moving out here is to save up a lot of money. Living in La is pretty expensive and you should have, uh, the funds saved up in case you have a rocky start out here. Like you've got to pay for rent, food, um, you gotta pay for gas. A car is pretty necessary. Um, I make, especially in our line of work where we're all over the city, um, you should also think about investing in a super basic sound package like the one that I mentioned earlier in this podcast. Um, producers like the higher found people who are familiar with their own gear and own their own equipment. Um, it makes things easier on them. And when you're first starting off in these kind of like lower bucket kind of fields, then having that is a huge plus over someone that hasn't had the chance to invest in their year. It is unfortunate, but that is kind of the way that the business works. Um, you're a often need to build up a network. I recommend find some people that have a similar skill to you. Maybe they're a camber person, but you do sound and just like start pumping out some content, like a, make some funny web videos. Um, like a big, a short film. Start doing some, uh, like a 48 hour film festivals in this, like volunteer for that kind of stuff and you'll start your own network and people will be familiar with you. And if you're friendly enough and good at your job, then they'll be like, hey, I have this job over here. It's not paid. Um, but it's a good way to get your name out there and it's like, yeah, you know, I'll work for exposure for now. When you're first starting off, you just kind of like grow from there. But eventually you do need to, uh, consider like, like, uh, making sure that you get a proper day rate, not working, not working for below minimum wage is very important, especially when you're first starting off with the like tiny little projects. Um, unless you're lucky enough to work under another sound mixer. Um, the first jobs that you'll get are pretty low, like I was mentioning earlier. And then in time you'll be able to negotiate your rates to like, I properly suits your skill level and, um, you get some credits under your belt and then you'll be able to do that. Um, when I first started off, I was only working for lunch and credit on projects that were just as like a favor. I eventually started getting minimum wage I way then and got the ability to have a kid fee and out eligible to raise my rates. From there. When you're between jobs, like I mentioned earlier, you're like, it'll have like ups and downs or like when you're getting calls sometimes, um, it's good to get a side Gig. I wouldn't necessarily recommend, uh, driving for Uber or Lyft. Since this puts wear and tear on your vehicle and since you're a freelancer, technically speaking, your car is already a commercial car, getting that wear and tear and you'll just kind of like a bite yourself, uh, further on down the road. Um, you can, um, find a part time job with flexible hours, which I know is way easier said than done. Um, and in other way to get cash while you're waiting to get other gigs is uh, work on set as a production assistant. Um, you've got some experience on there. Learning how the workflow of a set goes and see what other departments are doing and how they do things. Maybe you could have your heart set on one department, but then you get interested in another one being a PA. It's a good way to kind of like make up your mind during that process. Um, I recommend that while you're a pa and you need someone that you're interested in working with or want to work in their field, um, if you both aren't ready to make sure that you are both free at the moment, just kind of walk over to them and introduce yourself. Say that you have an interest in doing what they do as if at some point in the future and more often than not, uh, if they aren't busy, they'd be happy to answer questions for Ya and give you some advice.
Speaker 4:Awesome. Thanks so much. And where can people go? Um, if they would like to view your work, Kyle? Like do you have a website or a Facebook page?
Courtney:Yeah, I have a Facebook page. You can search Kyle Jacobson. Sound's uh, Jacobson. It's an s. E. N. Um, and on there I have very real samples of my work. I have some tips here and there. I have a couple of funny uh, uh, film production means to just for, you know, like a laugh. But um, yeah, I assembled about work on there. Um, you can contact me through my Facebook is this page. I also have my business email listed on there and I'd be more than happy to answer any questions that someone might have, whether it pertains to potentially working on their project or they want to know about a piece of equipment and what my thoughts on it or want some advice.
Speaker 4:Sounds great. Um, and is there anything else that you may be wanting to add? Maybe there was something that we didn't touch on or forgot to touch on.
Courtney:Two things. One is, um, always listened to your sound department. It's very easy to be focused on a department that you're basically seeing the issues with and can work around. Sound Department. If you aren't working with the headphones on, then you might not know what they're dealing with. Listen to them, listen to their concerns and find and find a way to work with them. Um, and then another of, of advice for, for everybody who is trying to get into this field is to uh, be patient, be kind, be determined, be professional and always be early. Um, live by those and frankly you'll do great at any career.
Speaker 4:Awesome. Thank you so much again for coming on the show. Kyle,
Courtney:thank you so much for having me. I had a lot of fun and I hope that this can help out some people and I look forward to listening to more of your podcasts.
Speaker 4:Ah, thanks so much. I'll definitely keep in touch.
Courtney:Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 4:Once again, that was Kyle Jacobson and as he said, if you want to take a look at some of his work, feel free to visit his Facebook page at Kyle Jacobson sound. And as far as the other resources that he mentioned, I wanted to go over those again just to make sure that you guys had a chance to catch them and write them down. I mean, I know that you can rewind, but I figured it would be more convenient just to go over them. At the end here, he mentioned a book called the location sound Bible. He mentioned a website called j w sound group.net. He also mentioned a few he tubers called Video Mantis, Curtis Judd and Curtis Judd also has another channel called Curtis Jed audio. He mentioned Matt Price, who has a website called sound rolling.com and I believe that was ed. Once again, I hope that this list of resources was really helpful for you guys. Um, if you weren't interested in audio before, I hope that you're interested now and maybe want to take a look into it and you have any questions or comments, please leave a review or rating and feel free to tweet me on Twitter at Courtney j underscore media f once again, thank you so much for listening and I'll catch you on the next episode.
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