Hello everyone and welcome to the new edition in this mentoring cause insider insights. So what this is basically is that I will be talking to in meeting with some film industry veterans and players in the Hollywood scene and asking about how they got in and experiences when they first got started. Kind of like you guys right now. And you interview about 15 minutes or so will be released every quarter. So stay tuned for that. And once again, if you have any questions about any of the interviewees or just about the course in general, feel free to post them on the q&a board.

Happy learning. Okay, so I hope all as well on your end. We have here Vincent so Vincent, why don't you tell us about more about yourself and your passion? Okay, my um, I started playing the piano and three from my dad's knee. He was a jazz and blues player. He had several bands and he was good friends with Brooke Benton and we just don't we grew up in a family together.

Um, you know, no matter how things went, the music was always there. You know, I mean, came to Atlanta in 83 following behind a lot of musicians that came to Atlanta for the opportunities to record a recording, you know, performance. So, I got introduced to film in the late 80s. And I always wanted to score a film, so I started pursuing it. So, um, it allowed me to get closer to filmmakers and really understand the craft of film, and even down to how we met. So, you know, as far as playing the piano goes, it's my first nature but then the film thing and getting music together has always been, it's been exponential.

It's been quite a joy and an experience to be able to help tell a story using my music talent. So why film I know musics a very broad industry, you can do like your own songs. You can, you know, do events. So why film specifically? I grew up, I was in love with the movies, I had never cried and said 11 years old, and I missed the entire fifth grade. And while I had nephritis, my mother enrolled me in the Queen's branch library Movie Club.

And first film I fell in love with was the red balloon. And I think I've seen it at times, and I've seen the remake and I just, you know, I used to cut the sound down on TV, you know, like, my dad, the same guy. He was not only a pianist, and a piano player and a songwriter. He was a television repairman. He was Army Corps of Engineers, communications specialists, and I used to cut the sound down on the TV and go out and play the piano and turn the TVs to me, and while I was silent, I would play along with it, you know, I'm gonna do that as well. You know, okay, um, wow.

So tell tell me about like a the most memorable time that you had either on production on set like it's something that's just really funny or really scary or you know, something like that. My memorable time was when I how I met you and nobody on, you know, an edge that and I had already met Hakeem Robinson at scad Oh, nice. So I came in I, you know, we were already friends. So he asked me if I could do sound I said, Yeah. And he said, I'll show you how to use this. You know, this.

This recorder, this digital recorder and you can do the sound press. And so that's how I, I came on as a sound man, not as music. You know, currently, I'm working with a team doing music on a piece that they're doing here in Regina right now. And I just got to tell you, that was one of the most memorable and richest experiences I've had working on a film on set and getting to intimately understand and be involved with sound. And understand the production process for film. I really learned a lot.

I mean, two weeks after I got back from New York, I was on that set and I met you and everybody else. So let's say your first like set wasn't really your first set. Oh, no wonder. I had done music videos, I've done about 30 music videos, either as a producer or as a director or as a treatment writer or whatnot in production, but I never worked on a film, which is like, a game and you know, no, yeah, that was the first time I thought you a season Wow. See, this is my first time doing this too. So I thought you were you've been doing this for a while.

I say Wow, you look great. Thank you, I I don't know what sometimes I'm meant to be somewhere and I just tried fit in where I get in and I thought you were like a pro, you know, like study yourself sound mixing and so I've been a recording engineer for nearly 30 years recording music. So I just tried to apply what I knew. As far as doing sound for film. I knew it was a very serious seriously different type of medium, you know, different experience. So I just follow as much of his direction as I could.

So I guess I brought what I understand as being a recording engineer to that, you know, if I was gonna say that set was a movie like you again Oscar. Cuz I would not have guessed I wouldn't. I wouldn't have known I thought you were like a super Pro. guy. I am with music. But I that was my first film and I was scared.

I was scared. I didn't know I was good. My sound wasn't gonna be good. So I was always, you know, I was I was really, really on it. So, okay, cool. Yeah, thank you.

