Confetti students Charlie and Josh have started their own audio engineering company – Roll Sound. We caught up with them to see how their new venture is going…
So, tell us a bit more about your company?
At Roll Sound we offer audio engineering for TV, film and games. We provide audio engineering services for pre and post-production, including recording on location, sound design, ADR and stereo mixing.
How did you get started?
We worked on a former Confetti student’s TV series project. When his sound guy was taken ill, we filled in for him while he was recovering. After this, word spread and we had other students messaging us saying that they’ve heard good things and need reliable sound recordists/boom ops. We realised that there was potential for a career in this area of the industry for us, so we invested in equipment and promoted our services on social media platforms and forums.
What has been your biggest success so far?
Our biggest success is that our name is becoming known. People are now contacting us about quotes and the services we offer. In addition, we have a great group of contacts through working with new people and attending the TV & Film Tweetups at Antenna. Initially, we worked mainly on creative projects, such as shorts and TV shows, whereas now, we have contacts who have given us work recording promotional videos for businesses across Nottingham.
What are you looking forward to working on next?
We are working to complete a final mix for a pilot TV series produced by Coalescent Films. We have worked with these guys for a while now and are confident that only good things will come from the work we do with them. We’ll be responsible for adding Foley, sound design and completing the overall mix of the pilot. This will then be marketed and promoted to distribution companies locally and nationally.
We have also just begun to promote our new mobile ADR service which consists of a portable recording studio that can be set up at the location of the filmmaker’s choice. This is cheaper and easier for filmmakers, as we come to them with a studio rather than them having to get all the actors together to go to a studio.
What made you choose to come to Confetti?
Charlie: I chose to study at Confetti because I wanted to make a career out of sound engineering and a family friend told me that Confetti would be the best place to study sound. I then did a Level 2 course and wanted to carry on my studies with Confetti on the Level 3 Studio & Live course. I’ll be going on to higher education at Confetti this year to study Audio & Music Technology.
Josh: I chose to study at Confetti after moving up from Cornwall with the desire to go back to education and learn more about what I love – sound. Initially, I wanted to study Level 3 Urban with my interests being in beat-making and song-writing. However, my GCSE’s held me back a year and by the time I got to Level 3, I had a better understanding of what I wanted to do, so I chose Studio & Live. I’m now looking forward to starting higher education with Confetti in September.
How do you juggle your studies with your student life?
It can be stressful at times, especially if we have multiple deadlines for college projects, as well as recording on-location and completing sound editing for our Roll Sound clients. Our way around it is to make a start on our college projects as soon as we get them and bounce off each other with ideas and points to make in our assignments. We then work together on our post-production work progressively until we are both happy with the results.
What advice would you give students looking to start a course at Confetti?
The best general advice I can give is to aim high and stay consistent. The axiom that you’re only as good as your most recent work is true. If you’re always pushing yourself to improve and learn new things, no matter what the scenario or industry, there will be a way to apply this knowledge to what interests you.
Fancy following in the footsteps of Charlie and Josh? Check out our Audio & Music Technology college-level and degree courses, and if you like what you see, book onto our next open day.
