Midlife crisis, and I already had a Porsche, though not red. So , thought I'd be a filmaker. Ended up costing a hell of lot more than a new Porsche, but having fun and I'm now done with the world of corporate stupid..

I was very young when I was born. I remember the Beatles coming to America and watching all the girls screaming and I thought, I wanna be a musician when I grow up. I played keyboards professionally for 10 years after high school doing clubs and studio work. Then I went back to college and took a course in TV production just to fill some credits which planted the seed about using video as a medium of expression. Got involved with computer music which lead to a career in computer science. 20 years later (in the summer of 2000) I got an email from Ulead recommending their VideoStudio editor. I’ve had a camcorder since 1989 and had tried editing on two VCR’s with a switcher but it was futile without sync. I just gave up. I downloaded the trial and thought, wow all the stuff that used to require time at a video studio at college I could now do on my PC. And they rest, as they say, is history. I never did buy the Ulead product (I bought Pinnacle Studio DC10+, then VideoFactory, then Vegas 3), but had Ulead never sent me that email back in 2000, I may have never gotten involved in video.

NO, Wait! This was supposed to be BEFORE I was famous. Darn! I’m not famous yet... never mind. ;-)

~jr

I started as a recording engineer in London studios in 1968 and then graduated to being a producer/engineer and had a lot of fun over the years. Somewhere early on I went to film school as I was always fascinated by the area but didn't really do much with it at the time.

A few years back I was feeling a little unchallenged in terms of new things to learn recording-wise (had been doing it for more than 30 years) and a friend called up and said, "Do you do video stuff?" I of course said, "Yes" and then had to madly scramble to learn from the Internet (including great forums like this one), books, learning on the job etc..

It was a tough learning curve initially but it was wonderfully challenging and it still often is :)

I went to college in 1970 and wanted to be either an electrical engineer or a film producer. My college didn't have a very good film school, and had one of the best EE schools around. So, I got an EE degree. Good choice, but I've always wanted to produce films. Now, with Vegas, I get to do that.

I started out in the audio biz as a musician that also had a knack for installing car audio systems for Alpine. Worked part time at Soundstream, working as a grunt for Tom Stockham. (he is the father of digital audio) Got to see some great stuff being created, wish I could have understood it better at that young point in my life. Got into a semi-successful band while still in high school, and that led me to a full-time career in the recording industry as both an artist and producer. Thanks to a moron at my record label that didn't think we could do video, I got into video production for my first music video piece with Brian Morris as director. (1991)
Thanks to the Burns brothers and Brian Keane, I got into scoring film in 1990, and have had a few fabulous and lots of flops.

I went to university in Vienna, and when I had finished my studies I visited Florida. And purchased here my first Camcorder, running in video 8. I think, that was 1988.

And then I produced a lot of tapes, mainly from the family or vacation tripps, without the possibility to cut end edit them. Only 4 years ago I purchased a PC, suitable to edit video really. And since that the development became faster. I edited my first video with Uleads Videostudio 5 (and yes Johnny, I purchased it!); then with Adobe Premiere, then with Uleads Mediastudio.

And then I met in forums Marco B (Avalon), who told me, that there is a funny software, that is much better. That was Vegas4. Up to now I am here with Vegas - but still not famous, I am afraid! And for sure not rich...
:)

Hmm...define "famous". :)

Well I think it was being dragged to the drive in to see cheesy hooror films like "Invasion of the Blood Farmers" that set me on a course for film making. Well, ok...maybe not that. My parents got me an 8mm camera because I wnated one..they got a chep Sears one I think it was. Silent. Couldn't afford the fancy sound ones. I toyed around with it, shot my G.I Joes in stop motion action. Stuck fire cracker sunder toy soldeirs and said "They blowed up real good!" That was the start of it really.

Went to Hollywierd and got in the industyr. Much audio work to be had...loaction sound. But I got burned out because I would be holed up is some hotel somewhere for a month on a shoot and each night the crew and cast would hang out and talk about film...and more than anything that is what burned me out. I was living my "job" 24/7 and it just got to me. So I drifted into music more. Because I also did still photos on some sets i started taking photos of bands and that whole side of me grew. Than that lead into me working with bands as a tech and than tour manager. ..sometimes both. Film was my main gig though and this was more or less at the start of the whole MTV thing and most of the film makers I was around looked down at it. They could not even understand why I would spend so much time in clubs and why I kept pushing these bands to be on soundtracks. And forget about getting people to kick in gear for a music video. But I did so several music videos as an aside to my film work.

