PROFILE
FRANK LARATTA
By Megan Beam
S
ome in the audio industry can trace
their career trajectory back to a
single moment – an awe-inspiring
concert or hearing a great album
through a premium pair of head-
phones. Others, like Frank Laratta, can at-
tribute their success to a long series of small
steps in the right direction, compounded
with a few unexpected twists and turns and
calculated risks.
Born and raised in Calgary, AB, Laratta
says that, from a young age, he had his heart
set on becoming a teacher.
“In my mind, that’s what I was going to
be. Maybe science or math, but I was pretty
sure I’d end up teaching.”
During his later high school years, Laratta
took his first few steps off of his set path. Like
a number of people in the industry, it started
out with playing in bands and generally just
dabbling in music and sound. “I tended to
be the guy in the band who would do the
recording, setting up our gear for shows, that
sort of thing.”
On the recommendation of a friend he’d
met through music, Laratta soon found him-
self volunteering at a local TV station, getting
some hands-on experience in everything
from camera work to setting up lights to
even doing some directing. But as far as he
was concerned, Laratta wasn’t veering off of
his professional path; his end goal was still
teaching.
Around this time, the band he was
playing with had begun writing their own
material, rather than just covering popular
songs for weddings and parties. That’s when
he started to show serious interest in the cre-
ative process, such as writing lyrics and music,
which led to his considering music and, later,
film production as something to pursue.
“It hadn’t really occurred to me to do that,
but the act of just sort of trying to create your
own material really started getting my mind
into the world of creative production.”
Then, finally, came the decision to shift
from his predetermined career goals and
enroll in a broadcast and film production
program at the Southern Alberta Institute
of Technology (SAIT), where he would also
study sound editing, effects, and mixing, tak-
ing full advantage of the school’s mix theatre.
Even then, though, Laratta didn’t see
himself becoming an audio professional. “I
think a lot of people get into [studying film
production] not knowing what they want
to do. They just want to make films,” Laratta
says. “I thought I was going to be like a lot of
film students and, you know, direct and write
my own films.”
After an unexpected opportunity to work
in audio post for an advertising project fell
into his lap, Laratta found himself taking on
more and more such projects, building up
his mixing acumen and developing a strong
network. Eventually, he started his own audio
post-production business.
Years later, he’d built up an impressive
reputation with his firm, Sync Spot Digital
Audio Post, and was taking on a slew of high-
profile projects from Alberta and beyond. In
2014, Sync Spot joined forces with another
successful Calgary-based post studio, Twisted
Pair Sound, and Propeller Studios was born.
In a fast-paced, deadline-oriented line of
work that relies very much on networking,
communication, and collaboration, Laratta
says it doesn’t just feel like he’s always on call;
most of the time, he is.
In fact, it’s the seasonal ebbing and flow-
ing nature of the post-production industry in
this day and age that presents Laratta and
his colleagues with their biggest ongoing
challenge. “Our industry and our business is
just very unpredictable,” he states. “It’s up and
down; it’s feast and famine. So our biggest
challenge is really an all-encompassing one
that everyone in our industry faces.”
But all that hard work isn’t for nothing.
Propeller Studios has had the chance to work
on some major productions in recent years,
including AMC’s popular Canada-U.S. co-
production Hell on Wheels, FX’s TV adaptation
of the Cohen brothers’ darkly funny Fargo,
and the three-part miniseries Klondike for
the Discovery Channel.
“They were big deals for us and got some
good critical acclaim,” Laratta humbly shares,
adding that their work on Klondike and Fargo
has landed them Emmy Award nominations
for sound editing and sound mixing.
Last year, Propeller Studios was awarded
a Golden Reel from the Motion Picture
Sound Editors (MPSE) for their dialog editing
on Klondike. Laratta says that such industry
recognition has kept his team pushing
forward, landing more work on bigger and
more significant projects.
Striving to have Propeller further cement
its status as the go-to professional studio
for film and TV audio post-production in
their home province, one of the long-term
goals for Laratta is to take a less hands-on
approach to mixing in order to spend more
time developing his team and giving them
room to grow. After all, he knows first hand
that the right rewarding experiences can
lead to long-term prosperity in this ever
changing but always interesting industry.
Megan Beam is a freelance writer and former editorial assistant with Professional Sound.
18 PROFESSIONAL SOUND