General Contractor

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
I'm Amy Miranda, and I'm the Director of Production at Grip Limited. Grip is an advertising agency based in Toronto Ontario. I just joined Grip in December, so it's still fresh. They're a great group of thinkers looking for efficiencies and change. I respect that immensely. Prior to Grip, I was the Production Director of Interactive for TAXI. I've been in the interactive space for almost 11 years and I still love it. I also love jokes. :)

Q: Interactive Producers come from all walks of life, they are a hybrid of talents, tell us about your background and how you got interested in digital production?
It's funny, I still say I'm not sure how this happened. It was a series of events, like most things in life. I went to school for Film, but it was a media arts program and I didn't want to take Multimedia. With school, it tends to be pretty structured, so there were certain things that were mandatory in terms of the technology. I tried my best to work around those rules and ended up teaching myself Media 100 editing. I always spent a lot of time online, always made things, I just never imagined it could be a job. Needless to say, I withdrew from school halfway through and had made up my mind that I wanted to work at CNN in Atlanta. Everyone thought I was crazy to leave school on a hope and a prayer. The stars aligned, I got lucky and CNN saw Media 100 on my resume and that was my first gig. Working on CNN.com, as an interactive editor, doing streaming media. I fell in love with it. That was the late nineties. From there came back to Toronto, tried to get work, of course at the time, very few people knew what I was talking about. Finally landed in several streaming media/technology/interactive related jobs, doing design, development, support, product development etc. coming through the dot com deadpool from supplier side, to client side and then finally I decided I wanted to try out agency life. It felt like the place i'd be able to merge everything together. So here I am now, almost 8 years later, still working agency side. I think all of those experiences when added together increased my love of the work. I think in terms of background it was a perfect storm, I think that's where I get my often unconventional approach to the work.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
Talking. I really believe in open dialogue. The interactive industry as a whole, wouldn't be what it is today without the open-source mentality that started things. I'm big on connecting with people. If I see something I like, I reach out. There's no better way to learn than to ask questions. None of us woke up knowing how to do this, I think that's the one thing that strings the places I've been together, it's taking that leap into something new and admitting the things you don't know. It's what I love so much about the interactive/digital space. We are a certain breed, something changes every day. It's what keeps it interesting. I am the co-founder of a group/event in Canada called inter-action. It really stemmed from the realization that competitors don't do a great job of talking to one another, the premise was to get a dialogue going. So we do events where it's a completely open forum. We pull back the curtain and go into the details of how something was produced. It's the best way to learn and the best way to keep people informed. It's a motivator for me. I think sometimes, especially in this business, it's easy to forget why we do this. Talking to people always helps me to remember.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
Someone who is willing to take risks and think differently. Someone who has a sense of humor and is willing to be a part of the process. I don't believe in the man behind the curtain approach to digital production. I think the more open the process is, the easier it is to keep things moving and do great work. I look back at some of the most successful work I've done and it's when everyone was collaborative, engaged and invested. I think everyone has to be a part of it, and own something. I always equate a good interactive production experience to a high school play. It really is a cast that makes something successful. Any project can be ideal, it really just comes down to the team, including the client.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Dialogue. See above, I really believe in engagement with the client, letting them into the process, allowing them to see the inner workings of the machine. I don't believe in getting approvals and then showing the final product weeks later. It has to be iterative, agile. Agencies need to get comfortable with clients seeing work at the prototype stage- before the fit & finish. To me it helps in two ways, 1) Clients are actually able to see the production value and investment, and 2) it's an education. No matter how educated a client is, there's always something to learn. That can be said for everyone involved, often we're doing things that haven't been done, or working against the clock, we need that support. The more involved the client is during the production cycle, the less hiccups. It helps set expectations. How many times have you heard - "Oh, That's not how I'd imagined/thought/envisioned/ - Can we....?" Let's face it, often the investment for a digital piece can be huge. Walking through the production process. I think there's less of that when we pull back the curtain prior to final review.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
I've had the pleasure of working on so many incredible pieces with a lot of amazing people. So, It's hard to choose one. "Best" is a hard thing to define. I think probably the best was this year on a project I worked as Exec. Producer on for MINI called MINImalism (http://www.mini.com/com/en/minimalism/index.jsp). It was a reuniting of the same creative team who I worked on MINI Dominates Winter for MINI Canada with TAXI with back in 2005. We'd been lucky enough to be awarded a gold cyberlion for that piece back then, and this project came down from MINI in Germany, which was very exciting. Working with the same team for the second time, while training a new producer, on a really technically interesting piece was a pleasure. It was nice to be involved from a different level, seeing the producer on the project cutting his teeth on the interactive side (he's been a broadcast producer for probably 15 years). It was a fantastic experience. Broadcast producers make amazing interactive producers if the interest is there. They know how to hustle, they know how to engage with creatives and they learn fast. In terms of all the of metrics for success being attainable, they were on this one. The campaign was successful from a numbers standpoint, which always means more to me than anything else. The producer on the job had set one of his goals to win a Gold cyberlion. He did. This was the project. His first, my second, and it actually meant a lot more the second time for me because it meant it wasn't an anomaly, the team was that solid. I think that only happens once in a lifetime in your career. I'm humbled to have had it happen twice.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
Unfortunately, that is a loaded question, I am comfortable managing upwards of 20 at various stages of production. This is probably one of my weaknesses. I love making things, so I usually take on too much - even personally, I'm always spinning plates, working on personal projects, saying yes to projects for friends, working on a painting or two. I think it's part of being creative. I realized this recently, for me it's a cycle. 1. Figure out what to make 2. Make it. 3. Figure out what to make next. It's usually tons of stuff in varying stages. When the load lightens up, I always start adding again. Now it's more the operational projects, managing the department, suggesting process improvements, coming up with ideas for the organization as a whole. So even though, I've stepped back from producing day-to-day, I'm still doing projects. I still like jump in an produce projects now and then, it's a good way for me to tell whether things are working.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
I really believe in integration. I know the word is overused, and old, like convergence. Convergeration :)
Some of the best work I've done has been with traditional/mass creatives. They don't have any rules, they think in terms of stories, the idea is an idea before it's a spot or a site or a print piece. My dream production team would include creatives because, without them, there's nothing to produce. I believe in Creative Developers, Creative producers, I think anyone who works in this space has the ability and capacity to offer creative insight. Some developers are to interactive what directors are to broadcast. Multifaceted and talented cross functional teams make the best production team in my mind. Putting different types of people in a room and working through the idea to make it better is the ideal scenario for me.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
I think about doing the best work, for the best value I can. I negotiate to get the best level of quality and value I can. It's also recognizing that there's always going to be someone somewhere who will be willing to do what looks to be the same work for less. I think we have to be honest about that, and showing our clients the difference between that execution and a production is key. I take client's best interests seriously, trust is critical. Many clients have had poor experiences in the interactive space, I'm cognoscente of that, arming them with honest answers and providing consultation is crucial. I still have a lot of clients who i've worked with throughout the years at various stages in my career who call me with questions, or ask for counsel on engagements they're making. I appreciate that, and I'm always happy to help. I take what we're tasked with doing very seriously and if it's not something I'd do with my own money, it's not going to be something I'd ask a client to do. think

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
I don't think there will be the same kind of dilineation we've seen in the past between mediums. Ideas will be the currency, the production approach will be less of a secret. For a long time people have been protecting their approaches, like a secret recipe. I really believe the more people know about producing this kind of work, the more successful we'll be. The ideas will the the things that set different agencies apart, not just the production expertise. I think there will be more of an emphasis about getting off of the computer, million dollar microsites are dying, I think we'll see an increase in digital displays, innovation and installations. I think most of us are ready to be mobile while still having interactive/digital experiences.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Talk to each other. Ask questions. Keep an open dialogue. This industry won't be going anywhere if we don't band together. To impart an analogy -
I really believe a producer should be like a general contractor, you many not know how to actually install wiring, but you know what you need, and you know the best people to do it. Interactive producers should have a good sense of the big picture.

