You're a boom operator, just starting out in the business. You can't believe how long they expect you to hold this thing up.

You just graduated from boom operator to production sound mixer. Your first job is on an independent, abstract, experimental film. This will be the part of your life you never talk about.

You work as a sound mixer in Chicago, picking up jobs here and there. You do good work, but it's Chicago, and options are limited. Plus, you often have to hold for chattering teeth.

You're a sound mixer in L.A., and you've started to make a real name for yourself. Directors know you and ask for you by name. Rather than by shouting, "Hey, you!" as is their usual custom.

You just took home your fourth Oscar for Sound Mixing. So what if a majority of actors confuse you with a sound editor? Most of them don't have one of these golden bad boys.