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A production department

Sound

The sound department: who is in it and what each of them does

Every word an audience hears an actor say was recorded on set by a team of two or three people they never see. Production sound captures what happened on the day; the soundtrack is built later, by different people, in a different place.

The production sound department is present for the whole of principal photography and records clean dialogue for every take, plus off-camera lines, wild tracks, room tone and the live effects a scene makes. It does not add music, build effects or mix the film: that is post-production sound, a separate set of companies and people. It is one of the smallest teams on a unit and the only one whose problems the rest of the crew cannot see on a monitor.

  1. Production sound mixer

  2. Boom operator

  3. Sound assistant

  4. Sound traineeEntry-level job

  5. Sound department runnerEntry-level job

  6. Video assist and playback operator

Drawn from MFJF's own Foundations course Sound Trainee (module 1: What production sound is, and who does it, and Your day as a sound trainee, and what good looks like; module 2 on playback and video assist; module 5: The map: production sound, post sound and the three-year plan). The words are My First Job In Film's. © My First Job In Film 2026.

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Your recommended next steps

Picked for Sound Trainee. Signed in, they follow your stage and the roles your answers point to. See your whole MFJF journey, step by step →

  1. My MFJF JourneyOne page for everything MFJF has built, in the order you need it.
  2. My Reading ListThe books, blogs and bodies you have saved, in one place.
  3. Start the Stage 1 course: Sound TraineeTwo hours on what the job is, how people get in and what to do first.
  4. Get on the HotListPut yourself in front of productions looking for crew.
  5. Join MFJF DayPlayersDay work on productions for crew with the credits and the skills.
  6. The career planner: Sound TraineeWhat to do, learn and be able to do, from no experience to paid work.
  7. The career guide: Sound TraineeThe job, the day, the way in and the pay, in one guide.
  8. See how it all fits on the career maps17 maps of how films get made: the people, the process and the departments.
  9. Who works whereEvery department on a shoot and every kind of film company: who is in each and what they do.
  10. Industry EssentialsThe books, industry bodies, websites and blogs worth knowing, department by department.
  11. Read the MFJF Survival GuidesStraight answers to what everyone starting out asks: how long it takes, what you get paid, and what to do every day.
  12. MFJF Academy workshopsLive sessions with people who do the job, and the monthly career clinic.
  13. Build your CV with the CV BuilderThe industry's format, built from your profile and your current CV.

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