Today we’d like to introduce you to Angelina Park.
Hi Angelina, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hi! Thanks for having me. I’ve had an interest in creative storytelling and music for as long as I can remember. My mother was an aspiring film director who set aside her career dreams when she immigrated to the United States with my father when I was very young. Through her passions, I had an early exposure to classic films and became fascinated with the blend of moving pictures, stories, and music. I also formed a love for video games, which are probably still my favorite medium for creative storytelling.
Growing up, I’ve been an “orchestra kid” for nearly all my life; I started playing the violin at six years old and performed in all sorts of orchestras and chamber groups since my elementary years. When I entered college, I started off as a violin performance major at the Boston Conservatory. Violin, or rather, music in general, was my one vessel I could share my emotions through, as I was a very quiet and anxious person growing up with a lot of difficulty expressing myself. During my first year of conservatory, I quickly realized that the competitive, often times cutthroat aspect of majoring in virtuosic violin performance made me absolutely miserable. I discovered that the college next door, Berklee College of Music, offered a film and video game scoring program. My eyes were opened right there and then, as I never knew that scoring for media could’ve ever been a career option for myself.
The next year, I applied for the film scoring major and video game scoring minor at Berklee and never looked back since. My goal from then on was to work in video game music someday, and I started to deepen my passion for music and creative storytelling through learning how to use a digital audio workstation and scoring to various media projects.
About a year after graduating college, I made the big move to Los Angeles and survived my first few years doing internships and various other part-time jobs to stay afloat (some of those jobs included: barista, library composer, and legal assistant). My first “real” music job opportunity was as a personal assistant to film composer Bear McCreary, and I worked on film and television projects such as Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Outlander, and The Walking Dead. The experience working on these projects was invaluable, and I was eventually able to utilize my music background and administrative abilities to be promoted to Executive Director of Music Administration. After a while in that role, I made up my mind that I needed to focus on fully making my way into my industry of choice— video game music.
Unfortunately, I made up my mind right before the pandemic hit the hardest! I was out of a job for half a year before landing a music copyrights job while constantly on the lookout for other opportunities to gain more experience in game audio production. One of my freelance gigs was as an Audio Producer, and I was able to pick up a contract gig at a game audio service company called Unlock Audio. I gained more game audio production experience that way while as I continued my copyrights job, and essentially worked that way for about two years before ultimately landing my current position as Audio Producer for the PlayStation Creative Arts Music team.
Working at PlayStation has so far been one of the most fun experiences in my life, and up to this point, I am grateful for having so many of my childhood dreams fulfilled. However, I have a lot more dreams, and am looking forward to tackling them all one by one!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My path hasn’t been smooth, but who’s path hasn’t been?
I think being an Asian-American woman (especially one who fits the unfortunate “quiet Asian girl” stereotype) working in the entertainment industry has personally made my path a lot more difficult. I’m an introvert with a lot of social anxiety, and to survive in the entertainment industry required so much more energy out of myself to simply go out and socialize while being extremely wary of not being taken advantage of. I’ve had a lot of tear-inducing nights where I couldn’t even make it out of my car to attend networking events due to social anxiety during my early LA years, and have felt very isolated for long stretches of time throughout my career. In the workplace, I often found my voice suppressed by others who were louder with their thoughts, and oftentimes in higher positions than I was.
The saying “no one has the same path” has truly helped me out a ton, and rather than meeting with people to form professional contacts, I focused on forming and strengthening genuine friendships in the small circles I was already a part of. I’m really lucky to have amazingly supportive friends and family and have also met some truly lovely people along the way whom I now see as lifelong friends. I try to treasure all of the friendships I make and practice the mentality of lettings things that aren’t in my control go. I’ve also learned to simply trust my gut more and be courageous in putting my voice out there.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My current role is Audio Producer for the PlayStation Creative Arts music team. I am essentially a producer/project manager for my team and help keep all of our projects on track while managing a team of music designers. I do everything from project forecasting, sprint & milestone planning, communicating and planning with my creative team members every day, coordinating communications with developers, internal team members, and outsourced teams, and making pretty spreadsheets!
While my role is focused in production and project management, I’ve been very fortunate to also be involved in the creative music aspect of what our team does due to my music background and experience. I’ve been able to attend recording sessions, communicate with session musicians, and have a say in the creative music decisions that need to be made. It has been an incredibly fulfilling experience so far.
I’ve found that music roles in general are extremely rare in the video game industry, as there are very few video game companies that have their own internal music team. What’s even more rare currently are game producer roles that focus on only music specifically— more often than not, you’d find “audio producer” roles in the game industry, which may encompass not only the music discipline but also sound design and dialogue. I am strictly focused on being a producer for the music discipline, which I feel very fortunate for. I’d love to advocate for more music-focused roles in the industry.
I’m most proud of my team and the healthy environment I’m able to help foster and influence in the workplace. I think my soft skills are so vital in my role, and believe that empathy, diversity, and inclusivity in our industry are all incredibly important. I am always on the lookout to create and find opportunities that champion these values, both in the workplace and out. I’m grateful to be surrounded by people who share these values and give me the space to advocate for them.
I also compose music for personal and indie projects outside of my full-time job and overall feel like my career is really starting to bloom with lots to look forward to on the horizon.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Remember to have empathy and respect for others. When the Covid-19 crisis was at its peak, it was a difficult time for everyone involved for a variety of different reasons. It’s been especially vital for me to remember to check up on my friends, and I’ve seen a lot of support in my circles during that time as well. Whether it be sharing job postings with each other, helping with resumes, interview practice, or simply checking up on each other to see how we were doing— all of it can carry someone a long, long way.
Professionally, of course, there had to be a huge shift in how work was done. Everything had to be done remotely, such as big orchestral recording sessions and creative meetings with high-ranking stakeholders. In my experience, I’ve found that advocating for a friendly, inclusive workspace was more important than ever, along with clear communication. It’s very easy to feel isolated when you’re working from home all day staring at a screen, speaking to coworkers mainly through online text— but I felt much more included and valued when teammates and leadership had genuine empathy for each other and actively tried to foster a fun workspace for everyone involved. I try to keep up that positive energy on whatever team I’m on.
Contact Info:
- Website: angelinapark.com
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/angelinapark/
- Other: imdb.me/angelinapark
