Ceri Thomas

I studied “Creative Music Technology” at Brunel University from 2002-2006. I was able to arrange a one year placement during the third year of the course with Soundelux London. On my placement year I trained as an Assistant Sound Editor for feature films a role I resumed upon graduation. I spent a further four years working with Soundelux in London on a range of projects that included two James Bond films, United 93 and Green Zone by Paul Greengrass, Vantage Point and two Tim Burton films. It was during this time that I also established a working relationship with Avid Technology where I currently sit on a board of industry experts advising on future technologies.

In 2010, Soundelux London closed and I began a transition to Los Angeles, initially with Danetracks on James McTeigue’s “The Raven” and then with my current employer Todd-AO (a sister company to Soundelux) where I have changed roles to that of Mix Technician or Recordist as they call it here. My day to day activities include: Preparation of Pro Tools sessions for playback, configuration of console for mixing, monitoring of recorded materials for QA, troubleshooting and rectifying problems with my mix stage or escalating to engineering team.

Brunel University has a strong and diverse engineering background which is what drew me to the university in the first place. The creative music program utilised the many facets of the university to create a course that was rich in music theory and practice together with elements from the engineering and business schools which is not something which was available in other courses. The Max/MSP class was unique and has helped me in my day to day understanding of signal flow, digital signal processing and audio midi networking. The computer networking aspects of the course enabled me to discuss corporate networking requirements for a creative environment and together with the business courses enabled me to take a role as technical manager of the UK office within two years.

I have been very fortunate to work with some great people and on some great projects none of which would have been possible without my experience at Brunel.