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C A S Q U A R T E R L Y I FA L L 2 0 2 0 13 ACCOLADES Griffin's skills have earned him five Emmy nominations with one win for production sound mixing. He's also a CAS Award nominee. He remembers the first time he attended an Emmy Awards ceremony and said it was like going to a big wedding, with a hundred circular tables that each seat 10-12 people. He was the only person from 30 Rock to fly from New York to Los Angeles to attend the event and quickly realized he didn't know anyone there! However, any feelings of awkwardness soon faded away as several of his co-nominees came up to say hello and congratulate him. "They were so incredibly nice, so sweet. They didn't treat me like competition. The next year I went, it was like hanging out with old friends at one big party." STILL HUMBLE Even though Griffin has received tons of accolades over the years, he remains humble. "I second-guessed myself a lot and suffered from impostor syndrome. I had this thing for a while where I thought people were going to turn around, point at me and say, 'What are you doing? Get him out of here!' like in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Griffin comfortably talks about his mistakes, maybe because it keeps him grounded. With great detail, he remembers that fateful day on 30 Rock when he didn't coordinate frequencies while shooting exteriors. "The crew set up outside for the rehearsal on our first scene of the day with Tina Fey. The Steadicam walk and talk across the plaza went off seamlessly. Actors were wired and it sounded great. And then when we started to roll, everything went haywire." Griffin quickly scanned for RF, but it didn't look good. Due to time constraints, the AD said they had to keep shooting, even if the audio was bad. Later that day, Griffin gave Fey a large diaphragm microphone with a laptop and the dailies so she could record ADR for that scene. "She's actually great at ADR, but it crushed me. What I should've done was ask to talk to their frequency coordinator!" Getting used to the "New Normal," i.e., shooting a television show while following COVID protocols, has only made room for more interesting adaptations. Griffin recalls shooting the 30 Rock Reunion Special. They shot for two days with each principal actor, using a quarantine drop kit. In addition to a DSLR camera, MiFi, lights, computer, and iPhones, he included a Shure MV88 and a Sennheiser wire. The sanitized kit was delivered to each actor's house, and Griffin had to instruct the cast how to mic themselves via Zoom. "We could monitor the camera levels but we couldn't see the iPhones, so we just had to guess. Phones had to be running Wi-Fi and sometimes Bluetooth at the same time, as well as running a film app, which was eating up a ton of memory. It was unreliable and it took forever. It was incredibly stressful." THE NEW NORMAL Even during tough times, Griffin is grateful for the one constant in his life—his family. He and his wife (a costume designer) live in Brooklyn with their 11-year-old son, and they have extended family not too far from them. His support network allows him to be picky and tackle new opportunities personally and professionally. Speaking of which, he needs to wrap up our interview so he can resume his latest role; stay-at-home dad and part-time teacher to his son—who is finishing up today 's distance learning lesson in seventh grade humanities. Up next professionally, he'll tackle Fey 's upcoming comedy set in the '90s about an all-girl pop group (think "Spice Girls"). Things continue to change in the industry, but Griffin takes it all in stride. "I'm very, very lucky." " I'M NOT QUALIFIED TO DO ANYTHING ELSE. THESE SKILLS DON'T TRANSLATE WELL." –Griffin Richardson CAS Grifn Richardson CAS with his crew members Chris Fondulas and Jeanne Gilliland on the set of the TV movie Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs the Reverend.