Meet Wtf Are You Booming | Sound Mixer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Wtf Are You Booming and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi WTF are You, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
We started “WTF are you Booming”after years of being on sets. Many of us crew members would tell stories on set amongst ourselves, and we saw the success of ShittyRigs and thought what if we just focused on the sound community and did the same thing? So a couple of us sound mixers got together and started posting our own pictures and it started growing. Then we started to get a couple pictures a month submitted to us. Then it just kept growing and now we get 5-10 a day. Almost more than we can post. It just has grown far more than we ever thought. Just a couple sound mixers has turned into a community that reaches across the whole sound world. It’s important to remember that yes while we do point the funny finger at humor found on set, there is no ill will at all. We just like to find the funny. And the most important thing to remember is that if it works it works. It may look dumb or funny but it may also work. We’ve all had to do something that would make it on the page at some point in our careers, forgot a c-stand or a boom pole and had to make something up on the fly. So we’ve been there and we want everyone to know that we are just having a laugh.

What should our readers know about your business?
Well, I have been on hundreds of sets. Personally, have been doing this for over a decade. Recording sound has been the most rewarding job. Whether it’s been Small sets or huge sets the journey has been unique and exciting. I’ve met and worked with A listers and newly discovered talent. Been on set with household names. Being that our identity is kind of a secret we won’t name projects or names. But the one thing that I’ve truly learned is people are people. No matter how famous they are. They just want to be treated like normal people for the most part. You have your outliers every now and then but mainly they are normal and want to be treated no differently than you do. It may sound strange, pun intended, but most sound mixers are thought to be old, curmudgeonly dudes. Just sitting by their cart mumbling to themselves about how much noise they hear. At one time there might have been some truth to that. But today we have so many younger professionals recording sound, so many different ethnicities and many of them female. It’s great to see how this occupation has changed and evolved over the pass before years. As technology has progressed so have the people. It’s nice to have someone tell you that you are so much nicer than they thought you were going to be based on the preconceived idea of what a sound mixer has been in this business is.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Well, that depends on where we are. I split my time between Los Angeles, Dallas and Nashville. We have places in each city we call home. So we could be going to on a hike to Hollywood sign and then drinks and dinner in NoHo, or a Stars Games and BBQ at One of the many world famous restaurants in DFW or make a night of it in Nashville walking Broadway and visiting the honkytonks!! It’s always great getting time off and if we get to spend it with the people we care about that’s even more meaningful. We always try to make memories no matter where we are.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
So many people in the Film industry have had a roll in making our page successful. We get so much support, not just from sound professionals but people from every department in the film community. We get hundreds of messages and pictures shared with us to make our page more successful. More than we could ever name individually. But we can say that Joe Giannotti aka @floridasoundman on Instagram, gave us the opportunity to start doing giveaways. He has several products but one in particular is the Quiet Please reflecting sign. He approached us and asked if we would be interested in giving some away. That really helped us understand that we could not only make people laugh but also help small businesses reach potential customers all over the world. The sound community is relatively small and it helps when we all band together to help one another. Since that first give away we have been able to partner with many other companies doing contests. We’ve been able to give away boom poles, bags, other products. We look forward to partnering with other companies in the future. One of our dreams is to be able to take used equipment, put it into kits for up and coming sound mixers who can’t afford $25,000 worth of new stuff. So they can get a foothold and start working. We all had to start somewhere.

Instagram: @wtfareyoubooming

Image Credits
All taken by me