CAS Quarterly

Winter 2017

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C A S Q U A R T E R L Y W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 41 I was working on at the time, Secrets and Lies. He witnessed me and my cart-based rig in action. But this wasn't the most valuable element for his fresh eyeballs to see. Honestly, the work of my boom operator, Josh Bower, and my utility, Tanya Peel, was where the real value was found. Danny watched some of the most seasoned professional front-line production sound practitioners do their work. He watched them eloquently do their thing as we pulled off eight actors doing a combination of scripted and ad lib'd dia- logue around a dinner table. A funny thing he witnessed was the executive producer/director turn around in his chair and ask me if I could just play the lav mics so that he could run the second wide camera. This was bad for us because the B camera saw the reflection of both boom operators in a practi- cal sliding glass door. He watched my diplomatic approach to this and he saw how we brought it through to the point of the scene's coverage completion without compromising the quality of the dialogue. I don't think Danny had ever wit- nessed anything like that before. This kind of give-and-take negotiation revolving around what shots to shoot and when. He even got to walk away with a new Secrets and Lies baseball cap—as well as one of our set PAs asking me for his phone number! Ha! (Sorry to embarrass you, Danny!) This was not the last I had heard from Danny. We were to meet up again at my office one morning for our first mentor- ing session. Lunch, gear discussion, strategy discussion, and some good conversation. He was late for our meeting (insert mad emoji). He mentioned he had overslept because he was up until 4 a.m. My first thought was he was out late partying. That's all good; he's young and just moved to Los Angeles and is entitled to partake in that and enjoy life. No judgment from me, as I was at my office regardless and it made no dif- ference if he was tardy. When he arrived, I learned that the reason for his late night was because of a short-notice due date for a post-production sound edit job he was complet- ing well into the night. I found his tardiness more admirable than I have ever found tardiness to be. I also scolded myself for assuming his reasoning for a late night was dubious in nature. I was also impressed that he was continuing on his post-production sound practice. This is not something I am versed in, but have noticed the younger generation often continues to specialize in both post and production. I will encourage and empower this way of practicing sound despite my previous philosophy that one must master just one craft. I admire it now and, just like Agamemnon Andrianos CAS said in his interview with me about Brandon Loulias, "I can learn from him." A PEEK INTO OUR MENTORING SESSIONS So, that is the theme. In our new budding mentorship arrangement, I can learn so much from Danny as well. Danny definitely understands the value of mentorship. He explained to me his impressions, which I'll paraphrase here. He firmly Danny Maurer winning the very first CAS Student Recognition Award at the 51st CAS Awards. believes that this job requires a craftsperson. That it's not like going to school and getting an engineering degree makes you qualified to work at SpaceX. This is different. Recently, he asked to borrow my RF Explorer (a handheld device that scans radio frequencies) for an upcoming location scout that he had for a feature film he's working on. I agreed to loan it to him with one condition: He teach me how to use it when he's done. It's not that I'm not technical, but I hadn't sunk myself into this device yet. Here's an opportunity for him to think about self-reliance, as well as me receiving a more thorough rundown of the unit. I'm happy that he will now learn this device, like I once did with things like this. It's like an efficient use of intellectual resources as well as flex- ing his talents. I tried to articulate this to him in one of our conversations: "In a way, it's like when I was younger; I might invest hours into figuring out a gadget. But sometimes there is an element to 'Give it to him, he'll figure it out.' It's the same with how I used to solder cables for the mixers I worked for. They didn't want to spend their time doing that. They wanted to spend their weekends with their families. I was this new kid trying to break in the business and was like, 'I'll solder all these cables for you.' And I'm going to do an awesome job." It's interesting to hear how he feels about our meet- ings, which often feel every bit like a hangout as it does an

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