Glossary

Sound Designer - A loose term used to describe someone who creates sounds specifically for the movie. In my projects, it signifies that I recorded, edited, and re-mixed the sound FX for the film personally, many times using a combination of sounds to create unique textures not found in any single recording.

(The terms was originally created for Ben Burtt when he created the signature sound FX for Star Wars and he recorded, edited, and mixed the sounds to his liking. This varied from the traditional workflow of sound editing, recording, and mixing all being handled by separate people throughout audio post-production.)

Re-Recording Mixer - Mixing the final soundtrack by blending dialog, FX, Foley, backgrounds, and music together into what will ultimately be heard in theaters. This is traditionally done on a large, calibrated dubbing stage that emulates the size of most movie theaters. The term "re-recording" goes back to when sound was played back on several large reels, routed through a mixing board, and then literally "re-recorded" onto master tapes.

Sound Mixer (or Location Sound Mixer) - Film crew member responsible for recording all the sounds created during the production phase of a film. Chiefly among his job is to record clean dialog without noises, hums, or other errors such that ADR (or looping) does not need to be performed later. Production FX such as doors, gunshots, footsteps, ect... are also commonly recorded when they do not interfere with the dialog recording (as those FX can be more easily and cheaply replaced in post-production than dialog can be).  The job entails choosing the microphone(s) to be used and their placement during the shot, and then blending whatever combination of booms, lavs, plant mics, ect... used on the set down into less tracks during filming (although many sound mixers still record isolated tracks of each microphone depending on personal preference and budget).

Sound Editor - Selecting sounds from a library (either purchased or custom recorded for the movie) to match the on-screen actions and syncing them with the film / video.

Foley - Named after Jack Foley, it is the process of recording sound FX in-sync to film / video. Most commonly, this is done on a Foley stage where a wide variety of surfaces are available to walk on to record footsteps as well as many unique gadgets and tools to create unique sounds for the film. A Foley artist performs the actions in-sync to the actors (which can be quiet a challenge which is why many Foley artists are former dancers). A Foley mixers operates Pro Tools and listens to the sound in a calibrated mixing room for a better idea of what it will sound like when played back on the final dubbing stage.

OMF 2.0 - The standard audio data transfer format between non-linear editing stations such as Final Cut Pro and Avid into Pro Tools. Exporting as .wav and .aiff severely limits what can be done in audio post-production, especially in dialog editing. And OMF, exported with proper length handles, is always preferred and/or required.

Pro Tools - The standard Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) for film sound post-production in the US and most of the world.