One of the great things about all the traveling I did last year was having the ability to sit down with fxphd members all around the world and get their thoughts on the site and the industry in general. Because of the broad range of curriculum we have at the site, we have an even wider variety of members. When Mike, Jeff, and I were at Sundance last month we had the opportunity to meet up with member Anthony Young who owns Digital Bytes in nearby Salt Lake City. His company supplies production and post-production services to the region.

Young, who came from a background in broadcast television, has a wealth of experience in the industry. Keeping current on the full range of rapidly changing technology is difficult, which is what led him to fxphd. His company supplied the gear and crew for the AMC network’s tapings of Shootout at Sundance. They were set up in a restaurant-turned-studio right on Main Street in Park City where we had the opportunity to attend a taping with Jack Black and director Michel Gondry who were in town for the screeing of “Be Kind Rewind”…..

The setup for AMC included five cameras, each feeding a standard def betacam machine for later editing. There was no live switching of any kind, but the iso cameras were directed on set to make sure they had what they needed. The key for productions such as these is doing them at a high level. When you have guests such as Black, Gondry, and all the other stars who were at Sundance it is incredibly important that the setup is professional and works the first time. Having the talent sit around and wait when tech issues are sussed out is simply unacceptable at the network level.

Location tech is certainly not easy, especially at a location such as Sundance where it seems as though everyone has a camera or a satellite truck. In the shot to the left, you can see the wireless mic setup — imagine the interference and channel issues that must happen when so many productions are working in close proximity to each other. For remote shoots you’ve generally got to either love working in a tiny remote truck or being set up in the corner near a restaurant drink service station — such as these guys were at Sundance. They’re having to work as guests and other crew and vistors come up and grab food and beverage.

Young’s company Digital Bytes does on-site production with gear including cameras such as the HDX900, post production editing with Avid and finishing with Smoke HD and Flint. It was great of Tony to take the time to show us around and let us know his thoughts about fxphd. I got my start in TV production back in high school and whenever I’m at a location shoot such as this I start to get the itch and want to lend a hand. Live TV (and even taped TV) is a ton of fun — it’s great that people in the industry are finding fxphd and in turn helping broaden our own knowledge base.