Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1475409
16 I m ps e . o rg like Karen Baker Landers. I was the guy refilling their coffee every day. I get to have a conversation here and there. I was able to learn a good amount while I was there. I was able to meet amazing people. Tim Kimmel was there and I was able to spend actual time with him on projects. It was a great place to be. Because all the best editors in the world were in that building; in every room, there was a big shot. That's everyone that I was helping. They were generous. They were very welcoming. Tim was very helpful at the time. Mat reached out through him to do this project for him, which is a slasher horror film, which was really funny. I even got to sit with them at their table at the MPSE Golden Reels the last time. They're awesome. I sat next to Mark Ulano CAS. I was sitting with a bunch of Formosa people and Mark is very supportive. Oh, he was such a sweetheart. Anytime I run into him, he is just as friendly. I remember sitting at the table that night at the Golden Reels, and one of the Formosa editors was there. I was always talking with him about music. I remember him leaning in at the table and saying that I had been a runner for eight months, and he told me that I might have a better opportunity to break in at one of the smaller studios. At the time, I was really holding out because I thought they were going to give me an editing job at some point because I was serious about sound and knew everyone in the building. The other runner had previously lived in his car, which was a shocking insight to homelessness for me because he was just a kid from the Midwest and moved away, got fired, missed two paychecks, and had to live a month in his car, and I was working the same job as that guy at the time. I was thinking, what am I doing? They made me take a load of trash to the local dump one day. I was like, this is where I draw the line. I'm not the garbage man, this is ridiculous. A week later, I accepted a job offer at Roundabout cutting sound effects and quit being a runner. DB: What was the change like moving into editing again? MT: Roundabout, even though they're smaller, they're just as good as Formosa. She brought me on, and I started doing new media contract work, but it was a hell of a lot better than what I was doing previously. My girlfriend's been with me this whole time. She moved out here with me, which has been a godsend. She worked at Hillel at USC for five years and now she works at a tech company. I was doing some small projects for Roundabout and getting some experience and all this stuff, which was huge, it was a total game changer. I was doing some work at home, then all of a sudden, the work dried up. I went to the MPSE Golf Tournament again the next year and paid 200 bucks to play golf. That was a lot of money for me at that time. I was back up against the wall and it was 200 bucks to go play. It was a beautiful golf course. I've been a golf player my entire life. I remember talking to my dad and telling him that it was 200 bucks to play. He said, "No, go and just schmooze." I said, "No, I have to look professional." I ended up playing golf with Matt Manselle, who is from Post Apocalypse Sound and at the time needed a Foley editor. I started doing Foley editing for them. I had already done maybe one show at Roundabout fully editing but Post Apocalypse started feeding me full-time editing work. For maybe three months during the pandemic, it dried up, but other than that, I've been working with them every day since then. We did a bunch of shows. We did Black Monday on Showtime. We did three seasons of Nancy Drew, Turner and Hooch, and Marvels Runaways. We just did Station 11 on HBO and Invasion on Apple TV. We're doing For All Mankind right now. That $200 investment in a golf game has made me $1,000s in my life. They have their own studio that they built in the Valley. It's a beautiful room. DB: Only six years ago, you were thinking, "Am I going to have to move into my car?" MT: Exactly, it's pretty unbelievable that I am able to be where I am right now. I have very little personal life right now though. I rarely leave the house; I work 100 hours a week sometimes. I regularly work until midnight. It's exhausting, so that's why I'm in the process of training my friend to take my overflow. Once he's up and running, I can give him to my guys. I really want to focus away from Foley and into sound effects. I just kind of need to find one of those things that I'm ready. It's just a matter of time, as you know. When I'm this busy, I don't have the time to make the push. I don't have the time to cold call people like I used to, or just reach out to people that I need to make a fresh contact with. DB: What would you say to people who are current students, especially ones who might just be graduating? MT: Get as much experience as you can with student films, I did so many just god-awful student films. Whether I was doing the sound mixing, editing or composing, just having my hand in on the process helped me understand so much more. Then it's all about networking. It's about getting your boots on the ground and pressing the flesh. I had to push so hard those first few years and that's not me. I'm such an introvert. Luckily, I was with you at some of those events. Just freshly graduated. That was almost more important than the stuff we did in school. You would say, "This was my student. This was my guy. He knows what he's talking about, he's not just some random kid off the street." DB: Matt, I'm glad you found time to meet with me. MT: I will always make time for you, David. I wouldn't be here without your help. Thank you. I can't thank you enough.