Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1434375
C A S Q U A R T E R L Y I W I N T E R 2 0 2 2 83 C A S Q U A R T E R L Y I W I N T E R 2 0 2 2 83 While once working on a highly demanding show, she recognized she didn't want to be forsaking the loved ones around her for a fleeting job. She found her niche in day-playing to help prioritize her time with family. "I only have one life to live. My family has to come first because contacts will come and go and a job will come and go. I have to live for my husband and my mom. [This] is how it comes out to be because they expect me to be able to come home tonight, ya know." She continued, "[Working a show] just forced me to say, 'I don't want to do this.' I can do a feature. A feature is short, but I like day- playing. Go in, help them out, and then go. I'm just a substitute." While the loss of life changed Räven, it was the introduction of life that caused 13-year veteran sound utility Alexis Schafer (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Black Monday) to shift course. "Becoming a mother and then getting a divorce made me prioritize time off," she shares. Now, Alexis takes a week off in between projects and focuses on day-playing in the summer when her daughter would be done with school. "Before my daughter, I worked nonstop, I said yes to everything. After she was born, I wanted to be home more. I wanted to know my daughter, and I wanted her to know me as well. I realized it wasn't too late to embrace the things that were calling to me." A moment that can cause a shift may not always be so obvious. Sometimes it takes crossing the line of burning out to learn. "I [used to] prioritize work ahead of other things. There were many trips that I would postpone or rebook because a job came up," said Adam Joseph, who has been sound mixing for commercials and narrative the last 31 years. "But that was also at a time when I was trying to reestablish myself. I wouldn't say no to anything. I would take all the jobs that came, but I was completely burning myself out by doing that." From top: Alexis Schafer takes her daughter rock climbing in Texas Canyon while taking some time off; the two hit the slopes during another break. Long Game Refreshers Joseph, Schafer, and Räven all prioritize longer stretches of time off. Whether a week or a month, they have each made time away from home to do something they love. "When I do road trips, I'm always going through very rural areas because I think it's really important to see how rural life works, true rural not a small town," said Joseph, who just returned from a 14-day trip to pick up a new English Shepherd puppy. "Part of why I timed [this trip] was because I was working like gangbusters and I was feeling very suffocated. I needed to get out and get out of L.A. to go see how other people live." And when he doesn't have time for a long trip, he goes to his 20-acre, off-grid property in Kern County. "It forces me to be self-sufficient in a way that I find recharges me because I'm not dependent upon anybody. I have to be dependent upon myself."