Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1544300
M OT I O N P I CTU R E S O U N D E D I TO R S 41 churn out cheap facsimiles, but will we settle for this? AI can generate the plausible, but it will never generate the unthinkable. SSS: Let me ask you this, because AI is at the new beginnings, and the MPSE has taken a stand with generative AI. MM: I applaud Dave for his stand. And it's a nuanced stand. Dave is a very smart person. You know, many organizations have just done a black-and-white "No AI," and that's not what MPSE has done. MPSE has taken a nuanced stance on AI as a tool, temporarily. I think it's saying no AI-generated content can win an award. But the MPSE is not saying AI is bad, nor is it saying it's not a useful tool. It's simply saying for now, until we understand AI better and we should have guardrails on it, we're just not going to recognize that work. And I think that's a smart stance. SSS: Wow. That's great. That's absolutely great. That's how we, as the Board of Directors, felt as well. MM: Oh good. Then I'm reading it right, and I'm happy about that. And Dave put his toe out when no one else was. We might have been the first professional organization to announce a position on AI. And I thought, sound? We did that? SSS: Yes, we did that! Let me ask you, okay, what's going through my mind is, AI is new, it's just starting to infiltrate the film industry. But what about you in retirement? Do you feel you'll be a part of the AI process, or will you have already left the business by then? MM: Well, I'm not leaving the business anytime soon. I've gotten to a point in my career that allows me to not worry as much about having a steady income. What that has brought is a golden age for me where I can pick and choose what I work on and really enjoy it. Whereas I have taken films in the past that I didn't love, not that I didn't love working on them, but movies I didn't love, or maybe with filmmakers I didn't love, but I could live with. Now I have the luxury of picking and choosing projects that I only want to work on. That means I'll work less because the money isn't an imperative, and that, to me, is like nirvana. I get to do what I love to do only when I want to do it on the movies I want to do it on. Who gets to do that? SSS: No one. What are your thoughts about retirement? MM: That it will have some component of giving back, exploration of new ideas and sharing my knowledge. In the meantime, I'm still getting a buzz out of making sound for movies. My old friend Chris Welch put it succinctly. Look forward to the day when you can ask yourself when you wake up not what others want Mark to do today but what Mark wants to do today. For now, I don't know when I will stop doing this because it is such an intrinsic part of who I am. I'm still doing it on my day off. I still feel like I'm getting smarter and more insightful with every film. I feel like I'm bringing better ideas to the films I'm working on, making for richer, deeper relationships with filmmakers, better sounding films and real enjoyment for what I do. I think 50 years of experience has given me a wealth of valuable knowledge to leverage and I want to share that while I can. The future holds a great deal more of teaching and giving back to our sound community and the filmmaking community at large. I'll certainly be speaking and lecturing more. I've also written a book (coming in August 2026), a memoire that looks back on 50 years of making sound for movies. It's called Because It Was There—An Auto Filmography. It's full of great stories and useful advice. That fulfills the giving back part. I hope I have the wisdom to actually stop at some point so my grandchildren can gather at my feet, look lovingly into my eyes, and ask, "Grandpa, what was it like in the old days?"