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Happiness & Success


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Seems as if you all read the topic not the article.

We all have the power to say no to a gig so if 96 days straight, turn a few down. You're only here once. Don't blow it by working the whole time.

CrewC

Listen to what this wise man has said and you'll be better off in the long run and be around to enjoy it.

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Seems as if you all read the topic not the article.

We all have the power to say no to a gig so if 96 days straight, turn a few down. You're only here once. Don't blow it by working the whole time.

CrewC

I did read the article.

The problem is every time I swore to get a weekend off I get a call from shows I dreamt of working for: FRONTLINE, ViceHBO, Mayweather Stephen A Smith Espn special, Ronda Rousey UFC doc, BBC doc... I never say no to documentaries. If I could do docs all the time I would...

Also another reason for picking up work is I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket. I have seen people go on a long shows and after that show is done they lost all their contacts. One of my good friends was sound mixing on a show for 6 years. I always called him to give him work that he always refused. When the show ended after 6 years he was screwed. Nobody knew who he is and people that knew him forgot about him.

Edited by RadoStefanov
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Like Rado, I don't like to put all of my eggs in one clients basket.

Even though I am on a series, I'm putting in a day or two a week on other stuff, just to keep my name on peoples minds.  It's rough now, but it pays off in the long run.  I've never done 96 days in a row, but when you are working on interesting projects, it doesn't feel like work.

Which makes me happy.

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No man or woman on their deathbed ever said I wish I had worked more.

I feel the point of the article is being missed but that's jwsound at its best. If this topic evolves into why I am afraid to turn down a gig or my paranoia of doing so, well that's an interesting topic in itself.

I love to work. I've done 128 days on location, six day weeks on a film, I did 20 days last month including a trip to work in Green Bay Wis.  The point is not how much you can work, but rather how happiness in life leads to success and a better career than say an incredible depth of technical expertise and a dour outlook in life.

CrewC

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I've been in this game a long time, not Toline-long but probably Crew-long.  I've found that doing marathon runs of work while exhausted, like wrapping a movie and starting another the next day, or an endless verite doc with no space or time, or a run of big commercials back to back, slotted perfectly into the calendar, makes you strange.  Exhausted, angry, in pain, distant, antisocial and maybe a little self-righteous about how much harder you think you are working than everyone else you know.   But as heroic as you can feel, no one else really looks at what you are doing that way.  I understand the business about getting opportunities to work on things you always wanted to be a part of vividly, and also how those opportunities usually manage to occur when you are already booked out and running on fumes.  But having done those sorts of runs, I can tell you what the end of it will often look like: getting hurt, getting sick, getting into a seriously bad situation with your family and having a longer detox period than you think you'll have.  As you get older you will begin to understand this more, perhaps.  Crew and Eric have outlasted a whole lot of hotshot soundies that started when they did and were very busy and successful for awhile.  Surprise--they burned out, and are gone.  These two are shining examples of how to grow elderly in this business with class, and a chunk of that success is that they know how to pace themselves.  A tired, pained soundie is a cranky soundie, and we all know what happens, eventually, to cranky soundies.

p

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In my sixteen years working in the sound industry I'm no stranger to over working and throwing myself out of balance and feeling the consequences thereof.  I spent the first ten of those in dark recording studios starring at computer screens.  I thought it was my everything and I burned out big time hitting many personal bottoms trying to continue to make things work.  This is one of the things that motivated me to make the switch to primarily do production sound.  Today being on set, around people and using my body more proved to be a much more fulfilling experience.  I'm going to be a father in a few months, I'm a husband of four years and a hobby musician.  All these things need to be fed.  The more balance I have the happier I am on set.  I do often fall off the beam in my work life when I take too many days or am on a long exaughsting project.   But these bumps in the road remind me to be more cautious in the future on how much I take on so I dont risk burn out.   Maybe this means I won't be one of the sound mixing super stars, but then again my track record shows things will work out better then I could have planned if I keep a balanced life a priority.

 

Edited by Michael Wynne
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If one practices fun, one eventually becomes really good at fun.

Learned that one day stressing out not landing anything on my skateboard at Tompkins, Decided to just have fun, and whoa did the things I could do on a skateboard exponentiate. 

Translated that into the rest of my life and it's almost like your the Flash and the whole world around you is easy to deal with in  slow motion.

Problem at a sound job?  Why is it a problem?  In the time someone was freaking out , someone can solve it.

 

A very wise engineer once told me , " By remaining calm, almost anything can be solved"  (Bill Murray re iterated that a couple years later in an interview as well.)

 

I almost feel like this article is also born from a Contemporary Neo DaDaism that is spanning multiple generations. So many people spent their lives working insanely hard to just have corporations infiltrate our government and then our banks and take everything away.   This type of thinking seems to be the equal and opposite reaction starting to grow from roots.

