I've decided I want to go to one so I can improve my audio post production, and get hired for other people's movies and projects in the future as well. But I am not sure what to look for, when it comes to telling if a school is one of the good ones or not. What should I be looking for?
How do I pic an audio engineering school?
- Thread starter harmonica44
- Start date
The first thing to realise is the vast majority of audio engineering courses are aimed at the music business and may (or may not) have a little film/broadcast audio post tacked on as a bit of an after thought. Some of these courses are rubbish, a minority are pretty decent and you will learn a lot about sound, how it works and music recording and mixing technology. Precious little about actual film/broadcast audio post though.
When looking for a course, obviously read carefully the modules/syllabus and find out how much of the course is actually audio post and not just music. Next look up the lecturers who are teaching that course, what and how much professional experience of audio post do they have? Lastly, think about where the establishment is. Is it in a city with a thriving audio post industry or a virtual audio post desert? A thriving audio post city will not only mean you are more likely to find knowledgeable/experienced teaching staff but also more likely the staff will be able to find you some decent work experience or even possibly some work itself, if they have the connections and you have the ability.
G
When looking for a course, obviously read carefully the modules/syllabus and find out how much of the course is actually audio post and not just music. Next look up the lecturers who are teaching that course, what and how much professional experience of audio post do they have? Lastly, think about where the establishment is. Is it in a city with a thriving audio post industry or a virtual audio post desert? A thriving audio post city will not only mean you are more likely to find knowledgeable/experienced teaching staff but also more likely the staff will be able to find you some decent work experience or even possibly some work itself, if they have the connections and you have the ability.
G
This seems to be the case. Their is only one audio school where I live, the next closest would be a film school, three hours away. Not sure if it's a good film school though, as it's in a smaller city than mine. However, so far all the audio people who I have met to try to collaborate with, don't seem to know how to do a movie.
They want to make movies, but the dialogue, room ambience, and sound effects that they have done, sound so dry, like a music video, or music CD. I wonder if they even pay attention to motion picture sound. That's why I want to take something, cause I want to make movies, but no one where I live, wants to do sound or doesn't want to learn it right.
They want to make movies, but the dialogue, room ambience, and sound effects that they have done, sound so dry, like a music video, or music CD. I wonder if they even pay attention to motion picture sound. That's why I want to take something, cause I want to make movies, but no one where I live, wants to do sound or doesn't want to learn it right.
Lol no you don't.. So far your only posts were why you can't make your movie.
Now, answering to your question: Visit school's campus, meet the teachers, research what they have done.
95% of the audio schools out there are music centered diploma mills that teach theory, have fantastic gear, cost huge amounts of money and leave their graduates woefully unprepared for life in the real world. Most do not have anything even remotely resembling a comprehensive course related to sound-for-picture. That's okay, most film schools have, if you're lucky, a two semester course on sound-for-picture.
If you really want to pursue sound-for-picture as a career instead of investing $25 into a worthless piece of paper from a diploma mill put $10k to $15k into setting up a nice (Pro Tools) project studio and do audio post for, oh, say, 30 or 40 shorts for free. Read and constantly reread The Foley Grail, The Sound Effects Bible and Dialog Editing while doing the audio post for all those shorts (toss in Sound and Vision and Sonnenshcein's Sound Design for good measure). Buy and read every other book on audio post you can find. Focus exclusively on sound-for-picture at the forums on DVXUser, the post forum on GS, the audio post groups on LinkedIn, Jeff Wexler's forum, etc. Print out articles from FilmSound.org, put them in a binder and take it as reading material when you're on a bus, train or plane. Watch every sound-for-picture DVD extra (watch the film too), YouTube and Vimeo video on sound-for-picture you can find. Take a Pro Tools certification course. Attend every sound-for-picture seminar you can get to.
You immerse yourself in sound-for-picture. After a year or two you will begin to know what questions to ask and to begin to recognize what you are doing wrong. At that point look for an internship somewhere. Keep your mouth bricked up and learn. After another year or two you may actually come close to being something resembling competent.
If you really want to pursue sound-for-picture as a career instead of investing $25 into a worthless piece of paper from a diploma mill put $10k to $15k into setting up a nice (Pro Tools) project studio and do audio post for, oh, say, 30 or 40 shorts for free. Read and constantly reread The Foley Grail, The Sound Effects Bible and Dialog Editing while doing the audio post for all those shorts (toss in Sound and Vision and Sonnenshcein's Sound Design for good measure). Buy and read every other book on audio post you can find. Focus exclusively on sound-for-picture at the forums on DVXUser, the post forum on GS, the audio post groups on LinkedIn, Jeff Wexler's forum, etc. Print out articles from FilmSound.org, put them in a binder and take it as reading material when you're on a bus, train or plane. Watch every sound-for-picture DVD extra (watch the film too), YouTube and Vimeo video on sound-for-picture you can find. Take a Pro Tools certification course. Attend every sound-for-picture seminar you can get to.
You immerse yourself in sound-for-picture. After a year or two you will begin to know what questions to ask and to begin to recognize what you are doing wrong. At that point look for an internship somewhere. Keep your mouth bricked up and learn. After another year or two you may actually come close to being something resembling competent.
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Yep I made some calls to the places, and they are all music based. I asked them a couple of questions on getting certain movie sounds, such as reverb in a room from a far away distance, as a randome exampl, and they said they never taught anything like that. So I guess I will not be going to any of them from what I have seen in Canada so far.