luna

Talking with Bob Pettitt

Throughout this quarter I think that there has been a real emphasis on and attention given to the importance of networking. I met a guy a few years ago by the name of Bob Pettitt and it turns out further down the road, that I’m offering to buy him lunch in exchange for the opportunity to sit down and ask him a few questions about what he does and how he got there.
Another very interesting multi-talented individual who as a creative person is constantly changing, growing, and using his knowledge and experience to better himself. He began his career as a freelance illustrator and did oil paintings, CD and VHS covers, and posters among other things.
In the early 90’s he started doing freelance design work for Turner. By the mid 90’s he began to see a shift and he recognized that computers were taking away the need for illustrators. With the new technology it became easier for anyone to create and he decided to make the jump into television- as he says he saw many other illustrators do at the time.
He had a history and a relationship already established with Turner so they hired him as a Senior Designer. He eventually became Art Director and held that position for about six years. He now has a yearly contract with the Cartoon Network where he has been working on the Aqua Teen Hunger Force television show as well as the movie.
Throughout the course of the discussion it came up several times how important it is to network, make connections with people, and learn how to communicate and work well with others. Most of the work that is done is because of a collaborative effort. It’s people bringing their different strengths and talents together.
We talked about how the world of marketing and mass communication is changing and growing into all of these alternate platforms that didn’t exist previously. We also discussed the difference between creating something and getting paid for it once versus creating something that you can get paid for over and over again. There are obvious examples like authors and musicians, but he also brought up House Industries and their fonts and how they want to take a percentage from their use. Typography is another huge topic in itself, but he believes it to be one of the most valuable aspects of his education.
I really enjoyed the excuse to sit down and talk with Bob and he thought it was such a great idea to have us do these interviews. He was very encouraging and offered to possibly set up studio tours at Turner or The Cartoon Network in the fall. I think that would be a great opportunity for anyone interested to get a behind the scenes view of what goes on.

I spoke with Kris Kinlin and the interview turned into more of a conversation than a formal Q and A.
He talked about his background and showed me some of the things that he has been working on. In high school he started working for a company that did video and that was what initially sparked his interest in media arts. He went on to study 3-D animation in college, worked at Media Lab in Fort Lauderdale, worked as a graphic designer for American Express, and then got hired on as a graphic designer with Kodak Dental systems.
He was hired to design icons for their software and when that task was completed he created a new position for himself based on a necessity or usefulness that creative, interactive, and conceptual prototypes could bring to the company. He now has the title of User Experience Analyst and he works with developing the interface and determining how the interworkings affect the user experience.
We talked about the changes and benefits that Flash provided and how it made it possible to broadcast content to the world in an animated and interactive way, where as before it had been very static. He describes Flash as marrying art with function and sees it as a design tool which makes it easier for the artist.
He uses Flash and Vista which are both vector based and therefore faster and provide a better experience for the client. Vista accepts 3-D data and 3 point vectors and allows a separation between the the developer and the designer. Now you can create and define 3-D design native in the interface and have it interact with other content. There can be a designer and a developer where before the developers were the ones who would draw the interface. This allows for better design decisions and creates a more positive interactivity with the users.
We talked briefly about different interfaces and their effectiveness (i.e. Google, Yahoo, Itunes) and he brought up WPF or Windows Presentation Foundation. He is really excited about it and thinks it’s one of the new big things. He thinks that the interface is designed well and especially likes the usefulness of the results orientated gallery that they have built into it.
It was really interesting to talk to Kris because his background covers quite a spectrum. And although his true passion is for 3-design, he has been able to adapt and wear many different hats. He recognizes that at times artists and designers are not adequately compensated for their work and this has prompted him to learn more about the programming side of things.

I came across this Bjork video which was done by M/M design after seeing an article about the design duo.

Who do you work for and how would you describe what you do?

