Philip Bloom or Zach Wise...

In some ways I am going through a stage of very fundamental decisions in my life. Everyday it seems that I come up against some kind of barrier that must be climbed or somehow understood and then passed or taken into the fold as part of myself and understanding.

I have come up against a divide in the road, a fork of paths to where I want to be and I don't exactly know where the next step lies. This is a fundamental choice as my career and knowledge progresses beyond that of normal production and camera work in to a realm of creative advancement and style. I have the ability to go to new places, as long as I apply myself and stay focused and true and of course without fear. Fear has been what has stopped me for so long from making the hard committing choices that are needed in going forward with life. An advancement from real progression and tough decisions. That chance has come again. I am willing to look at it straight and put one foot in front of the other.

It is clear that I am committed to production and with that comes a whole industry of jobs and sectors which all pay and provide content to the world. Now it is my turn to decide where I want to put my time and energy and where it will be best spent in the service of the greater good. Where will my skills and my life have the most positive effect?

I have found two people who have the jobs that I look to as dream jobs for me. One, Philip Bloom, is a Director of Photography and travels the world shooting just about anything with his cameras, video and DSLR. He is very talented but I think that with much practice that I may be able to obtain those skills. I respect his work and I like the life style that he leads or so it seems to me that it looks like something I could get used to. Philipbloom

The second person and arguably the unsung hero in this world is Zach Wise. Although, I have had little knowledge of him recently I came across his site and that of the New York Times while searching for journalism completed with the Canon 5D Mark ll which I now own. His site DigitalArtWork.Net is an example of what I have long strived for as a journalist and multimedia producer but have lacked the commitment and the edge. Wise's site represents the advancement of news multimedia. His projects like "Mojave" have combined the google earth approach with the information being displayed in the slide show, and not just a slide show but a comprehensive news piece that is told in a way that the Internet is the only medium, currently, that can hold it. These stories create an interactive interface that gives far more information to the viewer than that of a simple slide show or news clip. This is very advanced stuff. While at SFSU I tried to work with info graphics but I was too 'busy' to learn the tools of the trade, Flash being the bread and butter of this type of advanced story telling. I worked on a few projects that were slide shows with menus and a few info graphic projects.

My current webstie:
Adventure Refugee

Here are a few examples of my work there:
MIlitary Recruitment
Election Coverage
Commute Info graphic


I learned these techniques from Andrew Devigal who was or still is working for the New York Times as their multimedia editor. His site:Interactive Narratives is a fantastic way to stay up on what is happening on the progression of multimedia on the Internet. Unfortunately I was not committed to the medium and so went my own way. Well, I have returned with a smile and eager hands.

So now I am wondering if I should buckle down and learn the advanced flash that has always kept me from producing that which I have aspired to bring to the productions that I do. Or do I work harder with commercial work and editing, possibly Adobe After Affects, and continue to seek editor jobs and DP jobs on commercial advertising projects and narrative work?

Don't get me wrong, either way I have a lifetime of knowledge to gain but I have a feeling that I need to commit to a style and work toward mastering that. There is a possibility that I could mix the two styles... Into what, I don't really know.

Finding work right now seems almost impossible but I am heading out today to make that happen. I am open to almost anything so... there has to be something. I think that the shotgun blast approach with my media skill set right now is probably the best bet but I am going to buckle down this week and learn some more advanced production techniques and for those choice picks I need to think about the time commitment and direction that I want to follow.