faulker009

At approximately 1:54am local time last night/this morning, we were putting the final touches on a commercial I was producing. For those of you who would like to work in TV, we started shooting at 3:00pm -- nearly eleven hours earlier. We had our production meeting three hours before that. The commercial is 30 seconds. You do the math. And that was just the shooting.   The editing comes next, followed by the nitpicking. But if you love the art, you need to love the trip to Home Depot to buy the paint. I think it was... me, who just said that. As the Producer, sometimes it is my role to drive the bus and make sure that everyone is on that bus with me. Sometimes it is my job to just be a passenger and to make sure we are driving in the right direction. In this case, there was no problem with the direction. For this project, there was another freelance employee who jumped in behind the wheel and hit the accelerator. He was the Director and Cameraman, Editor and Visionary. One of the m...

I spent much of my Saturday afternoon writing this blog. Only I wasn’t at a computer, I didn't have an iPad or even a pad of paper. Rather I was on a bike trail with my brother-in-law and one of my neighbors. When the weather is nice, as it is now, there are a ton of trails near my house where you can hike or walk or as we prefer, ride a mountain bike. I am far from an expert, but I do enjoy the opportunity to get out and burn some calories. I’m not sure we are ever going to run into Lance Armstrong, but some of these trails can be quite challenging. We started uphill, as we always do, then made a choice to head east, down a series of trails, which leads to an area where we could really push the limits. Well that was the plan. About five minutes later, or halfway towards our destination, it looked like someone from the paparazzi was taking our picture. Flash!  Boom!  Flash! Enter Mother Nature. And as our luck would have it, we were located right next to an area were a bunch o...

Like many kids 13 and under, I grew up playing soccer. And like most kids 14 and over, it stopped there. I did play on my fraternity’s intramural soccer team in college, but I probably did it to give me one more excuse to avoid going to class. In my town growing up, we had a team from the North American Soccer League, the NASL. The NASL was THE professional outdoor soccer league in this country from 1968 to 1984. We went to quite a few games, which were played in the same stadium where our NFL team played its games. The only difference was the NFL team would sell out the 60,000 plus seats, while the NASL soccer team would draw about 3,000. So if you chewed too loud on your popcorn at the soccer game, the goalie could hear it. We were told in the 70’s that with the amount of kids playing soccer it would be the next great sport in the United States. We were told in the 80’s that with the amount of kids playing soccer it would be the next great sport in the United States. We were told in ...

Technology is a fantastic thing. If you don't believe me, maybe I can tweet you from my iPhone or poke your Blackberry from my Facebook. I must admit that as hard as I try and as much as I think I know, I'm still behind the curve. At least when you compare me to all humans 13 years and under. If I need any computer assistance, I don't need the Geek Squad, I just ask my kids. But it's really not my fault.   My parents should've birthed me 40 years later. Of course there are some advantages to being an antique. To me SPAM was a junky food, before it was a junky email. I remember when Macintosh was an apple.   Apple was a fruit.   Java was a cup of coffee.  A cookie was a treat. Those computer guys have more of a food addiction than I do. When I was young if you Google your Dongle too much, you’d go blind. Password was a game show. A virus made you feel sick. Oh, some things haven’t changed. In sixth grade our school got its first computer, a brand new TRS-...

Today marks the beginning of my fourth week back at work. I hope they have a cake waiting for me. The job has been my opportunity to get back into the world of TV, creating and producing shows during a seven-week freelance gig. I’ve still got a month left and PLENTY of work to do. I suppose that’s the good news. The bad news is the best way to describe my mood these days is, miserable. I've been hired to produce a series of shows that involve a subject matter I know nothing about. But that’s not the problem. In my 25 years in the TV biz, I worked on many shows that have introduced me to a new world.    I found that challenge to not only be... challenging, but also a great way to expand my mind.  The people who were kind enough to hire me for my current job are getting 100% of me 100% of the time I am there. But this is definitely not what the doctor ordered. I show up to work on time everyday.    And I leave at the same time. Everyday. And once I’m out of the pa...

If you’ve read more than one of my blogs, you probably have a pretty good idea that I love food, I love music and I really LOVE sports. Pick any restaurant, concert or game.  I’m in. Well, ALMOST any game. I realize I won’t be getting any votes for father of the year for this blog, especially in my own house, but here goes... Six-year old girls tee ball sucks. I mean, it really SUCKS! Don’t get me wrong, I would watch my kids perform in an opera if that is what they want to do. But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t fall asleep. With three kids, my wife and I have moved into the zone defense when it comes to their activities. So far this year, I’ve made it to most tee ball practices, but this past Saturday was the first game I attended. OMG! First, can we talk about the rules. Everybody hits.  Every inning.  Nobody gets out.   Not that anybody on defense can actually make an out. The last batter in every inning gets to run all the bases after they hit the ball to give the ...