NYC to LA Transition

[adiecker]

Hello --

I've been an audio engineer in New York City for the past three years. In the next year or two I'm moving to Los Angeles. NYC has been a great opportunity to work on film, television, music, and advertising projects, but I want to focus on sound for film.

Here's my list of questions. I appreciate answers to any of these questions that you guys might have.

-Am I going to have to take an entry-level job (intern, 2nd assistant, etc.)?
-I have significant credits on two number-one children's television shows (Dora the Explorer - sound effects editor, mix engineer; Go Diego Go - sound designer, mix engineer). Does this help?
-Should I freelance for a while and pick up other audio work while I hold out for a good film gig?
-Is work compartmentalized in LA? Do people look exclusively for "the sound effects guy" or "the mix guy?" I'm used to working on diverse projects in NYC.

Thanks everybody for your insight.

-Aaron Diecker

[Billy T]

While I don't have an answer to your questions, I just wanted to mention my 2 1/2 year old son absolutely loves Dora and Go Diego Go.

Not to bring the subject elsewhere, but being just outside of New Orleans I wanted to ask about NYC post sound jobs. The post sound industry may be very slow here for a while. How are the jobs in NYC? I might be re-locating myself if my type of work doesn't rebuild quickly.

[adiecker]

First off, I'm sorry to hear that your situation in New Orleans is such, and I hope things continue to stabilize. I also hope that your house is okay.

While I do not know much about L.A. job prospects (hence my posting), I would recommend L.A. first. Everybody I know who works in the entertainment industry in L.A. has found well-paying work much faster. Plus the lifestyle seems much better over there.

I'm looking for other jobs in NYC, but it's difficult because most studios only want to hire engineers that bring clients with them. Rent is expensive in NYC, and with shrinking production budgets, many people have been facing wage freezes, pay cuts, and layoffs.

Good studios in town include Sound one, C5, Soundtrack, Howard Schwartz, and many boutique studios. I suggest checking with these studios first, because they are reputable.

Good luck,
Aaron

[Billy T]

Thanks for the info.

I was one of the lucky ones. I live on the West Bank of New Orleans and had very little damage. We are riding out the effects of Rita right now. As long as the Harvey Canal which is less than a quarter mile from me doesn't have a levee breach on my side I think we will be ok.

I used to do the Hunter Mountain Festival in August and would visit NYC during the week, it's about 3 hours away. It sounds like NYC is more than I want to deal with right now.

I sent a resume to TimeWarner in Atlanta. We have good friends in Atlanta. Also the two companies I worked with frequently here relocated to Atlanta from New Orleans in the last few weeks. So they can probably give me some work too.

I don't know if you tried it, but http://www.simplyhired.com/ seemed to have a decent interface and a bunch of jobs.

[adiecker]

Thanks for the web site link. Good luck with everything.

--Aaron

[jayrose]

-Is work compartmentalized in LA? Do people look exclusively for "the sound effects guy" or "the mix guy?" I'm used to working on diverse projects in NYC.

FWIW, as a Bostonian who's been involved with both spot and feature projects out of LA...

Film appears to be very compartmentalized, at least until you reach star status. Dialog editors rarely edit sound effects or music, and so forth. Some people are known for recording v/o, others for recording foley. Re-recording mixers are often the only ones who equalize or put other processing on dialog...

I'm guessing there are two reasons for this. One, that there's such a volume of work that it makes sense to have an assembly line with interchangeable parts (and why should a dialog editor invest in theater-quality monitoring?), possibly a holdover from the studio system. The other is that you can't really hear a theatrical track until you get to the mix stage.

OTOH, spot production is more like you're used to from NY, where one person (sometimes with an assistant) handles the entire post sequence, placing effects, cutting voices and music, processing, creating sounds, mixing, trying to stay on top of agency session politics...