Appropriate Film Credits

Question

I've got an independent short film project where I'm the only sound person involved. I've had to do everything from pre-production to post. What would be appropriate for credit(s)? Is there a blanket term for someone who performs multiple roles?

Answer 1

You are firmly entrenched in a gray area. The terms that come to my mind regarding film credit are Supervising Sound Editor (traditional) or Supervising Sound Designer (more contemporary), although I really like the simplicity of Sound or Sound Design.

To tag on to Tim's answer, indeed is not uncommon to have more than one credit, so you should feel free to award yourself as many titles as you see appropriate.

Answer 2

I'd have thought that simply putting 'Sound' would cover all bases? I still think of 'sound designer' as a post term for a sound fx designer rather than the way many people see it which is as some sort of sound director or supervisor.

Answer 3

I think sound designer would be what you're looking for. It's the blanket term for the person in charge of the sound. Especially if it's an independent film where you a one-man department.

Answer 4

I'd ask for two credits

• production sound recordist or mixer listed with the production crew

• sound editor listed with post production

Its not unheard of to have 2 credits, maybe check on IMDb to see what other people have done... if other film film makers see the credits and are looking for someone for either role then it would work better for you than one term to cover both, which doesn't exist afaik

Answer 5

When I do multiple sound-related duties for a project, I usually just ask for one credit specific to what I am focus on. "Sound Editor" is usually what I ask for.

Maybe I'm the only one, but when I see multiple credits for one person, it gives me a negative feeling towards the project. Perhaps it's all the terrible movies I watch on "watch it now" that have one person as the writer, director, editor, and star! I don't think it's fair to categorize sound like this, because on a low budget project it makes sense to have someone who knows sound to do all of it. On short films, I prefer to be the production recordist or boom op when I'm going to do the post production. But I digress....

Answer 6

To echo Tim, I would probably do multiple titles - "Production Sound" and then "Supervising Sound Editor/Re-recording Mixer" - might be worth checking out what other "multiple hat wearers" are doing as well... was the director also the DP, for instance, and how is he/she wanting to be credited?

Answer 7

Before attaching yourself to a project credit see how it turns out first. Under no circumstances do you want a credit to something that has compromsied sound due to budget.

If it is decent you would be favourite going down as sound supervisor as that post covers start to finish.

But in reality be true to yourself, if the job didn't require much planning or delegation I would as the chap above said and stick with 'sound'.

Answer 8

On my film I just put “ sound design “ and I also feel that this doesn’t give enough credit to the artist who not only cleaned up everything from a generator on a night shoot, to finding the best takes, to inserting ADR, all folley and in general directing the sound to fit the tone and rhythm and finally weaving dialogue volume into the composer’s cues. So I too want to give my “sound designer” more credit which is why I looked this post up. However I also don’t want to make the film look bad, there’s only one colorist or one production designer etc so when the rolling credits end ( sound designer is right after composer.....do I list him ...I think I’m going to list him after the production sound recordist. Then I’ll put another credit. Production sound mixer