Cult of Personality

There is a movement afoot that is actually somewhat concerning for me.  There seems to be a transition toward celebrating celebrity amongst creative imaging types as opposed to actual knowledge.  We are subjected to keynotes and endless product endorsements from a select group of practitioners while completely ignoring the true experts in the field with far longer histories of providing high quality information and service.

I refer to this phenomenon as The Cult of Personality.

I first became aware of this phrase in the 1980’s when progressive rock band Living Colour was getting extensive airplay with the song of the same name.

Of course the phrase is much older than that but I was a bratty little wannabe punk rocker in the 80’s where intellectual pursuits were frowned upon in favour of being popular so I tried to “play dumb”.  Hmmmm…

Me playing bass guitar back at the end of the 80’s with my then band Liberty Lives Upstairs. I’m the wookiee on the right.

The Wikipedia article on Cult of personality is somewhat telling:

“A cult of personality arises when an individual uses mass media, propaganda, or other methods, to create an idealized, heroic, and, at times god-like public image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise.”

Sound familiar?

As someone who has dedicated 15 years to becoming as close to a master in my field as I can manage, this is disturbing to me.  I live, sleep, eat and breathe video production.  When I go to the National Association of Broadcasters convention, I return with 40 lbs in catalogs, product cut sheets and documentation.  I read this stuff at breakfast, on breaks, while alone in the smallest room in the house, after dinner, in bed waiting to fall asleep…  I contribute regularly to online forums and peruse them even more than I write.

I’m kind of a big deal in certain circles.

Now, the problem for me is I’m good at what I do.

I’m really good at what I do.

If I’m not good at it, I stop doing it.

I might be smarmy in promo photos but I’m good at what I do.

When clients ask “Can you do <insert video related service here>?” I almost exclusively answer with a caveat – “Okay… what is it EXACTLY you are looking to do?  How do you see this working?”.

Why?

Because it is crucially important to me that I understand exactly what they are looking for and not to make the sale just because.

The interesting thing to me right now is with the advent of Google as the predominant way of getting your business noticed, I see a lot of practitioners spending more time on their SEO and Google Optimization than on their craft.

Frankly, the search results I get when I look for specific search words in my geographic area baffles me.

There are a lot of folks that aren’t very good at video who are great at SEO.

So I leave you with a conundrum:

When you are hiring a technical and creative professional, are you satisfied that you get results on a search engine that have been optimized by trickery and “first to the gate” biases or would you prefer to have your results filtered by expertise, proven track record and satisfied clients?  

Does the rumour that advertising with the search engine in question may improve a business’ ranking in search engine results temper your opinion of the validity of the search?

Is an Internet Search Engine the optimal way to find a service provider or is this methodology fatally flawed?

Contrary to popular opinion, I didn’t start this Blog to increase my Google hits – I started it as a repository for my thoughts that would be easily searchable for folks whom I have made contact with (my network, if you will) through true networking – personal interaction, either “in the flesh” or virtually on a web forum or other online outlet.

I don’t use trickery to get higher search engine ratings.

I Blog about things I care about and tag appropriately for search optimization, not search ENGINE optimization.

I drive most of the traffic to this Blog myself through interaction.  This has been borne out in my analytics.

I spend some time learning about how to make my posts and information found online and engage in some best practices such as using Google Webmaster Tools but that is just part of doing the business of being in business, much the same as doing my books and paying the heat and light bills.

I spend most of my time getting better and more knowledgeable about the stuff that gets my clients better results.

Food for thought.

Thanks for reading!

Back From NAB Show in Las Vegas and Collecting My Thoughts

NAB 2013 – My home-away-from-home, Treasure Island was a great place to put my head down every night after information overload from the show floor.

The National Association of Broadcasters Convention and Tradeshow (NAB) in Las Vegas is an annual look at what is hot, what is not and a study in hyperbole.  I’m decompressing from a fun-filled three days of exploring the floor and chatting with old friends and meeting new friends, including some wonderful people I met at the DVInfo.net private party on the Monday night.

