In early 2013, I broke my right hand. In the UK this wouldn't be such a problem but in the US when driving a stick-shift (manual transmission) it becomes more of an issue. That coupled with needing to drive 15 miles to Todd-AO Lantana each morning instead of Seward was very challenging. Marc Fishman, the dialog mixer on the show we were doing was wonderful and gave me a ride every day of that mix. One example of the friendship and support that this great company has extended to me over the years.
There's not a lot to say about 2013. The majority of the year was taken up with a few projects in various forms. August: Osage County, 2 Guns and Carrie made up the majority of my year.
2 Guns with Joe Barnett and Tony Lamberti, was an incredibly enjoyable experience and gave me the chance to work with Michael Tronick, a wonderful picture editor and incredible character and one of the nicest people I've met in this industry. That alongside he cut perhaps my favorite sports movie of all time, the awesome "Remember the Titans" and Carol's favorite "Volcano". Truly wonderful experience.
In July my visa was up for renewal once again. Richard, David and Nancy once again came up trumps. With letters of support from Gordon Lyon now of Gobbler and Chris Gahagan of Avid, I became an Alien of Extraordinary Ability (O1). Thanks also go to Howard Schapiro, our wonderful immigration attorney.
David Young, took me on as engineering support for Soundelux Editorial. When I wasn't on the dub stage I'd go to the Soundelux Tower that I'd first been in 10 years previously and help with server maintenance amongst other things. This essentially made me a full time employee of the company which was great for me and I hope good for them too. It also gave me a chance to explore some other skills, learn more about virtualized computer systems, Perl scripting, brush up on incredibly rusty SQL and ASP programming.
In early September, in amongst working on the final of Carrie (yes it was a long project) I was able to take a day off to get married to that wonderful and difficult lady Eddy had introduced me to way back when. Work had literally become family and David Y was there as a witness.
By that point we'd also started hemorrhaging creative talent from the company, supervisors and their crews were leaving due to changes in management etc. Everyone has opinions on the hows and the whys but regardless, the death knell was sounding. It would take a further 8 months to eventually kill the company but slowly team after team left, we shifted remaining staff around the 7080 building, into and out of different facilities and the place wasn't the same.
By the time the company was officially closed last week it was a skeleton crew and we were migrating the remaining staff to the first floor of 7080 where I realized that nearly 11 years ago to the day I'd first walked into those rooms. I'd met with Bryan and he'd walked me round. Mikael's room had become a VO suite that I was now removing the equipment from. Scott's room had become storage after the music project had been abandoned. Alan's room, a gorgeous sound design room was still largely intact but not for long. As I pulled the speakers off their stands, the TV mount from the wall and the console and cabling away from the desk, I began to think about all that I'd experienced since first entering that room.
The people that I'd met and worked with, the projects I'd been a part of, the places I'd been and experiences I'd had. It was sad to be taking it all apart but I was grateful to all that I'd met. I wouldn't have changed it for the world and I'm looking forward to the next phase. The industry will not be killed, it has been wounded but the people and talent live on.
RIP Soundelux (1982-2014), Todd-AO (1953-2014).
Thank you.