Artist and Product Management Skills for the Sound Supervisor

In continuing my findings on how audio post for film and television uses some skill sets one would use in product or artist management, the position of sound supervisor popped in my head immediately. Admittedly, I haven’t wrote about this position in a while as my fascination with music editing grew, but I assure you many of the same skills can transfer to music editing and other audio post jobs just as well. Although through my studies, the main artist in question regarding artist management is usually a recording singer or actor or some sort, I believe anyone creative is considered an artist. In the case of audio post, think of the composers, the field recorders out there recording crickets, or the sound designers blending bears with wolves and lions to create a new animal.

In any career involving getting creative individuals together to work on one piece of collaborative work (like a film), there are bound to be differences in ideas and possibly conflicts within the team. Someone in the position of, say, a Sound Supervisor is in charge of keeping all these people moving forward, keeping them inspired and working hard, while keeping the director happy. The ultimate goal is to have a fantastic product everyone is pleased with.

I found one article online concerning the tasks of the Sound Supervisor that I suggest you take a look at from Skill Set. This is probably one of the best job descriptions I’ve seen of this career. Along with the technical audio skills of an engineer, this individual, according to the website, is in charge of “planning meetings to ascertain sound requirements, specifying crew levels and equipment, planning post production and dubbing, occasionally choosing locations, explaining and solving potential problems, overseeing all the Sound personnel works,” and more. All of these tasks remind me much of what an artist manager would have to consider when in charge of, for example, a singer’s career. That manager makes the artist look and sound great through a series of planning, employing, overseeing, problem solving, and knowing the field. Their end “product” is the artist that appears so effortlessly cool while that manager is backstage running around frantically on phone calls or keeping an eye on the crew to make sure it’s all running smoothly…much like a Sound Supervisor would do to ensure their product of a great-sounding soundtrack is up to par with the director’s and audience’s expectations.

Farther than overseeing the audio crew, the Sound Supervisor is in charge of this soundtrack that has so many different layers to it that many people don’t think of. There’s music, sound effects, foley, source music and futz, along with the voices and overdubs. Although we’ve come a long way, this person’s job is no doubt stressful, but extremely fun for the creative audio person. I also found this video of Matthew Wood speaking about his role as a Sound Supervisor and Voice Actor for leading post company, Skywalker Sound. Along with some fantastic advise for the audio post hopefuls out there, he takes some time to talk about how the technology has changed throughout the years, as well as music editing and sound design. Check it out!