Randy Strobl: Welcome to alumni.

Live The Podcast.

These are conversations with Grand Valley State University film and video

graduates about the industry, the film, video, major and alumni profiles.

Welcome to Alumni Live, the podcast here with Brad Mead.

Brad has been working in film and television editing in Los Angeles.

How you doing, Brad?

Brad Mead: I'm doing good.

Randy Strobl: Brad, you are doing some awesome stuff out there.

But all that awesome stuff started when you were at Grand Valley.

Can you tell us a little bit about being a student at Grand Valley,

some of the courses you took, professors you had what's your

experience at Grand Valley was like?

Brad Mead: So I went to a different school when I was still kind of

figuring things out and I decided on Grand Valley after looking at a bunch

of different universities because I felt their film program had the

best program for what I wanted to do.

I wanted to work in narrative filmmaking, and I felt that GV catered

their program much more toward that than other schools in the area.

So I transferred there and I'd always really liked editing and was pretty

sure that's what I wanted to do.

I just kept editing and kept honing that skill I became very solid and

that is the path that I wanted to take.

And so while I was there everything I was doing was focused on

how do I edit this project?

How do I learn more about editing by doing that.

Randy Strobl: So what is it about editing that, that captured you?

You know, the craft of editing, the art of editing.

Brad Mead: A lot of people look at editing as a sort of tedious thing and you know,

you're sitting behind a computer for hours and hours looking at different

takes of footage and looking at, sort of the same thing over and over again.

And I just really enjoy the process.

It's very much like putting a puzzle together.

When I was in school, you know, you go through these classes and you learn

how to do a lot of the other different disciplines and I just found that editing

was the one I always wanted to do.

I tried directing, I tried doing camera work and all those are fun in

their own way, but editing is really where I felt like I wanted to be.

Randy Strobl: And that's like really interesting to me because I came

into editing backwards, right?

So if you would've asked me, you know, when I was a sophomore, junior

in college, I would've been like, editing is my least favorite thing.

But then it's that same thing that you say where, you know, I worked on my first

professional documentary and I realized that like, that's where the story happens.

The puzzle happens there, that's where the building blocks become a structure.

It become something special.

Brad Mead: You get to sit with the film in such a different way.

When you're on set it might take five hours to set up some crazy, insane shot.

And then I look at it in the cutting room and go, well, I

liked the other one better.

yeah, You get to just work with the film in a much more I guess, intimate way.

But it's sort of like you've been given the canvas, you've been given

all the paint and materials and brushes and everything, and now

you're here to to put it all together.

Editing is so important for documentary because you have hours and hours of

interviews and you really don't know what it's gonna be until you start cutting it.

Randy Strobl: So you're, you're there at Grand Valley, you're loving editing,

you know, people are giving you footage, you're discovering the story.

Graduation's coming up.

What did your prospects look like?

You know, where did you think you were going out of Grand Valley?

Brad Mead: Well, so I knew that if I wanted to work in film and tv

I had to move to LA or New York.

And New York is just a smaller and different market.

There's definitely a film and tv community there.

But 95% of all post-production is done in LA.

So for me it was career focused.

I really knew that I wanted to move to LA and that I, basically

had to do that to do this job.

I saved up some money over the summer.

I freelanced a little bit here and there.

But I knew that there wasn't, like nobody was gonna hand me a job before I moved.

I just had to get out there.

The talent pool here is so big.

Graduation was coming up and I sort of set like a deadline for myself.

I'm gonna move to LA in September and I'm gonna do whatever I can

this summer to make money and make that transition easier.

But I'm just gonna move out there and figure it out.

One of my professors, Suzanne Zack she had introduced me to this internship

program called the ACE Internship.

ACE stands for American Cinema Editors.

They are an honorary society for editors.

Randy Strobl: That's where like the big editors are all a part of?

You wanna talk about some of the editors that you're in company with

there, some of the, the projects that have come out of ACE editors.

Brad Mead: Pretty much any major movie, any of the large TV shows, if you're

ever looking at the credits and you see after somebody's name, it says

A.C.E., that means they're part of ACE.

And basically anything that's got a big budget probably

has an editor from ACE on it.

They wanted a more formalized way to help train people so that they

could have good, reliable assistance.

But it also is a way to give people like me, who are just fresh outta

college the opportunity to get, to break into a really difficult industry.

