Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain

When I was in elementary school I loved to work the film projector.  It was one of those dinosaur machines that require someone to manually advance the filmstrip frame by frame when a loud beep would interrupt the narration (which was coming from the “high tech” cassette player).  Those in college now and younger have no idea what I’m talking about.   They’ve likely never seen one of these unless their parents have dragged them to a museum somewhere.  This machine, though, is what started me down the path that led me to be a media producer.

Yes, I paid attention to the lesson on the types of clouds that was being given..but while working the projector I appreciated all the steps that went in to making this presentation.  Someone had taken some pretty cool photographs of clouds.  Another individual had been tasked with coming up with interesting narration and music to help keep people’s attention.  A graphic designer had added their flair to the arrows and titles explaining the differences in Stratus and Nimbus clouds.  I wanted to be one of those people.

In my job now as a media producer I’m extremely fortunate that i get to dabble in all of those areas.  I capture footage in the field and then return to the office to edit.  I use a variety of tools and resources to make final products that clients love and I’m extremely proud that I had a hand in making them.

All this and I get to be the man behind the curtain.  What do I mean by that?  Well I’m one who detests the idea of getting up and speaking in front of people…but put my tools of choice at my disposal (camera, laptop with editing software, etc.) and I’ll happily produce pieces that communicate the same information while staying in my comfort zone.  I’ve got a career where I can enjoy being the benevolent wizard behind the curtain pulling the levers and making the magic happen. Now if you’ll excuse me I’ve got some giant smoke cloud and flame effects to create….not to mention that giant phantom floating head…that’s going to be a bit tricky.