Coming Up For Air

Last month was incredibly busy, but certainly rewarding in a creative sense. In addition to finalizing the edit for the Berkshire Gateway Jazz video, May also marked my official return to working in broadcast television.

WMHT-TV's new weekly arts show... yes, I like the name!

WMHT, our local PBS affiliate, is airing a new show titled AHA! A House for the Arts, which I learned about this past winter. Intrigued, I reached out to the station to see if they needed any assistance with the production... I was in luck! My first work for the weekly arts program can be seen this Wednesday, June 18, at 7:30 p.m. You can watch a preview here.

I have had a nice relationship with WMHT Educational Telecommunications over the years, starting with their former arts show, InSight (which used to air my exhibition videos for Norman Rockwell Museum in their entirety), to my recent DJ stints with their roots rock radio station, WEXT—it seems fitting that a company that encouraged me to produce a two-hour radio special on the band A-ha, would go on to offer me a forum for further creativity on their TV arts show, also titled AHA (I was not involved in the naming of the show, though... honest!). Also nice is the fact that this new show is hosted by our friend, Katie Gorham, the WEXT DJ who helped me with both my A-ha and MyExit programs for the station.

AHA! features stories of artists and creative institutions, both locally and across the country. A celebration of all things creative, the show highlights everything from drawing and painting, sculpture, photography, literature, poetry, film, sculpture, digital, and the performing arts. 

My first assignment was to edit a segment, appropriately enough, on theater—Capital Repertory Theatre has been entertaining audiences in the Capital Region for over 30 years as a member of the prestigious League of Resident Theatres; it produces shows with an authentic connection to the community through outreach and performances in their beautiful 286-seat performance space in downtown Albany (we have seen a handful of shows, and have been most impressed).

Everything's coming up roses... hopefully!
Thanks to Cap Rep + photographer Joe Schuyler
for these beautiful "Gypsy" production stills which helped
with my segment, and made me all the more intrigued
to see more shows at the Albany theater!
Courtesy Capital Repertory Theatre. All rights reserved.
www.capitalrep.org

Working with previously shot footage was a nice change of pace, but a challenge since Equity rules prevented the crew from filming any rehearsals or performances of shows (at the time they were running the musical, Gypsy). I decided to bolster the interviews (with cast members and the theater's Producing Artistic Director, Maggie Mancinelli-Cahill) with some "performance"-style music, and fun production stills and commercials that were kindly provided by the theater. I think it came together well—clocking in at a little over 4 minutes, the segment took over 20 hours to produce... but I had a great time, and truly was in my element during the days that I devoted fully to figuring out the production challenge for this and the jazz video—for the uninitiated, editing is like a "high-tech jigsaw puzzle," and the reward is producing a final, compelling piece of visual storytelling—it's an art in itself. 

This first project was not without glitches and uncertainties, but I think I'll save any thoughts about that for a subsequent post. For now, let me savor this AHA! moment, and hope that there are more to come in the months ahead.

Related Links:

"AHA! A House for the Arts" website