It certainly has opened a lot of doors for me.

Randy Strobl: What are some of the projects that you're working on?

Let's zoom in to now real quick.

How does this paid off for you?

Brad Mead: So I was working at the "Walking Dead" for three years.

And I've been working on a show for Apple TV plus called "Invasion".

And that's what I've been working on most recently.

Prior to that, I'd done feature films like "It Chapter 2", "Dr.

Strange" a bunch of really cool things to have worked on.

So yeah, being part of ACE or going through their internship program

and getting connected to that network is totally how I got there.

Some people spend years years trying to just break into the

narrative filmmaking world.

Cause it can be really tough.

You have to network and you have to meet people and that can be really hard

if you don't know where to meet them.

And so to have this sort of program that can just introduce you to these people,

like that's the whole point of it.

Then that just opens the door immediately and totally catalyzes your whole career.

Randy Strobl: And in an industry where it is who you know, that really

gives you the people to know, right.

Brad Mead: It really is.

I've sort of come full circle in that it really is about who you know.

In order to get anywhere or get a job, you just need to know people.

Everything is word of mouth.

Normally I find out about a job through a friend, through

a coworker, through somebody.

It's all personal connection based.

Like if somebody hands me a resume and I don't know them and nobody

I know knows them, it's a much lower chance that I'll hire them.

As opposed to somebody that I do know or have some kind of connection to.

Randy Strobl: So there you are you're doing your ACE internship,

you finished at Grand Valley.

You've got your site set on a job, you know, how are you navigating

it into your first position?

Brad Mead: So through this internship one of the other things that's really

helpful is they give you a sort of roadmap for what you need to do

and when you should be doing it by.

Can

Randy Strobl: you share a little bit of what was on that roadmap?

Brad Mead: Absolutely.

The most important thing that you need to do to work in narrative TV

and film at a higher level is you have to join the editor's union.

And the union is great for a million reasons that I'll talk about in a

little bit . You have to join the union because it's a requirement for all of

these shows that you be a union member.

So the first thing to tell you is, okay, you have to go out and

get your union accreditation.

And the way that you do that for the editors union is to work 100 days on

a non-union project like a reality TV show or an indie film or documentary.

They're usually lower budget.

A lot of that is non-union work and there's a lot of it being produced.

So that's usually the most surefire way to go and get your days.

So you have to get a hundred days as an assistant editor and you have to be

paid at least minimum wage doing that.

I went and found a job as a Post PA at a reality TV company and then worked one

TV show doing that and then got promoted on the next one being an Assistant Editor

so that I could start getting my union days and eventually join the union.

So, back to ACE whole roadmap.

Number one, join the union.

And once you have your union days, you are able to take a union job.

If you wanna be a television editor, it's about five years of Assistant Editing.

If you wanna work in features.

Probably more like 10 years of Assistant Editing before

you jump up to be an Editor.

With TV, you just produce a lot more content and your ability to move around

and move up is just faster by nature.

Whereas with features, you might be on a project for a year and a half,

and so like in the amount of time that you do one movie, somebody could

have done two shows like six episodes of two shows or something like that.

Randy Strobl: And so then the importance of joining a union have you noticed

a difference between union jobs and non-union jobs that you've done?

Brad Mead: So I guess, let me break down what is great about the union aside

from the fact that you have to join it.

The thing that's really great about the union is that like all

labor unions, you have the ability to do collective bargaining.

We basically just can't get totally taken advantage of by the studios and

the different producers of projects.

So our union sets sort of a minimum wage and it continuously goes up as the cost

of living increase and things like that.

Randy Strobl: This is an industry where we're all excited to work on

shows and we're super stoked about, you know, like just being in Hollywood.

And so that alone makes it really easy to take advantage of us, right?

Like, you know, oh, you can do this for free.

So the union like really protects us and make sure that we're

not getting taken advantage of.

Brad Mead: One of the things that's interesting about working

in the film industry especially for Editors is that you are hired as

technically a full-time employee.

You don't work for a company per se.

You just work for the quote unquote company that was

built, that is the production.

Every TV show, and every movie, they set up a company specifically that will

handle all the finances for that show.

We have a freelance work style where you're working from job to job to job,

but you are paid as a full-time employee.

But because you're not working for the same company all the time you

can't get like healthcare through them or pension or things like that,

that you would get at a normal job.

