If you know any who are really good please let me know. I'm not kidding. I have not found this to be the case. At least with anyone who can record sound better than I can (and I am not qualified). If you know any who are really good and want to work on cool projects for little money, please PM me.
I don't know so many production sound mixers (PSMs) and those I do know are mainly in the UK. On the audio post side, my business for example is specifically setup for low budget indy film sector but I don't want to turn this into an advert so I'll leave it there.
It also depends on what you mean by "little money", professional PSMs have spent many thousands on equipment and have rent and other living expenses to cover, so working for nothing or zero is simply not an option. Audio Post is even more of a problem because a decent audio post facility/person will have spent many tens or hundreds of thousands on construction/equipment and in addition to personal living expenses there are also the operating costs of the facility to cover. So I would have to charge something in order to be working for free otherwise, if I charged nothing, it would actually be costing me to do the gig. As with composers though, PSMs and audio post guys studying or starting out in the business usually have to work for little or nothing quite a bit before they can start charging and when they do start charging they either have to take out loans, plough almost everything they earn into equipment or both.
Also, I think your basic premise is unfair. It's true that the vast majority of Indy Filmmakers work for nothing and sink their own money into a project for the love and privilege of realising their vision. The audio personnel on the other hand are ultimately working to realise someone else's vision. If I designed a film around and based upon sound design, where everyone was working exclusively towards realising my vision and I had ultimate authority over all the creative content then I would expect to invest heavily for that privilege.
I don't think in real life these sentence are mutually exclusive. My point was my own real-life observation that lighting technicians, electricians, best boys etc have not been rendered obsolete even though technology exists that has allowed for great film making without them (if the filmmaker is creative and resourceful enough).
The film industry is replete with examples of jobs lost to technology. The jobs may not be completely extinct but the numbers required to do the jobs have drastically reduced.
If I may take a stab at it, I believe the point Cocteau was making in this famous quote was that the playing field has to be leveled in order to be viewed as creatively equal to mediums like painting, music, dance, etc. ...Many great filmmakers will never be realized because of so many costly barriers. It's an interesting perspective from someone who made great films.
Although Cocteau is legendary, that doesn't mean that everything which ever came out of his mouth is genius. In this instance I disagree with him entirely because almost all art is exclusive and elitist. How many great authors, musicians or painters have not been realised because of religious, political or economic circumstances? When you're destitute and dying of starvation in a drought in Ethiopia, if you get a tiny bit of money, I guarantee a canvas and set of acrylic paints (or even paper and pencil) is not going to be anywhere near the top of your shopping list. Neither is a concert violin or music, ballet or art tuition. What about the societies and religions do not permit women to express themselves artistically. I would say that the vast majority of the world's potentially great artists (in any field) have probably not been realised for economic (or other) reasons and so Cocteau's statement is itself exclusive and elitist. That's just my opinion though!
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