Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/778398
42 W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 C A S Q U A R T E R L Y educational experience. He offered some insight on why he feels that way: "I do really think that the lack of a huge age gap between us has made it even more beneficial in a way. I'm not trying to stereotype older generational mixers, but there are certain things that I feel like you and I click with. I'll ask, 'Hey, did you read about this?' And you're like, 'Yeah, I just heard about that.' And we get to riff about it because we're both kind of in that informational age generation." I'm also learning from him about the sector of production sound that is not effectively covered by union organization. What I'm learning is that jobs are surfacing that can some- times prey upon young professionals. What he's learning from me is how to deal with them. It's not always telling them to bugger off. It's often deciphering which projects and producers are predatory; and which ones are just honest, good, limited budget opportunities. He is also learning how to educate producers on the value that sound brings to their projects and how to convey that value without arrogance while being an artistic collaborator. It's important to keep this in the forefront of a producer's mind, especially if you provide them with a break, so they don't take for granted high-quality sound and how we attain it. As best as I could, I tried to sum it up and present a bal- anced belief: "You can get locked up into situations where a producer is going to want to abuse your lack of experience to gain financially. There's a myriad of correct answers on how to deal with this, and it isn't always just saying, 'No, I don't do stuff for cheap.' The reason we all do that when we're first getting into it is we think, 'Well, this is temporary. Eventually, I'm going to be working on larger budget projects, making what I deserve but, for right now, this is great.' Unfortunately, what happens is if that's all you're ever doing, then that's the limit on where the value increases to. How to find that balance? You go with your gut. 'I've heard about these guys. This is all they ever do. They only ever expect people to work one-man band.' And they say, 'Oh, I have somebody else that would do it for cheap.' You don't even want to work with them. You want to make it so that the talent they can draw from is so little. Then every once in a while, a situation arises like a camera operator friend who says, 'My wife is getting into writing and she wrote a script and I'm going to help her produce it.' And you think, 'You know what? This is a good cause. His wife wrote her first script and he's producing and DP-ing it. This isn't so bad.' We all do things like that."