A COLLABORATIVE POST
WRITTEN BY BOOM BOX POST

Meet Boom Box Post’s summer interns, Jennifer Bonilla and Renata Schmult! As with all of our newest team members, we asked them to have a quick chat with us to learn more about their backgrounds and journey through sound. Here’s what we found out about them!

How did you get started in audio and where did you study?

Jennifer: I got started in audio engineering three years ago by attempting to produce/engineer my own music. Prior to going to college, I wasn’t aware of what audio engineering was or what it entailed. I had only ever known how to use GarageBand up until I transferred into Cal State Dominguez Hills where I graduated with my bachelors in audio engineering, and discovered the whole new world of post and music production.

Renata: I started taking an interest in audio-post by doing student films at the University of Michigan where I studied sound engineering.


What sparked your interest in sound for TV/Film?

Jennifer: There was a time in my life where I binge watched the entire series of “Avatar: The last air bender,” and sparked an interest in sound engineering, but it fully formed when I had to do a project for one of my classes that required us to do sound fx on a small 30 second clip of the movie “Despicable me.” I had so much fun bringing life to the clip with my own twist to it.

Renata: I was gifted a Zoom h8 field recorder for my birthday one year and started going out to record all kinds of random sounds. I had a lot of fun processing them and transforming them into something completely new. Once I found out you can design and edit sounds for TV and film as a job I kind of fell down that rabbit hole.


How did You find out about the Boom Box Post internship?

Jennifer: Last fall I had the wonderful privilege of being an intern for the Women’s Audio Mission (WAM), a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to advancing women and gender expansive individuals into audio engineering. Later in the spring, I had received an email from Boom Box Post saying I was recommended by WAM for their summer internship, so I applied and got in!

Renata: I attended a panel at the Sound Girls Conference in December that Kate was moderating about sound for animation and looked into her company. I sent a cold email asking if there were any internships and they responded by saying they were currently interviewing for summer interns.


Jennifer working on her digital foley project

Which intern lesson are you looking forward to most?

Jennifer: The lesson I’m looking forward to the most is the dialogue lesson. I have had experience of recording ADR in our studio at school, but am excited to dive in a bit deeper with the editing portion of it.

Renata: I'm looking forward to the sound design lesson the most because I really enjoy being able to imagine and create sounds for visual media. I'm also looking forward to the dialog lesson just because that's probably my weakest skillset and I want to get better at it.



What was your favorite animated movie or television series as a child?

Jennifer: When I was a kid, my favorite television series was Max and Ruby. It was a show about two bunnies who were siblings. Everyone in the show talked except for Max. I loved the animation of it and how the younger brother never talked so he would have special fx/ themed music that still gave his character life and kept the audience engaged/ be aware of the emotion he was trying to give. Another classic is of course Avatar: The Last Airbender. The entire production as a whole is a 10/10.I can go on and on about the animation, storyline, foley, and fx in the show, and I would binge watch it everyday if I could.

Renata: Winnie the Pooh

Renata working on her digital foley project

Have you worked on the sound for animation projects in the past? Tell us about it!

Jennifer: I haven’t had much experience in working in sound for animation other than the small projects I would get assigned for school. However, the audio and film departments used to collaborate a lot in our post production classes and I have helped out a few film students with their short films by doing foley and ADR! I am excited to learn more about the differences between animation versus live.

Renata: I've done sound for a few animated student shorts and recently did some re-designs for different styles of animation as a part of my senior thesis. I really enjoy how much freedom you get by doing sound for animation and how different the sonic styles can be depending on the genre.


Tell us about something you've already learned so far!

Jennifer: Something that I have learned so far is organizing session layouts! It was cool to see how everything gets organized to ensure a smooth session for everyone. I also learned about the foley process, and how it is different in animation versus live. I had only ever recorded and edited live foley that I did myself, so it is cool to see how it’s done with samples in animation.

Renata: I've already learned a lot about how to properly set up edit sessions for mixers and how much of a difference laying out clips properly and color coding can make. I've also learned dozens of Pro Tools shortcuts that I'm looking forward to incorporating into my workflow.

Thank you to Jennifer and Renata for letting us get to know them!

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