THE SITUATION:

With my freshly minted degree in broadcast journalism/production and filmmaking in my hand, I decided to design my own Masters Thesis. Already a prolific songwriter and professional musician, I decided to blend my two loves and came up with the concept for Northwest Tunesmith.

Northwest Tunesmith was a series of half-hour primarily acoustic showcases for up-and-coming Northwest singer/songwriters (unplugged before unplugged became a household word).

THE SOLUTION:

In addition to producing the series, I would host each segment and do all the editing and post production myself. I would also budget and fund the project.

To gain access to inexpensive, well-maintained equipment and post production facilities, as well as capable, reliable crew members, I turned to the local public access television station run by TCI. I attended their orientation, learned to use their equipment and began volunteering on others' projects. This gave me a chance to get to know other production people and I quickly collected a tribe of technical talent eager to work on Northwest Tunesmith.

I intended to shoot the first six episodes of the series in the television studio - two per week then flesh out the series with location concerts.

Given my limited experience directing live television, I asked members of the local professional community to be guest directors. After hearing about my project, three directors from the corporate video community agreed to direct the six studio segments. Jim Reardon, Greg Branson and Steve Laboff added the production value I wanted. Professional photographer Clyde Keller agreed to be my Director of Photography and Art Director.

A main concern was ensuring sound quality in all the episodes. The studio was a sound stage, not a recording studio, so, I arranged for Sam Maynard of Om Sound to bring in his own mixing board to run sound for the studio segments. He graciously agreed to set up and run the sound for each of the six studio segments.

The locations posed other concerns as well. To avoid booking and setting up equipment at different venues each week, I got an agreement from the owner of The Bistro, a popular open mike venue in the University District, to host a "Super Open Mike Concert." He also agreed to help advertise the event. And of course all the logistics and equipment bookings were confirmed with letters of agreement.

For the live venue, Lani Edenholm agreed to direct from the three-camera remote van we would be using. Lani had substantial experience directing live location concerts (Bumbershoot, Folklife) and with her on board, Northwest Tunesmith gained another notch in production value.

Much of the energy of the Bistro open mike centered around Jeff Tassin, the talented musician who hosted the regular open mikes. He agreed to MC the concert and help me line up the performers, which we drew from the large pool of musicians performing throughout the region. He even wrote an original song (The Bistro) that I used for my opening title sequence. (I won't talk about booking the talent, which is an separate project in itself.)

On the day of the concert, Jeff brought in his own studio system (with Sam mixing) to provide a feed line to the three-camera remote van I had booked. With Lani directing and Ben Goldfarb of Blackwood Laird mixing the feed for recording, the final product was solid.

We got in six hours before curtain and set up lights, backdrop and cameras and ran the sound checks. We took two hours to tape recording the introductions I had written for each act, which would be cut into the finished video series. After dinner, the audience arrived and I briefed them.

Then we were rolling. Everything went without a hitch. Jeff kept the show energized and the talent shined. The audience was courteous and respectful and the crew worked together like they'd been doing it for years instead of hours.

All together, I managed a 16-person location crew and we ended up showcasing 16 talented musicians. And sometime over these weeks, I took a cameraman out and collected the shots I wanted for the opening titles then cut the sequence over Jeff's song. I spent a week editing the 12 episodes and then they were aired.

THE RESULT:

The final series consisted of 12 half-hour episodes that aired on TCI for over three years, usually in the prime time slot. I continued to receive positive viewer response and inquiries from performers interested in being showcase. Alas, I needed to make a living and Northwest Tunesmith was born and died with those 12 episodes. That is, until I can resurrect that dream again.

This was a project of my heart.  Everything came together with ease - my crew, the equipment, the fabulous talent, the venue cooperation - and whenever I had a question about how to go about solving a problem, the local professional video production community was generous with both solutions and encouragement.

The general feedback from those who participated was that everything flowed - there were no frazzled tempers or ego trips. Since producing Northwest Tunesmith, I have talked with enough producers, directors and technicians within both the professional and non-professional video production community to understand that my experience was an exception. While I do take credit for my creative and producing skills, I know that the  universe conspired with me to create Northwest Tunesmith.

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