NAB this year was all about 4k, live switching and streaming.

Lots of innovation but an equal number of conundrums caused by new technology and not-particularly-well-thought-out implementations.

I’m collecting my thoughts from where I stand as a seasoned professional with a holistic view and will be reporting back over the next week or so.

Of particular interest to a lot of people will be the LiveStream announcements as well as the BlackMagic Design 4k Cinema Camera and the ATEM 4K production switcher.

The LiveStream booth at NAB 2013 was a great place to get inspired for business models moving forward.

Webcasting Rates Online At My Other Blog

I have started another Blog specific to Webcasting for those who are interested.

I will be cross-posting relevant content where applicable but I was looking for something a little more sterile for folks looking to just get information on the webcasting side of the business.  You likely won’t find a Musings section over there any time soon, for instance.

One of the phone calls I get most often is “Hi.  We’d like to rent whatever we need for a webcast.  How much is that?”

Frankly, webcasting at a serious and professional level is still not as simple as most non-practioners would like to think.  It is still very much a professional service that requires a wide and varied skill set.  Your IT people may be great at getting you Internet access but do they know the first thing about audio?  The intern who shoots all your web content may be great with viral video on YouTube but does she know anything about EDID, TCP/IP and HDCP?

I do have an in-depth discussion post planned but in the interim, here’s a link to the sister Blog and the Webcast Rate Card for webcasts in Vancouver, BC specifically.

Webcast Rate Card

Let me know what you think!

Thanks for reading!

An Open Letter to Event Planners From Your A/V Tech Part 1.5

I have the next  full instalment of this series brainstormed and awaiting time to enter and proofread it but I had an interesting day on location today around failure to communicate.  This reminded me of an EXCELLENT must-read thread on my favourite Web Forum, DVInfo.net that I contributed to earlier this year.

This one is KINDA for the tech geeks but it also gives Event Planners an idea of what a good A/V tech considers when gearing up for your event.

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/all-things-audio/512876-surviving-your-experience-audio-guy.html

There is some VERY sound advice (pardon the pun!) in there, including my personal favourite.

Shaun’s First Rule of Successful Event Planning:

Involve your technicians early.

I know I’ve said it before and I’ll say it LOTS again in the future.

Because of a lack of communication, I need to be on location 2 hours early tomorrow when we could have solved the issue at hand in two minutes today had the organizer told me that we were forgoing the sound check that was on my itemized itinerary.  The sound techs were released without my knowledge 1 minute before I was ready to test my feed from them.  I thought they were going on a meal break.  I should point out I was on site an hour early…  it wasn’t because I was running late…

The audio console supplied by the A/V company doesn’t have an available audio output.  All outputs are in use.  I have a solution in place, sitting waiting to be implemented but I may need to convince the audio tech first.

All in a day’s work, but think how much happier not only I but my client would have been if we walked out of the room tonight having checked everything instead of almost everything.

Thus endeth the sermon…

Thanks for reading!

“Grey Power” – The Advantage of Experience

I was webcasting today on a national conference in Vancouver with a tremendously talented crew of A/V professionals and broadcast folks.  That in itself is really nothing new or surprising;  I’m quite fortunate that I get to work with seasoned pros more often than not.  What was different today was a series of conversations I had with the other technicians and the event producer.

Thankfully my clients normally put me up in nice hotels.

The sordid truth is that many A/V technicians are quite young and often inexperienced because of the long hours and obligatory road work that often takes you away from friends and family.  Your social life suffers.  Not many relationships survive constant 8 week work trips on the road and a continuous series of 12 – 16 hour days.  It takes a special kind of person to not only survive but to THRIVE in this sort of environment.  Many new hires don’t last very long.

The folks I had the opportunity to work with today used language that I recognized:  “I’ve ‘only’ been a director for 6 years…”, “when I first started with the company pulling cables 13 years ago…”, “back when I started, we were using porta-pack recorders and wet-cell motorcycle batteries to power them…  we had the ORIGINAL acid wash jeans!”

