Sound Mixer, Sound Editor, Child Labor Coordinator
Athens Historical Society
In July 2025 I was hired by director Lauren Musgrove, my film production professor at UGA, to record and edit sound for “Industrial Athens 2: The Struggle to End Child Labor.”
The project was funded by the Athens Historical Society (AHS) for their “Athens Film Project” series. The AHS is a non-profit organization committed to preserving and promoting the history of Athens, Georgia, the city I lived and studied in for three years.
This was one of my first official documentary gigs, and I learned a new crew position and more about sound recording.
The production needed a child labor coordinator (CLC) on set to monitor and update paperwork on the minors being interviewed. I had experience (and a fresh background check) working with minors as an instructor for a 1 week summer camp in June, so I qualified for the position. The kids and their guardians were all responsible and easy to work with, but it was challenging at first to keep track of who everybody was and adapting to a shifting interview schedule.
I was responsible for sound recording on the first day of set, the interview with the historian Bryant Barnes. The dining room was reverberant, so in addition to the stationary boom we used a lavaliere. The Zoom F6 was the recorder and along with the other gear was provided by the talented Lauren Bowman. She taught me a handful of its quirks I was unfamiliar with (and now I VERY much want to own one). 🙂
Post-production was coordinated by Lauren Musgrove, the lead editor. I edited sound in premiere after picture lock was delivered via project file. The lavaliere was unfortunately unusable due to radio interference I couldn’t detect during recording, but the biggest challenge was designing immersive soundscapes based off the archival photos to keep the film engaging.