Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1545099
M OT I O N P I CTU R E S O U N D E D I TO R S 45 and psychological power of sound. I was drawn to atmosphere, spatial perspective, environmental texture, memory, and the subtle ways sound could shape emotional experience. However, I did not yet understand that sound editorial and sound design were careers at that young age. I thought composing was the only path into storytelling through sound because I assumed all the sound in movies was simply captured naturally. So I pursued composition, believing it was the doorway into the world I wanted to be part of. Once I discovered that sound for picture was an actual craft and career, and that emotional worlds were being shaped through editorial and mixing, everything clicked into place for me. Can you describe your school experience leading to entering the field of post-production sound? I was initially accepted to Virginia Tech but not to James Madison University (JMU), which devastated me at the time because my recording professor at Governor's School, Dr. Doug Thiel, had told me JMU had one of the strongest music industry programs in the Mid-Atlantic region. I was determined to get there, so I attended Virginia Tech for a year, studied electrical engineering and acoustics, and reapplied as a transfer student until I was finally accepted. In retrospect, that extra year studying science and technology became incredibly valuable. It strengthened my understanding of acoustics, systems, signal flow, troubleshooting, and electronics in ways that deeply informed my later work in post- production. Life has a funny way of turning yesterday's struggles into tomorrow's strengths, and what felt like a setback at the time, ultimately, gave me a technical foundation that became one of the great advantages of my career. By the time I arrived at JMU, I was - Mixing Adam Rifkin's Director's Cut; (below) mixing An Auschwitz Album Story at Fox Studios.