1. The Mission Statement
2. Background
3. Goals
4. S.W.O.T. Analysis
5. Action Plans
I am working to bring artists, audiences, and businesses closer together by means of video, audio, and online media technologies, producing communications that empower the participants and support a humane, enlightened, and enduring society.
Dance is my model; a communal artistic discipline as old as mankind, existing completely in the present, prepared for the future as it unfolds. I seek to communicate experience with skill and integrity, not to mediate, control, and distort.
Since ARTSEYE Communications is, and for the foreseeable future will remain, a one-man-show, it will be convenient and appropriate to speak in terms of "the company" and myself interchangeably.
Resume
A summary resume is in order;
My goals for the coming year are:
·. To become recognized as a dependable, affordable videography producer with a professional understanding of the arts and clear billing principles.
·. To apply online technologies to the tasks of film/video finance, production, and marketing.
·. To either acquire or create a commercial dance property (screenplay, video, or film) and market it, or find a job in a production company.
I am a good writer and researcher. My work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Whole Earth Quarterly, PC Magazine, and elsewhere. I am particularly skilled at organizing reference materials and documenting procedures of all levels of complexity. I can become totally absorbed in processes and whole systems, whether natural or industrial. Mild social satire and dance/music history and criticism are my favorites when I write for pleasure.
During the past two and a half years I have published more than 200 posts on the Internet concerning dance, videography, the arts, aging, and health care. Many of these essays are collected on my website, A Regular Guy’s Book of Ballet. These writings and my other online correspondence have brought me into close friendships with dance professionals and aficionados around the world (see Opportunities).
I have 30,000 hours of experience working with personal computers in a professional setting. Dear me.
I am a good editor, and a successful manager of collaborative writing projects.
I have been a stable, determined, productive worker and family man all my life. I can stay at a keyboard for weeks on end, or handle a wrench or a forklift truck with the best of them. I tend to take extra pains in doing a job, in order to get it right, and I usually pass on shortcuts to the next person to tackle it.
I’m a good ballet dancer, especially for my age. I have performed in Nutcracker, and was recently promoted to an advanced class at the Milwaukee Ballet School.
I am not a great videographer yet. This is an infinitely difficult pursuit, and the price of admission is high. Fortunately many dance companies in the area are happy to let me practice on them.
As I mentioned before, new worlds have opened up for me through the people I have met on the Internet. I have been able to work with Amy Reusch, one of America’s premier dance videographers. Last summer I spent a week in New York attending ballets with more than a dozen friends from the ‘net.
Much of what is going on the Internet right now is very much like what I have been putting on printed pages for the past sixteen years; the aspects of visual appeal, clarity, marketing, positioning, are all there. In three or four years, the Internet or its successor will be capable of transmitting full-motion high-definition video. Already some of the most interesting applications involve live picture transmissions, of traffic conditions, for instance.
The technology for video production is going through the same sort of explosion of availability that desktop publishing went through about the time I started doing that.
An independent filmmaker or distributor could go online to:
Furthermore, most major motion pictures are creating websites to promote their films. I haven’t read anything about how effective this has been, but it has a number of aspects that make it attractive. The distribution is worldwide and practically free. The audience is affluent and educated. Changes can be made cheaply and instantly. And the site operator can design the site to gather marketing information automatically based on who accesses it and what menu choices they make.
There is no disputing the fact that Mr. Bell invented the film industry’s weapon of choice. But for snooping around undetected, for skimming over vast territories looking for nuggets of information, and for addressing large, well-arranged groups of people all at once, it cannot compete with the Internet.
I am presently pursuing an M.A. from Columbia College of Chicago in arts, entertainment, and media management. Since the faculty consists mostly of working arts professionals, the classes are practically consulting sessions.
I am very fortunate to have good friends in the film and video field. They include;
Presently, opportunities for a videographer in dance are numerous. Dance companies need to produce video for:
HDTV will change the proportions of the home screen to a wider format. This will be a boon to traditional choreography and staging, which are very difficult to capture on the present standard screen.
High-end consumer electronics are already creating a market for upscale entertainment products. Many of the homes that can afford these systems listen to classical music and jazz, but there is comparatively little video programming to accompany their music.
Any publicly funded arts organization must strive toward two, frequently conflicting, goals; high quality and broad distribution. Dance is especially limited by distribution constraints. Effective video distribution overcomes this dilemma.
Private donations are meeting some needs formerly supported by government. Since these patrons tend to be older, the idea of maintaining continuity between the past and the future of dance appeals to them, and video can create this link.
Corporate sponsors are being drawn away from the performing arts by other nonprofit organizations. Portraying Milwaukee as a world-class city is an important strategy for large local corporations in allocating support to the arts, but dance has been at a disadvantage to organizations such as the Milwaukee Symphony, whose nation-wide radio broadcasts are sponsored by Northwestern Mutual Life. Video is an opportunity for local dance companies to receive this sort of support and recognition.
All types of grants are easier to get for specific projects than for continuing operations. This is an advantage for an independent contractor specializing in nonprofit projects, since it is easier for the companies to get funding to bring in a professional than it is to train and pay someone in their own organization to shoot and edit video.
The video camera is the information gathering tool for a new generation of computer-based choreography and computer graphics tools. Many of these applications use technology that was developed for computer games and other animation applications to model the human form in motion.
Although communications technology has created unprecedented demand for video product, it has also made the field of arts videography more competitive. This has happened for four reasons:
Satellite and cable technology have eliminated the jobs of thousands of camera operators and other technicians who used to provide local coverage for individual television stations. These experienced individuals are flooding the market.
As the price of acquisition and editing equipment falls, more competition is coming from beginners, and established producers are able to create more sophisticated product.
New standards and equipment are being developed so quickly that keeping up requires a large investment in capital and education.
Federal and corporate funding for the arts have fallen precipitously.
Within a year I would like to be recognized as a dependable, affordable videography producer with a professional understanding of the arts and clear billing principles. By the end of the year I plan to be making a net profit on dance videography.
These tasks are right on schedule so far.
Items purchased so far include a PC, an SVHS video camera, tripod, cables, adapters, batteries, carrying case, one edit deck. This is enough to accomplish my basic mission; to make high-quality, unedited, full-length videos of dance performances or other theatrical events. The Panasonic Supercam that I have purchased is capable of making broadcast-quality tapes, but is much less expensive to use than the Betacam format.
This year I am acquiring an audio mixer, a titler, a second edit deck, and an edit deck controller. For particular projects I will also need a light kit and a shotgun microphone.
I am doing an individual work-study project this spring entitled "Off-Hollywood Online". In it I will apply online technologies to the tasks of film/video finance, production, and marketing. My advisor for this project is David Sikich of Chicago, the producer’s representative for the makers of the film Hoop Dreams.
Since I already have most of the technical skills for this objective, it is very attractive. The main criteria here involve pursuing my ultimate goals while earning a living, so I will be satisfied when I am receiving college credit and/or income and/or grant money for these activities.
By mid-1999 I hope to be involved in the creation, production, and marketing of a commercial screenplay, video, or film.
This objective is a natural outcome of the other two.
© copyright 1998 Keith R. Knox, all rights reserved.