From Uxbridge to Los Angeles, Uxperience to Luxperience!

PAT ASLING The Standard

UXBRIDGE: Randy Wilson was born and raised in Uxbridge by parents John and Jan. They taught him at an early age to give back to his community, as they did with their music and work with various charitable organizations in town over the 50 years they have lived here. Randy went to Uxbridge Public School, Joseph Gould and Uxbridge High School until grade 12, at which stage he switched to Stephen Leacock Collegiate Institute (SLCI). He was finding his path as SLCI taught broadcast and multimedia courses.

He was in Beavers, Cubs and Scouts, played soccer, was on the swim team, took part in Uxperience for the first ten years, and was part of Optimist activities. As his career grew, he moved to Toronto but returned to Uxbridge with his wife, Skye, and children during the pandemic.

Randy and his co-workers recently won a very prestigious award, the Emmy. Because I know nothing about this world I asked Randy to explain it to me and hope it will also rate with readers.

Here is his explanation:

“Emmy awards are given yearly for the American and international television industry for artistic and technical merit. They’re the highest achievements for television awards. They happen over several nights in Los Angeles. One of the evenings is also broadcast worldwide. That’s the one with “Best actor, best actress, best show” etc. All the other Emmy awards are given out prior to the broadcast. I was fortunate enough to be nominated with several of my co-workers, for “Outstanding Sound Editing for a Comedy or Drama Series (One Hour).” The show we were nominated for was called “The Last Of Us.” We were also fortunate enough to be winners this year. Our evening was on January 6th, the evening of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards. I shared this nomination and award with 13 other people, five of whom were on my team, and the rest were friends based out of Los Angeles. My team and I, the part of sound is called “Foley.” Foley is mostly composed of the very specific sounds in a soundtrack, which would be difficult to create with sound effect libraries. This could include anything from human footsteps to body falls to a butterfly landing on a leaf. All these sounds are recorded in a studio which has many different props to create these sounds, and multiple surfaces for the footsteps. The other names from my team were Jason Charbonneau, Stefan Fraticelli, William Kellerman, Justin Helle, and David Acquino. (David lived in Uxbridge for many years until recently. He is remembered well as singer Julien Kelland’s constant accompanist!) This year, many different teams were nominated from the Toronto area. One team, in fact, has a studio just on the outside of town. My wife Skye and I flew to Los Angeles to attend the awards, and the entire evening was quite surreal. It was a night we won’t soon forget.”

Back home, Randy and Skye will continue to serve Uxbridge. Did you ever wonder who sets up the fabulous Christmas display at the corner of Rutledge Jewelers? I sure did because it’s a masterpiece, and now I know Randy and Skye! They also do the Dance Academy and the Reilly/Back building. And the Fantasy of Lights. The programme and design some of the big displays in Elgin Park for Fantasy of Lights and the 10,000 lights in the 40-foot tunnel you drive through as you exit. Another thing they have taken on the past year is assisting Rev. Bill Fritz with his Friends-Handicapable Group, which Randy says brings them great pleasure and is the most rewarding thing they do. As a plug for Friends, he mentions once more that this talented group will take part in “The World Famous Talent Show” at the Uxbridge Senior’s Centre on April 24th at 7 p.m.

Thank you, Randy and Skye, for using your talents to benefit so many!