Fall 2008 Newsletter

Welcome to the first isssue of the High Tech Media newsletter. We hope that you find this issue enjoyable, entertaining, and most of all, helpful!

Dave Kaplowitz
President and Producer

Interview

This month we feature an interview with one of our associates, Bruce Logan. Bruce is an emmy-winning Director, DP, Visual Effects Director, Writer, Producer, and more. Bruce is interviewed by Pamela Jaye Smith, a High Tech Media Producer and Writer.

Pamela: Will you please give us a brief overview of your career? 

Bruce: My career in the film business has been a hybrid of being a Director of Photography, a Visual Effects Director, a Director, a Writer, and a Producer.  No chance to be bored along the way.

Pamela: What was the first film you worked on, what did you do on it, and how did that influence the rest of your career? 

Bruce: My first film was as an Animation Artist and Visual Effects Cameraman on Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey." As you can imagine such a unique experience has been hard to follow in the rest of my career. You could say that this film was my Film School, but I was fortunate enough to be paid well and receive a great screen credit to boot.

Pamela: You've directed and shot million dollar commercials and - thank you, because we really appreciate it - low budget documentaries. How different are your approaches to a project based on the budget and the concomitant size of the crew and the complexity of the technology?

Bruce: My philosophy is that any story can be told at any price. The casts of thousands can be off-screen, kicking up wind and dust, and roaring on the sound track, without any need to see them. That said I love to put production value on the screen and have made a commitment to myself to double any amount of money I am given in terms of how it looks. My old commercial producer, the legendary Buddy Kahn, used to watch the dailies and say, "Logan, you're a thief," and I have prided myself on the fact ever since. As far as crew, technology, and complexity, you have to work with the tools available and I've never minded working within restraints. "No solution? No problem!"

To read the entire interview with Bruce Logan, click here.

Media and Technology

This column is all about the effects of technology on media: how media is created, delivered, and consumed. Ever since the first caveman figured out that crushed berries could be used to make cave paintings and the second caveman invented eight track tapes, media has been affected by advances in technology. But now that we are in the transition to an all-digital world, you need an engineering degree to understand it, or at least a high school student to explain it to you. In this column, High Tech Media President, Producer, and Über-geek Dave Kaplowitz will explain one aspect of the impact of technology on media. This month Dave explains next year's transition to Digital TV here in the good old U.S. of A.

Back in ancient times, otherwise known as the 1930's and 40's, there was black and white TV. A few years later, some clever engineers figured out that you could, with only a few changes, have color TV. The really cool thing about the scheme they chose (called NTSC) is that the broadcasters could send a color signal that could be displayed by both color and black and white TVs. There were a bunch of not-so-cool trade-offs that were made, but that is a topic for a future column. Regretfully, the transition to digital TV is not so cozy. The venerable NTSC TV signal that has been with us since it first was broadcast in the 50's is now about to become a ghost of analog days past. Unless you have been living under a rock, you probably have heard that TV will be going digital next year, on February 17, 2009 to be exact. But what does that mean exactly and how will it affect us?

To read the entire article on the transition to digital television, click here.

Media Tips

This column is for any of you who'll be in front of the camera: explaining your service or product, talking about your company, being interviewed about what you do and who you are, answering questions from the media or the public, promoting your views, or entertaining us.

Learning more about how to do on-camera speaking will make you more comfortable, effective, and ensure that you are perceived as a professional.

This month's Tip:
Answering Interview Questions

How many times have you groaned in sympathetic or critical embarrassment over the sloppy or stiff performance of someone being interviewed about their company, their product, themselves, or a position they hold? Too often.

Whether a person tends to go on and on and on, or to give clipped answers - they do not get their message across.

Whether a person's replies do not answer the interviewer's questions or go off on a tangent - they do not get their message across.

Learn to use these simple tools of good interviewing and you'll be much more effective at your goal - to get your message across to the audience.

If it's just going to be you on-camera, always restate the question in your answer. 

For example:

Q: Why did you get into this business?

A: I got into the business of software analysis because I've always loved solving puzzles and there was a need in the marketplace for this type of service.

Q: How many people are affected by this situation?

A: Based on customer interviews and analysis of website traffic, we estimate about ten thousand people are affected by service slow-down.  

