Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1474752
44 PRODUCTION SOUND & VIDEO – Fall 2022 necessary to hold my own as a Utility. His idea was to try and have me working as a Y-16A for at least six months before stepping out as a Y-7A. Again, there was no framework for this, just an idea and a few mixers who were own board with the experiment. Over the course of the next six months, I worked as many days as were available to me on Avatar as a trainee. It was the perfect, low(ish) pressure environment to cut my teeth on the basic job requirements of a Sound Utility. It was a challenging period as the work was not full time, so I was driving for Lyft and working as a stand-in on the side to make ends meet. In the summer of 2019, courtesy of another great champion of the cause, Jamie Gambell, the opportunity to work as a fourth on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia came up. It was the perfect steppingstone for me again to be able to hone my skills with the luxury of having an experienced Utility above me. I spent six weeks as a fourth on Sunny and for me, it was really my finishing school. I gained the confidence to wire actors independently, jam timecode, run video and antenna cable, and slowly get better at booming. I formally joined 695 in the spring of 2019, but it wasn't until September of that year that I started working regularly as a Y-7A Sound Utility. I guess I was, in effect, the guinea pig for this experiment of some semblance of a Y-16A trainee program. The concept is fairly simple: Pair trainees with willing mixers and crews that have a vested interest in their success and don't let them fly the coop until there's a general consensus that they are ready to shoulder the responsibilities of a Y-7A in today's landscape. I can honestly say that I needed every minute of the time that I spent in a trainee capacity and even though I thought I might have been ready earlier, the fact is that I wasn't. I didn't know what I didn't know as the saying goes. So that leads me back to this cafe in Missoula, Montana. I am here for work, in the capacity of a Y-7A Sound Utility as a member of IATSE Local 695. I don't know about you, but I think that's pretty damn cool. By virtue of me being in the union and having the skills necessary to do the job, someone signed off on flying me to Montana to work on a television show. Shoutout Brian Robinson, the mixer that hired me and who also gave me numerous opportunities a few years ago to day play on his shows and sharpen my skills. Being a member of 695 has afforded me the opportunity to work on the iconic Star Wars franchise and wire Ewan McGregor without breaking a sweat (OK, maybe a few drops of sweat). I get paid very well to work in Hollywood … quite literally a dream come true. The healthcare afforded me is second to none and allows me to live my life without that nagging fear of something going wrong and not having adequate Left to right: Yohannes Skoda, Sol Aponte, and Eric Richardson