Incredibly Good at What They Do

In the course of a career, you manage to meet people who are incredibly good at what they do. I'm certain that I know well over a hundred men and women who fit that category. I'm not exaggerating. I think I'll pick on a few of them now.

Long, long ago on a campus not so far away, an aspiring student filmmaker brought me his 16-mm films to be transferred to video. Yeah, that was back before everything was shot digitally. I was struck by Ken Cromar's creativity in his storytelling as well as his technical ability as shooter and director. I've managed to run into him at grocery stores and post offices ever since, but I haven't had the chance to work shoulder-to-shoulder with him on a project. I'm still looking forward to that opportunity. I'm impressed with his interactive programs, though, which gets him into a blog about media in learning. Check out his work at Blue Moon Productions.

Jon Clark was audio guru and virtual set lighting director when we both worked on computer games for Access Software. We worked on the Links golf game as well as the Tex Murphy series of adventure games. As jazzed as I was about doing the video work, his audio expertise knocked my socks off. I have to admit, not only did he raise my technical expectations about how tracks should sound, but also my creative expectations with how narration should be delivered. I'm finding even now that I want to raise my own audio standards on all my projects. Jon's now an associate professor of theater at Salt Lake Community College.

Gerry Graves and I also worked at Access Software together. He and I tromped all over St. Andrews, Scotland together. Then we brought our footage home and edited it into several mini-documentaries about the history of golf and the development of the courses there. I've been impressed with Gerry's work at TestOut, Inc. They develop software to help students earn certifications in many areas. Gerry raised the technical values of the video they use, but he also improved the content delivery by the talent.  

Technical skill and a creative inner eye (or ear) make these individuals incredibly good at what they do. I'm fortunate to associate with them.