Today we’d like to introduce you to Rachel Little.
Rachel, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Ever since I was a child I was a fan of movies. My parents noticed before I did. They saw that I liked to watch and rewatch movies and then break them down as to how they could have been created differently to avoid problems. My dad used to install home theaters and when he would drag me with him to clients’ houses he would always play movies to check the sound to make sure the speakers were all working. Whenever the movies would play I would be so memorized by the sound and the feeling that sound brings to a movie. When I was in elementary school I was part of the morning news program and when I was a freshman in high school my parents found out about this technical school called Monroe Technology. The school had a TV & Film production class. It was a two year program so when I was eligible to apply I did and got accepted. Only 14 kids out of my whole school district get chosen and I was one of the 14. So every other day in high school I would go to this school and learn TV & Film production. That is when I fell in love with film production. I got a diploma from Monroe as well as a high school one which was pretty cool.
I ended up going to community college for two years before I made the big leap of moving out to LA by myself in September 2018 to attend the Los Angeles Film School. I knew no one in LA, having no friends or family on the west coast. I had never even lived on my own so it was a big adjustment and I went through a lot of ups and downs the first few months. Being so far from my home made me unsure if I still wanted to pursue film at all. Then I finally found people that shared my passion for film and LA soon became home. I fell in love with film all over again and I finally understood that it was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. While I was sure I wanted to do something in the film, I still wasn’t sure what aspect of it was for me until I took a sound class. I was memorized by the detail and the process of how you make the sound for movies. I have always said that “if a movie doesn’t have a good score or sound it won’t be a good movie”. For the past few months, I have gotten very close with my sound teachers who have been amazing mentors and who I know will help me after I graduate in January 2020 and start my career as a sound mixer/designer.
Has it been a smooth road?
When I was ten years old I was diagnosed with ADHD which made academics hard for me. I ended up taking medication for it for about six years until I stopped it due to the side effects. I tried super hard to do well in school and did okay, but my grades were only mediocre because I struggled so much with testing. So when I got accepted to Monroe Academy’s film program it was something that I was so interested in that I was able to focus and learn a lot easier. It was also very hands on, so I was able to move around and touch things to learn.
I applied to the film program at Virginia Commonwealth University and I didn’t get in. It was pretty discouraging because that was the only school I applied to and the only one I wanted to go to. So when I didn’t get in I felt defeated and that I wasn’t good enough to be a filmmaker. Instead, I went to my community college and was still miserable because I wasn’t good at the general studies and that’s all I was taking. I failed several classes even after I worked extremely hard. When I got to my 4th semester my mom and I decided I should take some film classes at the community college to try and figure out if the film was still what I wanted to do. The classes weren’t anything special but I did very well and it encouraged me a little more.
After my two years of community college, I realized I didn’t want to re-apply to VCU so my mom and I started looking for other options. That was how we found the LA Film School. We flew out to LA and visited the school and I fell in love with it, making my decision to start that fall. I moved out in September to a place where I didn’t know anyone. I went through a lot from September through December, calling my parents crying almost every day saying how I was lonely and how I haven’t made any friends. I remember thinking that I want to move back but It already cost so much to move me out here I couldn’t do that to my parents. I stayed and suffered through it because I know they worked super hard to get me there. They are my biggest fans and the anchors to my future success because without them I wouldn’t have moved and I wouldn’t be where I am today. I want to make them proud and even though I was miserable I wanted them to know I could do it and I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I am a freelance sound mixer/designer. As a sound mixer, I am on set every day while filming. I make sure that the audio we are capturing is nice and smooth so in the post there isn’t a huge amount of work that needs to be done. I also do sound design which is post production. I help create the sound effects either from scratch using foley or from stuff we already have on file.
I think that being a female is something that sets me apart from most. The film is sadly still a very male dominated industry but is slowly getting better and women are starting to get the recognition they deserve. So being a women in the sound business is very rare and from what I have been told by other working professionals this is a good time to be a “woman in sound” because people are looking for women who are passionate about sound and of course, good at it, which I feel describes me well.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Los Angeles is the place to be hands down if you want to be in this industry. Yes, It is competitive and yes, it is a lot of work and yes, traffic stinks. But this is where you can become known. This is where you can live your dream as long as you have the work ethic and determination to do so. This city is brutal, you will be chewed up and spit out if you don’t stand your ground and work till you bleed. I love this city and it can sometimes be a lot but thankfully there are plenty of places you can go to get a breath of fresh air. You can meet so many interesting people just by sitting down at a coffee shop. When I had just moved here I went to a laundry mat because my laundry room scared me. I was sitting waiting for my clothes to finish and an older man sat down next to and asked if I knew how to use the wifi. We just started talking and it turned out he was an Oscar winner for special effects. So you never know who you’re going to meet, possibly just doing laundry.
So I recommend coming out here if the film is what you want to do. There is nowhere else you could go to get this kind of experience and knowledge. You just HAVE to have the strength and motivation to do it because you won’t survive out here if you don’t.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-little-96372a168/
- Phone: 703-678-6304
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/officialrachellittle/
Image Credit:
Kaylie Lee
Mathew Alexander
Max Woods
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