How to Properly Credit Your Audio Team in Indie Films (and Why It Matters)

Ask any indie filmmaker how they credit their crew and you’ll likely hear a mix of official titles, casual descriptors, and a lot of “uh… we just wrote ‘Audio.’” I get it. When you’re juggling lights, lenses, scripts, and scheduling, worrying about whether someone is a Production Sound Mixer versus a Sound Recordist can seem low on the priority list. But trust me—how you credit your audio team says a lot about your professionalism and can make or break future collaborations.

In this post, I’m pulling the curtain back on how the audio department is typically credited in indie film, why that approach often falls flat, and what you can do to fix it. I’ll go over each audio role you’re likely to encounter and how to credit them the right way—all to help you build better relationships with your team and earn serious respect from the pros.

[Image - Film Credits of Sound. Alt - Film credits section highlighting different audio roles like mixer, editor, and sound designer].

Why Most Indie Film Credits Get Audio Wrong

Here’s the problem: most indie films lump everything under “Sound” or maybe “Audio by.” Sometimes, you’ll see “Sound Mixer” for someone who was on set and “Sound Editor” for the person who handled post. That’s a start—but it misses the complexity and nuance of what actually happens in both location sound and audio post-production.

It’s like crediting your cinematographer, editor, colorist, and VFX team all as “Video Team.” It diminishes the scope of their contributions and tells seasoned professionals: this filmmaker doesn’t really know what we do.

Indie film set with boom operator capturing dialogue

Why It Happens

• Lack of education: Most film schools don’t teach proper audio crediting.

• Budget constraints: Indie sets often use hybrid crew roles, leading to vague credits.

• Misunderstanding: Audio is seen as one job instead of many specialized ones.