The MPSE hosted several virtual events in 2021, including our 68th Golden Reel Awards ceremony. It was a huge success and attended by sound editors and many others around the globe. But, as much fun as that was, we look forward to resuming in-person events as soon as it is safe and practical. We hope that the pandemic will continue to wane and that more people will be vaccinated so that we can once again welcome a capacity crowd to the Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles for the Golden Reel Awards.
We are also encouraged to see our members returning to their normal routines and activities, even if the circumstances are somewhat different. I recently attended a 100th episode party for a show where I was the supervising sound editor. Up until that day, I hadn’t met my colleagues in-person because the work was done remotely —including the spotting sessions, ADR and mix. It was nice to finally meet the producers, the picture editors and even my sound editors.
I hope to have more experiences like that in the year ahead, but it’s unlikely that things will fully return to the way they were before the pandemic.
Work on studio lots will be different. It will still be important for supervisors to be on the lot to oversee ADR sessions and to interact with directors, picture editors and mixers, but sound editors may continue to work from home. I love walking into my editors’ rooms to run reels and discuss ideas. We still do that remotely, but I miss the one-on-one camaraderie. It’s led to a lot of friendships. But from the studio’s perspective, having more people off-site has advantages. They can use the space for other purposes.
Mark Lanza is the president of Motion Picture Sound Editors (www.mpse.org).