A valid passport is my key to new adventures and new stories to tell.

I’m not going to lie – I LOVE talking shop; more so with folks that have been in “the game” as long (or longer) than I have.  The rare opportunity to spend meaningful time with kindred spirits makes all the silliness of long hours worthwhile.  I wax romantically about the Road Dog lifestyle but the truth is I love it.  I have an overnight bag always packed and waiting and my passport is always up to date as are my travel inoculations.

Today I spent time with people JUST LIKE ME.

So what did we talk about?

Trust.  The producer told me she loves “Grey Power”.  She always likes to have some seasoned professionals with some grey hair on her crews – some folks that have “been there, done that”.  People  whose reaction when things start to go sideways is “don’t worry… I’ve got it…”

I’ve always quipped that I want a “half million dollar cockpit” on any transoceanic flights – if the combined salary of everyone on the flight deck is less than $500k, I don’t figure they have enough experience if all of a sudden all the engines decide to go take a nap at the same time.

There is a casual confidence that comes from having been in a similar situation before and knowing what has to be done.  And the wisdom to see a trainwreck coming down the tracks and being able to stop it before the client catches wind.

My first convention, road crew and webcast back in 1999.
From Left to Right: Me, Terry my mentor, Aron “Smokey” and Earl.
Terry and Aron have since passed away.

I remember when I was first starting out in my new career as a budding young videographer.  As I mention in my own post I Get By With A Little Help… I had a mentor whom I worked alongside and studied under.  I asked a lot of questions, made a few suggestions and frankly worked my butt off to prove myself.  That work ethic paid dividends as I was granted keys to the shop, the ability to use gear on my own shoots and eventually entrusted with the company van.  When someone places that level of trust in you, you don’t let them down.

The people I choose to do business with today are all people I trust.  People I will put my reputation on the line to refer to my friends and clients.

The producer and I had a conversation about when she was working as an editor.  Young interns from a college level program would come in and critique her edit style – “I wouldn’t do it that way…”

I laughed.  And I asked her “so… when the station manager came and asked if you’d give them your seal of approval, what did you say?”

I’m sure you can imagine that none of the know-it-alls ever got asked to submit a resume for employment.

The lesson here?

Build allegiances.  Make other people want to work with you and proud to refer you.

And if you are starting out or branching out, KNOW WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW.

The “Great Democratization of Video” has been happening for a LOT of years now.  Yes, prices for hardware and software have dropped SIGNIFICANTLY.  But does that make you an expert?

I’ve got 14 years of sitting in front of a control surface with nearly as many buttons, switches, knobs and flashing lights as a jumbo jet.  I know what they all do.  I also have the uncanny sense to ask the question that preempts the bad decision that is about to make all of us look really bad  to our viewers.  I’m cool under pressure.  And I get results.

I was introduced as THE Webcast Guy to some very influential people today.  The person referring me understands that I won’t let them down because they have put their reputation on the line for me.

Frankly, all I’ve done for over a dozen years is build brand ambassadors for my services.  I emailed an executive VP of a national labour organization today to ask for some advice.  These are my friends.  I have spent a long time nurturing those relationships and I bring that wealth to the table at every single gig.

Challenge For Life Walk with event coordinator (left), Winnipeg radio personality Ace Burpee and children’s entertainer Fred Penner.

So ask yourself honestly…

What do you bring to the table?

More than “what camera should I buy?” or “how did they do this effect?”, the question you SHOULD be asking yourself is:

How do I make myself more valuable to potential clients and brand ambassadors?

Develop those friendships.  Have those conversations.  Build that trust.

A wise farmer doesn’t plant seeds when he is hungry.  He plans them well in advance of when he needs the crops.

Go plant some seeds and be nice to us Old Folks…  we might just be the ones to pull your butt out of the fire some day.