|
Inside Production: Walter Schoenknecht
|
|
Walter Schoenknecht is a partner at Midnight Media Group Inc. a New York-area digital production faciilty. You can reach him via e-mail at walter@mmgi.tv.
|
| |
Footage: Taking Stock
|
|
|
|
by Walter Schoenknecht, 10.06.2004
|
My earliest recollections of the use of stock footage conjure up three descriptions: expensive, difficult, ugly.
more
|
Becoming Indispensable
|
|
|
|
by Walter Schoenknecht, 8.04.2004
|
|
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.
more
|
The Acceptance Speech
|
|
|
|
by Walter Schoenknecht, 4.07.2004
|
|
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.
more
|
Expense-Side Economics
|
|
|
|
by Walter Schoenknecht, 3.10.2004
|
|
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'."
more
|
Looking Inward
|
|
|
|
by Walter Schoenknecht, 2.04.2004
|
|
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?
more
|
Cash for Trash
|
|
|
|
by Walter Schoenknecht, 12.10.2003
|
|
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.
more
|
It Takes Talent
|
|
|
|
by Walter Schoenknecht, 11.12.2003
|
|
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.
more
|
The Art Of The Compressionist
|
|
|
|
by Walter Schoenknecht, 9.03.2003
|
|
It's in every content creator's best interests to add yet another specialty to his or her list of marketable skills: Compressionist.
more
|
When the Going Gets Tough...
|
|
|
|
by Walter Schoenknecht, 7.09.2003
|
|
But the simple fact is that since the infamous events of September 2001, business -- all business -- has been bad. Not "so-so," not "could be better," just downright bad.
more
|
Video By The Numbers
|
|
|
|
by Walter Schoenknecht, 4.07.2003
|
|
Our veterinarian once told us that our sainted old mutt, Burst, could only possibly learn the names of six or seven of her chew toys, with the clear implication that the arrival of toy number eight (the rubber cheeseburger) would effectively erase all memory of toy number one. If it held true for humans, this neurological aberration could become really worrisome in my professional life.
more
|
Ripping For Dollars
|
|
|
|
by Walter Schoenknecht, 2.05.2003
|
|
How'd you like your client to be in the movies? Bet I could arrange it for you.
more
|
Gimme That Ole-Time Production
|
|
|
|
by Walter Schoenknecht, 11.13.2002
|
|
I was feeling pretty good about the way we all were trained. We understand the interplay of exposures and contrast in electronic imaging, and that slavish devotion to the waveform monitor has given us an arbitrary standard to fall back on when we're not sure if the monitor is lying to us. It just may be that our old-line skills have delivered us to a better place than those more respected folks, the film camera operators and DPs.
more
|
The Three Ds of 3D
|
|
|
|
by Walter Schoenknecht, 10.09.2002
|
|
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?
more
|
Dead Air Remembered
|
|
|
|
by Walter Schoenknecht, 9.04.2002
|
|
Dead air thoroughly disturbs broadcasters... sends a chill down the spine. It begs questions about potential unfulfilled, about loss, about trouble. Is there a problem? Is everything all right? What happened?
more
|
Plug-In Crazy
|
|
|
|
by Walter Schoenknecht, 8.07.2002
|
|
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.
more
|
What I Saw in Las Vegas
|
|
|
|
by Walter Schoenknecht, 7.10.2002
|
|
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.
more
|
OS X, My New Best Friend
|
|
|
|
by Walter Schoenknecht, 4.03.2002
|
|
Criticizing anything Apple in print is a little like wearing your raccoon coat to an animal rights convention - you can expect to be hunted down and harassed mercilessly, irrationally, for a long, long time afterwards.
more
|
A Little Light on The Subject
|
|
|
|
by Walter Schoenknecht, 2.06.2002
|
|
So who was it, I want to know, who decreed that an edit suite must be lit like an anthracite seam at midnight?
more
|
In Praise of the Nonengineer
|
|
|
|
by Walter Schoenknecht, 1.09.2002
|
|
Are you a video or audio engineer? Bet you aren't. You see, the reason I'm willing to go out on a limb is because I've met a lot of video people – male and female – and very, very few of them are engineers. No, really.
more
|