Her Wisdom Makes A Difference

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
My name is Nora Mishriky and I am the Director of Interactive Production at McKinney located in Durham, NC. McKinney is an independent, full-service agency. Our expertise is sparking conversations. Our goal is creating kick-ass user experiences. We aim for both with every brand we work with, including our own. We just launched a new website, www.mckinney.com.



Q: Interactive Producers come from all walks of life, they are a hybrid of talents, tell us about your background and how you got interested in digital production?
My background is mostly related to streaming online media. I started my career with Nortel in their communications department and continued in the industry for a streaming company, called Talkpoint Communications in New York. I have always been interested in emerging media so my transition to digital online media was a natural one.



Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
Every day I read several industry sites and feeds. Everything from FWA to the latest technology trends. I also keep my twirl widget handy on my desktop and read what others share. 



Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
I appreciate a project that has a little risk with the goal of creating a unique experience for the user. If a client is willing to suspend their client hat and put on an end user hat, that’s ideal.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
You have to take the time to communicate milestones, budget and stakeholders. Production schedules are usually pretty granular, but if you are able to extract major milestones and what it means to accomplishing the overall goal, then it’s helpful. Production estimates are sometimes difficult to nail down at the start of a project especially if you are producing something that hasn’t been done before and that’s something we crave around here. You have to be able to justify the costs and what it means to the overall integrity of a project. Stakeholders are the items or relationships that may be out of our immediate control but are necessary to the project. You have to explain how these will be managed and impact the overall project. Transparency is key.


Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
In December of 2007 McKinney decided to send a digital holiday card to our clients and partners. It started out as a small initiative and turned into one of our most successful viral projects. Snowglobe Boy emerged. Three live streaming feeds 24/7 integrated with live chat, a blog and Facebook page. Snowglobe Boy was seeded with an e-mail to about 300 people and over the course of 78 hours grew to over 60K viewers and participants that included several interviews, including the CBS Morning Show and The New York Times. You can check it out here: http://www.awardshowsubmissions.com/snowglobeboy.html

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
As Director of my department I don’t produce many projects but I am aware and involved in some fashion with most of what gets produced. When my role was interactive producer I managed several smaller projects simultaneously, but when a larger microsite or viral project was on my plate I concentrated my focus on just the one. Some projects require your complete focus especially if it has a short shelf life with real time participation.


Q: What does your dream production team look like?
Since my background is tied to streaming media, I love the excitement and engagement of live video and chat. There is a rush to producing something that is live and in real time. In production terms that equates to high vulnerability to ensure that the integrity of systems is seamless and the end user experience is positive. It produces a wow factor and buzz. I guess that’s why reality TV is so popular.



Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
At the start of a project, you have to be aligned on how you’ll measure success. Digital is good like that. You can measure everything and learn and react accordingly. Whether it’s a simple banner campaign or a social media project, the metrics reveal how well you have initiated and maintained a conversation with your audience and how to make it even better next time around.



Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
I think mobile and social media will continue to grow. I also think there will be a greater focus on video and artificial intelligence within the digital landscape.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
It’s my life motto: Accept the things you cannot change, change the things you can and have the wisdom to know the difference. It’s actually a prayer but I apply it to everything I do personally and professionally.

A Titan Has Passed

Charles Schneer, a legendary producer who collaborated with special-effects wizard Ray Harryhausen to make such film fantasy classics as "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" and "Jason and the Argonauts," died January 21 at a hospice in Boca Raton, Florida. He was 88.

Schneer and Harryhausen's collaborations included "The 3 Worlds of Gulliver" (1960), "It Came from Beneath the Sea" (1955) and their last film together, "Clash of the Titans" (1981).

Schneer had an idea to make a film about a giant octopus that pulls down the Golden Gate Bridge and was introduced to Harryhausen. Harryhausen had honed his craft with Willis O'Brien, who, in the 1930s, was responsible for the most famous of all stop-motion creations, 1933's "King Kong."

Schneer and Harryhausen then made "It Came from Beneath the Sea," which gave Schneer his first credit as a producer. Keeping with Katzman's low-budget mantra, however, the film's octopus had only six tentacles instead of the customary eight.

Many of us owe this man a great debt of gratitude for blazing the trails of producing cutting edge motion graphics and animation. Charles had the vision to look beyond technology limits and create films that defied those limits.

Thanks Charles!

Canadian Beacon

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Hi, I'm Michael Yokota, Interactive Producer at Indusblue. We're a 6-year old interactive design and production company based in Toronto, Canada.
Indusblue's expertise is strategizing, designing, and producing powerful user experiences and engaging applications.

Q: Interactive Producers come from all walks of life. They are a hybrid of talents. Tell us about your background and how you got interested in digital production
Growing up, I was always fascinated by technology and gaming. I went to the University of Western Ontario and received a degree from their Media, Information and Technoculture program in 2004. The primary focus of the faculty was cultural theory and media analysis (McLuhan, Raymond Williams, Adorno and Horkheimer, etc.). Ironically, the program also provided us with the sceptic’s view of the mass media industry.
Learning critical analysis of the Media and Advertising industry didn’t hinder a chunk of my graduating class from working for Broadcasters and PR firms. However, I knew that I wanted to be in interactive. The online environment interested me because it was dynamic, user-driven, and seemed to be the only medium in which innovation and risk-taking was rewarded.
After school, I began my career in a 2-person interactive team at a direct marketing company. We produced simple sites, email campaigns, data collection and analysis. Following that, I worked as a Project Manager at Corus Entertainment, a major Canadian broadcaster, working on sponsored content. From there, I joined Indusblue as their Interactive Producer.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
I stay connected through blogs, personal research, and industry publications. I maintain consistent personal contact and conversation with industry leaders who are in the know. One of the greatest traits of the Indusblue team is our collective desire to absorb, learn, and apply innovative thinking and technologies towards the needs of our clients or towards personal projects.
We've been really busy over the past year, so this spring, in order to keep everyone motivated and fresh, we're going to be making room within our production cycle for professional development that's not tied to any specific project. Our developers will be given a chunk of time to pursue projects or learn technologies that interests them specifically. Right now a few iPhone apps and a few game engine ideas are on the table.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
I think my dream client or project is open-minded and innovative. I think that you do your best work when you're able to envision a final goal, plan the production, and execute the plan without being stifled by the typical creative constraints.
The ideal client balances their business needs with our best suggestions on how they can achieve those needs. They're also self-educators who understand the limitations and, more importantly, the possibilities of the technologies at hand. I think we have a great client in CBC Sports as they allowed us to share our expertise and vision in creating the Hockey Night MashUp application (http://hockeynightmashup.cbc.ca/). It meets and exceeds the client's needs while being a project that we are very proud of internally.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
By virtue of the speed in which technologies can emerge and change, we take it upon ourselves to be proactive in the way that we educate our clients. Often times, before a business need ever arises, we will already be presenting opportunities for integration of these new technologies.
In regards to the expectations for a project, our clients see us as the experts when it comes to the production side. Because of this, I'm able to filter through their ideas and work with the client to determine the scope of a project from a creative and technological standpoint. In the end, it comes down to establishing an open, honest relationship with the client and being communicative and straightforward.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
I've enjoyed many of the projects that I've worked on, but from a personal and professional growth standpoint, the best project was this past summer's Beijing Olympics (http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/) for the CBC. Sparing you the details, it tested me in every aspect including: communication, short-term and long-term planning, organization, hard work, patience, and timeliness.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
It really depends on the nature of the projects, and what phase they’re in. I've got great support from our creative and technical leads, so my general comfort level is to have a few large projects and a few smaller ones all in the production stage of the project pipeline.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
From a web developer perspective, it looks a lot like the team I work with now. Everyone has the same goals - do innovative and high-quality work, and challenge ourselves as we go. The team is innovative, flexible, accountable, and able to provide a great final product that everyone is proud of.
We're doing more and more video-based projects so we're expanding the capabilities of the video production side for 2009.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
Communicating at every stage of the project is a start. The real key for us is in the discovery stage, where we can determine the details of the client's business objectives. This point may seem trivial but creating and sticking to daily, weekly, and bi-weekly meeting or conference call times, as well as being in a constant discourse about variations within the project plan are a must. Meeting the client's needs also means constant negotiation with the creative team or programmers to ensure that everyone is working towards a common goal.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
I think that the current economy is going to shrink the demand for microsite production as those campaigns in print and broadcast diminish in quantity. However, that same economy will create opportunities for companies to deliver intelligent user experiences and web-based applications.
As a sidebar, I think we’re going to see some very interesting and innovative personal (aka non-sponsored) work over the next couple of years.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Be an engine and a voice of reason between great ideas, business needs, innovative thinking, and excellence in production.

