Videography

I first got my hands on a video camera when I was in high school. It was a black & white camera with a 1″ reel-to-reel tape recorder attached to it. It was in the media section of the library where I was a volunteer and a student photographer, and used the darkroom which was also in the same section. Because of my familiarity with cameras and recording equipment, I found it quite easy to use. I even recreated the early cinema visual effects tricks with it like pausing the recording to have someone disappear or appear on camera. My experience paid off later that year when the 2^nd year Chemistry students filmed a series of comedy shorts to be shown to the 1^st years students around Christmas break. I was only a 1^st year student myself but I was one of the few who knew how to run the camera and recorder and so I wound up doing the production work for them. (I sometimes wonder whatever happened to that recording.)

I never got my hands on a video camera again until back around 2001, when a friend of mine wanted to produce a cable access TV program and needed someone to help with the camera work. That meant taking training on studio and remote camera operation at the Allen County Public Library cable access center, along with training to use the audio board and the linear editing system. I worked with him for a couple of years until he became too busy with other projects and I took over production, but I had to eventually drop the program after a couple more years. It was great training on a number of video related production functions, including remote recording, audio and video setup and even interviewing people, not to mention linear and non-linear editing and DVD production.

That led to my setting up my own video production company and taking training to videotape depositions. Neither turned out as profitable as I hoped but the experience did lead to my previous jobs with the Fort Wayne Fusion Arena² Indoor Football League team and the Fort Wayne Freedom indoor football team and my present jobs with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants NBA‑D League basketball team and the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum video operations crew. I have been with both of them ever since the beginning and I plan on continuing with them as long as I am able.