Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1538144
M OT I O N P I CTU R E S O U N D E D I TO R S 43 Building a Creative Culture at Sound Lab "Everyone brings a perspective that helps move the team forward, no matter where they come from." Today, you are the creative director at Sound Lab, creatively leading a wide range of projects. What's the core vision behind your team, and how do you keep creativity and collaboration flowing across such diverse work? Scott: As for the core vision for the team at Sound Lab and how we keep collaboration flowing across different projects, I'll speak specifically from the sound design side for a moment. I've brought together a bunch of really creative folks, and our goal is to tackle and solve problems with audio across every medium we can get our hands on. It's ironic that when I was at Soundelux, I was creating sound for games inside a film studio. And now I'm creating sound for films inside a game studio (Keywords is known for their work in the gaming industry). But they're fully supportive of us expanding into other industries and mediums, which is great. I try to keep things fresh and interesting. I always tell the team to come in each day with one idea to share, and that keeps us from getting siloed. We usually have four to six projects going at once in-house, so I want everyone to keep thinking and contributing to the knowledge of the team. Some crew members are great with designing weapons, magic, and/ or creatures, while others are highly technical, working inside the game engine, and others think outside the box in their design creations. It all combines into an awesome creative crew. When I hire, I look for their passion, which I jokingly call their superpower. What do they love to do, and what are they naturally great at? I think of it like putting together a band. Each person brings a unique instrument and voice. To me, everything is music and visuals, and I'm very visually based. So, I ask myself: How does this person fit into the band? At the end of the day, we have to function as a team. No matter how long a member has been working in games or designing, everyone has something to contribute. Everyone has a perspective that helps move the team forward, no matter where they come from. Before I joined Keywords Studios, I hired Debbie Gonzalez, an old college friend who was hugely successful in the commercial music business, to join me when I started the game division at Formosa. Three years later, we decided to move over to Technicolor, which eventually led to joining Keywords Studios, where we partnered up to form the Sound Lab. Debbie is now head of studio. Inside the Pipeline Workflow Differences: Film vs. Games "About 80% of the time, we are fully embedded into the in-house sound and development team. We're placing sounds directly into Wwise, and that's not just on the editing side. We're handling reverb, voice counts, randomization logic, and more." Given your experience leading teams across both linear and interactive L-R: Tomi Tomita, Buddy Halligan, Andrew Brassell, Scott Gershin, Matt Wolf, Manuele Pepe, Nick Hartman, Charles Samson, Chloe Shepard, Kyle Lammerding, Amy Casanova, Kristine Hemady, Chris Richardson, Mike Li, Jordan Krekorian, Tyler Hayden, Gabriel Acosta, Aiden Gould, Josh Zielinski, Savina Ciaramella, Debbie Gonzalez, Haroon Piracha, Elodie Powers, Quetzel Herzig