No matter how vital the message, dull messaging all but guarantees that a viewer will change what’s playing. For government media, that means balancing info the public may need to know against production design that holds audience attention.
Read MoreMANAGING IMPERFECTIONS
Quoting the folksinger Arlo Guthrie here, “You can’t have a light without a dark to stick it in.”
Read MoreYOUR OWN PRIVATE HEISENBERG
Figuring out where you’re going matters profoundly if you’re serious about reaching somewhere interesting. The more interesting your intended destination, the less precisely you can account for how you’re going to get there, and the less likely it is that the arrival will reveal something extraordinarily special and sublime.
Read MoreCLOSE UP
A close up is the ultimate special effect, the trope that asks our complicity in telling a story so that it matters.
Read MoreHOW TO COLLABORATE
To be clear, multi-tasking in the great fallacy of the age. Nonetheless, people continue to talk themselves into believing that it works, that they can do it.
Read MoreSAVE OR EJECT?
What if that seemingly irrelevant shot, blurry and showing no discernible subject, is the downstream neurological spark of some elegant surrealistic moment?
Read MoreWANTING REALISM IS NOT REALISTIC
The reason something looks real is because a production team has gone to pains to present visuals and words and other narrative elements that suggest realism to the viewer.
Read MoreACTIVE VS. PASSIVE
An intentional screen is often an active screen, but that doesn't make it a good example of active voice.
Read MoreIMPROVISATION (or, How to Build a Car while Driving it)
Improvisation is all about noticing things you couldn’t possibly have seen until you got started, and realizing that your evolving insight is the compass needle you should be following.
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ALL PERFORMANCE IS LIVE
All media jobs are about live performance.
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