Foreign field audio?

Question

Hello everyone.

First, let me say that my intention here is to look for career advice, not to passively beg for a handout.

Okay, so I recently had a revelation: I really enjoy sound design and post-production, but I feel I should take advantage of the fact that I'll have no roots upon graduation. Field audio in Somewhere, Not-America immediately crossed my mind. I've been blessed with a great mentor/professor who has taught me most of what I know about field audio, however his knowledge of the industry is mostly local.

So here's my question(s) for you folks: What steps would you recommend I take towards finding foreign work? Do international news organizations (BBC, AP, NPR, RFI etc.) even bother hiring specialists or do they outsource to local news organizations? Is there field work to be had beyond The News? How important is it to speak the language (I know French, but that's just one language)?

If there's a few too many stars in my eyes, pinch me so I wake up. I'm not looking for a vacation though, just the opportunity to work/learn while expanding my cultural perspective (like many Americans the only foreign soil I've touched is Canada).

If you're so inspired, add any other information you feel I should know.

EDIT: Let me add Documentary production to this topic.

Thanks!

~Cheers

P.S. If you have a better way to word this question's title, please share. Haha.

Answer 1

I am a Brit living in Finland working for a games company and I consider myself very lucky to be in this position. I have also lived and worked in Holland and the UK, so I know a little about moving countries and finding work in europe. From my experience - outside of the games industry - language becomes issue, especially working post production or field work as most of this work will be in the local language. Games studios are different as their working language is usually English. The other thing is that you have to beable to offer somthing to your employer that they can't find locally. Either your reputation or some rare skill - e.g. if you were an audio programmer you could work anywhere you wanted :) - But once you're settled somewhere then you become local so it makes everything much easier. I would suggest either choosing a country to move to and finding out as much about what work is available there, France or the UK would be a good start. Or find your particular skill and find out who needs your services. Anyhow working abroad is totally possible and really rewarding - good luck with it.

Answer 2

I was waiting to see if anyone else had a better answer before posting. From my limited experience in the broadcast world (and only within the U.S.), very few stations hire audio people for news work (the exception being talk/news oriented radio stations). For the most part, the camera man is the audio person as well. I don't know of any news programs/stations that send out camera people AND an audio person, unless it's a gigantic event.

As for radio stations, I know that many NPR stations hire local audio recordists for news gathering, but only on a freelance basis and only as needed. They do have some staff engineers who will work both in the studios and out in the field, and will typically hire the freelance recordists when those engineers are already booked.

That's pretty much how it works in the U.S. I don't know how specifically it translates to the rest of the world, but I imagine it's relatively similar.