Well..anyway...here were are now. I started off on film...real film. And cutting 35 mag doing sound effects cutting along with post production supervision. The advent of the desktop age sort of hit me hard when a studio hired me to head up the audio post side of things for them and the first day threw at me, and I do mean "threw", a new gadget for the Amiga - Studio 16. I kept Sunrize busy calling them all the time...they really did not make Studio 16 for feature film work but here I was using it for that so there involment in development for feature work sort of grew as well. From there it went to D/Vision for edting and Studio 16 for all post and mixing. And I did lots of things in between - producer, director, camera person when needed, pyro and even headed up a video distribution company.

My main toys right now editing wise are Sound Forge, Premiere Pro 1.5, Vegas and After Effects. If this was 15 years ago I would still be working for some studio because the cost of the DIY side was still a bit high. Still do the music thing but not as much...but I do combine the two a lot more easy these days.

Don't know about the famous part, Mel, but here's what I did:

My wife Judy and I worked in the commercial theatre in the 1950s, she as a lighting designer and I as a stage manager and director. I had earned a BFA and MFA in theatrical directing, she an MFA in lighting.

In 1964, confronted with the not-too-distant arrival of our first son, I returned to school -- Ohio State -- to work on a PhD in theatre history. There I met Jim Lynch, who had recently left NBC in New York and was now teaching television production at Ohio State and running their television studio. For the next three years, until I graduated, I worked in the university's TV station as cameraman, floor manager and director, learning a great deal from Lynch along the way. It was an excellent apprenticeship, and kept food on the table!

Came to Seattle in 1967 and began working in the PhD program in theatre history and, eventually, as the Associate Director of the School of Drama at the University of Washington. For the next thirty years I worked closely (as a producer) with theUniversity television people, did some in front of the camera work with Channel 9 (PBS) and, in the '80s began working with computers. I received a series of IBM grants and got to beta test a video capture card that Intel was experimenting with. The combo of computers -- mostly 3D modeling of architectural structures -- and video led me into a lot of very interesting research and to produce several instructional laser discs which combined video and computer generated 3D models and graphics interactively.

In 1990, after more than 40 years in the business, my wife grew somewhat weary of theatrical lighting, came back from a gig in Ohio and decided to study video production. Two years later, with an AA degree in video production, she went to work for a post house and a local company that specialized in legal video.

The post house went belly up in January 1998 and in March she opened her own company. I retired from the UW in June 1998 and have been working with her ever since, producing, shooting and editing. We started out with analog equipment and A/B rolls, now work with Vegas Video.

Looking back, it has been a grand trip!

Jack

Back 35 years ago took one of those broadcast courses. Got access to a real TV studio, a couple of 2" video machines and an hour on Sunday morning. Produced/Directed three hour-long shows. "Pollution '70", "The Myth" (women's liberation) and "What Price Life" a 16mm anti-war film in which a paroled inmate played, in real life, the part of an officer and a prison guard, in real life, played a private.
That's about it for the irony.
Studied Radio and TV Arts for 3 years in college.
Got a job in TV operations, camera, audio, video, telecine etc.
Like working in a factory,--soon tired of that.
Then was radio news guy for 33 years. Money was too good and debts to big to pursue any dreams.
Got a buyout in 2001 when format changed. Worked as writer/announcer for CBC Radio and CBC Newsworld. Still have connections there. Doing a reporting gig for them tomorrow as a matter of fact.
Anyway, full circle. Back to making video,---or radio with pictures.
Launched my production company a year and a half ago. Learned early that weddings are the domain of the retired with very big pensions, the hobbyist or those who insist on bleeding more red than us. Return on time and effort very small indeed.
Desire is to grow personal biography product. Have one in the can. Lotta work there too. But consumer stuff in general is a hard sell. People are surprised when they get the quote. Not so with most of the corporate folks. They budget for stuff like promotion, training, safety etc. So that's what we do. Corporate stuff for the most part. Also some event things,---but just cameras at this point. That's a whole 'nuther biz.
Anyway, what was the question?
Oh yeah,--I was semi-famous for a while and faded into obscurity as a videographer. Hate that term,---hate the world video. When people hear video they ask if you do weddings. I always say no 'cause there's no money in doing weddings. At least not enough to buy a red sports car.
That is the real point of this isn't it?
Gosh, I feel like I just had a counselling session!
Peace!

What the heck did I come in here for anyway.
Oh yeah,---to shut down the computer.
Night all!
Good morning and good afteroon to the rest.

