Meet Joseph Hartshorn | Production Sound mixer & Boom Operator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Joseph Hartshorn and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Joseph, how has your work-life balance changed over time?
Work life balance is really hard. Both when you really love your craft and when you are freelance. For most of my career, my focus was work. I had days where I was on set working and there were days at home prepping gear, waiting for work. And even though I wasn’t on the clock getting paid, I was spending most of those days thinking about how to improve my workflow, reading gear manuals for every piece of equipment I could potentially use, scrolling through the sound mixer social media groups and forums looking for used equipment or work, and maintaining my equipment. I would still do other things, but my mind was always thinking about sound non-stop. Honestly, it was a great time, I love sound, but it wasn’t sustainable for me to focus on my job and not focus on myself.
In the past year and a half, I have been working on rebalancing my life. I am taking time to re-introduce the hobbies and downtime that I neglected since the beginning of my career. I have been reading comic books again. I have been enjoying tea and going to kung fu to stay active and strengthen my shoulders for booming. I love Star Wars and tinkering, so I joined the R2 Builders Club and I am working on building a full size R2 droid. On my off days, I still prepare equipment and read manuals for work, but it is not consuming all of my time and mental energy. I look forward to a day of building my R2-B1 instead of wondering when the day of my next job would arrive.
After I introduced balance into my home life, I needed to bring some of the balance from home to my work day. Last summer I was exhausted while working on a TV series and I needed a little bit of sanity to keep going. I am a tea lover and always used tea to relax at home. So around the 3rd week, I decided to bring my travel tea kettle to set. Whenever I would get stressed and overworked on set I would stop during a break, go back to the sound cart, and have a nice cup of oolong tea. By the end of the show, I had the unexpected pleasure of sharing tea with the cast and crew members. Bringing a little bit of home to work made the environment much more friendly and satisfying. My personal love of tea not only improved the work environment for myself, it improved my quality of work also. I felt more fulfilled because I could share a part of myself with the cast and crew. By sharing tea and collaborating with other departments, I created space to incorporate my identity into my work. It was important for me to remember that even though I love my craft, it is just a job. Now when I go into work, I only give 99%. I save 1% for my well-being. For me, balance is remembering to stop and have a cup of tea whether I am at work, at home, with my friends or by myself.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am a collaborative technical artist. As a production sound mixer and Iatse local 695 boom operator, my art is to capture the spirit of an actor’s performance in a polywave audio file. The intimate sound of an actor’s performance is fragile, and there are a million things that could get in the way. The constant puzzle is working around the lights, the camera angles, the actor’s blocking, and the costumes. But I can be creative when I perfectly place a lavalier microphone in a shirt collar, or position a boom mic above an actor’s head. Production sound mixers cannot control when loud distractions such as planes and lawn mowers overlap the dialog, but the slightest adjustment can make a scene feel alive or just sound ok. The artistry of production sound is in three primary parts: Preparing and selecting our equipment for its workflow, operating and positioning our tools to capture the sound, and collaborating with other film departments to make the best sound possible. I use my creativity to record the dialog and emotional sounds in a way that enhances the story. There is nothing more satisfying than knowing that you are perfectly capturing a performance because you can feel the actor’s emotions striking you to your core through your headphones.

I have been working in sound for about a decade. I also am one of the only J.L. Fisher Boom owner operators in the United States. I have two model 2 fisher booms from around the 1960s that I use whenever I can. There is something magical about the way these old sitcom booms work. Personally, I prefer to combine the best of the old and reliable equipment and methods with the best of the new innovative technology. I started in live sound as a front of house mixer. In 2018 and 2019 I freelanced in post sound for a bit as a sound editor. At the end of 2019 I started working on short films as a production sound mixer. Since 2020 I have been working full time on set as a freelance production sound mixer, boom operator, or sound utility. Even though I prefer to work on set, I am glad that I got to learn front of house mixing and post sound, because it makes me a stronger and more versatile mixer. I can adjust my workflow to match the needs of a set, rather than only being able to do things one way. While I do mix a decent amount, I actually prefer to work as the boom operator or sound utility. To me the most satisfying part of the job is getting the perfect mic placement to capture the performance. So I prefer getting more hands on with the mics.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I would take them to eat at Kimbob Rex in Glendale. The lady who runs the restaurant is great and the T-Rex is one of my favorite meals. I would take them to the Iliad bookstore to go book shopping. We would go to Ducks Restaurant in San Gabriel for the Katsudon and curry. I would take them to The Last Bookstore so they could enjoy the cool book displays. I would also take them to Mandarin Noodle House in Monterey Park for handmade noodles. And we would have a tea tasting at Tea Habitat in Alhambra.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
An actor’s breath carries a tender yet powerful panorama of emotions. As a boom operator, it is my job to get close and catch the breath of the performance with state-of-the-art sound equipment. A movie with impactful sound makes the audience feel close to the performance, like they are part of the story. Rich movie sound makes the audience laugh, cry, and confront their inner selves. Aristotle refers to this experience as catharsis, which is the release and expression of emotions in art. The philosophy within Aristotle’s Poetics inspired me to work in the film industry because the most important part of storytelling is audience catharsis. I want to dedicate my shoutout to Mr. Jordan and Mrs. Sherman, my high school Humane letters and Ancient Greek teachers. Thank you, Mrs. Sherman, for having us struggle through translating Aristotle’s Poetics and for all the love you put into your students. Thank you, Mr. Jordan, for teaching me to love tea. Our philosophical discussions before school led me to discover my career path in sound.

Website: https://www.hartshornsound.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hartshornsound/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-victor-hartshorn

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joseph.hartshorn.7/

Image Credits
Sam Reid
Monson Douglas
Gabe Hornback
Joseph Hartshorn