Because you're just, you're bouncing around a lot.

There's just no continuity.

So what the union does is they will be your health insurance and

your pension and things like that.

Randy Strobl: That'll protect you from like working too

many long hours back to back.

It'll protect you from, you know, some, some of the things that could

be really hard on like an indie show.

Brad Mead: Exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean there's certain rules with the union.

Like you have what's called turnaround they couldn't work you

until two in the morning and then say you have to be back here at six.

They need to give you a certain amount of time off and you're allowed

to break that, but the financial penalty for it is so high that shows

are like just give 'em a break.

Randy Strobl: All right, so you're out there working in the industry now, right?

You've, you've done your, your first job, you've worked your way into the union

you're working as an Assistant Editor.

What are you seeing in terms of like, what is the culture like?

How does it feel to be in this you know, elite club of editors out in Hollywood?

Brad Mead: My favorite thing about working in editorial is that there's

a really great culture of mentorship.

The way that you move up in editorial is very much dependent on other people.

You basically are dependent on somebody giving you a shot.

Because the duties of an assistant editor and of an editor

are all very, very different.

It's one of those things like when you're doing it, you know that you

can do the job above you, but you need someone else to trust that you can do it.

And with a huge talent pool, you have to prove yourself that they should

go with you and not somebody down the street who they also know can do it.

The culture of mentorship is really great because everybody needed

somebody else to give them a shot.

And everyone just pays it forward.

So if a Post-Production Assistant is working for me and I really like

them and they're doing a good job and they're interested and they wanna be

an editorial, then I show them this is what it's like to be an Assistant

and this is how you do things.

You just teach them because they're gonna need to know that and you want

to bring them up and you do that because somebody else did that for you.

And so it's really great because there's so much work editorial

that it's not very cutthroat.

Everyone just wants to help each other out.

I think editors by nature, they're all just really nice people.

You kind of have to be because you deal with a lot of politics

and a lot of big egos and you're working really closely with people.

And so you have to be sort of a level-headed, relaxed person that

can be trusted to just do the project and sort of like help collaborate

with the director and the showrunner.

Everybody's just very chill, laid back and nice to be around.

Randy Strobl: Yeah.

Well, it could be too that the process of getting to that place filters out some

of those people that are hard to work with because it is so who you know, and if, you

know, if you're known as the person that's abrasive, you might not make it to the

Brad Mead: next level.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Yeah.

If I work with someone and I don't like them, then I just don't hire them.

Randy Strobl: Sure.

Brad Mead: So yeah, it definitely does weed people out.

Good personalities tend to stay.

Randy Strobl: Yeah.

Can you tell us a little bit about some of your mentors and, you know, maybe

some lessons you learned from them.

Brad Mead: One of my mentors who I met through the ACE

Internship program Sabrina Plisco.

She was, one of the editors on "Dr.

Strange".

She's the person who gave me my shot for everything.

I wasn't selected for the ACE internship, but I showed up to do a lot of the

other events . And Sabrina saw that I, despite not getting the internship,

that I was still wanting to be involved and still wanted to be there.

She noticed that and sort of took me under her wing.

So she's the one who brought me on to "Dr.

Strange".

She said, "Hey, we need to post PA on this show.

You should come do it.

It's gonna be really fun."

and it was, it was a lot of fun.

But just through being on a production that large I learned a lot about how

to operate on a huge team within an office, within that sort of environment.

There's a lot that I learned from her about how to navigate

political situations.

So like if editors only had to edit a job would be like twice as easy.

But you do have to know how to navigate office politics, which is

probably, you know, true of any job.

But especially in film and television the things you're working on are so

personal to people and also just cost millions of dollars it's all really fun

and we have this really fun, cool job.

But at the end of the day they're making money off of it.

It's a product, and you are with something that

costs a lot of money to make.

It's sort of difficult to put into words, but just by watching her, I learned a lot

about how to sort of like exist in that world and what was sort of expected of me.

Randy Strobl: And I, I imagine part of your job is adapting to that editor's

system and following what they, what they need and how their brain works.

Brad Mead: I mean, the whole job of being an Assistant is you do

basically everything so that your editor only needs to focus on editing.

I sort of look at editorial as sort of like a bicycle wheel and

editorial is the hub of that wheel.

So you've got sound mixing and visual effects and color and all these

different processes that are all basing their work off of stuff that

you are doing in the editing room.