My proudest achievement was managing 12 yrs at a university before they kicked me out and made me go to work. (I did earn a few degrees in chemical engineering during that time, but that is OT :-). So I built chemical plants until I realized I was either going to sell my soul to the oil business devil or remain a grunt who's job would be shipped to India first chance they got. Since I'd been programming forever I got into that and doubled my salary...for a year until all the companies started shipping their work to India. (That plus half my rolodex used to work in the world trade center.) Now I'm with a company that was 70 and is now 5, working out of the president's basement, I went 12 months working without a paycheck a couple years back and another 4 month drought this year, but we've just finished our new software that is going to change the world and make me rich and famous :-)

Hmm, video stuff...well after my 1st kid my sister told me I needed to get a video camera to record those moments, so I got a camera...then I needed to edit them...I'm good at researching the best software so the rest is history. I'm no director, but I have a solid and faithful fan base of best friends who're just ecstatic to see their kids on TV.

I'm NOT famous! Infamous maybe . . but no "Big Lights!" here

However, I guess I'm the only professional Potter turned videographer here . . so . .that's got to be gravitas of some sought.

I've spent all my life mixing and working around creatives.

Got hooked on movies "Lawrence of Arabia" "Man and a Woman" "Women in Love", yes, I'm from those times .. . this has stayed with me. I spent nearly 30 years working, designing, making and teaching ceramics; got involved with a London Borough's arts department; became their arts & education manager with responsibilities for raising sponsorship; back in the middle '90s was employed around the development of the new Wembley Stadium developing ways to impart an arts axis to the project; started using multimedia to get across messages and video became "one" of these methods. I now use my passion for videography to assist arts and community groups to get their message across. I love it!

I believe I have a healthy dislike of IT and a short fuse when it comes to understanding why it doesn't do what I want it to do. Our Forum is a great place to get help.

And you -Mel? what is your background?

Grazie

I'm far from famous (but still trying). I was brought up in the 40's - always had a passion for electronics after I discovered the bulb and the battery. Wanted to work in a local tv repair shop, but my parents had great things for me and I ended up going to tech college, then onto a sandwich course working in Manchester and studying at Salford University for a degree in elecrical engineering.
Went on to working as a systems designer at a computer firm in Manchester, till I got made redundant in 91.
Was to old then to get another job in design, so I turned back to being a one man band repairing tv's and the like but that died a death recently due to the low cost of domestic electronic stuff.
In the early 80's I went on CB, and had the handle "video". That seemed to be the start of my interest in moving images. Got my first vid cam around that time (a tubed job with a rather heavy vhs C sized
portable recorder). Started doing weddings and the like and edited and mixed in music in "assemble and insert" modes. What a bind that was - but at the time I (and others) were pleased with the results.
With various personal problems, that got shelved for a long time and in 97 got a Sony hi-8 cam (still use it today for hols and the like).
Got my first pc in 98 and used that crap Pinnacle Studio software to start editing.
I got hooked on how easy it was to edit (compared to tape to tape). Got a XM2 a few months ago and discovered Vegas (version 4 good enough for me). Now back into wedding stuff (must make money).
Also part of a local heritage society (where I live is now a new town). Have given it a boost with producing DVD slideshows of old town images. Plan to use chroma key to put actors in old street scenes and tell a story.
Well since I started the topic I thought I would have a good go to put my 6 penny worth in.

"Everyone will be famous for 15 minutes" - I'm still waiting my turn!!!

Mel.

Just as an extra (troubled with after thoughts):-
Tried to invent the video recorder in the late 50's by modifying an old Grundig TK20 - of course it didn't work. There was a lot of pioneering to do in those days - not like now.
Joined the IoV in the 80's and designed a video effects generator (working with the founder). I'm pretty good technically but no business man - and I found that I was getting ripped off - so that died!
So am I further up the queue in the fame ladder????

Mel

"Before I was famous" is now and almost certainly into the future. When I was 10 years old I was given a little toy projector that wound through a strip of film carrying two image tracks and the machine switched alternately between the tracks and so animated the simple images. Rather like a crudely animated comic strip. Age 12 my badgered parents filled my Christmas basket with a proper 9.5mm Pathe Gem silent projector and with this I gave weekly shows to neighbours (before TV). Soon I had set up a home theatre with projection ports (it was normally the lounge room) and got a camera and made short films. Our school didn't believe in film courses but they were tolerant of out of hours film making. Kevin Brownlow, the film director and film historian, was doing the same thing at the same time with 9.5mm -- and he is famous! Perhaps I should also have made a feature film when I was a teenager. Ah, well.
I changed to 16mm for better facilities, then went to uni and did engineering because this was before "Picnic at Hanging Rock" and professional film was a fine way to poverty. So onto aero research with film as a hobby, some competiton awards and the occasional prof. doco. Growing cost of 16mm gradually strangled my film work and anyway scientific research is a full time occupation. Retired, bought HDV and now solidly back into film making. Trying to rebirth the creative fire of those long ago years.

