Choose A Major Paper (Eureka Assignment)

Hannah Thrasher
Careers and Lifestyles
Tues, June 28, 2011

Choose A Major Paper: Recording Arts

    I fell in love with the idea of working in Post Production Audio while watching the audio featurette in the Special Features of the Extended Edition DVD set of The Two Towers. I was especially intrigued and excited by the Foley Artists. My dream job is to be a Foley Artist, because it just looks like so much fun. But I'd also like to work as a Sound Effects Editor and Sound Designer. Unfortunately, there are basically no programs in Foley walking, but there are some in Recording Arts, which is a good starting point, I think.
    In a Recording Arts program, you learn about how to capture, enhance, and manipulate audio. You take classes in sound editing using Digital Audio Workspaces (DAWs), such as ProTools, the industry standard in audio editing programs. You may take courses in recording techniques, such as microphone placement when recording (or supporting) a musical performance, or you may learn how to record sound in the field (meaning not in a studio). You will likely take a course in sound design, and in electricity. In addition, if the program is offered through a music department, you will take courses in music, such as Music Theory. If the program is offered through a film department, you will take film production courses.
    A Foley Artist doesn't actually need to be able to use DAWs or do any editing, but sound editors and designers use DAWs to digitally combine and manipulate sound to make sounds that would be too difficult or expensive to actually create and record, so the sounds are created digitally.
    Getting a job in the audio industry is difficult. Experience and skill is a must and is more important a degree. You can have a degree in audio recording but without real experience you will find it difficult to get a job. It's very competitive because applicants far outnumber the available jobs, especially in big cities where pay is usually highest. Getting a steady job is extremely difficult because there are so few available, so a lot of sound engineers are free lancers. That means that they are hired to work on one project, and once the project is complete, they're out of a job again. The hours are long and it's common to work well beyond midnight, to work holidays, evenings and weekends. It tends to be a very high pressure job, and you work with a lot of egos.
    A very successful sound engineer can make over $50,000 a year, but most make between about $22,000 and about $48,000. A very successful Foley Artist can make about $1000 a day. Entry-level job seekers should expect to do volunteer and/or grunt work for a few years before they can start making any decent amount of money.

What I'd love to do...

My dream job is a Foley Artist and/or Sound Designer and/or Sound Effects Editor for film.

This one gives an overview of Post Production Sound jobs. Last year, I actually went to the Vancouver Film School for a week long Summer Intensive in their Sound Design for Visual Media program. :)



This one is a minute long overview of the job of a Foley Artist.



This one goes into more detail, interviewing one Foley Artist, Leslie Bloome.



This one quickly interviews a Foley Artist working on the Jurassic Park film.



This one is a great explanation of art and science of Foley. Check it out!

Gig Reading assignment 1

1)  For three of your chosen case studies, please identify the true color and 2 Myers Briggs Personality traits you feel the main character encompasses and give an example from each case study to support your answer.

Crime Scene Cleaner, Neal Smither (pg 96)

     Orange. ESTJ or ENTJ, but probably ESTJ. 

"I hound people, mercilessly. I get on people like stink. They're going to meet with me or they're going to tell me to fuck off" (pg 102). - ENTJ (forceful in presenting their ideas)

"...if I call you at two in the morning and tell you to go to work and you hesitate, that's it. Never mind. You're not working for me anymore. I hang up. I call my next rep. Because I'm under the gun. I don't give second chances" (pg 101-102).- ESTJ (organize projects and people to get things done, focus on getting results in the most efficient way possible; Decisive, quickly move to implement decisions)

"I have a goal and I have a plan to achieve the goal and if you're in my way, get out of the way" (pg 102). 

"...I don't make those mistakes. I can't afford to. I have a serious reputation to protect" (pg 100). - Green (a performer, competitor)

Research Biologist, Frank Fast (pg 215)

     Green. ISFP of ISPFJ. 

"I was kind of hard to handle. ... I didn't want to live in a bedroom - I wanted a jungle in my room" (pg 216). - Green (non-conformist)

"I'd rather live my own life independently, do what I do independently..." (218). - Green (live life by my own standards); ISFP (Like to have their own space and to work within their own time frame)

"I have to keep very extensive records" (217). - ISFPJ (thorough, painstaking, accurate)

Plastic Surgeon, Todd Wider (pg 630)

     Blue. INFP of INFJ

"But the more important reason was that her goals and desires were not realistic. Her aspirations were not grounded in reality. They were grounded in fantasyland. ... And I had to send her off" (pg 635). - INFHJ (want to understand what motivates people and are insightful about others)

"I do have a bit of a(n)...ethical problem with [performing elective cosmetic surgery]. ...Which is one of the reasons I like doing the reconstructive operations. And I do a lot of charity work" (pg 634). - INFP (want an external life that is congruent with their values)

I think Wider is a Blue because on pg 632 he speaks about his thesis on "a philosophical treatise on beauty". He speaks so eloquently of his thesis and about aesthetics and beauty, and it makes me think of Blue's description of being a poet, and of looking for meaning and significant in life.

