Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1359892
33 S P R I N G Q 1 I S S U E F E A T U R E Musical Arts in Massachusetts and at that program's summer camp designed for girls and young women. Dupre adds "it was no coincidence" that she reached out to Jones when she first circled Skywalker Sound, saying, "I felt my chances of being seen and taken seriously were increased by approaching another woman." When she eventually got hired, Dupre emphasizes that Hirsch- berg, though they did not personally know one another at the time, quickly "sought me out within my first few weeks. She came into the machine room at lunch, introduced herself, and immediately [invited her to lunch]. I came in with a lot of 'imposter syndrome,' wondering if I fit into the roles that interested me. But just getting to know Lora, and knowing that people like her exist in the building gave me a lot of confidence trying to jump- start my career." The Incredible Shrinking Crews During the film era, early in her own career, Mociun emphasizes that audio crews were much larger than today. She also points out that Skywalker Sound has had three woman general managers over the years and has always had women represented in its workforce. However, she says, for some reason, jobs like re-recording mix- er and sound effects were typically male-dominated. W h i t t l e a g re e s, s a y i n g "back in the film days, I'd say it was pretty even on [Skywalker film crews], male and female. But even then, there were not many female mixers. Lora Hirschberg broke through in that area for us [as a Skywalk- er employee]." And Krysten Mate remembers that while "there were quite a few women working in sound post-production in Northern California" generally when her career launched in the 1990s, "most of them were doing dialogue and ADR or were Foley walkers. Very few were in sound design, sound effects, supervising, or mixing." Then, as the digital era took hold across the industry, crews started to shrink. And with that fundamental shift, Dupre suggests that for a time, "although men and women both had technical com- puter skills and should have been hired equally [for new computer-oriented jobs], stigmas unfairly kept women from being seen as qualified. "With people on the margins, when there are natural shifts in the industry, they are often the first ones to lose op- portunities, and I think that happened to women in this industry for a time after we went all-digital," Dupre said. "I think there was a stigma, even on the part of some women, that when it came to technical stuff, it was somehow out of our grasp. That is completely not true, of course, but when we went all digital, that stigma and the fact that there were less jobs hurt chances for a lot of people." Still, Skywalker Sound has always been more progressive than many facil- ities, the women suggest, and over time, headway was made in that area. Indeed, Mociun helped research an October 2016 article for the IATSE Connection newsletter put out by IATSE's Women's Committee, and during that work, she and author Barbara McBane concluded that by 2016, "Skywalker Sound probably employed a larger percentage of women at all levels of sound post-production than any other major facility." Furthermore, in more recent years, a path into the facility through tech- nical or engineering work has become increasingly feasible for women. One reason is that for creative positions, Skywalker typically selects from within, promoting liberally and following the apprenticeship and mentorship training m o d e l s p re v i o u s l y d i s c u s s e d . M o s t creative talent there are fulltime inde- pendent contractors, so, they suggest, basically getting into the facility to begin with can be the hardest part. But once there, excelling, showing initiative, and taking advantage of the rich mentoring culture to learn skills has proven to be a productive path for reaching cre- ative positions. For instance, though Wild had cre- ative experience in her native UK, she is glad she initially landed on the technical side of the company before moving into mixing and editing. "What is great about working on the technical side is the amount of stuff you get to learn," she said. "You learn everything about the equipment, which is great for when you become a mixer, because you really have to know that console. You are also in the room watch- ing [others] mix, how they interact with clients, deal with politics on stage, and see mistakes get made and how they get resolved. So I'm a firm believer in taking the engi - neering path." Another key industry paradigm shift that has created new opportuni- ties involves the rise of streaming content direct to consumer homes—a shift that, at this point, has evolved into an area "that is just ex- ploding," in Hirschberg's words. Now more than ever, there is a rabid demand for content of all types and genres, and therefore, as Wild puts it, "there are a lot more jobs kicking around, at this point." " [ S t r e a m i n g ] i s e x p a n d i n g t h e workforce once again, which is good for women," Whittle emphasized. 'I think there was a stigma, even on the part of some women, that when it came to technical stuff, it was somehow out of our grasp.'