Intruder Alert!

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
Hi, my name is Thierry BEZIER, my company is Intruders TV, and I'm also the head of digital at "Fred & Farid" . Even if I'm french, I'm not your typical European stereotype, half-Mexican, half-french I spent around 4 years in Japan, working as a web project manager for some local companies and also 2 years for a sub-company of Dentsu. Then I came back Europe to found Intruders TV, Intruders TV is the first international web tv about the innovating Internet industry, covering 6 countries we try to bring the best interviews, event coverage of the industry. We have around 400 000 videos watched every month on our network... I'm still the co founder of Intruders TV but I also joined "Fred & Farid", an advertising agency based in Paris. Fred & Farid are certainly one of the most demanded creatives in advertisement. They did some amazing jobs that you can watch on Youtube, and you have certainly watched some of their commercial wherever you are.... I lead for them the whole digital branch of the agency and it's great cause I used to work into the advertising sector as a web project manager before, so it's really a dream job.

Q: Interactive Producers come from all walks of life, they are a hybrid of talents, tell us about your background and how you got interested in digital production?
Well you know kids, when they are young they all wants to become, cops, doctors, astronauts or whatever, As far as I remember I always wanted to create digital graphics, I had a computer when I was 7, it was an old amstrad 464, and I was writting lines and lines of "basic language" to create characters, software or whatever... from that time I knew I wanted to "create things on computer" even if that job hadn't no names in my childhood I have always stick to this idea...
When I was old enough I understood I would never be a good CGI artist (lol) but everybody was asking me to do some "internet jobs" and little by little I was driven to the web. For a traveler like me there is nothing good as many kind of different people with different culture and language using the same tools, this is what I still like to do : "create things on a computer" for many kind of people, the web is only a way to transmit that.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
Thanks to Intruders TV, we meet around a 1000 of startups every year, it's an incredible way to know what's going on on the market, in my team almost everybody is a blogger and "a geek". We are always sending to each others tons of links of create technologies we would like to do. We also go to a lot of conference, there is nothing better than listening somebody explaining his vision and why his technology will change the world. Being updated about the web technologies is mandatory for us, and our clients love working with us, because every time we work for them there is at least a very innovating proposal... Clients who comes to Fred & Farid, comes for exceptional tv commercial experience... we must be the same at the web departments... and that's a very exciting challenge!

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
The good thing is that we already have some of those "ideal client", an ideal client is a client who is not afraid to try new things with us : a new technology, a new way to experience the web... A client ready to take some risk with us to create something unique. Even if it's not an "everyday client" it happens, and it just feel so great when we understand perfectly each others... About the perfect project, I would say something that nobody on our market has never done, that makes tons of PR for our Clients, the kind of projects that totally reflects my team, don't get me wrong, I love doing simple websites, but a "changing the world" project is a far better challenge for us, even if it's risky.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
Honestly, I always think that the next one coming is the best, but I'm quiet proud of our Iphone application for Van Cleef & Arpels which was out the first week of the application store, it's just great for our client to be the first one if his sector to be there, great execution and good download stats... can you ask for more? If I could I would tell you about the things we are preparing in 2009, but I clearly believe that the best project will be in 2009.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
It's a brand new web department with a brand new team... Clearly I don't know how many projects we can handle together at once... for now with 5 projects we are alright, but if we get more projects we will certainly hire more people !

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
Wow, hard to tell, I would say mine (mainly web projects manager & a few specialists) and I would had a couple of developers and web art directors, I believe in small teams, and in team works around a pool of web projects manager. I believe in a development & designer team the whole managed by some projects manager, having a couple of specialists around like SEO, consultants or more would be nice too... If they are all motivated that would be enough to me!

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
We work closely with the sales team and our client representative, our doors are always open to explain them as clear as possible what we are doing and the choices we are making. Most of the time our biggest enemy is misunderstanding, taking time to do a screencast, or a live explanation of the what we are doing and how we are making it is no wasting time, but a great way to limit the modifications. Clients are looking more and more for results, we try to makes them face reality and to be transparent on the results... honesty is always the key.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
It's a social world, and whatever you'll do this year it would have to be social and shareable, I'm not thinking about facebook likes, but more about new way of communication, through mobile, web, desktop... and more, the Internet is not anymore on a computer but everywhere else, problem is that the audience is also diluted and they need the best experience on sometimes the cheapest devices... The web is going everywhere, and we have to be everywhere, the Iphone is not the only phone in the world and the real audience is not web producers. ;-)

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
hehe, web producers don't have any wisdom, we have adventurers, we sacrifice a lot of things, nights, and family to change the world, there is something I believe about our job.. It's that you can't think of it as a job, the day you think you don't want to go to work, or that you are getting bored leave your job and do something else, being a web producer it's waking up every morning thinking how your work can move people and change (a little bit) the world...

I hope this can be useful,

Thanks for this great opportunity,

Thierry

An Order All His Own

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
My name is Carlos Ulloa, I’m Creative and Technical Director at HelloEnjoyTM, my own and recently launched interactive studio, based in London.

We’re specialized in advanced interactive 3D experiences with Papervision3D, a 3D engine for Flash I created three years ago and released as Open Source a year later.

Thanks to the strong community of developers gathered around the project, it’s now become quite a robust piece of technology, and I find it an excellent tool to push the boundaries of traditional web content, which is ultimately our goal as a brand new studio.

I work with my partner and girlfriend Libertad Aguilera, who doubles as studio and project manager. But because we’re a multi-headed beast -an interactive studio with an OS venture- we often find ourselves covering several other roles.

Q: Interactive Producers come from all walks of life, they are a hybrid of talents, tell us about your background and how you got interested in digital production?
My interactive career started in the games industry. I have always loved video games and came to the UK in the mid nineties to find job as a game developer. I ended up working at Psygnosis and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe in several managerial roles.

I’d say that was probably the time in which my job was more similar to that of the interactive producer as you describe it, but video game industry timescales have never been applicable to the Web, so the approach was fairly different.

And it was precisely the fact that projects were so painfully long, along with the fascinating world the Internet was turning out to be, that got me into Flash development. That was 1999, and I had moved back to Madrid again. It was an interesting time in which I also worked as a graphic designer and art director.

The bubble came and went away and, after working as an interactive designer in several Spanish agencies (Ogilvy, DoubleYou), I moved to London and spent some great time at Hi-ReS!

