Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1515068
18 PRODUCTION SOUND & VIDEO – Spring 2024 If you're working with a director in control of the production priorities, and you've been successful being included in his/ her "circle of trust," then the director can see what you're contributing towards their personal gain or loss for their work. If this can happen, then you will have an ally in clarifying what does and doesn't matter. Of course, you have the responsibility to hold up your end by being good enough to solve it. Often as not, we have the autonomy to creatively solve things that our non-sound colleagues may be clueless about, and I don't mean that in a disrespectful way. I've done more than one hundred fifty projects, primarily features, but some television projects. Most directors that I work with will have ten to fifteen projects in the scope of their careers. Does that make them less experienced than me? On one level, yes. But on another level, no. They are successful in those careers by having unique and capable voices and skill sets to manage creating a film. It's unfortunate but the reality is very little is being taught about the sound arts to film students. It has become our responsibility, in that early stage of pre- production, to establish our bona fides as a full contributing creative partner, as an advocate for the director's intent. You embody that by the way you operate, by how you perceive each and every day, shot by shot. The precision of the words you use is your passport to inclusion. We're in a public debate right now in our community over the place and the hierarchy that the production team has. There are many of us who don't recognize the value of their own contribution. It's stunning, but it's really true. "I'm just there, I record, I go home, that's my bit and that's my gig," versus what is it that I'm doing that is best serving the idea here at hand? Who is this character? How is the audience supposed to experience this character? Is the character evolving over time through the plot? What am I doing that's supporting that arc, the way depth of field, the way focused placement, the way tonality, composition, color, exposure? We have similar, not exactly analogous, but similar tools in our toolkit that engage in those pieces of telling the story. What is the line of communication? Is it always going through the First AD primarily, and when do you talk directly to the Director? I don't have a very in-depth ideology in terms of words, but it's very deep in terms of its purpose. I call it the ID ideology. "It depends." Who are they? What's their point of reference? How do they behave under load and what's their perspective on what they do and what you do and how they interact?