Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1541592
70 M PS E . O R G Philosophically: I love the Gandhi quote "Be the change that you wish to see in the world." Therefore, my approach to life and my creative projects is that you can dream ideas into existence. Nowadays, this idea has been commoditised to 'manifesting destiny,' but the same core belief is what drives me. We are living in extraordinary times, and I don't mean current politics, as they too will pass. I mean in terms of personal expression. Kids now have access to tools that I could only dream of in my youth. There has been a profound democratisation of production and, via the internet, a democratisation of distribution. But tools do not create interesting work, humans do. If I dream of a form of music or sound or art that doesn't currently exist, I can access the tools to make it, and I can release it so that anyone on the planet can find it. All through my film career, I had a belief that I would let the work speak for me. As I said previously, I don't network and have never cold called anyone. I believe if you keep showing up and keep making work, collaborators and/or an audience will find it. But it requires playing the long game. The instant gratification of creating work with AI LLMs using text prompts has no appeal as the work is so shallow. It has no back story or evidence of research or development or evolution. And as every filmmaker knows, it is the human connection that has power. That is how a project gets traction. There is a reverse argument to consider too: No matter how good your work is, it essentially doesn't exist if nobody knows about it. While working securely in private is often necessary for film projects, to me it's always felt a bit cynical that the only time we hear from a film's sound team is when they are promoting it for the awards season. Of course, the real difference is when it's your own project and you have autonomy. You then have the freedom to present your work to the world however you like, and at whatever stages of development that you like. But the idea of a genius working in secret and suddenly presenting a perfect work now feels like it's from another era. By sharing the stages of development, people join you on the journey, and by the time it is finished and released, that process has created interest and demand, because people bear witness to the process, which enables deeper insight and interpretation of the work. Which leads us to talk about HISSandaROAR, your sound effects Shipping HISSandaROAR DOORS Library, the first ever Crowd Sourced FX Library (2009).