Okay, so on that note, um, this question would be pretty easy I suppose. When did you realize you had like a break or your foot in the door, getting you know, bigger projects in your position. After I worked for Hakeem in and Regina it, it changed my life. It changed my home. If I could use that word, you know, it changed my thoughts on whether or not this was going to be something I could actually do. And not long after that, working with and not another friend that I met Eric, Canada.

Eric, Canada is a producer. He's on IMDB. You could check them out. But I met Eric and I mean just we just talked about production and people and whatnot, and worked on a ludicrous video as playback for ludicrous music video. And after that, Eric introduced me to Byron Irwin Conrad, he's a local director, independent director, very, very innovative genius talent. And I scored a film a show that he did in 2012 called last words about a mother a dying mother's last words to her son, that they obviously were had an estranged relationship.

And I scored the film, and did sound design. How I first really, you know, knew that I was going to stick was after I did that project from Byron early Conrad. Last Words to generally you make a simple pop version, which is what opens the film, and then you put that in the soundtrack. So that's when I knew that I could really really do this and I should really, hunker down and pay it. And so I went back to my cset I wasn't ASCAP and now I would see sac Society of European Songwriters, Composers, Authors and blah, blah, blah. Anyway, so that's when I knew after working on last words with Byron, that and Eric, that I was going to, I was going to definitely Kela highwater, I was gonna do this.

Nice. Wow, that's cool. It's good. Good to know. Right now. I mean, it's never too late to discover something.

Exactly. process. It's a process. I tell you. Yeah. Okay.

Um, so like, one of the few last questions for me is, how is your life like now, compared to back when you were just getting started? So is there a difference or the sort of same or how is it like for you? It's very different. Um, I partnered up with my Jewish Big Sister, Ari Casper Silberman. She is an MFA in film and I'm in theater and it's allowed me to Get into. I like to I don't like to apply the word fine art to film, but film can be fine art, you know.

And then there's the commercial aspect and my influence from dub has led me to seriously look at the revenue of marketing of film. So it's become pretty serious now before it was the hope to get in and who I was working with. And, you know, I had my little dog in the house and, you know, kids are all grown, you know, and I'm single again. So I mean, it's been that way for years. So, now I'm more so married to the career and it's very, very different and focused and just to be able to talk to you right now is, is part of that process. It's very different.

Very glad. Any last words for students like the students can be, you know, new filmmakers who could be people are not filmmakers and people, just general learners. Like any last words for them. Yes, I would definitely urge Any filmmaker, and likewise any composer that thinks they want to make music and film, to work together to help focus on telling the story. See, the telling of the story has got to be the most important thing because you realize you're making this for someone to view you're making this for someone to understand is a premise behind the script and the story itself. And that premise has to be followed.

It has to be followed the dialogue is very, very important. But everything else is important too, as well, and especially in the music field, or Steven Spielberg said he thought that music was 50% of the story. Yeah, yeah, I think that's an important thing to adhere to. And I'm, you know, I'm not not too much. I don't want people to think I'm having an ego walk here. But when it comes down to the director, and the film composer, the music composer for the film, it got to have a almost have Siamese twins symbiotes To get together to be able to create, you know, the same way a dp, a director of photography gets together with the director.

And once they get on that page, I mean, a magic can happen and telling a story is everything. I mean, there's certain music I hear from film that I know that story. And I know, I know, it brings all the images, and this is what people experience. And that's what I would urge. And also to, not to think it's an expense that they can't sacrifice and it's not it's the wrong understanding. They have to find a way or find someone like me willing to work with them, and give them high production values to help tell this story.

This is what I'd like to get the word out mainly. Nice. Awesome. Well, everyone um, that was Vincent and you've been doing this for how long? How many years? Ah, let's say five six.

Let's see. 2012 2011 Yeah, 2010 let's say six years. Okay, what about music like from those ways back then. I've been doing music for 40 some odd years I've been in since I was, is Oh, I have a brother that's a drummer, another brother that's a bass player. He has a degree in art, music, seeing my blood, film thing, get in my head and understand how directors and directors of photography thing. So I can match what they do and and help them aid them in telling their story once again, I can't stress that enough.

So it's, it's great. Well, it was a pleasure speaking to you. Thank you. It was a pleasure. Just seeing you and talking to you Vicki. This is awesome.