2)  For three of your chosen case studies (different than those used in question #1), list 3 transferable skills each main character encompasses and give an example from each case study that supports your answer.

Chief Executive Office, Robert Devlin (pg 54)

     Responsibility. 

"Conversely, if the company's not doing well, the CEO has to take the downside. And so in a sense there's probably a little bit more pressure with being CEO than with anything else" (pg 54). 

"As I view it, my number one responsibility is: How well are we performing for our shareholders?" (pg 55).

     Humility

"...I do my fair share of grocery shopping and spending time with my family and, you know, as I always say - when I get up in the morning I put on my pants the same way as the guy that's going to the factory. You can't forget that" (pg 55).

     Dedication

"...these jobs are very demanding. They're serious jobs. I'm often working eighteen-hour days. I rarely get more than four or five hours a night of sleep. And the way I view it...these are seven-days-a-week, twenty-four-hours-a-day jobs" (pg 56).

     Team Work

"The biggest satisfaction for me is not the money, it's being able to develop and work with a team of good executive and then recognizing that what you do for the organization enhances value to your shareholders" (pg 57).

Food Stylist, Deborah Gordon (pg 255)

     Attention to detail

"I cut open each one, go through them, pick out each vegetable.... And then I pick the best carrots, the best broccoli, and so on, and I make this little serving of penne pasta - and that's what they shoot" (pg 256).

     Seeing the big picture

"It's all a lot of insanity over nothing..." (pg 258).

     Communication skills

Deborah talks about how "there's a lot of arguing. A lot of ego. You fight with everybody - everybody is in everybody else's face" (pg 258). That tells me that she probably needs to work on improving her communication skills (along with all the people she works with).

Homicide Detective, Monica Joyce Childs (pg 531)

     Ability to make people feel comfortable

"For some reason, I've been able to always get more confessions than anybody" (pg 532). "When I walk in there, I'm calm. I never curse 'em out. Never get angry with 'em. And I'm honest with them" (pg 533).

She has a technique of getting the suspect in a calmer state, and then coming in. 

     Honesty

"But we're not [superpeople]. We make mistakes. We're human beings. We do wrong things. Okay? And my feeling is, if a person's wrong, and they messed up, just admit they messed the fuck up!" (pag 536)

     Strength and integrity

"I did nothin' wrong, but they suspended me and they said I had to work in the commander's office. So I sued. ... I don't regret doin' what I did. I don't apologize for bein' me" (pg 538).

Counseling 12 First Day Experience

Hannah Thrasher

Tues, June 21, 2011

Careers and Lifestyles

First Day Experience

        I missed the first official day of class due to illness, so my first day was everyone else's second day. I found my first day of class (the second day of class) to be extremely laid back and much less challenging than I expected. I don't mind doing collages, but I don't see the point in them if we aren't given enough time to do a thorough job and make a product that accurately expresses ourselves. When doing a collage, I'll spend hours and hours going through magazines, cutting out clippings of things I'd like to include, and then I slowly piece them together to make something aesthetically pleasing and reflective of myself. But the approximately one hour we had meant that when presentations began I had not glued down a single thing, and didn't have anywhere near enough clippings to accurately depict myself. I scrambled to put together a messy, pathetic collage of disjointed ideas and finished just in time to be the last presenter. Personally, I think our time could have been better spent listing out our qualities that we would mention in an interview and simply presenting that list, rather than trying to make the activity more creative, but in the process simply frustrating the perfectionists in the class (at the least, I was frustrated).

        As I mentioned in class, I was expecting a work book and lots deep, probing questions that really make you think and evaluate yourself closely. The True Colors and Mosaic activities were simple and quick, and thus fine introductions to the process. Thankfully the Career Cafe assignment gave the deeper exploration of self I've been wanting. All in all, it was only my first day, so I assume the class will become more challenging and thus helpful and useful as the class progresses.

        In this class, (outside of figuring out what it is that I want to do) I would like to learn time management, because I am frankly horrible at managing my time, and budgeting. I have very little job experience, so I'd also like to learn how to construct a resume, what to say and do in an interview, how to network, how to go job hunting, how to improve study habits. I'd also like to learn about job benefits (mainly health insurance, but also any other types of insurance), negotiating salaries/wages and contracts, and how social security and taxes will affect my wages. Finally, I have an undifferentiated roaming auto immune disorder affecting my connective tissues, which will likely progress into either Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) or lupus, so I also need to know how physical disability fits into all of the above.