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Issue #75
by L. Swift and Jeff McQ
When it comes to establishing a career in the film industry, Film Connection apprentice Matthew Gibson understands the work ethic and the dedication to the craft probably more than most. Only several months into his apprenticeship with mentor Zac Adams of Skydive Films in Nashville, TN, he’s already building his list of film credits. In his words, “The more you can do, the more you can sell yourself, and I’d like to learn as much of it as I can.”
FC apprentice Matthew Gibson
FC mentor Zac Adams
Andrew Aceves
Joe Paciotti on the set of But Deliver Us From Evil
band Scorpion Child
Tyler Brabec
Kelly ought to know. As co-founder of Da Spot Recording Studio in Richmond, Virginia, he’s spent many years forging a solid career as a producer/engineer while helping to establish Da Spot as one of the premier urban recording studios in Richmond, Virginia, servicing such clients as Ashanti, Rick Ross, Audra the Rapper, Tyrese and Def Jam Records, among others. For Kelly, the secret to success is not really a secret at all. It’s just working hard and putting out good music.
“We’ve done quite a few people over years that have some major names,” says Kelly, “but there was no particular artist that gave us a break. It was just steady, constant, doing good work. It was nothing more than that. ‘Hey, these guys are good, go see them.’ That’s it.”
To earn that kind of reputation, sometimes it requires thinking outside the box, sometimes quite literally—things you wouldn’t learn in textbooks or in trade schools. Kelly recalls one story in particular:
“Early on, when I was first learning to record, I’m at another studio and the engineer is there—this studio was just amazing. Like every mic you can think of on the planet, you know what I mean? They had it…We’re working on something, and the guy, he’s like, ‘Man, I just can’t get it to sound like I want it to sound.’ He’s like, ‘Yo, Kells, go in the back and get me a cardboard box out of the trash.’ I’m like, ‘Okay.’ I don’t know, I’m just learning the process.
Control Room in Da Spot Recording Studio
Consultant Brian Kraft gets a much-deserved back massage
from RRF masseuse Anzu.
“I went to the culinary institute of America in Hyde Park but learned just as much during my externship at the Four Seasons Hotel in Newport Beach.
“As an executive chef I used to throw away resumes from kids dumb enough to blow 65k to attend The Art Institute and Le Cordon Bleu because they had no experience and prima donna attitudes. Cooking in the trenches of a real cutting edge kitchen is the only way to go.
“Students’ lack of experience, in fact zero experience after graduation and accumulated debt are what’s wrong with the culinary school system of today. Le Cordon Bleu charges 65k for 2 years of playing house! Conventional culinary school’s training is for suckers. Culinary schools are for profit and proud of it!”
— Martin Gilligan CEC, MCFE, American Culinary Federation’s ‘Chef of the Year 2005’ Los Angeles, CA
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