And as an Assistant you are sort of the front door to that hub,

so everything has to come through you before it gets to your editor.

You're dealing with all of the different departments, you're liaising with them.

Randy Strobl: You're like organizing bins, labeling stuff right?

Is that, so like, what does your like day look like?

You know, does it start with somebody bringing you something?

Brad Mead: So yeah, my day as an Assistant depending on what part of

production we're in it looks a little bit different, When we're at the

beginning of a show and they're still shooting my day is I come into work

Randy Strobl: it is, it is at an office.

You're not working from home.

Right.

Brad Mead: I mean COVID sort of brought about this really big change in the

industry . So it's it just kind of depends on the show's preference and

what they wanna do . Like when we work in an office, we have to get tested every

week and there's just a lot of money saving stuff for working from home.

There's a vendor who will sort of do the first steps for prepping your footage.

We call it dailies.

They'll sync the footage and they'll put it in a format that is

more friendly for us to work with.

So we work on Avid I would say, 99% of all productions are Avid.

A lot of indies will use Premiere people who do trailers or things

like that they might use Premiere.

But pretty much every job is on Avid.

One of the things that is involved with working in Avid is that you

use proxy media which is really important, especially now because

we're shooting with cameras that shoot 8K and the file sizes are massive.

If we're putting together an hour long TV show you can't work with it that way.

You have to work in a much like just a 1920 x 1080p format that is

a lot more processor friendly.

So anyway, the vendor will send us a digital package that we'll

download, and I'll bring that footage into the Avid, w hich is our

computers, we just call 'em Avids.

Avid is the program, but it's also the name of the thing.

It's some carry over term.

But anyway, so I, I bring my footage into the Avid and then I

start prepping it for my Editor.

And like we discussed earlier that's different based on

who you're working with.

Each scene gets its own bin.

And I'll give my Editor scenes as I've finished prepping them.

I'll assess the footage that I've gotten and think of the most efficient

way for me to get it done, but to also make sure that my editor

doesn't have downtime or minimize the amount of downtime that they have.

So I might give them a couple smaller scenes first that I can get done

really quick, cuz that'll buy me a little extra time to do a bigger scene.

Or sometimes if the bigger scene is the more interesting one, I'll just say, Hey,

you're not gonna have any footage for a minute, but I'm gonna give you this big

scene that'll keep you busy for a while.

Randy Strobl: We're taking a short break to tell you about the Dirk Koning

Memorial Film and Video scholarship.

Here's Gretchen Vinnedge remembering Dirk Koning.

Gretchen Vinnedge: The Koning Scholarship enables students to get

that kind of an education, to be a good filmmaker, to be able to express their

voice and to continue Dirk's dream.

Randy Strobl: For more information, and to donate to the scholarship,

visit the link in the description.

Now, back to the show.

And so when you say you're giving them a scene, are you you just

giving them bins or did you lay stuff on a timeline for 'em?

Brad Mead: It's a scene bin.

I'm not laying anything into a timeline for him.

He's just he'll do all that cause he's the Editor, . I prepped a

bin in whatever way that he wants.

And then I hand that bin over to him and say, here you go.

You can go cut this now.

Randy Strobl: So, and prepping the bin would be like labeling, closeups,

labeling takes, things like that.

Brad Mead: You don't have to do really a whole lot of labeling,

cuz a lot of that gets done for us.

So the vendor that I was talking about, that they do the sort of

first stages when they bring the footage in, they transcode it.

They also will rename those clips based on the production paperwork that we get.

So every shot is gonna have a name and a camera and all these things,

and they'll name the clips like that.

So that we know what clip refers to what note in the paperwork.

And so yeah it is more just putting it in a format that they prefer.

So like, if they shoot three cameras on a setup, I will group those cameras

together so that the editor can shuffle through the cameras as they need to.

And then I'll give that to him as a group as opposed to giving him three

individual cameras for the same setup.

Once they're done cutting a scene, I'll take it back and do

temp sound design work for it.

So that's one of those tasks that has become more and more important with

the advent of digital a lot of older Editors didn't have to do quite as

much, but now we're sort of expected to do like a pretty full sound pass.

And it kind of depends on what your bar is with your Editor, like

how much work you put into it.

But my editor and I have a pretty high bar and we tend to put stuff out that

could be aired if it really needed to.

