Today we’d like to introduce you to Rob Marshall.
Rob, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’ve always loved music and movies for as long as I can remember. Like many in my field, I started out in music, playing guitar in a band in high school, which led to a heavy interest in music production. After a few years of playing and recording, I realized that I really wanted to be on the other side of glass in a recording studio. I’ve always loved knowing how things work and figuring out complex problems, so engineering was a natural path for me. I decided that I wanted to become a recording engineer, since becoming a successful musician was a much harder goal to achieve.
In 2005, I enrolled at Musicians Institute (M.I.) in Hollywood in their Recording Engineering program. I loved every aspect of it, from signal flow to recording techniques, and even learning more about music theory than I was previously aware of. While I was at M.I., I was working as a film projectionist for a large movie theater chain, which kept my interest in film alive, and I was becoming more aware of how sound played a role in each film’s story. I enrolled in a post-production sound class at M.I. as an elective, and from there I fell in love with the creative process of sound editing and mixing for films. And it was at that point that I thought that maybe music production wasn’t going to be the only option for me. After graduating from M.I., I got a gig at a large recording studio in Hollywood. It was a ton of fun; I got to meet a lot of amazing artists and work with some very talented engineers in the industry.
But after about a year, I felt that my love for music was fading and I wasn’t enjoying my time in the studio as I once did. I left the music world and decided to focus on film sound instead. It wasn’t an easy start, as I had no money, so I had to work full time as a projectionist at night and work freelance on a lot of student films for free to hone in my skills. My goal was always to work for one of the big sound companies like Sony, WB, or Formosa Group, but looking at their requirements for employment, most of them required at least a B.A. degree, which I didn’t have. M.I. didn’t have a B.A. program for recording at the time. So I went back to school to earn a bachelor’s degree in audio. While in school, I continued to do various freelance gigs, from production sound, sound editorial, ADR, and mixing, to live music mixing. I got a few credits working on some early web series in 2009, not realizing that web content was going to explode just a few short years later, but I’m very glad I got to be a part of it before Netflix had even aired their first show. I finished school and received my B.A. in Digital Media Arts at Cal State Dominguez Hills in 2013.
And around the same time, I was hired at 740 Sound in Playa Vista as an assistant editor and mixer. They were a small boutique commercial sound studio, focusing on cinematic sound design for ads. It was a great opportunity, as I had never worked in advertising, and I got to learn from some amazing and very talented people. I’ve been with 740 Sound ever since, working as their Lead Production Engineer, Mixer, and as Sound Supervisor for long form projects. I’ve loved working at 740 Sound because we have a great team of creative talent, and the work we do is amazing and very diverse. I can be working on a few retail TV and radio spots one day, then doing immersive audio content the next, then recording ADR or voice over for A-List talent another. There is always a new different project coming around the corner, which is very exciting.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Nope, not smooth at all. The biggest obstacle was making sure I could complete my goal of getting a degree and a job without going broke in the process. I had to make a lot of sacrifices along the way; at a few times I had to focus more on my job as a projectionist to pay my bills and afford rent, which meant turning down some freelance work. This led to making my time getting my degree taking a little longer than I planned. It took me six years to finish school and finally start a stable career in post-production sound. But I don’t regret one bit of it. Everything I learned and experienced on the way to where I am now is priceless and I would not change any of it.
740 Sound – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
740 Sound is a small post-production sound studio located in Playa Vista. We specialize in cinema style sound design for commercials. We do mixing for commercials, episodic, features, immersive audio, and some game audio from time to time. We also do ADR and voice over recording, as well as Motion Capture and Sound Effects recording.
We are most proud of our commitment to creating quality soundscapes for every one of our client’s projects.
What sets us apart from everyone else is that we treat every project like we are working on a major film. And we bring the combined talent and experience of working in film, TV, and games for the last three decades to every project we work on.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Besides being to work with some of my idols and very awesome actors over the last few years, I’d say being nominated for a Golden Reel award on an episodic project called What Lives Inside back in 2015. We didn’t win, but that just makes me strive to work harder and do my very best on every project because you never know what a project will do for you or your clients.
Contact Info:
- Address: 12509 Beatrice Street
Los Angeles, CA 90066 - Website: www.740sound.com
- Phone: 310-574-0740
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/740.sound/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/740sounddesign/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/740sound?lang=en
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/740-sound-los-angeles
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/740-sound-design
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