Evergreen Renaissance, report on TESC multimedia and interactive production capacity

The objective of this CIRAL activity was to demonstrate that 1, technical capacity already exists at TESC to carry off “quick-‘n-easy” event productions that can be fully media-interactive (video, audio, handheld – texting, tweeting, podcasting, etc., online dissemination);  and 2, “real-time” video line-editing techniques can be employed to dramatically reduce production and post-production time.   

Background: Three factors led to undertaking this project:

• Initial CIRAL cluster discussions pointed out difficulties other members were facing because of unfulfilled promises to complete a previous quarter’s (previous year’s) video production, and after viewing their production-in-progress in class I understood their situation very well.  Their problem from the start was primarily time, and with the ever-greater passage of it the second-biggest obstacle is maintaining everybody’s interest in a project outcome. 
• My cluster-fellows extolled the first-class technologies at their disposal, and expressed keen awareness of its potential;  therefore, my CIRAL project would assess campus technologies to determine their simple, effective, economical use for creating the sort of productions that my comrades envision.  Alongside this, the technical core of The Evergreen State Forum project (TESF, then just a first-draft concept paper) is “total media interactivity”, and while having certain competences in production I was pretty ignorant of how to stitch “total media” together. 
• Likewise, I was fascinated by the nonchalant attitudes my comrades expressed towards integrating handheld technologies.  Multi- and interactive-media productions are relatively common, and TESF would employ the gamut: Who does live interactive broadcasting really well?  What production templates do they employ that makes interactivity function in real time?  Could such a model be applied to TESF and/or TESC activities? 

Research activities included substantial meetings with Dave Cramton, head of the campus CCam production facilities (twice);  John Ford, production manager at KAOS (twice);  Douglas Rydecki, a Greener senior with extensive podcasting experience (once);  executives at TVW and TCTV; and by Skype with Corin Wirth, producer with the BBC in London.

Research outcomes include a stated willingness by the campus CCam studio to work with USCCI to produce a live in-studio group presentation, employing line-editing techniques to produce a hardcopy video at presentation’s end.  Live video and audio feeds throughout the campus and to broader exterior networks are possible, but rarely/never employed.

The “interactivity” aspects of production are not a matter of amassed technologies, but rather takes mainly human coordination of the sort familiar to “talk radio” production: pyramidical  structures of production associates filtering feeds from various media uphill to the line-producer or presenter, who makes the interactive synapse happen.  While a typical American talk radio program might employ as few as 1 or 2 persons in these vital behind-the-scenes production support roles, the BBC World Service “World Have Your Say” international talk show, broadcast primarily over radio (with online video, podcasting, Facebook, Twitter, news feeds, and email monitoring and posting), reaching on any given Sunday afternoon an estimated 170 million listeners, has a total studio production support staff of 5. This suggests that highly-evolved, economical technical models for production and media interactivity exist, are in practice, and might be considered for both TESC and TESF applications.

Conclusions:

1.  CCam has first-class technical capacity for all manner of video/audio production, including line-editing, and it is looking for practical application. 

2.  “Total media interactivity” is possible at TESC;  in various ways production in all media is underway, albeit not under any coordinating structure or for any synergistic purpose. 

3.  

Willingness among technical folk to integrate media and be more ambitious with the college’s communications potential is palpable, but popular rallying points are MIA. 

Observation: People’s general reactions to the concepts of integrated, interactive media more-or-less fall into two categories: To many, on initial exposure, it all seems something Whizbang! and somewhat incredible, quite complex, even bold;  to others, especially people with media production backgrounds, it’s Sure, why not?  These people ought to meet over cocktails sometime.