And the whole reason for that is that it just makes our job easier.

Like if we've got a big action scene and I do no sound effects for it,

the cut might not play that well.

Even if it's a, brilliant cut, it just may not play because

you need the sound work in it.

The way that I approach sound work is my whole job is to help sell that cut.

Randy Strobl: So when you say you're, you're selling the cut who,

who's on the other end of that?

Who is approving it?

Or like who are you working with on the other end?

Brad Mead: Directors, producers, showrunners,

whoever's next in the pipeline.

so the first thing we do, I guess, is we do an editor's cut.

And that cut is very much based on like notes that were given, but

it is still the one that is our opinion of how it should be done.

Once we have all the footage in for the show, we've cut everything.

We've done sound effects and music and temp visual effects and things for it.

We will then get into the note stages of my job.

We send the cut out to first the director.

They have some union amount of time.

So like the directors have their union, everybody in Hollywood

has a union they belong to.

The directors, they get in television it's four days, and in film it's 10 weeks.

But that's their time to do their cut of the show.

The director comes in and then they have their cut.

So they just, they look at the editor's cut.

And they, you know, they just go through and give notes.

Once the director's cut is finished, it moves on to the producers which

in TV would be the showrunner and film, it would be the studio.

You do the same process all over again.

you just keep doing notes.

So it goes, yeah, editors cut, directors cut, producers cut,

and then after that you lock it.

But I'll send it out to our sound mixing team.

I'll send it to our colorist team.

Visual effects, will take it and start tagging the shots that they need to do

work to I'll send it to our music team so that the composer can do their work.

And that's the easiest part of my job cuz once it's delivered I just kind of have

to like sit back and wait for the product to come . But in TV usually you're, you're

onto the next episode at that point.

Like you lock an episode and then you just start working on the next one.

So we're always busy.

Randy Strobl: Yeah.

Yeah.

And so then all of a sudden, you know, the things done, you know, they send it

to the theater time for your next job.

So how do you find your next

Brad Mead: job?

Job?

Yeah.

A lot of times if you are working really well with crew that you're

with, and you all like each other and you want to keep working together,

you will just keep working with them.

Somebody will find a job or somebody will have a lead on something and

like a lot of people will just kind of like stick with the same group.

A lot of times as an Assistant if you wanna keep working with the same editor,

you just wait for them to find a job.

And sometimes that can be hard because you might work with an editor who wants

to take some time off and maybe you don't wanna take as much time off as them, or

maybe you wanna do something different.

If you don't wanna work with that person or you wanna go work on

something different, then you have to like network around a bit and

see what's out there and available.

If I wanna keep assisting the editor I'm with, I just wait for them to get a job.

But a lot of editors, once they've established themselves, will get an agent.

And agents are funny because they take 10% of your paycheck and they

don't really do a lot . Most of the time agents are extremely valuable in

the sense that they'll get you work.

And so they're absolutely worth the money in that sense.

And they also will negotiate your rate for you.

Even though they're taking 10% of your paycheck, they're kind of paying

for it by getting you more money when they're negotiating your rate.

So they're definitely, they're worth it.

And with any job you're first starting out can be really difficult to find work.

And that's when you have to sort of network around the most.

I found also when you are transitioning to the next step up, that's also when

you have to network around a lot.

I was able to get a job as an Assistant Editor because I got bumped

up on a show that had hired me as a PA and they needed an Assistant.

But after that, I, you know, I only had one credit, and so it can be a little

bit more challenging to find work.

But like now, I could work on anything I want, basically , because I, I have

enough, I have enough credits and enough big credits that it, it was just more a

matter of like, what do I wanna work on?

What do I wanna go and do?

So I'm at this point in my career now where I'm about

to try and become an Editor.

And I've got a couple shared editing credits.

That will give me enough lines on my resume that someone might

trust me with a smaller show.

But right now I will need to like network.

So I need to go around and talk to people and say, "Hey,

like, do you know of anything?

Like, have you heard of anything?

Here's my resume".

You just gotta make friends with people and you build your network by doing jobs

and it's one of those things that your network starts small because you've only

done one job, but because the nature of the industry is working job to job to job.

You meet new people at every job and your network grows.

And and as long as you are just nice and good to work with and you're good at your

job, people wanna keep working with you.

So yeah, it's really tough at first because you don't have a network yet.

