Inside Production: Walter Schoenknecht

Learning to Follow The Digital Signage
Scene: A small manufacturing firm, circa 1906. The owner speaks with an employee:"Ellsworth, I'm afraid I'll have to let you go... looks like Mr. Edison's invention has pretty much ruined the market for oil lamps."

Learn How to Learn or Get Out of the Way
Over the period of time I've been privileged to fill this space, I've noticed that some of the columns I've written could easily be classified into one of several categories.

The Cost of Doing Business
It was said that our client Pete, during a stint at a major New York ad agency, would often gaze down at the busy street corner below, watching the hot dog vendor. After seven or eight minutes of thoughtful observation, he'd turn to an associate and say, "Not bad. That guy is clearing $1,000 a week."

What If It All Burned Down Tonight?
It's the end of a long, hard day at a small production company, and a wave of tribulations washes me out to dreamland. The old steam-powered Mac in Edit Room Four took five hours to compress a four-minute program. A faulty patch deleted the blue channel from a component analog spot dub. And it smells like a power supply is going down somewhere in the machine room.

Who Needs HDV?
No, seriously... all joking aside... who needs it? Can you give me some names? I know everybody wants HDV. I was in Las Vegas in April, and like those other 100,000 NAB attendees, I saw folks lined up six deep waiting to see the cameras and to look at the pretty pictures. I was one of them.

Written In Stone
Particularly ironic is the notion that this most crucial part of the digital content chain--storage--is left to the one remaining mechanical device in a modern computer, the hard drive.

Going On-Location in a Post-9/11 Environment
I used to worry that I couldn't be in two places at once; now I find that I can't even be in one place at once.

A Tale of Videotape: Displacing Film in the '60s
Last year, I successfully tracked down John Vrba, a man I've never met but whom I'd known vicariously for more than 25 years.

DVD Authoring: Driven to Abstraction
You may think you're in control of your DVD authoring, but you're not.

Footage: Taking Stock
My earliest recollections of the use of stock footage conjure up three descriptions: expensive, difficult, ugly.

Becoming Indispensable
Nobody's quite so busy that they're turning away work. And no one's added a wing onto their homes, either. But there's a collective sigh of relief, it seems, throughout our industry as more new projects start.

The Acceptance Speech
I can tell you that last year was a good year for us, because we were asked to do at least one job the right way... our way.

Expense-Side Economics
Among the many creaky aphorisms I'm fond of dropping on those around me, none reflects that good ol' American bottom-line sensibility as much as this one: "You get nothin' for nothin'."

Looking Inward
As in medicine, the highly focused television specialist lives and works at the pinnacle of his or her art. So what could be more exciting than when specialist meets specialist?

Cash for Trash
Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Maybe if we sell our old audio and video junk, we'll be rich! Or at least have a little extra cash for beer and pork rinds. I've got boxes and boxes of stuff I've saved and salvaged; I've got one shelf just for old muffin fans. But who in their right minds would take some of this trash off our hands? Well, funny you should ask.

It Takes Talent
For better or worse, the one-man-band is a reality; a single individual can assert control over all the variables, with one exception: talent ... No, I'm not referring to that ethereal quality that inspires our muse; I'm talking about actors.

Ripping For Dollars
How'd you like your client to be in the movies? Bet I could arrange it for you.

The Three Ds of 3D
When sales are slack and the market is glutted with products, I can lower the price on my roller coaster and recapture a healthy share of the business. But if it's so simple, why can't the 3D animation marketplace grasp the concept?

Plug-In Crazy
Some folks collect teddy bears. Others collect rusty lawnmowers, porcelain penguins, antique carpenters' tools or Victorian tea cozies. For an artist, editor, animator or compositor, however, the quest for plug-ins is the collectible craving that can never be satisfied.

What I Saw in Las Vegas
Las Vegas -- a cold, heartless place, the kind of place where each day a thousand dreams are born and a million hopes are murdered. They come here from around the globe, full of notions both fanciful and farcical, brilliant and banal; but Lady Luck plays no favorites, and neither rhyme nor reason can be found in the outcomes. They play hopeless long shots, convinced they've got the only sure thing in town ... And that's just the exhibitors.