Lots of people ask me how I got into this weird niche. Most people I knew growing up went to college, got a degree, possibly a grad degree, and work some kind regular well paying job. You just say to yourself, well that figures! He or she studied HR, they do HR. They have a business degree….and now they do some ethereal job involving paper and $$ deep inside a computer. What’s my story? How did I manage to get into this??
Well, many might be surprised to know this was entirely an accident. I actually graduated from Mason Gross School of the Arts (Rutgers) with a bachelors in jazz performance. I was a drummer, a pretty good one too! I played professionally for several years in a variety of bands, taught private lessons, and even taught high school marching band for a few years. It was during this time that I got more and more into production work. It started with learning audio skills to record my own bands. That turned into me teaching less and working with sound more. One day I got the opportunity to do audio for video with a production company that specialized in streaming MMA/Boxing. We hit it off and eventually they had a job with no budget for audio, but asked me if I wanted to learn camera. I jumped at it! From there I just kept learning more and more, more and more, more and more.
A year or two later I wound up in a situation where the production company’s jib operator had to bail very last minute and we couldn’t find an op. I figured out how to put the jib together and got promoted! Funny enough, this NYC JIb Operator’s jibbing debut was actually in Lancaster, PA! After that, I took the jib home with me to practice. I just kept getting better and better. Eventually, I just wasn’t a drummer anymore but wound up with the wonderful business and career I have today.
You never know where life will take you!