And it's really tough to network when you don't have a network, but you

just gotta get that first job and then then you kind of go from there.

But I guess for students that are looking to work in editorial, you

first would network with alumni.

If you wanna work in film and tv, you hit someone like me up and you say, Hey, I'm

interested in moving to LA and I wanna work in film and TV and editorial and

could I chat with you for a little bit?

Randy Strobl: Yeah.

Have you done that yourself, where you found an alumni out

there and, and networked with?

Brad Mead: When I first moved here I had networked with

an alumni Mary Graff Ashley.

She was editing on the behind the scenes features for the third Hobbit movie.

I messaged her and said, "Hey, I would love to grab some coffee with

you or something and just meet up."

And so she was working on this, on this project and she was like, "Hey,

you know, we we're actually looking for Post-Production Coordinator and

we're looking to hire somebody green."

Which the subtext of that is we just don't want to pay somebody.

So she said, "Hey send me your resume and I'll pass it along and we'll see if, like,

if they wanna interview you or something."

And that's just how it happens.

Randy Strobl: Were there any like assignments that helped

you like navigate that?

One, one of our previous episode, we talked about informational interviews.

Was that in ever something you did?

Brad Mead: I did, I think just an informational interview over

email with an Editor and I really don't remember much about it.

Randy Strobl: No, that's fine.

I mean, it sounds like the kind of the message of this whole thing is

like, you know, be good to people and like they'll be good to you.

Right?

Like you're, you're out there making good inroads with, with people and like

the jobs will happen it sounds like.

Brad Mead: Yeah.

Paying it forward is just a big part of working in editorial.

Like I said before someone helped me out, so I am then going to help someone else.

And so yeah before you leave or when you first get there, just message

people, email them, say, Hey, I've got your contact info from a

professor, or however they got it.

And just offer to like buy 'em coffee and

Randy Strobl: Not necessarily like give me a job, but you're like

making like real connections, like you're making friends out there.

Were there things at Grand Valley that you felt prepared

you for the work that you do now?

You know, classwork wise or, you know, are there lessons that you learned back in

the day that you are putting to use today?

Brad Mead: You know, one of the things that I felt is that it does

a decent job of preparing you for the job you will eventually do.

I think what would've been really helpful is to have some class time

dedicated to doing the sort of assistant roles that I was gonna do

for nearly a decade before I got there.

It gave me the chance to make mistakes and learn about what I wanted to do.

So like I wanted to be an Editor and I had at Grand Valley the opportunity to

edit a bunch of things and sort of make sure that that's what I wanted to do.

That it wasn't working in sound or working in camera or directing or something.

That it really was like editing's what I want to do and now go

do everything to get there.

The main thing that I think was really valuable about school there was having the

time and the space to just make mistakes and to learn from stuff like that in a

safe setting as opposed to doing it in the real world and messing up my job

or like my career path or something.

Randy Strobl: So a student listening to this right now, they're, in between

classes getting ready for some schoolwork.

What would you advise them to do?

Like right now what are some things they should practice or prepare for?

Brad Mead: So any students that wanna work in editing the first thing that you

should do is learn Avid, because you're probably gonna end up working on it.

You can cut and Premiere if you want to.

It might be easier, but I took it upon myself to cut both of the

thesis films I worked on in Avid.

I didn't know how to use Avid, but I wanted to take that opportunity to

learn it because it's a lot easier to learn something when you have project

that you're trying to do with it, as opposed to just going in completely dry

and having no idea what you're doing so learning Avid take the chance to do that.

You are not going to know.

A lot of how to work on it in a professional sense until you

start working professionally.

But having the foundation of knowing at least how the program operates and how

to work within it would be really, really helpful for students that want to edit.

And also try to just cut as much stuff as you can.

Any of your class projects try to be the Editor if other people wanna edit,

you know, obviously like, don't hog it, but definitely cut as much as you can.

I was lucky enough to find a job on campus at the Office of Student

Life where I was editing, so I got a lot of experience doing that.

And then if you're serious about moving to LA reach out to alumni and

you can do a Zoom chat with them.

You can trade emails but, you know, sort of start just getting feelers about

, what it's like to live here, what it's like to find work here things like that.

And if you're a student and you're about to graduate and you're sort of trying

to figure out what like you wanna go to LA if you don't really know what

to do just set goals for yourself, make a budget give yourself timeline.

