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Production Sound · Stage 1

Sound Trainee

The quietest department on set: get onto the sound cart and learn the craft from the people who own the kit.

Production sound is a two or three person team that records every usable word on set, and the trainee is its most junior member. The department, the kit, the routes in, what your CV must contain, and how you will know you are ready for Stage 2.

2 hours · 6 modules · 18 lessons

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What you’ll learn

  • Be able to describe what the mixer, boom operator, sound assistant and trainee each do across a shoot day, and where you stand when the camera rolls.
  • Know the kit by name (recorder, boom, radio mics, timecode, bags, IFBs) and the twenty phrases you will hear on day one.
  • Have three real routes into experience this month, including a kit rental house, and will know the rules on pay, unpaid work and safety that go with them.
  • Have a drafted Stage 1 CV outline, a 150-word approach email and a saved plan with a review date, and you will be able to say the five Stage 1 exit statements honestly.

Where this leads

By the end you will have written your own Stage 1 plan, checked yourself against MFJF's five Stage 1 statements, and know exactly what to do next: a mentor clinic, an Academy workshop, and Stage 2, the HotList.

Finish the course and you can build your personal plan: MFJF's three-stage planner for this role, ticked from Your Profile and your CV, with dated next steps and the CV line each one becomes.

Module 1

The role and the department

20 min

What production sound records, who is in the team, how a take gets recorded, and what your day as a trainee actually contains.

  1. readWhat production sound is, and who does it8 min
  2. readYour day as a sound trainee, and what good looks like8 min
  3. checkCheck: the department4 min
Module 2

Before day one: skills, kit and knowledge

20 min

The skills a mixer hopes you bring and how to get each one now, the kit you must be able to name, the phrases, the ten tips, and an honest self-audit.

  1. readThe skills and the kit8 min
  2. readPhrases, the ten tips, what to carry, and how you get paid6 min
  3. taskTask: your skills self-audit6 min
Module 3

Getting experience at Stage 1

20 min

Where sound experience really comes from, including kit rental houses, and the rules on pay, unpaid work and safety that protect you.

  1. readSeven routes into production sound8 min
  2. readThe rules: BECTU, pay, unpaid work and safety6 min
  3. taskTask: find three routes this month6 min
Module 4

Your CV, your email and your first approaches

20 min

What a Stage 1 sound trainee CV contains, the email that goes with it, how to approach mixers without annoying them, and what a reference really means.

  1. readThe Stage 1 CV, the email and the approach7 min
  2. taskTask: draft your CV outline8 min
  3. checkCheck: the CV and the approach5 min
Module 5

The industry around the role

20 min

Production sound versus post sound, the companies and departments you touch, where else the skills sell, the three-year plan and what the case studies did.

  1. readThe map: production sound, post sound and the three-year plan7 min
  2. resourcesThe library for this course8 min
  3. checkCheck: the industry around the role5 min
Module 6

Your plan: Stage 1 to Stage 2

20 min

Your saved plan, the five statements you must be able to say honestly, and what to do next on MFJF.

  1. plannerYour plan10 min
  2. readHow you know you are ready for Stage 26 min
  3. checkCheck: ready for Stage 24 min
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Sources and references

Where this course comes from. Open any of them yourself.

What this course was written from

Every link checked 19 September 2026.

You are not doing this alone

You have your own personal career mentor

That is us, the MFJF team. Book an MFJF Mentor Session with us every month: we guide you through this journey and answer all your questions, from which job is yours to your CV and your next application.

Book my MFJF Mentor Session

Where next

Your recommended next steps

Picked for Production Sound. 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: Production SoundTwo 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: Production SoundWhat to do, learn and be able to do, from no experience to paid work.
  7. The career guide: Production SoundThe 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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