Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1487666
C A S Q U A R T E R L Y I W I N T E R 2 0 2 3 83 mastering the content to the end, we're all touching the magic at some point. "Anyone can buy the gear, but it's really about the people." We just opened our De Lane Lea facility in London, and it was built with one thing in mind: How do we enhance the experience for our colleagues and our clients? Everyone has the most beautiful work environment. Everyone feels equally supported. It's all about our talent and their relationships in the community. It's very collegiate in the way that people can collaborate between projects, meet each other for lunch in a campus-type environment and walk around, go from stage to stage, cutting room to cutting room, see their colleagues and see their clients. It's fabulous to be able to service at a level where you can edit, you can mix, you can screen, you can deliver, you can create, and you can be a part of the entire process and feel like you're a part of something bigger as opposed to being just a sideline to an event. On nurturing talent… Build relationships, take your time, and find your craft. It doesn't have to be something that happens in one year or two years. Play the long game. Some people want to get from an entry-level editor to supervising sound editor within the gestation period of a feature film. I would say sit back and breathe a little bit. It's still people and relationships. Build relationships and manage those relationships and be kind to your colleagues in a business where everyone's a critic. It starts and ends with our people, their relationships and how you best support them over the years. You have to build a community and a sense of community. You have to have a passion for it. I've had a passion my whole life for sound and music particularly, but you have to really love it. The compensation really is secondary. And I think for people who are very passionate, compensation is a secondary concern. It's, really, about being the artist. On change... I think one thing that's exciting today is that there are no rules anymore around how you can work and how you can deliver. You know, it used to be a very static sort of way people worked and how they'd structure their teams. We're in a period of remarkable conversation around collaboration tools and how people approach film sound. I think it's an exciting new period where there'll be less linear approaches to things (how we used to do it) and far more openness about trying different tools and different ways of accomplishing the same creative goals, but doing it in a way that's more open to an artist's palette. I think we're entering into a new period and I think this is a result of the pandemic. People are working from home, people are learning to work very differently with different collaboration tools. It's a whole new mindset around how we actually deliver and what it is we are delivering. It's about different approaches, which is what creativity is all about. There's so much that's done in the box now within a Pro Tools environment. The garage setup is stunning in that it can add capacity to anyone's facilities. If it's not a client- attended session, then it really gives the flexibility for people to work differently on certain days and be at whatever facility they need to be at for the client playback and review. So, it has added a dimension to many people in the re-recording community. One last thing... I think the one thing I would instill in people in our community is to imagine, dream big, and take risks. And it's okay to fail in different ventures, whether creatively or technically. But if you have a passion for it, stay with it. Good things happen over time. Take care of your colleagues as well as you take care of your clients and you'll end up having a marvelous career in this industry.