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Taking the plunge (financial and otherwise)


Nick Campbell

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A bit of background: I've been recording music for the last decade. Usually my own stuff, sometimes for friends for free or clients for money. Did some fader riding at venues. Picked up a Marantz a year or two back for mobile interviews on a research project about toilets. I really liked recording outside of my comfortable room and one thing led to another and I was booming a feature-length film this last fall. Decided to buy some gear and have done small sound gigs for friends. I'm almost done with college (at the ripe age of 27) in urban planning. I'm doing well in the field, but I keep getting drawn back to location recording. It drives me.

 

I decided not to go to grad school. I have an internship with the city lined up and I'm taking it but know what I really want to do.

 

I'm about to buy gear worth twice the amount of what my car is.

 

I might move to LA come summer and hope it works out. I'm applying to all the sound work I can get here until that time to try and beef up the resume. I have two gigs this week, one of which is paying nicely.

 

Holy shit I hope it works out.

 

From reading this forum for the last year or so I know that many of you have been down this same road. I would appreciate any words of wisdom or otherwise.

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Not saying these definitely applies to you, but they may be useful for others in your position:

 

1. Don't buy equipment based on jobs that you're hoping to get. Buy what you need, when you need it, otherwise you're putting yourself in debt.

 

2. Learn before you buy. Work under or with a mixer (who has been in your position and owns all the gear) before you buy into gear yourself.

 

3. You will never stop buying gear.

 

Good luck, and like Crew said - have fun.

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Get the investment back from schooling. I'm sure it pays better, has bennies. Use this to help fund the sound work. See which career takes off faster. Learn much and in about two or three years you will know what you really want to be doing.

 

Moving to LA might not be the best thing to do unless you know people wanting to hire you there. You can't live on CL ads there.

 

Sorry to sound so poo, poo, but you just don't have a career right away in this business. It's a time building thing.

 

Sometimes being a medium size fish in a small pond is better than becoming a small fish in a very large ocean.

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There's no point in moving to LA. We're over saturated with experienced mixers here. If you want to move somewhere, try places that have more work than crew, like Atlanta or Wilmington. As a young person, you have the unique advantage of being able to move where the work is, even as it changes.

A good friend (Line Producer) has told me that he is instructed to exhaust almost every resource for local crew, including sound. Experience is nowhere near the top if their priority list.

Robert

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Thanks guys. I'm buying the gear for myself, and it's nothing outlandish (my car, for comparison, is a '97 Saturn). The 702T/302 kit, used.

 

The possibility of moving to LA is for other reasons, but also ties into this.

 

Luckily I'll have a BA backing me and have experience in my field of study. My first route is applying for jobs in that field and doing sound work or working under someone on my time off. It's a daring move, but I'm not foolish enough to go in on hopes and dreams alone.

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Thanks guys. I'm buying the gear for myself, and it's nothing outlandish (my car, for comparison, is a '97 Saturn). The 702T/302 kit, used.

 

The possibility of moving to LA is for other reasons, but also ties into this.

 

Luckily I'll have a BA backing me and have experience in my field of study. My first route is applying for jobs in that field and doing sound work or working under someone on my time off. It's a daring move, but I'm not foolish enough to go in on hopes and dreams alone.

I moved to LA with a BA backing me and it proved useless.  

 

Also, there are plenty of people with that same gear package willing to work for free

 

My advice to you is not to do it.  

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I mean, it could also depend what your major was and what the experience in your field amounted to.

 

Like I said, I purchased the gear for myself to learn further on. I'm not trying to be some wide-eyed teen jumping into the world. There's a safety net, but it's still a plunge.

 

And soundslikejustin: I used a 702 for the last project I worked on and loved it. I preferred it to the R-44 I had and decided to save up and go for it. And I had a 2-channel version of the 302, and both are a package deal for a good price, so I bit.

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I majored in acoustics and have years of experience with audio.  It meant far less than i could have ever imagined.

 

If that is what you are saying your safety net is - experience and education, you are going to find your safety net is made of tissue paper.  

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My safety net is outside the field of audio. As I mentioned before, I will have a degree in urban planning come June with a good amount of interning and work in the field. LA being an ever-expanding city makes it a pretty good market for that (lots of job listings for the area on the APA website). I did my research and joined the APA, grinded on GIS, and centered my work on the most expanding areas of the field (neighborhood development, sustainable development, transportation planning).

 

Soundslikejustin: Shure FP-24, so yeah, a Mixpre, haha.

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CCalandro: I started this thread to mainly get my thoughts out and hear other's stories who were in the same position. Or just some general wisdom from their years in the industry. You're being really negative, and I don't know if it's because maybe you went down the same road, or you think I'm walking on daisies, or you don't want more people in your industry in an already bloated market? Maybe all three? I get that, but honestly it's a bit rude. Try to find the positives in life, man, and all of that other freespirit shit. Or just smoke some weed and chill out.

 

atheisticmystic: thanks!

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I'm telling you this because there are many better places to go and you are going to be wasting your time here with that kit, and that experience.

 

I'm telling you this with experience.  It doesn't matter to me what you do, I haven't freelanced for over 6 months, you are not invading on anything i am involved with.  I am not being negative, I'm telling it like it is.  This is REAL TALK

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There's no point in moving to LA. We're over saturated with experienced mixers here. If you want to move somewhere, try places that have more work than crew, like Atlanta or Wilmington. 

 

 

We actually have more than enough crew already in Atlanta.

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If I knew the chances and odd against me when I started I would still do it again because I love what I do. BTW, I started out wanting to become an editor and for many reasons got into sound. Who knows where you will end up Nick but at least are starting in the direction you want to go in. Screw all who put you down, it's your life to live not theirs. (I don't mean the posters here) You will fail as you succeed and learn more from the former than the latter. Go for it.

CrewC

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Not saying these definitely applies to you, but they may be useful for others in your position:

 

1. Don't buy equipment based on jobs that you're hoping to get. Buy what you need, when you need it, otherwise you're putting yourself in debt.

 

2. Learn before you buy. Work under or with a mixer (who has been in your position and owns all the gear) before you buy into gear yourself.

 

3. You will never stop buying gear.

 

Good luck, and like Crew said - have fun.

What he said.

Bang on.

And disregard anyone who says dont move to LA.

If its a CAREER you are looking for, and not a job. Then LA is the place to be.

It's not easy. But nothing worthwhile is.

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Thanks guys! I just see this like everything else: another hill to climb, albeit this one has the best ice cream store at the top.

 

And luckily all of the cash I'm spending is mine- no credit cards or loans. I work a lot and since quitting drinking four years ago I find I have a bit more left over.

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There's always room for talent.

Not everyone succeeds. And it takes more than a year or two.

It took me two years, to get back to where I was when I left Vancouver.

And I came here with a list of credits and experience.

But I stayed focused, and didn't give up.

I'm glad I moved here. I wish I had done it sooner.

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Go for it and listen to the wisdom of the veterans here - "don't buy anything until you need it" or just rent it. I put together a small ENG kit to get started and 99% of the jobs I have worked I use the production companies gear. 

 

All I really needed to get was a harness, some good headphones and a good small back up recorder with some cables. 

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