But by then PV3D was already in full bloom and I realized the best way to keep challenging myself and pushing the technology was to set up my own studio.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
One of our favourite quotes is Alan Kay’s “The best way to predict the future is to invent it”, so we devote a lot of time to R+D. That’s not easily done while working on client projects so we always have some personal project on the move where we can really push the envelope. But finding the balance between the two might sometimes be a bit tricky.

The team is small and motivation is not usually a problem as we always try to work in what we like best.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
An ideal client wants to do something never tried before and doesn’t think time estimates are negotiable.

An ideal project is fully interactive and, of course, in realtime 3D.

If there’s something I’ve learnt in this business is how difficult it is to engage users: having them lingering for more than 1 minute in your site is an achievement to be proud of. And although that bothers me a lot, if I have to be honest, I understand them, because I rarely spend more than fifteen seconds unless I’m truly impressed with what I’m offered.

I consider interactivity a key ingredient in that offer, the more interactive a project is, the more choices and freedom you’re giving to the user, and that’s very stimulating from his or her point of view, and will make the project more successful.

I have the impression that, during the last years, interactivity has been sadly dimmed by video special effects. Video has been offering so many creative possibilities that interactive agencies around the world, engrossed with the new tools, seemed to forget that watching a video, even when you click more than one button to reach it, is basically a passive activity for the user, and if you ask me, better done from a cosy sofa.

The same applies, in my opinion, to commercial sites that try to build a community just for the sake of it, without realizing users usually have better things to do than filling forms or providing the client with quality, compelling content for their site. In my experience, is usually the other way round what users love.

Realtime 3D, on the other hand, opens up a whole new world of interactive possibilities because gives the user more freedom of movement, and thus it’s much more engaging. Also, 3D might be fairly new on the Web, but it’s been around for a while now, and we already have several generations of users brought up with an aesthetic sensibility for 3D. So much that if you look at the game or animated film industries, you’ll find an overwhelming majority of 3D titles. And I can’t find any good reason why interactive projects on the Web won’t follow the same path, so to qualify for ideal I think a project must be in 3D. Is the best way to do great things right now.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
We’re very technical in nature, so we don’t really spend time educating clients. We do prototypes. We speak interactive better than any other language and we have found the best way for a client to understand what we want to do for them is to experience it first hand. Prototyping also allows us to identify risks and set up expectations, something particularly important on 3D projects, which can get very complicated (and when I say complicated, I really mean it).

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
Our new site HelloEnjoy.com, coming soon.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
We’re a small studio and can only take one project at a time. 3D projects are less difficult to coordinate than, let’s say, video super productions, as far less people is involved, but because they are so technically complex you need the whole team completely focused on it.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
I have had the immense luck of working with very talented individuals, both on commercial projects and on Papervision3D, and I believe that a great team is made by great professionals, with a good deal of expertise in their own field but also a great understanding of other areas, multidisciplinary souls that can bridge the gaps that often arise when something is never been done before. It helps if they know each other and are used to work together, but my experience is that communication is not a problem if team members have respect for each other, and in this business respect is earned through amazing skills and brilliant work.

I like the idea of teaming up with other small studios just because they’re one of the best at what they do, and I’d like to see more often interactive teams built in that way.

Q: How do you ensure that your client’s best interests are met?
We rely a lot on our prototypes. We build a technical proof of concept at the beginning of the project, and that helps us to determine if it’s feasible. Sometimes it isn’t, because technology has its limitations, but in those cases we can provide creative workarounds to get an equally engaging experience. In any case, having a prototype up and running, helps a lot to keep both client and team on the same conceptual track.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
As you may have guessed, my vision is in 3D.

There’s always been this peculiar debate around 3D vs. 2D, and it’s not exclusive of websites, it already happened in games a while ago and it’s still going on strongly on traditional animation. You can imagine where I stand in that debate. I don’t believe there can be such thing as “too much 3D” in a project, as in my opinion there’s still lot of unexplored territory, and every time someone thinks and builds in 3D (even the ubiquitous Papervision carousels), it’s a step forward towards to what I believe is going to be the future: really intuitive 3D user interfaces.

And we’re already starting to have a glimpse of that. You just need to take a look at the recent photo gallery applications, Apple’s iPhoto ’09 or the app included in the last PS3 firmware update. Both make extensive and unobtrusive use of 3D, in a very user-friendly way. I’m also very curious about the new paradigm change 3D will bring to the desktop metaphor, a path brilliantly opened by BumpTop and which apparently Apple is also exploring. Another mind-blowing example of what 3D will do for us in the future is Microsoft Live Labs’ Photosynth, which builds 3D models collecting data from digital pictures on the Web.

I mean, there’s much more to 3D than the classic shoot’em up game view (which I agree, it might be difficult to navigate for non-gamers) and objects turning around 360, but even those are being reinvented in my iPhone screen with every new app.

Which brings me to another of the future’s features. All sorts of computers, phones, tv sets, gadgets and appliances will be connected to the Internet, and we will access it without even noticing is through a different device, making interactivity pervasively linked to our everyday life.

And just wait for multiuser applications to be all around. The future looks bright indeed for our industry.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Look for inspiration all around you, not just websites. Video games, films, motion graphics, TV series, all sorts of online communities, music, podcasts, comics, games, toys, Amazon, TEDTalks, Wikipedia, life. Subscribe to all kinds of blogs, newspapers and magazines, not only those of your peers, and try to keep pace with technology, because it defines our industry and it will shape our future.

Porn Star

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
My name is Rock Darlington, I’m an Interactive Producer at Domani Studios in Chicago. My name is really Rock, it’s not a porn name, and my parents weren’t hippies.

Q: Interactive Producers come from all walks of life, they are a hybrid of talents, tell us about your background and how you got interested in digital production?
I grew up like every other producer wanting to be in creative, copywriting was my passion in school. Unfortunately I sucked at it. Since I didn’t want to go to portfolio school, I decided to take a job as an Interactive Media Planner at StarcomIP in the meantime to pay the bills so I could work on my portfolio. A small interactive shop was blossoming under Starcom, named Pixel. I knew the Director well and she gave me the opportunity to move into creative and production. We were all young and had a lot of fun, it was also a lot of hard work. I eventually moved to DRAFTFCB which was much larger and much more a traditional agency. After a while I missed having multiple brands and cliens to work on. I also missed the family environment of a small shop and wanted a new challenge. Luckily enough, Domani Studios opened shop in Chicago and the rest is history.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
The best way to stay on top of emerging technologies is to try and emerge yourself in those technologies. As a producer, you owe it to yourself to sign up for accounts on the new web 2.0 sites and try them out for yourself. It makes you look smarter in meetings if you already know about how things work and especially how they will help your clients. You also look stupid if you don’t know how something works or if it’s possible, especially if your clients already do. You also need to literally look at every cool site that comes out, learn what they did, learn what they did wrong, and let them inspire you.