While working in Greenland became fastenated by some 16mm films such as "Shane", "Magnificent Seven", "Sweet Charity", etc. Seven & Charity were projected in Cinemascope. Ordered a complete Bolex 16mm outfit then sold it and purchased a Bealeau 16mm outfit. Removed the 12 x 120 Angenuix lens then purchased an Angenuis 17 x 64 used zoom lens, chucked it up in the lathe and trimmed off the front of the lens so I could butt it up close to a Kalart ?Victor Scope projection lens. Created an aluminum tri-mount bearing coupling between the two lenses that would hold the scope lens in place (cannot let it rotate)and at the same time let the Angenuix lens rotate to focus and move back and forth. Had to double focus the lenses. Also created a mount to hold things in place together with a scope lens shade mounted with two movable stud springs. It worked to perfection but the Bealeau registration was terrible. Also made a tripod out of and old blown down aluminum radar antenna and a 15 ball. Stopped taking movies in 1977 and started restoring Corvettes until 1995. First computer purchased in 1995 with Epson printer, (printer still works good) then purchased Adobe Premier and it drove me nuts. Vegas 3.0 was having a sale (already had Sound Forge and loved it) so took the plunge and I was real happy. Gave away Premier and Pinnacle DC-2000. I still have Reel DVD with the dongle and have not given that away yet. I donated the 16mm camera to the University of Akron and often wonder what happened to it. What impresses me the most is how fast $900.00 software becomes useless. Also what impresses me is the huge knowledge base that thrives on this forum.

JJK

Mine is a lesson of how to turn anger into a possitive thing.

I'm a professional mucisian (keyboardist...hello to Johnny Roy). The artist I work for was putting out a live perf. video for sale and I was going to get a cut of each vid. It was 1999 I believe. Any way, we asked one of the crew guys to film us for extra footage whenever he wasn't busy. He did a pretty good job and a lot of his footage was used as they were putting it all together. Well, he got fired due to his fowl attitude and then we received a letter from him saying he wanted a very large sum of money for all of his work filming us. He had never done it before, so, he was certainly not a professional, but our lawyer said he actually had a case! We didn't want to give him anything, so, they pulled the plug on the whole thing and I was out lots of loot in potential royalties. So, I sat stewing in my hotel room for days. First I thought of calling my friend that would go over and "change his mind" but after a nice 15 minutes of imagining that, I decided that's not what I'm about and then it came to me...I'll learn to edit vid myself. Then if anyone poses a problem, I'll delete them or blur them out! :o)

So, 4 projects later, here I am. Each project has grossed 6 figures and my "boss" is thrilled with what I do. The last project I did I filmed 2 nights of a show he was doing without the band. I had 3 cameras, 1 back of the room (stationary) one close up (stationary) and I held the mobile cam. I stood on opposite sides of the stage each night and zoomed in the back of the room cam slightly on the 2nd night, so, when I edited it looked like it was at least a 5 camera shoot. He said no one would believe him if he told them that 1 guy filmed and edited it. All I have ever used is Vegas and my profit per is much better than if I was just a musician performing. So, I guess I owe a than you to that crew guy!

I would like to learn more about what I am doing and get into it much deeper. I have flown almost a million miles and played thousands of shows and am kind of sick of traveling, so, I have thought of doing this full time some time in the future. All I have found in the LA area for indepth personal trainging are places like Vid Symphony that don't train for Vegas.

Any way, I'm rambling off topic, so, that is my story.

In High School my interests were photography, writing and drawing. when I left school in 1976 I added bass guitar to the list and worked pretty much full-time as a musiciam for the next twenty years. While my fellow musicians were sleeping in until lunch-time, I was off learning new things and that lead me to a short course in video production in the mid-eighties.

I was immediately hooked and guess I must have been ok at it because the trainer gave me a job with his production company where I worked for two years. I also bought my first computer about the same time, learned to program in BASIC and Assembler (and FORTH, PASCAL and CoBOL and lot's of other 'dead' languages).

In my late 30's I decided I needed to settle down and get a 'real job' so I went to work as a web developer and computer programmer. Seven years later I came to my senses but decided I was too old and fat for the music industry and so went back to video production where I've spent the last eighteen months enjoying the ups and downs of getting a new business up and running.