Thanks for posting that article.

 

 

Edited by Stillweii
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So happy;~) people are reading and relating to the article. I found it syncs up to my world view and experiences in life.

an example

I worked on a number of films with a top award winning mixer who by all professional standards should have been as happy as a mixer could be. He was working at the top. He was very good at his craft. He should have been happy with all his success.... He wasn't. He never savored a scene well done, a film well recorded, or his body of work which was well regarded. Nothing gave him pleasure. Well, maybe shooting guns, but that is all. His family life was neglected. No social life in or out of the business. Zero. He was just worried about getting his next gig. He felt life/work was out to get him. While I learned a lot from him regarding sound for picture, (we did good "work"), I learned even more about what's important in life.

 To be fair, I knew much of this before I met and worked with him. I have always liked people. Loved family. Had dreams and ambitions. But, I also always wanted more life, play, & adventure, less work. Probably a result of being from California as a prime time baby boomer who was exposed to so many options in my youth. Who knows? I do know that I never set out to be a sound man. I did follow my dream to be a film maker and like others, I feel that I am one who does the sound. I have never been a technical person but I am someone who likes to solve problems, work with others, and have fun. To laugh when things are shitty. Try to get a smile out of someone who's feeling down or hurt. To be connected to those I am with wherever I go, be it family, friend, co worker, stranger on the trail. None of this is a secret super power. It's connectivity to the world instead of isolation from it. Today it is easy and tempting to isolate with all our devices. Resist. 

Please take a moment, take a walk, take off the headphones/earbuds, get out of your car, go listen to live music with others, go body surfing, see films in rooms full of strangers, smile and say hello to the person who has his/her head down looking at their iPhone wearing earbuds, hold the door open for someone, Do something for your friends and family that's not related to you making money. Enjoy your short time here on Earth.

CrewC

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Great article, thanks, Crew.

I didnt take anything away about balancing work and play, just the message that happiness begins on the inside, and manifests externally as "success". I think people can work or play to excess, and still be happy...if they're truly happy already.

Connectedness and gratitude ? Easy to see how those would manifest in a "successful" life, or any field whatsoever !

best

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Please take a moment, take a walk, take off the headphones/earbuds, get out of your car, go listen to live music with others, go body surfing, see films in rooms full of strangers, smile and say hello to the person who has his/her head down looking at their iPhone wearing earbuds, hold the door open for someone, Do something for your friends and family that's not related to you making money. Enjoy your short time here on Earth.

CrewC

Amen!

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Knowing that two weeks' vacation would never, ever cut it for me...the hopeful meditation that landed me doing this-thing-we-do included happiness and four other words...four months during every spare moment...happiness...wisdom...clarity...peace...dignity among the most repeated. Freelance sound was the answer to my prayers. Truly. Saved me from a lifetime of...unhappy. Praise Dog!!!

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I haven't been in this biz that long, about 4 years full-time in production and 6 coming up 7 in sound, in that time I've watched several friends kids' grow up without them, said friends go gray, and a couple of friends in the biz die, both well before their time. 

A couple of years ago something shifted in my focus after I moved through the worst grief from losing one of my best mates at 49.   I love working but I love spending time with myself, my wife and my family and friends more.  Not coincidentally I think, the jobs started getting better, but I don't work as hard.

I don't think I'll ever get 'rich' from this gig, but I feel a whole lot wealthier.

 

 

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I haven't been in this biz that long, about 4 years full-time in production and 6 coming up 7 in sound, in that time I've watched several friends kids' grow up without them, said friends go gray, and a couple of friends in the biz die, both well before their time. 

A couple of years ago something shifted in my focus after I moved through the worst grief from losing one of my best mates at 49.   I love working but I love spending time with myself, my wife and my family and friends more.  Not coincidentally I think, the jobs started getting better, but I don't work as hard.

I don't think I'll ever get 'rich' from this gig, but I feel a whole lot wealthier.

 

 

Joel, I like your outlook. Personally I'm happy being rich in love and family. Sadly that's undervalued in western society. Long ago after I learned about the peaks and valleys of the income from sound recording, I have lived a good but modest life style. At least compared to many in LA/SoCal. I believe in a balance in life and having faith in myself. So far, so good. Glad this topic is striking a chord in some of my fellow sound people.

CrewC

I haven't been in this biz that long, about 4 years full-time in production and 6 coming up 7 in sound, in that time I've watched several friends kids' grow up without them, said friends go gray, and a couple of friends in the biz die, both well before their time. 

A couple of years ago something shifted in my focus after I moved through the worst grief from losing one of my best mates at 49.   I love working but I love spending time with myself, my wife and my family and friends more.  Not coincidentally I think, the jobs started getting better, but I don't work as hard.

I don't think I'll ever get 'rich' from this gig, but I feel a whole lot wealthier.

 

 

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