As for the second question, I don’t think it’s just me who keeps my team informed and motivated, but we all keep each other informed and motivated. We all drive each other to make shit cooler.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
A. Wow, this is a trick question right? One thing I’ve noticed in my tenure is that every client and every project is different on so many levels. But to make it easier on a producer, an ideal client is someone who you’ve worked with before. It’s a lot easier to manage client expectations if you’ve already been through a project before and have an understanding of how they react in different situations. If I had a dream project, it would be with a client who was a prior producer. I think that would be awesomeness.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
The best way to set realistic expectations is to provide the client with options. You should never go to a client and tell them what they are asking for is impossible, rather you should just communicate what IS possible based on the restrictions of the project and give them options. Let the client be the one to decide which path they’d rather take. Most of them will make a decision based on their options, the ones that don’t budge, well…those are the difficult clients to deal with.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
This is a toughy, there’s a ton of work that I’m proud of. One of the best projects I ever worked on never even made it into production. It was for a social community site that was targeted towards Grill Masters. We had a brilliant idea for a BBQ sauce to create this community that offered both entertainment and a social networking twist where there were multiple levels of users based on a ton of interaction rates, etc. It was a lot of fun to figure out all the moving pieces needed for the site. It involved a ton of vendors. It was a logistical nightmare, it was perfect for a hungry producer. The client killed it. Unfortunate.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
It really depends on a ton of variables…the scope of the project, the timelines, the amount of client management, the available resources. You could have a very small project with a client who’s not that knowledgeable in the space and it could eat up a ton of your time. You could also have a brilliant client on a huge web build and it could run a lot more smoothly then the prior. But if I was to add a figure on it, two medium to large websites interwoven with some banner work and other smaller projects.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
I’m going to base this on a sweet web build because it depends on the project for the team. But I would say an EP, CD, Tech Director for oversight. Tech Director needs to start being called TD I think to keep them on the same level…anyways we digress. A kickass producer, like myself, a jr. producer, someone like myself 5 years ago, a badass flash developer, an after effects/3D/Kick-Ass motion graphics guy, a very good AD, and a designer. Last but not least, a brilliant IA who has to be smarter than me. Oh and one more thing, a very close Dunkin Donuts. That’s the team.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
I get the brightest people to work on my projects. I also keep the client close and involved in the project. As a production team, you shouldn’t really tell the client what is best for them. All we can do is provide our best recommendation. Plain and simple truth is we don’t understand their brands as much as brand managers do, they live and breath that brand every day, we live and breath many, many brands from day to day. So what we can do is offer our recommendation based the things we know like technology and design.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
If I had the correct answer to this question, I would probably a very successful entrepreneur. It’s a very interesting time these days. I have had the opportunity to work at a smaller creative agency that was owned by a huge holding company, an opportunity to work at a large agency (also owned by a huge holding company), and a small studio, so I’ve experienced every company’s vision as to what they are striving to become.

You see a ton of agencies who are trying to “combine” interactive and traditional people into the same group and expect for them to totally just bounce ideas off of each other. In my experience it’s still like oil and water, it doesn’t mix well.

I personally think that more and more agencies will outsource production work to smaller studios much like their broadcast counterparts. Agencies will still want to own the creative idea and that is where the lines are blurred. We’ve already seen this with a couple of different campaigns.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
If you find yourself stressed over a project, take a step back and remember…it’s only interactive advertising.

AND some advice from my media planning days. When a publisher tells you that it takes 5 days to traffic an ad, they’re full of shit. That shit takes like 2 minutes, honestly.

Rock Star!

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
My name is Adam Schwenk, and I'm a Senior Interactive Producer for Domani Studios.  I'm a gamer and a comics geek.

Q: Interactive Producers come from all walks of life, they are a hybrid of talents, tell us about your background and how you got interested in digital production?
I actually went to school and obtained a Civil Engineering degree.  At the time I was attending college, the web was really born, and the games industry was really taking off from the 2D pixel images to fully rendered 3D environments.  All this new technology fascinated me and I wanted to be involved with it, so I found myself in Los Angeles working for a small interactive agency, Jamison/Gold, as a web designer and developer.  From there, I went into the games industry, working as a Producer for Warner Bros Interactive, and then went on to be one of the early producers for JAMDAT Mobile, the premiere mobile games publisher in the world at the time.  We were incredibly successful.  We went public and were acquired by Electronic Arts, where I continued to produce award-winning game titles such as SOCOM and Medal of Honor.  In 2007 I transferred within EA to Chicago.  Unfortunately, that studio was closed shortly after, and I found an opportunity with Domani Studios.  

My background is an amalgam of a heavy technical degree from my college years, combined with lots of physical and conceptual design in both the interactive and games space.  I've discovered that the interactive spaces borrow heavily from each other...games and web interaction are becoming more closely connected every year and I find that exciting.  

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
I'm pretty fascinated with internet culture and the interactive world, so I read my favorite blogs daily, boingboing, slashdot, gizmodo, bluesnews, as well as the standard interactive advertising and creative sites such as thefwa, surfstation.lu, and designiskinky.  

I find the younger members of my team keep me engaged and challenge me to keep up, which excites me as well.  This new generation of interactive professionals have grown connected to the interactive space, so they remain on top of the latest innovations as a hobby, not just as their chosen profession.  I believe it's a collaborative effort between me and my team to make sure we consistently educate each other on the "Next Big Thing" in interactive and that happens with a happy and closely knit group.

As for motivation, it's generally not that difficult to motivate interactive professionals.  I find this work to be tremendously challenge, and can be very stressful.  There are much easier ways to make a living...but who wants to do that?  I honestly believe most folks in this business are here because they want to leave their mark.  They want to be a part of something that is continuing to revolutionize and inspire others.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
I prefer clients that have an understanding of the interactive development process, or at least have respect for the process.  It's much harder and more risky  to make changes in the middle or end of a complex web development project as it is in a project's infancy, so sometimes I find myself educating my clients on this process to get them to understand that even conceptually simple changes can't be fixed on the fly.  Production can be messy, especially when you're trying to do things that have never been done before.  The kinds of projects I love working on are those that engage the user in innovative ways, with a client that allows us the creative flexibility to try things that haven't been done before.  Taking managed risks in the creative stage is the key to generating huge successes.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Usually, you can size up a client's understanding of the medium pretty quickly.  From there, I make it clear that the development process is much easier when changes are made in the concept stage than rather than in execution.  Storyboards and prototypes are critical in getting sign-off from a client early in the process.  Big changes toward the end can have catastrophic effects on both the schedule and budget, so I try to frontload as many of the questionable pieces that I can with the client, then execute, execute, execute.  I find agreeing on a plan up front and executing against that plan is the best way to set expectations.  

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
The project I'm most proud of is my worldwide launch of the mobile game SOCOM: Mobile Recon, which was developed by my buddies at IronMonkey Studios.  We worked collaboratively with Sony Computer Entertainment America on the development of the game, which ultimately received a 9 out of 10 score on IGN and Action Game of the Year.  

The best project I'd ever worked on was JAMDAT Air Hockey, which wasn't a financial success but an innovative one.  The challenge was to create an innnovative, one button press game that had a twitch gamer experience, but didn't punish the player due to any handset shortcomings. At the time, button delays and keypress caching made things very difficult to create a fun reactive experience, so we had to rely heavily on creating an altered physics system and some quite inspired game mechanics that allowed the AI to handle defense but give up control to the player to make offensive moves.  It was also the first mobile game to have head-to-head gameplay!  

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
This really depends on a number of things, including scale of the projects, number and quality of team members, and the type of client you're working with.  Ideally, I like having one bigger web project and filling in the holes with banner ads or smaller one-offs as necessary.  In the past, I've been able to manage as many as 5 different projects at the same time, but technology is changing quickly, projects are requiring more depth of knowledge and brainpower, and I believe it takes more thought and energy to deliver a quality product.  

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
Again, this can depend on the project.  I'm open to working with most personalities, but the general qualities I really look for are the following:

Communication - I need team members that can work collaboratively and can understand and execute on clear communications.  This goes the other direction as well...team members need to be able to effectively communicate their needs, understanding how their role and effective and timely communication can impact the entire process.

Accountability - When I assign my team members tasks to be performed on a project, I make it clear that they own those tasks.  They receive the kudos as those tasks are performed to the best of their ability.  On the same note, if a team member fails to deliver what is asked and agreed upon, they are held accountable.  I want people to own the piece of the project they're responsible for.  I think that's the best way to motivate and encourage members to contribute.

