Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1474752
Fall 2022 – LOCAL695.ORG 37 "Y'know, you'd make a good Boom Op," and I asked, "What's a Boom Op?" He said, "Y'know, they hold the mic on movie sets. Those union sound guys make a lot of money too." So, I thought, I'll check it out, it can't be that difficult? Difficult: yes. Impossible: no. It was not easy. Due to the fact I didn't have any real set experience, it was challenging to ini- tially break in. Part of the job on any set is trust. Your producers and directors need that from the crew. As a subordinate Boom Operator or Sound Utility, the Sound Mixer needs to trust you to carry out the tasks in getting good audio. I had plenty of audio theory under my belt, but next to none when it came to applying it to movies and television. In a nutshell, I had to gain the trust of people that were going to hire me. That trust factor needs to be built over time, working within a department/group, or gain- ing enough experience to bring that tool wherever you go. Like pretty much everybody who works in the film business, I got experience on low-budget films. "Trial by fire" booming, mixing student projects, and frequenting the vendors, such as Coffey Sound (now Trew Audio) and Audio Services (now Location Sound) were also part of my immersion. When you start out, you tend to work on different jobs with different people. I did like the variety, and every job was a learning experience. Many of the people that I worked with early on are still working today: Ben Patrick, Peter Devlin, Felipe "Flip" Borrero, Richard Lightstone, Glenn Berkovitz, and Susan Moore-Chong. I can't omit the Boom Operators I worked under, like Thomas Cunliffe, Kevin Cerchiai, Gabriel Cubos (d. 2009), Albert Aquino (d. 2012), and Scott Warren. Each of them has had an impact on my initial audio career that I value to this day. I worked as a Y-8/Y-7A pretty much when I entered Local 695 in 1995. Beginning around 2005, I got my first long-term mixing (L-R) Kevin Cerachiai, Peter Devlin & George Flores (L-R) Boom Operator David A. Smith (d. 2009), Sound Utility George Flores, Sound Mixer Phillip Palmer on Hostage (2004)