Jan 21 2022 87 mins 1
Hello World! The interview recording begins during a discussion about choir, as Bonnie stays active in various ensembles.
Bonnie: "What's nice about keeping up with...side gigs of singing is it keeps your voice in check and it gives you an excuse to practice everyday..."
From there they discuss college music programs and how they can vary. Bonnie went to Duquesne University for an experimental multimedia and music program (which they would eventually pull the plug on). As a result, she got to focus on the kind of multimedia technical skills she wanted to, within that umbrella. After graduating she toured with a few different theatre companies.
"But eventually like, whenever I started doing games ... if you think about interactive cool theatre where stuff happens, and audio happens and visual cues happen, games are pretty much a theatre that you play...when you play a game you are entering in to this world and the experience is like you're sitting in a 4D theatre..."
After talking more about education and the changing times, Bonnie steers the conversation towards the gender advocacy perspective of gaming. She's enjoyed seeing the growth of women's participation in the gaming audio industry.
She reflects on her raising (in Pittsburgh we should add), as a sole younger sister among several brothers. She remembers playing with all the same toys as her brothers, including the power tools (for instance). Bonnie wonders, if she had been treated differently from her brothers, would she have had the resilience to join and thrive in a male dominated industry like gaming?
Bonnie: "This is the interesting part of the interview where I'm left alone..." wherein she drops a fabulous plug for her web presence.
After Tangela comes back, Bonnie describes a zombies-themed multimedia production she got to organize in Pittsburgh. A couple of the extras from the production worked for Schell Games. They later recruited her to the company.
Bonnie says that getting a bachelor's degree in something, "even if it's math," is important for getting a staffed position at a gaming company. She points out that she likes to see a balance in resumes she looks at, where, yes they have a degree in something pertinent, and they've got some kind of portfolio in related work.
After talking about representation and free educational sources, they spent some time discussing social media. Bonnie points shares a little about her time managing social media for multiple theatre related projects and companies.
From there, Bonnie shares her perspective on Gamergate. One of her colleagues at the time was the target of some severe harassment.
During the Game Developers Conference in July, Bonnie participated in the Loud Secrets of Game Audio Roundtable (presented by International Game Developers Association). This roundtable was organized for discussing sexism and related issues in the workplace.
That discussion includes the subject of hiring practices and office politics, and how to combat those issues. These issues are becoming more and more topical across all sectors of the audio industry.
Bonnie is on the board for the National Audio Theatre Festival, and reports they just had their first diversity and inclusion roundtable discussion. Bonnie likes the roundtable format over the panel, because it's less structured and more open. She says the best ones she's seen have been the ones that weren't recorded (to save from liability).
This episode was recorded over squadcast.fm on October 27, 2021.
Bonnie Bogovich always has her fingers in a plethora audio pies! As a sound designer, she has spent over a decade designing audio on a variety of award-winning educational products, virtual and augmented reality simulations, interactive experiences, audio plays and theme park attractions including "I Expect You To Die", Sea World's "Race For The Beach", Legendary's "Annihilator", Earplay's "Jurassic World Revealed," KQMP's "At The Tone", and the upcoming multiplayer Horror VR title "HUSH: In Search of Dominic Ward".
Also an active vocal artist, her voice can be heard in games like "Pathfinder: Kingmaker", "Death and Taxes", "Water Bears," and "Wasteland 3", audio dramas and radio plays like "Codename Blank", "Mandible Judy", Cryptic Canticles' "The Dracula Radioplay Experience" and "The Call of the Flame: An Audio Play", and as a recording artist singer/vocalist on a variety of video game soundtracks and tribute albums. She regularly performs with a variety of live and virtual operatic, choral, and musical ensembles, co-created and produced the original productions “Evenings in Quarantine: The Zombie Opera“, “Super Smash Opera“ it’s sequel “Aria Kart.”
Bonnie has served on the boards and committees for a variety of organizations including The National Audio Theatre Festivals, Great Lake Film Association, Pittsburgh Savoyards, Game Audio Network Guild, and the Interactive Audio Special Interest Group. She has been judged for Spillprisen, IGF, Indiecade, and the GLFA, worked as an audio text book proposal reviewer for Focal Press, and has spoken at events such as AES, MAGfest, GameSoundCon, SXSW Gaming, VGMtogether, PAX South, PAX Dev, Confluence, and GDC. She has lectured at Berklee School of Music, Duquesne University, Teknofonic, and taught audio for games and animation at the Art Institute of Austin.
Bonnie runs her audio production studio, BlackCatBonifide LLC, in Austin, Texas. Learn more about her projects at https://blackcatbonifide.com
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