Respect - I require my team members to respect each other.  Everyone has ideas on a project, and I encourage the best ideas to be adopted and used. I've had it ingrained in me from my managers that, if someone can come up with a better idea than mine, run with theirs.  There's no crime in admitting someone else had a better idea, and an effective manager will be more successful if they recognize this.  Respecting and appreciating everyone's contributions to a project makes for a happy dev team.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
Clear communication with the client, a clear understanding of the challenges they want to solve, and a cogent plan to tackling those challenges, within the constraints of budget, manpower, and time of course. ;-)

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
Interactive television.  I've imagined this for a long time, and I do believe there's going to be a day soon when you're watching a television show, and if you see a particular jacket on an actor you like, you can click on it and be offered up a list of online shops you may be able to purchase it from.  I see games, the internet, television and film making synergistic connections that haven't even been daydreamed about yet.  Social interaction is key to the future of entertainment, and interactive advertising is going to be the message that educates users on the best products and services.  

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Interactive Production can be tough.  It can be messy.  It can be stressful, long, and grueling.  But ultimately, if you can produce something out of nothing that's a heck of an accomplishment, and far more than most people are capable of.   I have to remind myself on those stressful days that producing projects is a talent and an art, and in order to succeed, to rely heavily on my abilities that contribute to its success.  

There are many different types of producers with many different backgrounds.  If you can utilize your own unique skills to produce and complete a project, that is the key to your, and your project's, success.

The Sound of Music

Before you start reading this next interview I wanted to say that it was really interesting for me to talk to the next interview Drasko.

Drasko is part of our community from a very different angle.

He is a Producer/Sound Designer for the interactive industry. Sound design is one of the hidden aspects of our industry that goes unsung and very little attention is paid to this very important cog in our digital wheel.

Use this interview as an opportunity to take a peek into the life of "Sound Design" and realize how important it is in the story telling process.

As we move into the maturity of our industry I think that the more we start to create original content and quality of web content improves we will be interfacing with sound designers on a daily basis.

I want to try and expose our readers a diverse cross section of our industry and to try and educate us all on every aspect of what goes into what we do day in and day out.

So without further adieu, Drasko!

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
My name is Drasko Vucevic. I am the Founder of Drastic Music Inc., working as the Audio Director, Sound Designer and Composer. DM was founded in 2006 and quickly evolved into a full audio solutions company. At the moment I am in the process of launching a new boutique-style audio solutions brand that should be up and running in February '09. I also recently joined Cordon Media Inc., an interactive production studio where I have had an opportunity to contribute with creative direction from both the audio and visual perspective.

Q: Interactive Producers come from all walks of life, they are a hybrid of talents, tell us about your background and how you got interested in digital production?
I was always drawn to art and technology. Art was soul food - music, comics, animation, film and books. Technology triggered excitement and provided me with the urge to create. It was and still is an ideal mix. As a kid I couldn't resist taking apart toys that had some sort of electronic functions within them. They were useless once I broke them and took them apart, but the electrical content inside that I cluelessly stared at gave me great satisfaction and put me in awe of what is possible. That amazement is still in me today, except now it is directed at all kinds of interactive media productions instead of toys. Digital production allows creators to bring their visual and aural imagination to life. This is what constantly attracted me to all sorts of digital works - everything was possible. I pursued music production and eventually started composing and doing sound design for various interactive media projects. I love the fact I can play around with electrical hardware and physical circuits in the process of sound design. The best of both worlds! I established great creative relationships with like minded creators and agencies, and am constantly on the quest to collaborate with innovative people around the globe.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
I usually read and watch everything I can get my hands and eyes on. Especially on the web. From blogs and magazine articles, to videos and interviews. Also by talking with other friends and colleagues in the industry. New emerging technologies are motivation themselves. With each technological improvement and update, comes an exponential amount of possibilities for usability and creation. I never had to manage a larger team of people, so keeping others informed is not something I had experience in. If it came to it (and it will soon), I would organize an information-update-workflow through regular meetings, company e-mail threads and RSS.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
An ideal client is eager to push boundaries on the content being created. They are multi-dimensional and open to new opportunities that may arise during production. They are passionate to explore at all times, and are welcoming to suggestions and input. An ideal project has various routes for expansion and integration of new technologies and ideas during the development process. It is also fulfilling and important to work with a client / on a project that translates into a positive message. A project like that will provoke and spark creative minds, open up new patterns of thought to those absorbing the experience. To be more specific, I love working on projects that give me an opportunity to create nontraditional sound design & music, that are very dynamic in terms of motion, style of interactivity, and of course, projects that push boundaries in quality and presentation.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Every client has a unique approach, and what they imagine their project should express. It is always tempting to offer a world of original but sometimes unrealistic possibilities, even with purest intentions and honesty. However, it is essential to have an upfront, direct discussion with the client on two elements of any project: what is definitely manageable and what might be manageable, depending on the time frame, technical capabilities and so on. I think there are many cases in the industry where production companies will promise elements that were never tested, executed, or worked on before, which is clearly the root of the problem that arises in many projects. Only after these issues are addressed can we attempt to push the envelope.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
One of the most unique concepts that I worked on were (and are) Cavedudez (www.cavedudez.com), an idea currently being brought to life by Nicholas Da Silva (Zoolook Inc.). I really believe that Nick might be one of the web-revolutionaries of our age. The Cavedudez are a group of football playing neanderthals from the Planet Rock, an earth-like planet not far away. Planet Rock is inhabited by Cavedudez (males) and Cavebettiez (females). The Cavebettiez are taller in stature, similar to the mythical Amazon women. The Cavedudez have short, muscular bodies. The Cavedudez and Cavebettiez live and breathe football. Their official football club is the Rockers FC (www.rockersfc.com) and they play in the PRIMAL LEAGUE. The Cavedudez and Cavebettiez represent all cultures and nationalities on planet Earth. But there is one difference. They all get along!

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
This depends on the magnitude and intensity of the project. If I am working on the projects alone, comfort zone is two or three at one given time.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
Keep your eyes and ears open, and you will see in early '09. To me, having a dream production team means working directly with individuals who truly inspire and motivate each other.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
Plenty of communication with the client, from concept to creation. Keeping the client informed, not only on new production updates, but on ideas and direction possibilities, as well as any problems that might surface at various points of the production process. Ensuring client's best interests also means making sure not to enforce one's own creative wishes without a mutual mindset.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
I believe the next few phases of the industry are going to be very exciting. Here are some of my visions mixed with wishes. Interactivity between the user and the medium is going to increase dramatically. Audio will be created in real time based on users involvement in the experience, eye and body movement, etc. I also believe there will be a huge step forward towards interactivity between users in real time, multi-player type experiences, whether on mobile devices, web or TV. I am eager to see more interactive experiences where users can directly communicate, compete, or build on each others web experiences in real time.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Simple but true and sometimes easy to forget:

I believe our main focus should be to contribute to the involvement of the industry as a whole, and as a result, we will simultaneously grow as individuals. It's also very important to get involved and learn more about areas of the industry that we are not experts in. Here is a very nice one by our good ol' friend Franz Kafka: "By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired."

Interactive Steward

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
I am Tom Buchok, an interactive producer at Preston Kelly in Minneapolis, Minn.

Much like Daniel Shaw mentioned, I am lucky to be at a full-service agency and work amongst an integrated team. I get to participate in producing projects that span from large-scale video shoots to low-budget web applications.

I also co-founded Bannerflow — a simple way to show banner ads to your clients.

Q: Interactive Producers come from all walks of life, they are a hybrid of talents, tell us about your background and how you got interested in digital production?
I fell into digital product by being just bad enough at a bunch of things. I love the geek side of the job, but I'm a pretty weak coder. Working with creatives gives me great energy, but I tend to fear the blank page myself. And I've dabbled in Account Service, but I can't pull myself away from digging into the weeds on a project.