I work for ECG productions in Marietta GA. My job title is production manager but because the company was just started this past December and I am one of its founders I wear many different hats.
I start by talking with my production team about the budget and schedule of a project. Once that is locked I put together the personnel and gear for the shoot. I will call rental houses and reserve the gear for the shoot. Also if freelancer help is needed I search through my freelance database and contact them. I make sure all the stuff that people worry about on set is taken care of: freelancers and talent showing up, transportation, props, gear, lunch, you name it.
Along with this I will work a second camera, act as grip, monitor sound, work boom, and any other job that needs to get done on set. After the
shoot I follow up with all parties and make sure they are happy- equipment and personnel is all in one piece and paid. While the project is in post I
can help log, capture and do an edit if need be. So I get to do everything which is awesome.

What got you interested in film?
I saw a lot of movies in the theater at a young age so that is certainly part of the addiction- Ghostbusters, Return of the Jedi, Gremlins, Field of
Dreams are some of my early movie going experiences that made me a fan.
But, I didn’t really think about film as a career until I was about 11 and started to pick and choose the movies I wanted to see. At this point I
became interested in the people who made the films and would see movies based upon that. I would read interviews and watch the movies that had
influenced directors who I liked. I watched a lot of crime movies, westerns and horror movies (I was in junior high) at that time so I gravitated to
Raimi, Hitchcock, Kubrick, Coen brothers, Stone.
And from then on I have always thought about my life in terms of cinema. I stopped collecting baseball
cards and comic books and started collecting ideas. And those ideas I would use to build something someday for the big screen.

What is your favorite film and why?
Paths of Glory has always been my go-to answer to this question. Just because it strikes me as a movie that is simple hybrid of two genres
war and court room drama and by doing so changes a lot of the conventions in both.
It is a movie with complex ideas about character, duty, and power while still delivering solid entertainment. It has a nice mathematical
structure and Kubrick directs so it is immediately epic.

What is the purpose of film?
I believe that the purpose of all art is to give the audience a glimpse of the sublime.
To me when the intangible feelings, that creep between the larger motivations, fears and desires of humans, are given to medium
then we have touched the sublime. The artist expresses him or herself and their medium attempts to capture those moments of vivid clarity inside the otherwise ethereal world of personal emotion. This is art at it’s highest pitch. Take it down a notch and it is something that motivates or
provokes thought. Take it down a little more and we are into entertainment- the escape. Take it down more and we are in the realm of obvious
communication-advertising. Bellow this point I think is into the oblivion of the overt- a medium which communicates merely to illicit a specific response from the audience without subtlety or irony. This is pornography.

If you could do anything, what would it be?
Own a production house….that would be so bad ass. I was just watching the DVD extras on Le Samourai and Jean Pierre Melville does an interview in his own studio and hearing him talk about having his own studio and spending all his time there makes me want one. He describes it as his imagination workshop.

Another idea for a blog theme could be to use the moon cycles, playing off of the Luna title. I think that it could be kept really clean and probably done in black and white.

As we become more reliant on and comfortable with the internet, I wonder how vulnerable this is going to make us- individually and collectively. This article about what happened in Estonia disturbs me and makes me question our security and the use of technology in modern warfare and terrorism.

Well, it looks like Google Maps are taking it one step further. I think that the technology is great and that the world just keeps getting smaller and more accessible, but I have concerns about how all of this will affect our privacy in the future.

I thought that I would check out Beck’s site because I am a fan of his music, but I also respect that he is constantly evolving and reinventing himself and somehow he really stays ahead of the game . He is not locked into any set style, musically or otherwise, and I apprecitate that and I think that his site reflects his personality and his quirkiness while remaining effective.

This building looks absolutely stunning! I also think that the article is interesting in that it addresses the juxtaposition of architecture with global advertising and marketing.

I hear that the Planet Earth series on the Discovery Channel is pretty amazing. I don’t had much time for television lately, so I haven’t checked it out yet, but the site seems engaging.