Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1545099
14 M PS E . O R G Victoria Rose Sampson MPSE Board Member I was (almost) born in a trim bin! If you don't know what that is, look it up. I'm old! We don't consciously choose who our parents are or where we grow up or what schools we go to. A cobbler's kid often becomes a cobbler—an actor's kid often becomes an actor, etc. I was born to industry parents. My dad, Sherman Rose, was a film editor and B movie director (Target Earth is probably his most famous film). My mother, Kay Rose, was a sound editor and the first woman sound editor to win an Oscar. (For BREAKING ENTERING & The River in 1985.) My mom started in the Army Signal Corps making training videos. She left Hunter College in New York to follow her dream of working in film in Hollywood in 1944. She was 22. She went on to edit sound on TV shows The Rifleman and The Big Valley when I was young. I would often go to the sets to visit her. I was fascinated by films because my mom loved them so much and I loved almost everything that she loved. She took me to the LA County Museum to see all the old films, like The Philadelphia Story and Christopher Strong. I was always curious about what my mom did exactly. She would come home with filthy hands and wash them first thing. I would find out later that it was from running film through her fingers all day through the Moviola. In the summer of 1970, I had a chance to be the apprentice editor for a film that my mom, Verna Fields, George Brand (music editor) and Richard Portman (re-recording mixer) worked on. Once I got my hands on film and saw the power of it—how it could be rearranged (watching Verna edit), it dawned on me that it was another way of writing a film. It was the first time I got to see how a film was put together and it was addicting. As I was entering my last year of high school, I contemplated what I wanted to do with my life. Writing seemed like the best choice because without writing, a film can't be made, a book can't be read, and I had so many stories I wanted to tell. I chose a college (UC Irvine) that had a great writing program and was all prepared to go there. But life is like a river—it has a lot of twists and turns and often takes you down a fork you hadn't planned on yet turns there that I didn't know until I made an effort and put myself out there. It was in these moments that usually I would get a call or email about someone needing help with a film or short or something. I would land another project and further grow. But there was also a season where my freelance tenacity grew dry, and I picked up an odd temp office clerk job to make ends meet. That job made me feel a little more stable with LA living, and with it I was able to work on projects on the side at home through the COVID era, balancing that and wanting to get back to finding a job in sound. As bad as that was, I left that office job, I moved to a small QC job that I didn't seem to fit into and so took that as a sign to take a small break and spend a longer Christmas at home in Acton with my family. It was in that moment I landed my first own bigger budget features which ignited me to lead and show myself I am capable as a supervising sound editor. After that film, Peter Five Eight, I then realized my worth and that I don't need to prove myself to anyone. Over the following years, I then started to gain traction and work on bigger indie stuff and made connections through Instagram and social media that landed me to work on Homestead the feature and then working on Homestead the series. The strikes and fires around LA taught me to slow my life down like COVID did. That also shaped my career path—to not make it a competition but make it something that I enjoy and can establish relationships with. This experience has fueled my own drive and passion to work hard to prove to myself that I can be here in LA and work with talented people crafting stories in the world of suspended disbelief. I want to thank so far, a handful of the mentors and people that I have graciously been able to learn and connect with who have helped shape the rough sides of me to sharpen my methods of my editing and mixing and cleaning of dialogue and designer that I am, too. Thank you Marc Fishman, Mark Hensley, Andy Hay, Andy Koyama, Matt Yocum, Charles Maynes, Alex Verbitsky, Alex Nomik, Marty Humphrey, Trip Brock, Karol and Steve Urban, Zak DeVries and many others as well. Overall, at the end of the day, it's not a comparison. It's about you and your road that you own. Let's tell good stories and help directors' visions come through a great solid mix and design and edit.