I was famous right away -
when I was 10, (1954) someone handed me an 8mm camera at a relatives wedding and said, "Victor - shoot something".
They loved my work - they really did - I was hooked.
By age 15 I had talked my way into assisiing (sweeping) the local small town photographer ($.35 cents an hour - crapola pay, even then) - I didn't care - he taught me to load holders, set lights, shoot, everything.
Worked my way through college doing weddings and portraits.
Left college at 19 and opened a "regualar" small town studio. By the time I was 22 I was the richest one of my friends, with my own car, business and full time assistant.
One day I met a fellow who worked for a top fashion photographer. I looked at his portolio in stunned amazement. "You know those girls???" "Know them??? Hell, I'm ... (adults fill in lascivios scenes here).
Two weeks later, my studio shuttered and closed for good, I had a little walk-up in NYC. I went to the top modeling agencies and said I'd "test" with their young models. (Oh - I was on FIRE!)
The pictures came out - I went to see agencies three days a week and "tested" the other four.
I had a little talent, a lot of luck and would NOT take rejections seriously. (But I cried at night, let me tell you).
This was the very early '60s. The baby boom had officially started - if you were young, and could show up on time, and deliver the goods - you were IN.
By the time I was 23 I was shooting regularly for Ingenue, Vogue, GQ, Glamour and Seventeen. By the time I was 25, I had a big studio on Lexingotn Avenue, a full time staff, Nikons, Hassie's, color darkroom, a wife, a baby - it was all too much.
So I dropped out - and I mean OUT.
I sold everything, took the money, went to England, bought a 32 foot sloop and spent the next two years sailing the Med.
When all the money was gone (and the wife), I returned to the states.
My career was over. No one would talk to me - and I didn't ever want to do still work again.
I wanted to make MOVIES!
So I started all over again. I worked a full time job as a carpenter, and for free as a gaffer, cameraman, grip - whatever.
Within two years I was back - only now as a cameraman.
I'm the most famous guy you've never heard of.
Duing the '80s you could hardly turn on the TV in the USA without seeing something I had shot and directed. Air Force, Irish Spring, Time Warner - prizes galore - huge crews (25 to 60 men) - only 35mm film - only Panaflex cameras - huge unimaginable money - travel to the coast - sometimes two or three times a month - sex, drugs and rock and roll - ahhh... the good life. I was shooting everyone from Steinbrenner to David Bowie (and a grillion more) -
Then my baby sister introduced me to her friend, and her friend said, "if you want ME - this all stops" -
So it did - love beats all, baby. (32 years last week)
By the mid 90's I knew that my career was going to end - Mad Avenue doesn't LIKE grey haired directors, plus, to be honest, I had sort of "done it all", and it was just getting old.
So I segued into interactive production and design, and industrial video - way less stress - much more creative freedom - and WAY more time to spend with my family and kids.
I"m still at it - full time.
It's the greatest life imaginable, but you've got to be ready to eat vast carloads of crap, along the way. You've got to ignore rejection (and that AIN:T easy). You've got to totally forget that "it can't be done". YOu've got to be ready to take crap jobs for no bucks and count on your ability to grow your reel, better and better with each job you do. You can NEVER say or think "Good Enough". You can NEVER disrespect your client (that's whoever is paying you - no matter how stupid you may secretly believe they are - if they can pick YOU and pay you too, how stupid can they actually BE? ) You've got to maintain your creative ego, "I think we should do it this way", and give UP your emotional ego, "Go screw yourself!). And remember, life isn't fair, get over it, and get back to work. No work? Get off your ass and Make Something Happen.
I sincerely love this forum and everyone on it.
I try to help anyone that asks for help, and I try to be like Spot (he is my spiritual hero - but man I've got to SLEEP, sometimes, and he clearly never does).
Look...
Whether you are 20, 40, 60 or 80 years old, life is precious and it is brief. Don't waste your time on other people's bulcrapt, just do YOUR thing, but remember as well, ... if you want that newest gizmo - Someone Has to Pay For It - that's where the "eating shit" part comes in.
That's how I got to be the most famous person you have never heard of.
Thank you America for giving me this chance.
v

I am a professional musician. I have been playing guitar since 1957, I teach a course on DAWs at Davis College, run a project recording studio for solo artists, and am the musical director of a church in Binghamton, NY.

Video is something I do to "enahnce" my other responsibilities. I am deeper into it than I need to be mainly because I own a Mini DV camcorder and just love fooling around with it and Vegas.

The Most Famous Guy You've Never Heard Of

Sounds like the title of a good book waiting to be written!