Steve Rosen
Mixer/Co-Founder
Sonic Union

1) We recently had a project in for Squarespace where some aspects proved exceptionally challenging. One example was from the spot called “Storytellers” where our mixer David Papa was charged with blending the sound design of various scenes of people typing on old-fashioned typewriters along to the melody of a well-known piece of music, ultimately building to a thunderous crescendo. His challenge was to find a way to match the timing of the SFX and the musical melody with the physical movements of the typists (who were not actually referencing the final music track), while balancing the incorporation of the typing sounds as both another instrument in the track and also as believable realistic production audio. He was ultimately able to find a balance that satisfied the melding of all three elements (music, pic and sound) into one cohesive mix. He found that it’s important and sometimes beneficial, to have some creative wiggle room, and that sum total of the various elements of a mix can override the notions that everything has to be perfectly in sync to effectively convey an idea.

2) Well, we’re in uncharted political territory these days, so on a personal level, working on the New York Times “Truth Is Hard” spot was definitely a high point of 2017 for me. It’s rare in advertising to work on something that’s both creatively challenging while at the same time aligning with your own moral center. It was a perfect storm of good while the world was (at least from my point of view) seemingly in flames around us.

3) We’re now more often asked to be involved in projects earlier in the process. This has been a rather exciting evolution. As projects have gotten more complex with the advent of multi-page deliverables lists, it helps to be involved earlier from both a logistical, and creative standpoint. On a personal level, I’ve been lucky enough over the life of Sonic Union, to learn from my partners the finer points of running a successful business.

4) Budgets! While I understand that advertisers, agencies and holding companies are beholden to their shareholders, ever shrinking budget requirements are going to be the most challenging aspect for the post-production community to manage going forward. Maintaining the quality levels we’ve been known for while still treating our clients and staff they way we do has an inherent cost. And it’s not going down. My whole career has been in service of the advertising community. I’d like to see that creative relationship continue with the next generations as well, rather than continuing in the direction of the in-house model, that serves nobody but the holding companies. I cannot express in physical numbers the number of eye-rolls I’ve gotten from creatives or producers while recounting situations when they were “strongly encouraged” to work in-house. They (and we) fully understand that it’s not in the projects’ best interest and doesn’t necessarily save the advertiser any money!

5) We’re really excited about immersive audio. We’ve done quite a few VR projects, and are presently gearing up to do a lot more in that arena. It’s been a bit of a steep learning curve, but luckily we’ve got some very talented people at Sonic Union who’ve shown great interest in exploring this world and who’ve worked on VR jobs for Vanity Fair and the Wall Street Journal most recently.

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