CAS Quarterly

world experience). The first few years of teaching were very tough as I tried to change the system so that students learned more about contemporary practices. Most of the older faculty retired not long after I started teaching. In terms of my schedule, I found I was able to teach at night even when I was busy during the day. I was doing a lot of music editing and dialogue editing, much of which I could do on my own schedule. I looked forward to going to campus every week and sharing my experience with the students (yet I was also unable to sleep the night before teaching out of performance anxiety). Even at that point, the idea of being a full-time faculty was anathema to what I wanted out of my career. Eventually, I was promoted to lecturer, then senior lecturer, then assistant professor. School had been a bedrock for me during my freelance years, and I began to enjoy teaching more and more. In 2008, I accepted my full-time position at CU Denver, where I am now an associate professor. How do you teach mixing in a classroom environment? Do you provide one-on-one teaching? If so, how much? James: In the classroom, we focus on proper equipment setup, cable wrapping, boom operation, and most importantly, developing listening skills. The classes have always been small enough that I can work with the students in pairs or small groups, or individuals in a very small class. At NYFA, we try to provide enough equipment in a class for every- one to be hands-on to learn the setups and operation and work the boom. I believe that sound mixing is a practical skill which is learned more easily with hands-on and face-to- face teaching. Each student will be developing and shooting short scripts all the time. I spend time consulting with individual students on bringing sound into their scripts, how sound can create emotional response, and practical aspects of their shoot. The real opportunity to learn mixing happens when we go out and shoot. Each class has practical shoots on locations, which I attend as a faculty advisor. The sound depart- ment will be a two-person team that alternates between mixing and booming. However, on the set, I will also sometimes discuss other technical factors, such as shot setups, preparation, and time management, and how all these other departments affect what the sound department needs and vice versa. Tod: We have a classroom with 12 students. I teach more about the philosophy of being a sound mixer; what sound is, how you record it, how to use microphones, and how to interact on set. A lot of what I like to teach is stuff that is difficult to learn outside a film set. How to integrate with props, grip, electric, etc. I want them to leave the program knowing how important sound is, how to work with sound, and how to communicate with sound. Also, I want them to learn how to listen. Mark: First, limiting class size is super important if we're talking about a hands-on gear aspect of teaching. That said, again, like musicians, the obsession with technique ideolo- gy and hardware can block creativity and discovery. It's essential to achieve fluency with your tools, but the fundamental mission is to consistently achieve connection between the characters, their story, and the audience. Chris: I do teach mixing in a classroom environment—a VERY SMALL class with an Avid control surface. Tom Fleischman CAS and I co-teach a class to advanced students. We teach one-on-one, in small groups, and then the kids work independently on their own projects. We try to combine storytelling and technical ideas. David: I agree with Mark and Chris about class size. We try to keep it between 10 and 20 students. Are you still teaching during the pandemic? If so, how has this changed your teaching? Do you believe it is possible for students to be fully educated online? James: I'm still teaching. As soon as it became clear that the school would be shifting to virtual, I immediately rewrote the current course I was teaching. I have since revised all of my classes and created new syllabi and rubrics. They are actually better. The new Chris Newman CAS classes I've written have more theory, including a historical component that was not in my older classes. We watch and lis- ten to a lot of clips. I really focus on lis- tening. Most of my students will never become mixers since most want to be directors. So, I teach them to break down scenes and scripts. We talk a lot about how it all starts with the script. We will often compare the script as written and the final cut scenes, analyzing how sound is being used to sup- port the story. I have incorporated a wider range of " WHAT DID YOU HEAR? EVERYONE TENDS TO BE DISTRACTED BY WHAT THEY SEE. BUT IF YOU KEEP REPEATING THE CLIPS, EVENTUALLY— SLOWLY—THEY ALL BEGIN TO HEAR. " —CHRIS NEWMAN CAS

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