Part 1
Introduction
Danny Finn is a UK-based TV Mixer of note. In an award-winning career of 25 years behind the console he has mixed a number of successful and high profile UK TV shows, spanning drama and documentaries. His primetime credits are diverse, in that they include shows such as Judge John Deed, Panorama, Horizon and Footballers’ Wives.
In those 25 years as a staff mixer at a number of top Soho post houses, the thought of going freelance never crossed his mind, it was never the endgame as it is for some. But things change, shit happens, and now Danny is embarking on a new adventure. That of becoming a freelance TV Dubbing Mixer.
We asked Danny if he’d share with our Newsfeed his thoughts and experiences, the trials and tribulations, as things take shape out in the big, bad world; to check in with us at every stage so that the tale unfolds in real time. He very kindly agreed.
So, here is Part 1, Danny’s last day as a staff mixer, in which he sets the scene for what is to come.
The Back Story: The slowest revolving door in history.
I always wanted to be a police officer. Always, as far back as I can remember. But it wasn’t really the done thing to tell people that at my school. So I looked to my hobby; playing in and recording bands, and just told everyone I wanted to be a sound engineer. Doing sound for local stage productions and hospital radio conveniently backed up my lie.
Cut to four years later. Three compacted discs in my spine (and compact discs were quite the thing back then) put paid to my ambitions as a crime fighter. I finished school, spent two years at Ravensbourne College and then I found myself walking in through the revolving doors of a Soho post house (TVI, now essentially Deluxe) and into their sound studio. I still miss that DAR SoundStation to this day – best reel rock ever made.
Three years there. Three years at Telecine (on AMS AudioFile). Six years at Martyr Sound (AudioVision then ProTools). Six years at Clearcut Pictures (ProTools) and another seven at Halo (ProTools) and now here we are at right now. My last day at Halo.
Not only that but my last day as a staff mixer.
No more salary. No more sick or holiday pay. No more sales team or account managers. No engineers. No assistants. No safety net.
Possibly no work ever again.
Maybe I am being over dramatic, it’s been known. There have been times though in the past seven weeks of working notice where despair has taken root. I do know that I am already booked 20 days back at Halo. Client requested me on the job, so in I will come (on my new hourly rate). I am hoping that this will happen a lot, but it’s not in any company’s interest not to at least try and put a staff mixer on a job if they possibly can.
I’ve been working solidly for these seven weeks as well. Mixing almost every day, so getting out to sell myself has been nigh-on impossible.
This past week hasn’t been so bad, but Easter scuppered plans I had to meet people. ‘Yes we’d love to meet but can it be maybe two weeks after Easter please, Kids are off etc etc?’. Facebook and LinkedIn have seen some serious action from me. And not a single cat video.
I have told as many clients as I can that I’m going freelance and that I can now be requested at any post house they happen to be working at.
Just looking at my brand new diary (forgot to keep the receipt – this self-employed stuff isn’t going very well so far), it looks very empty. Cross reference that with my bank statements, working out how much I need monthly to pay all the bills and it’s easy to see why despair reared its ugly head from time to time.
I’m a Sole Trader (Soul Trader?). That is also something I knew nothing about. Still a long way from figuring it all out. VAT / No VAT? Sole or Ltd? What can and can’t I claim for against my tax? I have found an accountant who, bless ’em, has tried to answer every dumb question I’ve asked them without ever once starting the response with DUH! Never once replied with their head in their hands.
I have also been introduced to the world of spreadsheets. Don’t get me started. Purchase orders, invoices. The one spreadsheet I do like is an invoice tracker, they turn red if they’re overdue! How cool is that?? Like PPM‘s back in the day if you went over 6.
Tools of the Trade
Thirty years ago I built myself my first ever mixing desk from bits and pieces and lots of components from RS. Twenty years ago I could build you an Avid or a ProTools system from parts scrounged around various machine rooms and engineering spaces. Remember SCSI drives?? Those were the days. Used to kill my back just moving from one suite to another.
As time passed I got more detached, shall we say, from the engineering side of things. I stopped caring about Macs when the 9600 got phased out. I was in my mid 30’s before I got my first personal computer and that was forced on me by work. they just didn’t excite me. I loved pushing faders up and down. still do, still not into computers. But over the past seven weeks I have taken a crash course in stuff that all the assistants here know as second nature (they probably teach ProTools in primary school now, I imagine).
What OS are you running? PT10 will work if you downgrade it, SoundMiner will work if you upgrade it. how much RAM? Which USB is it: 1,2 or, erm, C? Why don’t you buy PT12 and an S3? (I knew the answer to that one – the f**!ing price that’s why, maybe one day). How much wood would a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck would chuck wood?
I may have made that last one up.
Anyway, thanks to the wonderful assistants here at Halo I have something I promised myself I would never have once my hobby became my career: A studio at home. ProTools 10 running on a Mac Mini, 2 monitors, a desk with enough faders, a sound effects search engine that searches and now finds my SFX. Speakers that sound great and a set of stickers to put on the keyboard as I can never remember which key toggles “insertion follows playback” and it bugs me hugely (N, btw, but I had to look at the keyboard I’m typing this on).
One early win: I’ve done a lot of work for a particular production company client and they have just moved to a new building with their very own dubbing theatre and VO booth, so they will only have to use facilities houses for overflow. They have just pencilled me (more on that later) for 44 days between next month and Christmas. That will keep the despair at bay. At least for the next 6 hours. Certainly it’s something to build on, and build on it I must. Fast.
As I said, it’s my last day and I am, in 2 minutes, going to the pub to meet up with friends past and present to get well and truly mixed.