Just like make a plan.

Randy Strobl: What are you looking at doing the next, you know, couple years?

What do you got your site set on?

What, what do you wanna do?.

Brad Mead: The end goal for me is Editor.

And it's, it's kind of funny because when you're going through it and when you're

climbing the ladder there's this sort of immediacy to it, and you really wanna,

you're just trying as hard as you can.

You want to get there fast.

And then you get to Editor and that's it.

There's no head editor or number one editor on the team, stuff like that.

It's just,

Randy Strobl: But there are different projects and bigger projects,

more personal projects, right?

Like

Brad Mead: course.

Absolutely.

Of course.

Randy Strobl: of navigation there.

Brad Mead: yeah, you can be on the project as opposed to the position.

Randy Strobl: And as you're like climbing that ladder and trying to find, you

know, the right projects and, you know, I imagine like, you know, putting a

little extra in, how do you find that balance between, you know still having

fun in your, in your off work life?

Brad Mead: Yeah, well see.

That's, that's the one major drawback to working in film and television.

It's not quite as bad in editorial because we don't have the same

demands that production has.

But it's a very, very time demanding job.

You will spend a lot of long nights working but it's really fun.

And if you're working with a good crew you oftentimes don't really

mind it . But finding the balance, that's, that's the question that we're

all constantly asking ourselves is how do we possibly make this happen?

Especially like when you start wanting to have kids.

You know, life just starts happening.

You have more things you wanna do with your time and it's easier

the higher up the ladder you get.

You have a little bit more ability to call shots or make asks.

But it's really tough as an Assistant because you are in a support role.

And oftentimes we aren't covered very well in terms of like, if I get

sick or if I want to go on vacation or something there's no other me.

I don't work in a department or have the work covered by someone else.

It's like, Here's the thing we have to do and we have to do it right now.

, there's, the whole job is very immediate in that sense.

So it's really, challenging to take time off or find the time.

It's just up to the person to, to be sort of setting the boundary.

You know, sometimes you just have to work late because something has to

get done, but that's true of any job.

If you have something important coming up as long as you let people

know and figure out a way to cover yourself, then it's totally fine.

Randy Strobl: I like to, you know, give you an opportunity to brag about

something you're really proud of.

Tell us about a problem that you helped solve.

What is a scenario where like you, you've got to swoop in

and be the hero in your job.

Brad Mead: So I was working on this movie "Mile 22", which was

a Mark Wahlberg action movie.

And we're in the middle of the, the final mix.

you know, Everyone's really stressed out.

Nobody has time to do anything, and we really need to get Mark

Wahlberg on an ADR stage so that we can record a line for him.

We couldn't get him.

He just didn't have time to get to a stage to do these lines for us.

I had a little microphone that I attached to my iPhone which is something that I

used for doing temp ADR lines that will add into the show just to see if it works.

So they sent me to the Director's boxing gym where Mark was doing

some other show or something there.

And they said you're just gonna go into a back office and get it done.

Cuz like he can't make it to a stage and we're all on the mixed stage right

now and like, no one else is here.

So you just go, you gotta, you gotta go do this.

I had to go in and like walk in very, direct with a purpose

and say like, I'm here for Mark and I'm here, I, where's Mark?

I need to go get a line from right now I'm working on the movie.

And everyone's like, oh yes, yes, this way.

So I had him read the line and he looked back to me and I was

do it again, but a little bit faster . And so he did, he did it.

Like he just, you know, he is totally professional and we got what we needed and

so I, I took that file off my phone, sent it to the sound stage, and we got the line

Randy Strobl: Hey.

That's how movies are made, huh?

Brad Mead: Exactly.

Sometimes by, just by the seat of your pants.

Randy Strobl: Right.

Well Brad Mead, thank you so much for teaching us about your, your career in

editing in narrative TV and broadcast.

And yeah, keep up the great work and we'll, we'll see

you on the big screen, huh?

Brad Mead: Yeah.

Hopefully someday.

Thank you for joining us for this episode of Alumni Live: The Podcast.

Subscribe to our podcast, to hear more from our alumni across the industry.

Check out Alumni Live on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube for more

conversations and networking.

Let us know what topics you want to hear our alumni talk about.

The Grand Valley State University Film and Video Alumni Network is here for

you, and we're glad that you're here.