Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1279181
M OT I O N P I CTU R E S O U N D E D I TO R S I 11 Bridging the Gap BETWEEN ASPIRING PROFESSIONALS AND INDUSTRY EXPERTS BERNARD WEISER Vice President, Motion Picture Sound Editors President, Entertainment Industry Professionals Mentoring Alliance bweiser.eipma@gmail.com BY BERNARD WEISER MPSE I hope that you are staying safe as these strange times bring change to our lives. Like other organizations, EIPMA is focusing on programs that can be provided remotely as we continue our mission of supporting students and others seeking careers in the entertainment industry. We are currently planning a monthly series of panel discussions themed on specifi c industry crafts. They will explore topics, including music (live recording, music production, engineering, and mastering), picture editing for cinema and broadcast, re-recording mixing, production mixing, sound editing, post-production engineering, camera, and cinematography. We have also engaged in an innovative new program called "Speed Mentoring." It is designed to connect students with industry professionals over the web in a series of short, one-on-one question-and-answer sessions. Participating students and individuals from around the world have the opportunity to talk with top veteran professionals from our industry. In May, we conducted our fi rst EIPMA "Speed Mentoring" event with students from St. Elizabeth High School in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. Coordinated through our member organization, KMD Pro, and partner organization, the Vaughan International Film Festival, the session was a huge hit. The students learned about a host of exciting career opportunities. You can read more about it in Mix magazine: https://www. mixonline.com/news/high-school-students-connect -with-hollywood. A second speed mentoring event in June, connected 20 industry mentors with graduate students from the Berklee College of Music in Valencia, Spain. Due to the pandemic, many of the school's students had returned to their home countries, so we were connecting with students in Nigeria, Germany, and England, in addition to Spain. This program has an incredible potential to build bridges between industry professionals and students around the globe. It's a wonderful way to present the variety of crafts that make up our industry to motivated young people and recruit talent for future jobs in entertainment. Along with offering guidance, these programs help the development of an incredibly diverse range of young people from all over the world. EIPMA recognizes that they are the future storytellers and crafts people for our industry. Diversity is a key creative ingredient here, since they bring with them their cultural backgrounds and new views about our own human values. Their stories are fresh, inciteful, and need to be heard. We are not alone in this belief. Many companies have expressed their support for EIPMA and their desire to help us provide opportunities to the new diverse talent who will be entering into the entertainment industry in the near future. What better way to help identify these talents and foster a more vibrant and inclusive industry than through EIPMA and our programs. Please visit our new website: eipma.org What's New at EIPMA?