I got interested in being an Interactive Producer because I figured out that I could be surrounded by everything I love about working in advertising — creativity, technology and strategy.

I wonder how many other Interactive Producers often say to themselves, "I get paid for this?!"

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
I rely a ton on my team of developers, designers and strategists to stay informed. We've built up a good process of constantly sharing links, ideas and updates on technologies.

Honestly, the people I know in real life pale in comparison to the people I follow on Twitter and Delicious. Those two networks are absolutely vital in keeping me informed and motivated. I've been a really big fan of Delicious lately.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
The ideal client is motivated to learn. As Interactive Producers, we're constantly learning about new stuff and trading within our teams. The agency-client relationship should be no different.

We've got a client right now who digs into the site analytics and proposes great insights to us. I love it. Just as agencies can push their clients with new ideas, clients can push agencies to do better work.

The ideal project is similar; I most enjoy the projects where I get to learn something new. It could be building a custom combobox to stay within required file weight for a banner ad or figuring out why a web application crashed at a critical moment.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Expectations are really still set by the ol' triangle of power - Scope, Timing and Budget.

Education often times comes through slowly building their digital brand. If we're starting with a new website, it's important to go from square one and onto the more advanced stuff. If a client has a ton of experience, we're usually both doing the educating.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
Beat the Brat had all the familiar symptoms of a memorable project — impossibly tight time line and the idea was completely out of scope, but we had a great team who wanted to deliver a nice site. While not the most technically difficult project, it was one I'm proud to have pulled off.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
I think I could take on a million projects comfortably. It's my team who starts to get uncomfortable when I start to forget things, miss deadlines and generally start sucking. That usually occurs around the double-digit mark.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
When I'm the biggest idiot in the room, I'm extremely happy.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
It sounds cliché, but everyone at Preston Kelly is a steward for our clients. Whether we're finding the best digital solution or overall brand strategy, we're very committed to putting out clients first. That's to say if an idea doesn't meet our client's best interests, many people on the team will make sure to kill it.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
The tipping point in media will really happen with this recession. Newspapers are reeling, magazines are not far behind. And television is scrambling into the digital age.

Our industry, interactive advertising, is going to really become a force in brand advertising — there's a ton of opportunity. Our intrinsic understanding of metrics, optimization and targeting will benefit as we witness the tectonic shift of content into the digital world.

From the geek side of things, mobile applications and web services offer a ton of potential to marketers everywhere.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
Now I have to follow both Daniel and Jeff. Shit.

First and most importantly, keep up the good work, Craig. I love being an interactive producer and being able to be a part of this conversation is great.

Second, don't forget the worst part about Procrastination — it's not that the job doesn't get done; it's that someone else will do it.

An Eclectic Mix

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
My name is Daniel Shaw and I’m one of two Executive Producers at Deep Focus, an integrated digital marketing agency in New York.
I produce an eclectic mix of interactive media within the creative department, ranging from small banner ad campaigns to much larger immersive interactive experiences. As a fully integrated agency I have the added value of being able to work hand-in-hand with our in-house media and public relations departments on integrated campaigns. As a Producer it’s a great opportunity to be able to focus all strategic efforts simultaneously under one roof.

Q: Interactive Producers come from all walks of life, they are a hybrid of talents, tell us about your background and how you got interested in digital production?
Born and raised in Brooklyn, I went to a very math/science focused high school and participated in lots of research and science competitions, notably the Intel Science Talent Search. In college I followed the Pre-Med route, receiving a Bachelors of Science in Nutritional Sciences from Cornell. I quickly realized after taking the MCATs that life in medical school and hospitals wasn’t for me.

My science nerdom had eclipsed my passion for the arts and technology; I had always been a closet creative hobbyist: multi-instrumented musician, avid photographer and passionate amateur filmmaker. When I graduated I wanted to find a way to somehow integrate these seemingly disparate interests. And so, I fell into interactive media. Who knew?

My first job was working as a Project Manager at an interactive shop that worked exclusively in the health care arena, specifically on physician-directed marketing efforts for the pharmaceutical industry. Disguised as “Medical Education,” these Pharma companies would sponsor specialist symposiums where physicians go to earn required annual Continuing Medical Education credits in order to retain their licenses.

We would shoot the conferences, edit back at the office and then create Flash applications for CD and Web distribution for doctors to receive credit remotely. I was initially hired because of my science education and enjoyed the immediate applicability of my background in producing several 3D animation sequences.

I’d bring in my biochemistry textbook and explain to the animation team the molecular interactions of say, a new cancer drug. It was on some serious nerd tip.

Overall it was an amazing learning experience in all things creative production. I had a hand in managing everything from video production and post production, print materials for the CD distribution, 3D animation, Flash, HTML/CSS, .NET, some small software development and of course, client services. Pharmaceutical advertising proved to be many things, most especially, very uncreative; the medical community I think still lives about twelve web years behind the rest of the world and so I sought out a more creative outlet.

I’ve been with Deep Focus ever since.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
We have an internal blog at Deep Focus which is an invaluable resource for anything and everything. Everyone in the agency posts and so you find a great mix of new technology, latest industry news and marketing trends, and in general just some really cool, interesting, creative shit.

I veer off course from referring to exclusively staying on top of technology as a way to keep a team informed and motivated. In fact, I often feel this is a type of leading question, especially coming from those who only associate the latest and greatest with successful campaigns (you know, the ever client requested “big idea” – a phrase currently banned in my office). Yes, R&D is absolutely vital to the sustainability of a Producer and Agency in this blazing fast industry. There’s no doubt we need to stay on top of what’s going on.

However, I often feel some of my favorite sites aren’t those that employ the hottest new thing. They are the ones that focus on beautiful execution, even if that execution is a simple concept or using older technology. I think there is value in keeping aware of anything and everything released, from complicated flash sites to new types of digital graffiti (see the pixelator). Then team motivation is easy because it’s derived from getting people excited; it’s the best way to get the creative juices flowing. Of course a new product/technology will accomplish this, but a new spin on an old favorite might just do the trick too.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
Regardless the project, regardless the marketing strategy, the best client is someone you don’t even think of as a client. They are part of the team, a partnership to the fullest. As evident from most of the previous posts, seldom do projects ever go completely smoothly. Clients should understand that because of this, the process requires their full immersion. My best clients are those I speak to everyday. We become friends and push each other harder because of it.

Client management at that point is seamless; because there’s so much mutual devotion, it’s only natural that we’re both working towards the same goal. Sure, a great client could be defined as one who wants to push the technological envelope, create a variety of cool on and offline materials, and throw money around like it’s a hip-hop video, but if there’s no mutual respect and trust, it’s missing something special.

I think the ideal project follows this thought process in kind. A great project will most often be dictated by a great client, regardless its scope. However, of course, personally? My ideal project is one that pushes the technological envelope, includes a variety of on and offline materials, and includes enough money to throw around like a hip-hop video. The more Cristal, the better.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
Complete and utter honesty and [polite] frankness to manage expectations. Presenting a master plan at the onset of a project is the road map to follow. Then I like to identify where things will probably go wrong. Those calendar dates are then highlighted in red and sent to the client.

Education requires an easily digestible laymen’s translation. Clients often don’t speak tech and need to feel that they have a confidant to help make sense of it all.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
My favorite projects are those that are large enough to sink my teeth into. But ultimately the best are those that are unique and require a creative approach to their execution. In 2007 I managed the production of CourtTV’s 8Day Mystery Challenge.

