Healthvues

I recently had the opportunity to interview some of the people who were my childhood behind-the-scenes “heroes.” I grew up during the Apollo NASA program and my father took us to Florida every winter to visit Kennedy Space Center. While we didn’t get to see a launch, we were there several times during astronaut training - so it was a very cool time to be a kid. I had all the Mercury and Saturn V rocket models, the astronaut GI Joe, all that stuff. Except for the fact that I did not posses an affinity for math (and I was somewhat lazy), a career in astronautics was not in my future.

Fast forward to 2008… I was contacted by the AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) to help them tape interviews during their annual convention in Reno. Their program, “When Did You Know,” asked the question of rocket scientists, what was your lightbulb moment - when you knew you wanted to do this for a career? Over the course of two days, we shot 6 hours of interviews (over green screen), ranging from Undersecretaries of the Air Force, Shuttle technicians, grad students and old guard flight directors. I was in awe of these men and women - some of them were the behind-the-scenes “heroes” who got the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo flights off the ground. But as I sat there interviewing them, I realized that most everyone had that lightbulb moment sometime between the ages of 5 and 10. What was fascinating was that they all remembered in vivid detail where they were, who they were with and what they were doing - whether it was the launch of Sputnik, first taking the controls of a 2-seater plane, or a chance encounter with the sound of the afterburners of an experimental jet… And yes, even one high level engineer credited Tony Nelson (I Dream of Jeannie) with providing his inspiration! I have to say that some of my most interesting projects involve just sitting down and having a conversation - and I’m almost always surprised that the subjects (victims?) with my least expectations are usually the most compelling.

So it begs the question: What was my own lightbulb moment, getting into this profession? I could point to the day I got my first “rock” album (John Lennon’s Imagine), on 8-track, and wrote and directed an entire music video for the record in my head… or the day I walked into the Dean of Engineering’s office at Maryland, after having flunking advanced calculus for the third time, and changing my major to Radio, TV and Film (and getting straight A’s thereafter in my major classes) on the recommendation Bernie Gutwald, who supposedly went to jail shortly thereafter… or walking into a computer room at my first job and seeing a lonely, early computer graphics system sitting in the corner and thinking to myself, “I should learn how to use that” and proceeded to teach myself the inner workings of the DEC PDP-11. So perhaps it’s not just one moment, but a series of accidents that has pointed me in this direction.

Or maybe just laziness.

I officially started iMed Design in 2002. It’s always nice to have that first big project in the hopper from a great client that will help finance the beginning of the business. It’s even better when that first big project combines all of your loves - in this case, cars.

I was hired to produce the video portions of Kodak’s NASCAR Racing team’s interactive media guide for 2003. The CD would contain owner, driver and team stats, schedules, car stats, etc., and video interviews and behind the scenes videos of the operation of Morgan-McClure Racing (the Kodak team at that time). The original shoot was to take place entirely at MM. We had full access to all areas of the shop - chassis and body building; engine building and dyno, full car dyno and paint. That, in and of itself, was incredible to a motorhead like me. The only downside was that I broke off a tooth at the root the first day of the shoot. I lived on Ambesol. Note to self: always carry Ambesol and Gum wax in the camera kit from now on.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get all the shots we wanted. Mike Skinner, their driver at the time and who was great with us, pretty much invited us all down to Daytona for Speed Week to get the rest of the shots we needed. “Is that OK with you?” he asked. Yeah, sure - I saw it as a chance to get the proper assets for the project. My producer and production crewmember - both huge NASCAR fans I found out - were like deer in the headlights of a truck full of candy, cash and beer. I probably could have gotten away without paying the crew just to tag along!

So we get to Daytona. All-access access - track, stands, towers, pits, garage… It was incredible! Our job bascially consisted of getting footage of the Kodak car out on the track during testing, which only occurred a few times a day. The remaining time was spent waiting for Mike to go on the track and get b-roll. And that meant traipsing through the garages, up close and personal with the icons of the sport and their cars/teams (and by up close, I mean under the hood!). My partners got whiplash from turning this way and that. A few times they even disappeared for a while. I didn’t ask questions. For two days we were in motorhead heaven and “working” in places that few race fans get to see.

The funny thing about the new digital production equipment - the quality is fantastic while the size of the cameras have shrunk exponentially. At the time, digital video was just making its inroads into the professional ranks and the cameras were much smaller than the ubiquitous Betcam shoulder cams. I was experiencing a bit a camera envy, standing alongside the shooters from ESPN and Speed. But when the notoriously wonky owners (amplified because of Speed Week) got nervous about trade secrets and kicked all media out, I was able to stay in the garages because I seemed harmless with my little camera. I got the shots I needed.

So the combination of a unique project (NASCAR), a great love (cars), creative freedom and someone to pay for it (the client) made it a dream job.

Behind the scenes - wacky stories - poignant moments. We’ll try to give you a glimpse into what it takes to make video productions. Lessons learned? Who knows… but we keep doin’ it.