Very Professional Studios Internship
This summer, I worked a non-pay internship with Seth Gorden at Very Professional Studios in Bloomington-Normal, IL. I obtained this internship through a friend of mine, Danielle Fisher. She is good friends with Seth and helps him by writing music for his movies. Making movie music has always intrigued me, so I contacted Seth and after several hours and 1 meeting he decided to take me on as his first intern.
The beginning of the summer involved me reading up on the constuctions of small recording studios and working on my sound design programs to improve my skills. Seth instructed me that I was to make a list of all the producers and engineers that made my favorite albums possible and work on finding artists that are looking for cheap and professional sounding studios in the area. These artists are on a list I have made in order to contact them when the studio is complete. Any single artists we have found have played for, or recorded with Seth already with the space he had available at the time.
The entire summer Seth and I have gotten together to begin building his studio in his new home. This was and still is a wonderful experience to be able to help build a studio from scratch from the ground up. The studio is not yet complete, but I did learn a lot about the necessary electrical wiring needed to keep everything running, the acoustics in the room from the angles of the walls to the ceiling construction above in order to get the best quality sound, and the specific equipment used, from microphones to mixing boards, to begin your own Gorilla recording studio. I now have several texts on how to go about doing this on my own and the proper way to build a well-constructed studio.
The last half of the summer Seth has entrusted his new zombie movie, "Being Constance", for a film festival, to me for sound problems and any other audio issues with the movie. I have watched the movie several times and there are scenes where the music is way too loud compared to the dialogue, or certain sound effects cannot be heard over the other clatter going on during the scene. Other parts there are audio issues that need to be redone with more EQ, reverb, or reconstructed to make it fit with everything else happening on screen. This project has been intense and interesting for me, because I have done sound design project similar, but I have never worked using live movie scenes with the music and effects. It is a good way to be able to show Seth how fine-tuned my sound design skills are and will hopefully make him proud of his as well as my final project.
Even though the summer semester is almost over, I will be working with Seth for the remainder of my time in Bloomington-Normal doing other projects and completing his basement studio. It has been an interesting time working with him. He is an intense and passionate person about the projects he is involved in and has taught me to be more excited about what I am doing, because no one else has done what I am doing and we should try and make it the best for the entertainment of others. Seth has a lot of knowledge about the Gorilla studio ideals and I have noticed the amount of connections he has with others in the country. I can't remember any specific names, but he has told me repeatedly that these are people who are skilled at what they do. That when he asks for help they give it and in turn he gets them involved in his works in progress to get as many people involved and to payback anyone that has helped with a project in the past. It has been an extreme pleasure working with Seth at Very Professional Studios and my time spent on building the studio and working on "Being Constance" has helped me be more confident with this line of work and gave me extreme beginner experience in the small town biz.
~Thomas Madia
Seth Gorden - Engineer
Very Professional Studios Recording Services
(309) 824-2200
smgorden@fullsail.edu
The beginning of the summer involved me reading up on the constuctions of small recording studios and working on my sound design programs to improve my skills. Seth instructed me that I was to make a list of all the producers and engineers that made my favorite albums possible and work on finding artists that are looking for cheap and professional sounding studios in the area. These artists are on a list I have made in order to contact them when the studio is complete. Any single artists we have found have played for, or recorded with Seth already with the space he had available at the time.
The entire summer Seth and I have gotten together to begin building his studio in his new home. This was and still is a wonderful experience to be able to help build a studio from scratch from the ground up. The studio is not yet complete, but I did learn a lot about the necessary electrical wiring needed to keep everything running, the acoustics in the room from the angles of the walls to the ceiling construction above in order to get the best quality sound, and the specific equipment used, from microphones to mixing boards, to begin your own Gorilla recording studio. I now have several texts on how to go about doing this on my own and the proper way to build a well-constructed studio.
The last half of the summer Seth has entrusted his new zombie movie, "Being Constance", for a film festival, to me for sound problems and any other audio issues with the movie. I have watched the movie several times and there are scenes where the music is way too loud compared to the dialogue, or certain sound effects cannot be heard over the other clatter going on during the scene. Other parts there are audio issues that need to be redone with more EQ, reverb, or reconstructed to make it fit with everything else happening on screen. This project has been intense and interesting for me, because I have done sound design project similar, but I have never worked using live movie scenes with the music and effects. It is a good way to be able to show Seth how fine-tuned my sound design skills are and will hopefully make him proud of his as well as my final project.
Even though the summer semester is almost over, I will be working with Seth for the remainder of my time in Bloomington-Normal doing other projects and completing his basement studio. It has been an interesting time working with him. He is an intense and passionate person about the projects he is involved in and has taught me to be more excited about what I am doing, because no one else has done what I am doing and we should try and make it the best for the entertainment of others. Seth has a lot of knowledge about the Gorilla studio ideals and I have noticed the amount of connections he has with others in the country. I can't remember any specific names, but he has told me repeatedly that these are people who are skilled at what they do. That when he asks for help they give it and in turn he gets them involved in his works in progress to get as many people involved and to payback anyone that has helped with a project in the past. It has been an extreme pleasure working with Seth at Very Professional Studios and my time spent on building the studio and working on "Being Constance" has helped me be more confident with this line of work and gave me extreme beginner experience in the small town biz.
~Thomas Madia
Seth Gorden - Engineer
Very Professional Studios Recording Services
(309) 824-2200
smgorden@fullsail.edu
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