Mr. Student Body President

One of my bigger projects of the year was Sound Design / Sound Editing for New Form Digital's new series 'Mr. Student Body President'. Cool thing about this show is it's got Jeremy Shada AKA FINN THE HUMAN!! So it's hilarious...also this show is part of an all new streaming network called Verizon Go 90,  and it's free. It's even more free if you're a Verizon customer because it doesn't charge you data. Any who, the series was a lot of fun to design, the post-audio team laughed a lot! 

Challenges in this show: Well for one a lot of typical challenges were taken right of off the table because the stellar production crew did a killer job at capturing pristine production-set audio. This makes my job a lot easier when it comes to little nuances that are so very important (ie: body movement, paper shuffles, room tone...etc) So what challenges did I face? Well this is a drama/comedy that takes place in HS, so I need to make it sound like a really populated high school that is full of kids; since ya can't hire several hundred extras. Other fun things include kids getting slammed into lockers, making it sound real but adding some cinematic quality to it such as synthesized risers and stingers. We even have a semi-gross bathroom scene, a baby gets shaken (don't worry it's one of those fake computer babies for school that you carry around), lets see what else...oh and a gnarly dodge ball scene. So these types of things can go several ways, we wanted to lay on the comedy so there's some exaggerated moments. Getting the ambiences and tone of the school was a little difficult and there were a lot of doors and footsteps. Never underestimate the amount of work you can spend on those elements, it's the most overlooked but really it sets the entire vibe and sells the whole "world" that show lives within. 

If you got time, check out the show. They're free and only 11-15 minutes long with very limited ads. What do you have to loose, don't you want to laugh during your lunch break!? 

All current episodes: Mr Student Body President  - current episodes

The Body VR goes to China Joy!

For about the last year I have been working with an esteemed group of developers pushing the boundaries of Educational VR. 

"The Body VR is a Virtual Reality experience that will take you on a tour of the systems that keep us alive. Using augmented information the user will learn new things in a new and exciting way. This application will pave the way for a broad range of educational VR experiences"

Recently the team took experience on the road to China Joy, really excited to see the positive reviews come in. The sound turned out great and I couldn't be more happy with this project.

Download on GearVR and Oculus: Body VR Download

1st Entry

Hello friends,

I should make an intro for my opening blog entry. If don't know me already and truly just found this site interesting enough to scour around on, then thanks! I'm Josh Ellis and audio dude with a focus on Sound Design, more specifically for interactive media. I mainly grew up in Maryland but spent a great deal of time in Seattle, eventually moving there for awhile. I got my start in audio as a kid messing around with tape machines and warped records (vinyl that got too hot). Spent about 7 yrs in the Coast Guard trying to find myself in this world and realized I really just love making sounds and seeing people's reactions to them; even if I didn't make the sound the human interaction with sound is absolutely one of the most intriguing things to me. 

In 2009, I got out of the Coast Guard and pursued a Bachelors degree in Audio Design at the Art Institute of Seattle. I started my professional career as an intern for a live sound company, later getting hired on as a freelancer. I pushed a lot of gear around, wrapped a lot of cables and plugged stuff in. Most of all though I really learned the basic foundations of audio as a science, ie: how it reacts as a physical property (hence live sound). Live sound is instant and everything happens fast and there's only one chance to get it right, so it really keeps you on your toes. I enjoyed it but knew I wanted to design ultimately. Live sound led to me working as a composers assistant, engineering, mixing, troubleshooting and even a little admin work. Upon graduating from the A.I. my wife and I moved to LA and the real adventure began! So here we are now, thanks for tuning in!

HI!