I have long-standing connections with video production.
Video as a Student
I can remember when my high school first got a video camera and recorder. It was back in 1972 or 1973 during my junior year. It was a simple B&W video camera that fed into a reel-to-reel video recorder. I got the opportunity to make use of it as I was working as a school photographer at the time. Since it was very comparable to the reel-to-reel audio systems I was used to working, I was able to perform some very simple recordings with it.
One of them was a project of our Chemistry instructor, Mr. Gene Buzzard. (He stood about 6′4″, had ruddy skin and a nose like a beak: he had a considerable sense of humor about his name, even to the point of having a statue in the classroom of a buzzard with a pointed hat holding an Erlenmeyer flask in one hand and a chemistry book in the other, standing over a bubbling cauldron out of which were sticking a pair of arms and legs.) All of the second year Chemistry students had to create and perform a skit to be recorded and shown for the first year Chemistry students. None of the second year students knew how to run a camera, so I wound up doing most of the taping. There were satirical skits (“Convert it into moles and call me in the morning.”), a parody of “Kung Fu” named “Chem Fu”, and Christmas carols like “The Twelve Days of Chemistry” and “I’m Dreaming of a White PPT.”
Video as a Volunteer
After that, it was a long while before I ever got behind a video camera, although I spent a lot of time behind a photo camera. That all changed when a friend of mine got me involved with a (possibly) mad scheme.
His name was Boe Powell and he wanted to produce a public access television program on games and gaming. He had the drive, the skills in front of the camera and the contacts, but he needed someone behind the camera. That, obviously, was me. Because of that, I took the video (studio and remote) and audio operations courses with the Allen County Public Access station to help produce the program. We did pretty good while it lasted, but eventually Boe moved on and left me with the full production of the series, and it eventually became too much for me, as well. However, I got a lot of experience during the years of production, and got to meet and interview a lot of people in the gaming industry, many of whom still remember me. I/We produced programs and interviews at the two big national gaming conventions, GenCon and Origins, and locally.
That wasn’t all I did as a volunteer: I worked over 600 hours of studio or remote productions, usually camera operations, for a variety of other cable access programs, and I became a regular on many of them.
It certainly kept me busy.
Video as a Profession
It was because of that experience I decided to get into video work as a profession. My software career was pretty much done at that time: the standalone computer systems I was an considered an expert with were rapidly disappearing with the advent of much more powerful desktop systems.
That led to a couple of memorable gigs and assignments.
New Thought Awards Ceremonies and Concerts
The first was in conjunction with a lady that I worked with at the cable access station, Sandra Lynch. She had a show named “Calling All Angels” and she was asked to come to Phoenix to tape a concert and awards presentation. She asked me to assist, and to help provide the camera equipment. The organizers flew us out to Phoenix for the weekend, where we both taped the concert one night of several of the nominees, then the awards ceremony the following night. During the days, Sandra interviewed many of the nominees for episodes of her show.
The shoots weren’t exactly difficult but they were certainly learning experiences for the both of us. Lighting was always an issue: the events in the evening were theatrically lit and constantly changing, which played hell with the white balance, and the interviews during the day were in our hotel room which had limited lighting. Sound was not so much a problem, since we took the sound from the sound boards during the evening and made do with lapel microphones and dual inputs during the day. At least I didn’t have to train Sandra how to run a camera, she was already trained herself at the same place as I was.
That first year must have been a success, because the same people brought us back the following year. Same situation, same problems, same issues, same results. There wasn’t a third year, mainly because the awards organizers changed affiliations and venues so they couldn’t bring any one in to tape it.
2005 Nebula Awards Ceremony
The second was producing a DVD of the 2005 Nebula Awards Ceremony of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. As a member of SFWA myself, I was able to convince the committee to allow me to video the ceremony and produce a DVD from it. There were two things in my favor here: first, the ceremony (in fact, the entire weekend event) was to be held in Chicago, not all that far from me, and secondly, the event was to feature two of the biggest names in the industry, Neil Gaiman and Anne McCaffrey. It was an opportunity that I could not pass up.
It turned out to be the biggest and most complicated shoot I ever imagined or did. Material from four steady cameras plus two hand-held cameras was edited down to almost two hours of footage, plus several minutes of additional video material and all of the DVD menuing graphics. It was a great learning experience.
Midwest Training Institute of Hypnosis
The last was my association with Dr. Gisella Zukausky and the Midwest Training Institute of Hypnosis. She was a local hypnotherapist who worked long and hard to create a school to teach hypnosis and hypnotherapy in the state of Indiana. (There is a long story about why this was so difficult that I won’t go into right at this time.) She finally was able to present a number of different classes and I taped them all and produced a series of DVDs from them. I also recorded and mastered a number of her hypnosis CDs that she markets, some taking her existing recordings and some we recorded in her office for the new CDs. In addition, I also created the DVD and CD packaging and the DVD menuing graphics.
The End of an Era
Unfortunately, several years of trying to make a living at this, I ultimately discovered that I didn’t have to total package of skills and enthusiasm needed to be a sole operator. I could handle the behind the scenes stuff very well, but I lacked what it took on the (self) promotion side to make a business prosper. Ultimately, I closed down the business and sold off much of the equipment.
But that didn’t mean I left video work entirely.
Sports and Events Video
One professional video field I did excel in was sports and events video, and that is because of my association with the teams or the venue, where I didn’t have to promote myself, just show up and do the job I was employed to do. Furthermore, its a niche that I found I enjoy and only wish I could do more of it locally.
Arena Football
I got started with the Fort Wayne Fusion of the Arena2 Football League. It was a relatively easy job: show up with a camera and tripod, record the game on cassette tape, then go to the team office the following week to let them use my digital recorder to digitize the footage. (The league required the teams provide a video record of the game.) It was fun until the league folded, taking the teams and especially my payment for the last half of the season with it.
Much the same people tried again to create an arena football team the following year, the Fort Wayne Freedom, but they experienced cash flow problems and didn’t pay me after every game as contracted, so they eventually decided to replace me with an intern video the games after about four games. It didn’t really matter, though, because I was already working for another team.
Fort Wayne Mad Ants
I parlayed my experience with the Fort Wayne Fusion to get the game day video contract with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the NBA Development League in November, 2007, and I have been with them ever since. (Seven years through the 2013–2014 season for a total of 168 regular season games and four post-season games.) Originally I arrived at the game with a cart full of equipment: camera, tripod, digital recorder, DVD recorder, laptop and external DVD drive, plus all the power cabling needed to supply everything. Over the seasons, that load gradually dropped to nothing as the league and the team started providing all the equipment and resources themselves.
Allen County War Memorial Coliseum
The following year, the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum installed video display boards in the scoreboard and needed camera operators to supply footage. I was possibly the first camera operator hired for the production crew, based on my experience with professional sports. That also led to not just sports events (flat track derby bouts and college basketball) but also other events, such as commencements and speakers.
