Dream Job and Company Assignment

Hannah Thrasher
Careers and Lifestyles
Thurs, July 14, 2011 (due on July 5th)

Dream Job and Company

    As far as I know, people who only do Foley Walking are freelancers and do not work for an actual company. I hope to get a secure position at a prominent Post Production House, such as Skywalker Sound, the sound division of George Lucas' production company.
    Skywalker Sound was established upon the completion of the Skywalker Ranch in 1987, but prior to that, Lucas' sound division was called Sprocket Systems and was housed with Lucas' visual effects division, Industrial Light & Magic.
    At Skywalker Sound, the number of employees changes based on the size of their current projects, but ranges from 80 to 160, with several of the core employees being multiple Academy Award winning sound designers, editors, re-recording mixers, and composers. I would be working on the gorgeous Skywalker Ranch in Marin County. Skywalker Ranch features the Technical Building, which houses a 300 seat film screening room, a scoring stage that accommodates a 130 piece orchestra, six feature film dubbing stages, ten recently remodeled sound design/editing suites, and another thirty-six digital sound editing rooms. There is also a Foley and ADR recording suite, and a mixing and editing suite for commercials.
    Currently, there are no design or editing positions available at Skywalker Sound. However, Lucas' video game and interactive media division, LucasArts, does have job openings for people working in sound. To get a salaried job as a Sound Designer with LucasArts, I'll need expertise in many digital audio workspaces (DAWs), like ProTools, Digital Performer and Peak, which are Macintosh-based applications. However I'd also need to learn Windows-based video game development and sound applications. I'd need expertise in field and studio recording, processing and mixing. I'd also need a minimum of 3 years experience creating audio for AAA titles (whatever that means).
    I think my best bet is to apply for an internship at LucasArts for next summer, and the application has to be in by mid February. Because the positions are already filled, I can't find out what the requirements are (only currently available internships are listed).