Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1474752
Fall 2022 – LOCAL695.ORG 39 it was about getting the job and establishing or continuing rela- tionships. A Sound Mixer I had worked with, Vince Garcia, had a great old-school talent for making producers comfortable and maintaining a positive attitude that was infectious. He was not a technical sound person at all but was always busy, artfully book- ing the next thing while on the current show. No doubt about it, positivity does play a big role in working in this business. But I really did enjoy maneuvering in these two worlds, the creative and technical. I enjoy talking about gear and throughout my first ten years of booming and utility, I got an understanding of what I wanted to buy, and what would best work for me. I also had to keep in mind that technology does move forward. The minute you buy a piece of equipment, it can depreciate the moment you take it out of the box. I entered the industry when film cameras were still being used. A Nagra with timecode was the standard recorder at that time; DAT machines were prevalent, but multitrack hard disk record- ing was nonexistent. To be around for this digital revolution, like my college experience, seems quaint in hindsight, but there was a lot at stake, especially on the camera end. Visually, you needed a lot more processing power to get proper resolutions in your cameras and that would take a while to fine-tune. For audio, it was a relatively quick A/D conversion, with digital audiotape bridging the gap until hard disk recording really became feasible around 1999-2001 and post-production supporting it. It was only a matter of time before we had multitrack hard disk recorders, so I focused on purchasing certain types of gear: cart power and distribution, some wireless and lavaliers, slates, along with con- tinuing to make my gear sizeable enough to fit in the trunk of my car for all the day-play gigs. In 2008, I went to work on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Season 4 of this half-hour comedy was my entry to "Fun Stress." You're either going to be completely miserable on a project or you're not; you embrace the complexities and the challenges or find a way to rationalize your commitment to that project. It was fun having to problem-solve the requests from our actor/ creators of this show. Elaborate costumes to wire, live musical performances, stratospheric SPL's, food fights, blood, and high-