My name is Madina Nakashima and I am a senior Film and Video major at MICA. During the summer of 2017 I interned in Catonsville, Maryland at a post-production sound studio called Studio Unknown. I found out about this opportunity through several different people, including my professors, visiting artists, and though the Career Development Office. Since the Film and Video professors at MICA tend to work locally, several of my professors including Kirsten Hollander, Allen Moore, Nadia Hironaka, and Richard Chilsom had all connected with Studio Unknown and had mentioned their work in class. Even though I had known about the studio a year before applying for the internship, I wasn't sure, until after taking sound courses my junior year, that I wanted to apply. I reached out to Richard Chilsom to inquire about the best ways to get an internship and I also set up a meeting at Career Development. With help from both of these resources, I was able to tour the studio and then apply for the internship.
Studio Unknown is a post-production sound company that provides services for all post production sound needs, including custom sound design, foley, ADR, dialogue editing, custom music, voice over recording, editing, and more. They help clients to determine what their projects needs depending on budget and other factors. Matt Davies, my supervisor for the internship, specializes in sound effects editing as well as doing foley art. Matt also is a partner at the studio and works personally with a lot of clients during the editing process. Studio Unknown works on a variety of projects from Indie films, to stop motion animation shorts, to blockbuster hits. The studio has even recently dabbled in sound design for video games.
There are so many different jobs in the film industry and I think that Studio Unknown really opened my eyes to the world of post-production sound. Not only did I learn about the technical aspects of the job, but I also learned about working alongside other people, and learned to network and form relationships with clients. The studio is really big on interns taking initiative and being independent workers, and I feel like after interning there for the summer, I have become a more confident and professional person. This experience also strengthened my desire to work in the sound industry because of the passion and drive that everyone in the office possessed. I know now that I thrive working in small groups of people to make a bigger picture possible. Even though I didn't really work on any client projects, I felt a sense of accomplishment and pride when films were being finished at the studio. After talking to everyone at the office I realized that going into a profession like post-production sound requires a lot of time, patience, and most importantly practice. Rich told me in my interview with him that creativity and the ability to work with others is more important than being amazing with your technical skills; anyone could learn to use Pro Tools, but not everyone can learn creativity and collaboration.
Studio Unknown is a post-production sound company that provides services for all post production sound needs, including custom sound design, foley, ADR, dialogue editing, custom music, voice over recording, editing, and more. They help clients to determine what their projects needs depending on budget and other factors. Matt Davies, my supervisor for the internship, specializes in sound effects editing as well as doing foley art. Matt also is a partner at the studio and works personally with a lot of clients during the editing process. Studio Unknown works on a variety of projects from Indie films, to stop motion animation shorts, to blockbuster hits. The studio has even recently dabbled in sound design for video games.
During my time at Studio Unknown
I sat in on editing sessions, foley sessions, did work around the office, and
did client prospecting. During sessions, I would shadow either Matt, Rich, who
is a sound editor and foley recordist, or Kevin, who does dialogue and
re-recording mixing. Since all three artists work on different aspects of the
projects, this gave me a lot of different perspectives and allowed to me to see
how collaborative yet independent everyone’s job is. In these sessions,
everyone was super helpful and would take the time to explain what they were
working on. They also often times asked for my opinion with creative choices on
projects, and would let me take a turn at the editing table with supervision. I
also was able to watch Matt perform live foley in his studio a couple of times.
On top of editing, I also journeyed outside of the studio and joined Matt and
Rich on a sound recording trip at a nature reserve to record environments. When
I wasn’t shadowing a session or assisting Rich or Matt, I was in an office
space working with Mandisa, the office manager, who gave me tasks to do around
the office. I would run food errands, get office supplies, and make sure that
the space was presentable for clients. During the time when I wasn't preparing
for clients or shadowing an editing session, I would be doing prospecting for
the studio. For my prospecting job, I would search online for potential clients
and log their information into a document.
There are so many different jobs in the film industry and I think that Studio Unknown really opened my eyes to the world of post-production sound. Not only did I learn about the technical aspects of the job, but I also learned about working alongside other people, and learned to network and form relationships with clients. The studio is really big on interns taking initiative and being independent workers, and I feel like after interning there for the summer, I have become a more confident and professional person. This experience also strengthened my desire to work in the sound industry because of the passion and drive that everyone in the office possessed. I know now that I thrive working in small groups of people to make a bigger picture possible. Even though I didn't really work on any client projects, I felt a sense of accomplishment and pride when films were being finished at the studio. After talking to everyone at the office I realized that going into a profession like post-production sound requires a lot of time, patience, and most importantly practice. Rich told me in my interview with him that creativity and the ability to work with others is more important than being amazing with your technical skills; anyone could learn to use Pro Tools, but not everyone can learn creativity and collaboration.
Overall, my internship with Studio Unknown has taught me so much about the industry and has made me want to be a part of it. I knew beforehand that I was really interested in sound and in film, but after this experience and after seeing all the love and handwork put into the job, I am certain that I want to continue my growth in this field.