To read the entire article on Answering Interview Questions, click here.

The Biz As It Is

This column is dedicated to explaining aspects of the media industry. It is written by Michael Taylor who has worked as a juicer (set lighting technician) in Hollywood for over 30 years, and has the battle scars to prove it. This month is the first in a four-part series on television pilots.

Part I: How it Works

With all due respect to T.S. Eliot, I'm not so sure April really is the cruelest month - not in Hollywood, anyway.  Here, April represents the frenzied peak of pilot season, when single episodes of brand new television dramas and comedies are cranked out at a furious pace on sound stages all over town.  April certainly is the craziest month, as writers, producers, and crews work very long hours preparing these fledgling shows to spread their wings and fly, everyone hoping their project will be chosen by the networks to crack the lineup of the new Fall season.

The results of all this feverish work are announced at the annual "upfronts" in New York during the first two weeks of May, when the networks trot out their new shows - the winners of pilot season.  In the television industry, April is all about hope, while May wears the bloody crown of thorns as the cruelest month of all.

A typical sit-com pilot takes eight to ten days to rig and light, followed by a one or two day shoot, then three more days to dismantle the sets and take all that equipment down. For the set lighting crew (those who hang, power, and adjust the two hundred and fifty or so lamps required to light a typical sit-com), this usually amounts to three solid weeks of work - and it's all work, all the time, pushing that big rock uphill the whole way. Waiting at the top is the promise - implied or explicit - that should the pilot get "picked up" by the network, the crew that did the heavy lifting will go along for the ride. For those of us who prefer the cozy world of multi-camera sit-coms over other forms of Media Industry slavery, working a pilot represents the first rung on the ladder to fully employed nirvana. 

To read the Part I on Pilot Season in its entirety, click here.

Story Corner

Everyone loves a good story and High Tech Media can help you make your story better.

This column offers tips on how to write your message to make it more attractive to your audience. Although it's always a good idea to have a professional script writer in on your concept meetings, actually writing your scripts, and on staff through the final edit to tweak the message, here are some ideas on how you can best position your ideas and make them shine - until you can bring in the professional writers. 

Conflict = Drama!

Commercials, documentaries, and information media are only interesting and effective if there is some "us against them" element. Whether "them" is the environment, a bureaucracy, a disease, or a situation, you will only engage our interest and stir our actions if you show us conflict, choices, and resolutions.

Every good story requires at least two of these three basic conflicts: the hero's internal flaw, an antagonist, and an external impersonal threat to the hero. These all need to be appropriate, balanced, believable, and capable of contributing to a satisfactory resolution.

In media designed to promote a product or service the internal flaws are the needs we have that are not being met  (cleaner homes or teeth, faster internet or cars, more flattering hair or clothes); the antagonist is a presumed lack of awareness, money, or choice; the external threat is competition and time. The product or service is then presented as the perfect resolution for these conflicts.

One of my favorite ads to illustrate this concept shows a picture of germs and says, "If your armpits have germs like this" [internal flaw], then a picture of a guy and a girl about to kiss and says "Good luck ending up like this" [antagonist: being clueless], and then a picture of the deodorant "Until you use this". 

To read the entire article on how to use conflict to create drama, click here.

Featured Photo

Everyone has their favorite photos. And now that most everyone has a digital camera, we all want to learn how to take better pictures. In this column we will feature one of our Directors of Photography talking about one of their favorite photos and what makes it great along with some tips on how to make your photos and videos better. This month, Monty Hayes McMillan will show you his favorite photo, one he took of Pamela Jaye Smith.

Using Available Light

We at High Tech Media are experts at creating well-lit scenes using artificial lighting. Most of the time this is necessary because Mother Nature can't be counted on to be on-board with the production schedule. But when natural light can be used effectively, the results can be spectacular. We also understand weather forecasting and how the sun's angle changes throughout the year and during the day. Sometimes the use of natural light is very well planned as part of the production schedule and sometimes beautiful things just happen and the good professional crew will take advantage of this. This photo is an example of taking advantage of the existing light on the spur of the moment.

Click here to read about what makes this photo so special.

Thanks so much for reading our latest newsletter. We hope you have found it helpful and entertaining. And remember to consider us for your next media project.

Sincerely,

Dave Kaplowitz
President and Producer