Intellectual Autobiography

Intellectual Autobiography
Twenty five years in broadcasting has yielded four National Emmys and experience as a facility owner, Avid editor and technical director. I have left my mark at many televisions stations, corporate institutions and universities. I’ve heard and seen it all. Having spent many years as an editor in the silhouetted editing room cutting television commercials, I have often felt that I was aiming at a moving target. The creative objective has always been on the move. I would take aim and make a direct hit one day, and miss the next. It has been both frustrating and very satisfying seeing music and picture glued together by 1/30 of a second decisions.
My motive for pursuing a Master of Arts degree in Media Studies is to broaden my understanding and achieve a wide angle view of film and television. In 1990, I started a Masters of Business Administration degree when I was offered a principal position at a post production facility. It was a dream come true with offline and online editing, sound stage and audio post production. Ten years later I was ready for a change, and I decided to get back to my academic pursuits. I looked at several universities with online programs but most did not have the right combination of production and current media studies. It was by chance that I found The New School for Media Studies. While I was looking at a social networking site I noticed a colleague had just received a Master Degree in Media Studies from The New School. I was intrigued and did some investigation and found it was the right fit. I jumped in feet first.
Let’s rewind the disk drive back to 1968 to see where my career began. A Nikkromat FTN and a high school photography teacher started me on this path, giving me the single most amazing experience a nerdy teenager can have. I discovered an art form without words or pastels. Art Groveman, the bespectacled farsighted Jewish photography teacher from Fairfax, California rode his BMW down La Cienega Blvd into our high school lives. Art opened the shutter of the visual world. We loved him. It was education through the lens. Mr. Groveman, the sensei free spirit of light and shadows showed us the way. Bus loads of eager photo devotes packed the yellow Blue Bird, snapping 1/60 of a second image of Bode, California and the Santa Monica mountains and took photographic journeys to Venice Beach and captured photographs of bums and beauties. We interpreted the camp fires of Wrightwood, California and projected multi colored Ektachrome images on 4 by 3 screens. Kodak Plus-X 125 developed in an acrid bath of Metol and Dimezone responded to darkness. Black and white sheets of gleaming Iflord photographic paper were bathed in developer and fixer. The alchemy of chemicals and paper came to life. The Los Angeles City school teachers went on strike in 1970 for four and half weeks. The strike was won, but the students lost, because Mr. Groveman contract was not renewed.
1971 was an exciting year for the recording and music industry. The Allman Brothers recorded a live album, At Fillmore East, Jethro Tull released Aqualung, Joni Mitchell released Blue and Pink Floyd released Meddle. I read the LP linear notes with fanatical interest. I scoured the record jacket for any bits of technical information, like a doctor looking for symptoms. Recording engineers like Eddie Kramer, Glynn Johns and Alan Parsons were my surgeons. Trident and Electric Lady Land recording studios were my operating theaters. I was smitten with four track analog tape recorders so I purchased an Uher 4400 Report Stereo audio recorder with two Sony consider microphones. I recorded every sound I could get my hands on. Live music, airplanes, Ram Das. I could now tell a story with light and sound.
There are three artists that I have respect for in the film industry. Who have inspired me over the years by their willingness to create something new and original either by accident or by their genius. Director of Photography Haskell Wexler for his sweeping steadycam crane shot in “Bound for Glory”. Ben Burt’s tapping of an antenna tower to produce the light saber sound effect for “Star Wars” and Phillip Glass’s classic minimalist music composition for “Koyaanisqatsi”.

In 1972, I was accepted into the Broadcasting Department at San Francisco State University. My interests in film and video were enthusiastic and I became devoted and inspired by my projects. After I graduated I headed off to Tucson, Arizona to start an educational non-profit radio station.
Based on my own work experience, I believe the best path for educational and corporate change in the video industry is at the management level. I imagine that I could make a difference in the broadcast industry with my work experience and an advanced degree. I have experienced a substantial number of managers who were unable to manage people or resources. These individuals can completely derail an organization’s creativity and spirit. I find this behavior baffling in a creative field. As a ceaseless idealist I would encourage unity and inspiration in the individuals I would lead. I would like to cultivate a management style of a cheer leader, a defender and educator and manage people by example by knowing my products and caring about them as individuals.
There is a flip side to my management aspirations, sometimes I just want to be the fly on the wall documentary film maker, a man alone with his camera and sound equipment. Capturing the moment of an event and interviewing “man of the street” style. I believe this kind of film making could only survive in academic circles, which leads me to choose the life of an academic. Teaching the creative process through what I have learned and experienced over the years.
I would have never dreamed I would be a part of NBC Olympics for ten years. I never thought I would travel the world with Sony Corporation. I never would have dreamed I would have Four National Emmy awards. The creative path is a mysterious one. It is not always linear. But if you are driven you eventually get to where you are going.

Bibliography
Brown, Garret, “Bound for Glory, Birth of the Steadicam”. A tribute and study of Steadicam Operators and their work. Steadishots. March 1989. Web. 26 February 2010
Carlsson, Sven E. “Sound Design of Star Wars.” FIlmSound.Org. “n.d.” Web. 26 February 2010
“Headline History Los Angeles County 1963 to 1979”. Los Angeles Almanac. Given Place Media. “n.d.” Web. 23 February 2010
Simon, Herbert A., “Making Management Decisions: the Role of Intuition and Emotion” The Academy of Management Executive (1987) Vol. 1. No. 1 (Feb., 1987), pp. 57-64