Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/856624
32 S U M M E R 2 0 1 7 C A S Q U A R T E R L Y point when L.A. Sound Mixers branched off with the creation of an offshoot group called Inner Circle, which I think was just bad terminology. But it did force me to internally examine this debate. On one hand, one could think, "I don't want to be a part of that." But, on the other hand, it could be, "Why aren't I in the Inner Circle group?" Chris replies, "What's funny is that group's now called the Narrative Production Sound Group, which is probably a more on-track name for what it is. It was meant for people who are maybe a generation ahead of us to share in a forum that's a little more chilled- out and not have all the kind of questions from new people. It was more established people who do narrative work, and people not just from L.A. either." What's interesting is he created a group almost on the same philosophy of the disdain I have in this article for people asking silly questions like, "What shotgun mic should I buy?" Possibly, it was a way to try and start solving that problem. But it was more than that. I think Chris wanted to attract wisdom. "The Inner Circle name—it may have been a bad [name] to start out with—but at least I think the message I wanted to get across with that name was that it was for people who are a little bit further along in the craft and not necessarily going to speak out on the bigger forums." L.A. Sound Mixers has also hit a major milestone, which is notable for being a fairy small and closed group. "L.A. Sound Mixers, which is mostly local, just went over a thousand members, but I would say about 750 or 800 are local." This reminded me of the numerous other offshoot groups Chris has started on the Facebook platform. "There's New York Sound Mixers. There's Texas Sound Mixers, which is a much bigger group because it encompasses Austin, Dallas, and Houston. And Tyler [Faison] is a Dallas-based guy who does the Lone Star Mixer every year in January and a really cool cat and really knowledgeable. Then, there's the Bay Area Sound Mixers, which we opened up because there was a couple of our L.A. Sound Mixers that moved up there and are working up there full time. I felt like having a group dedicated to ENG workflow [ENG Warriors]. There are so many mixers that do so many different styles of work, and the ENG style of recording is the way they want to do it. I felt like it was time to have a page just dedicated to that because there's really cool guys like Bal Rayat and Tom Schaeffer and that's what they do. And they make a great living at it. And, as Facebook group to be specific. Facebook allows for the creation of both public and private Facebook groups for any topic you can dream up. THE DEBATE ABOUT INCLUSION Exclusivity exists in our craft and our industry. It exists in any profession and any culture for that matter. Should our particular craft thrive on either inclusivity or exclusivity? Both philosophies have virtues and shortcomings. Also, how is this shotgun mic question an indicator of one's experience in production sound? There is nothing wrong with being inexperienced. I just think people with experience hope to see people gain experience the old-fashioned way. The internet is changing everything around our society, especially the potency of expertise, in my opinion. Flipside alert! The internet can potently supplement educational trajectory and there are many (often paid) websites for occupational training. However, what I'm mostly referring to, and thus ranting about in this article, is the portion of budding practitioners who are relying strictly on posting questions on the internet for discussion as their educational process. Chris Howland is an L.A.-based sound mixer as well as a sound community organizer. He has a way of allowing me to see the flipside of this. Facebook discussion groups have changed everything. He elaborated on his philosophy of this. "There's so many different types of production sound work that they discuss in the bigger groups. Those bigger groups, I think, serve a bigger knowledge base for sure when it comes to solving technical issues or solving workflow problems. Where the water gets murky is when you start dealing with problems or things that are locally focused like rates, and you start thinking about your local market. Not everything that works for us here in L.A. works for people in other parts of the country or other parts of the world. They're a little different. As mixers, we're very opinionated people, so we're always gonna throw in our two cents. But there are certain topics that are, I think, better solved on a local forum than on a big, broad, nationwide forum. So L.A. Sound Mixers was born out of the idea that L.A. is a really unique market. It's probably one of the most saturated production sound markets in the world." What about the inclusion debate? I wanted to discuss with Chris how we both took a little bit of flack at one