Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1475048
28 FA L L 2 0 2 2 I C A S Q U A R T E R L Y 2014, and volunteers there told us that children were crying while sleeping when there were thunderclaps in the night. Now, all Ukrainians have a taste of that, too. War means enormous losses and enormous spending. In these conditions, only the most necessary cultural needs can be financed. This means a lack of workplaces and significantly fewer co-production and service projects. Some local productions have moved abroad and are trying to find their place in the market there. What can the sound community do to help Ukraine's work situation? How can our communities best contribute? Dmytro: I want to thank [Foley legend] John Roesch from Skywalker Sound, who was the first to respond to our call. He set up a chat with people who were ready to help us get back on our feet. We've met Rune van Deurs from Norway's Quickstep Foley and we're already collaborating on projects. I believe this is just the beginning. If people will consider Ukraine as an option for their Foley needs or if your Foley studio is fully booked and needs to outsource, please consider Ukraine.Also, if you are the owner or admin of [a social media] group, please write a post about it. Any publicity will help. Xenia: Studios can consider outsourcing some work to Ukrainian audio post-production facilities. It's a good way to support our specialists that don't have many ways to work in their field at the moment. By supporting our country, you're inspiring and supporting each of us, and bringing peaceful times closer for each of us. I'd like to thank the CAS for supporting Safe&Sound Ukraine from the very beginning. The CAS told people about us through social media and at their events and made a generous contribution to our initiative. Special thanks to CAS President Karol Urban for being enthusiastic about us. I also want to thank the great communities and organizations that supported us through contributions and promotion: LA SoundMixers, IATSE Local 695, Association of Motion Picture Sound, the Association of Camera Operators, SoundGirls, and the Audio Engineering Society. I would also like to thank Gotham Sound, K-Tek, Zeigermann Audio, Pinknoise Systems, Cinela, and Lectrosonics for their support. What are your hopes for the sound industry's future in Ukraine? Dmytro: Ukraine has great potential as a contractor of creative services. It's extremely important to increase the production volumes so that the industry survives. I believe if we continue sharing the information about what's happening in the industry right now, the producers will return to working with Ukrainian Foley studios. Lots of people will get their jobs and their only income back. My personal main initiative is to give the employees of our studio and other colleagues in the Foley industry a job so that our clients can return to work as soon as possible. By talking and sharing, by helping each other, we can achieve great things as a united and strong sound community. Xenia: My professional goals are to expand my practice and to work on bigger sets and narrative feature films where a lot of creative sound ideas can be implemented. One of my biggest pleasures is working with teams that are attentive to sound and helping to organize work in such a way that the unique air of the scenes can be captured on the set in the best way possible. And, of course, I plan to go on with my documentary journey and continue perfecting my craft in this area as well. I have faith that we'll rebuild the industry after the victory. With our creative ideas and energy, and with help from friendly countries, we can make this happen. In my mind, the ability to see beauty helps us be better human beings. Be it a fascination with a unique sound, an elaborately engineered piece of equipment, or a courageous human society, if we're open to that and if we want to be part of that, we're ready to make big things happen. Many thanks to Xenia and Dmytro for participating in this article and for all their efforts to inform and, ultimately, inspire us to do what we can to help. I hear you and I promise to keep listening. For more information about Safe&Sound Ukraine, visit SafeAndSoundUkraine.org