We staged and shot a fake kidnapping of a scientist, created an on-air spot that threw to SaveMyHusband.com, a video blog “created” by the scientist’s wife who had put up a reward for those who could figure out where he was. We designed all the game logic, wrote all the scripts and puzzles, shot and edited the video, and then built the main site as well as several fake ancillary sites for the storyline.

I really enjoyed all the different media involved. More than 35,000 people registered to play and there was a ton of buzz around it; even more enjoyable was watching user’s reactions, especially those who thought it was an actual kidnapping. How they didn’t notice the giant CourtTV sweepstakes and sponsor logos I’ll never understand.

Most recently I produced NoKnownSurvivors.com, an immersive experiential site promoting world building content for EA’s new survival horror release, Dead Space. It is an amazing game that offered tons of incredible assets to play with. Much of the site pushed the boundaries of Papervision using real 3D models from the game.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
Very much based on scope of the projects. In the past I’ve juggled up to eight to twelve moderately sized campaigns. This has shrunk to one or two at a time for larger endeavors. Recently, my role as Executive Producer has included more operations responsibilities and has decreased the number I can handle at any one time. Tending to a project is truly a toddler type obligation. The slightest deviation from the daily tender love and care necessary to make it a productive member of society and it will start kicking and screaming and drawing all over the wallpaper with magic marker.


Q: What does your dream production team look like?
Smart, funny, proactive, dedicated, smart, hygienic, diligent, light-hearted, smart, focused, energetic rock stars.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
A client’s best interests are a Producer’s best interests. Communication is key, especially at the onset of a project. Covering as much ground as possible early will ensure a clear focus towards executing a mutually agreed upon goal.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
The Singularity is Near. More and more I see traditional advertising adapting web culture. A Dentyne gum print ad campaign canvases the entire car of my C Train commute with images of couples passionately kissing below a tagline of “The Original Instant Message.” On-air spots are made to look deliberately like streaming video, authentic grainy pixels and all. The convergence of all mediums will eventually offer the opportunity for some cool integration. I think the traffic at the intersection of broadband and cable will be directed by branded content.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
It’s difficult to follow Jeff Einstein’s post in this regard, but I’ll do my best (major props, Jeff).
The job description of a good interactive producer reads like that of a renaissance (wo)man. The necessity to wear so many hats at any one time is truly remarkable. And so, it can often become rather hectic. Stay calm. Breathe. Stay focused on solutions oriented approaches to problems, not the problems themselves. Ok, maybe I’m now projecting.

If I may though, I digress for a moment.

The best wisdom I can impart is more of a call to arms. Craig, I commend you on creating a forum for this type of conversation. The description in your first post is spot on and brings nothing but a smile to my face. Our position in this industry is still evolving, maturing, and dare I say, legitimizing. The best wisdom I can impart is a request to share a collective wisdom. I look forward to the day when the tools and resources so plentiful for designers and developers are available for the interactive producer.

Onward and upward!

Old Timers

Q: Introduce us to yourself and your company.
I'm the better looking half of the Brothers Einstein, a creative strategy and branding boutique. My brother Mike and I work with very select rapid-growth companies to help define and execute healthy brand strategies in an increasingly toxic media environment.

Q: Interactive Producers come from all walks of life, they are a hybrid of talents, tell us about your background and how you got interested in digital production?
I started my career as a digital producer back in 1984 (yup), when I co-founded the nation's first digital marketing agency, Einstein and Sandom Interactive (clearly the byproduct of two guys with way too much spare time on our hands), just after the publication of Einstein's Computer Guides, the first major how-to book series on personal computers. My partner JG Sandom didn't own a computer when we started the agency, so I became the producer and bookkeeper by default. Must have done an okay job because EASI was acquired a decade later by DMB&B, just as the Web was starting to make traditional ad execs look and sound increasingly like Darrin Stephens and Larry Tate.

Q: How do you stay on top of emerging technologies and keep your team informed and motivated?
I'm the entire team, so I don't have too much of a problem with motivation (usually). I also don't have many problems with emerging technologies because I generally don't deploy or think about them very often. Contrary to the industry at large, I always put technology dead last in my hierarchy of things that matter, and only after I've satisfied my concerns about the kinds and qualities of the relationships I want to engender and inspire. We exhibit a tendency -- nowadays more than ever -- to become what Thoreau called tools of our tools. This tendency explains why the media channels -- per Marshall McLuhan's prescient observation -- now work overwhelmingly against us and return what I call DROI, Diminished Return On Investment. Performance across all media is collapsing because we mistake our technological ability to say something with something meaningful to say, and because we mistake our technological ability to do something with a reason to do it.

While Global Director of Operations and Marketing for RappDigital (the digital division of Rapp Collins Worldwide) back in 2000, I built and managed a staff of 300+ employees across eight offices. An executive board of discipline leaders were all located in the NYC office, and it was their job to keep their respective teams informed and motivated. I kept the executive board motivated by mandating a bad news first policy, wherein they were required to inform me of the problems they encountered across the network on a weekly basis. Problems were thus transformed into shared challenges for the entire executive board, and network resources then arbitraged accordingly. Solutions almost always involved cross-discipline intervention(s), so fresh blood was always on tap, and discipline leaders were profoundly aware of and involved in what was going on across the entire franchise.

Complacency is always the enemy, and the initial challenge in each encounter, therefore, is to battle the inertia generated by our fealties and addictions to our own tools. That's why face-to-face encounters are so critical, and why email is so ineffective and unsatisfying. Nowadays we use our most sophisticated communications tools not to communicate but as first lines of defense, to shut down communications. Saint McLuhan would be proud.

Q: What does your ideal client/project look like?
We typically don't do project work, but my ideal client is one who is willing to ask and answer the question "Why?" before we ask the question "How?" Again, our astounding technological ability to do things nowadays changes us on a fundamental level and in the process inverts the proper sequence of the questions we ask. Unfortunately, we're obsessed with and addicted to the hows these days, and almost never ask why. The ideal client begins with the question "Why?" because technology is a lousy substitute for the fundamentals that actually drive business and commerce -- especially advertising.

Q: How do you educate your clients and set realistic expectations for a project?
I don't actively set out to educate my clients (see what we don't offer on the Brothers Einstein weblog). I talk to them. I talk to them about their families and their passions. We talk about why the media channels don't work anymore, and what we can do about it. We talk about the importance and power of language, of creating new vernaculars to accommodate brand personalities and idiosyncrasies. We talk about walking the talk, and then we walk the talk. In truth, the best clients teach me far more than I could ever teach them.

Re expectations: I know this sounds like heresy, but the onslaught of digital media has pretty much lowered everyone's expectations over the past 15 years. A short decade ago, the average CTR was 3-4%. Today, the average CTR is ten times less. Translation: a 97.7% failure rate. How can we claim to raise expectations as an industry when we are so consumed with and invest so much in such a small and inconsequential .3% universe? I say fuck realistic client expectations. It's far more important to raise our own expectations before we condescend to raise someone else's with a new 1.5" LCD and an opaque targeting algorithm du jour. Realistic expectations result from authentic agency/client relationships. If you don't know the names of your client's kids, don't waste your time or theirs with any discussion of realistic expectations -- because you're simply not equipped to handle it.

Q: What was the best project you have ever worked on?
Our current work with Jaffer Ali at Vidsense-- the Web's largest video ad network -- is about as good as it gets: compelling, engaging, fun, and challenging. Jaffer is a great friend, first and foremost, and the quality of our work together quite naturally reflects the quality of our relationship.

Q: How many projects are you comfortable producing at one given time?
We never take on more than one or two clients at a time, in part because we're a two-man band, and in part because we don't like to work very hard. In any event, I much prefer quality to quantity. So do my clients.

Q: What does your dream production team look like?
Me, my brother and my client.

Q: How do you ensure that your client's best interests are met?
I never assume my client's best interests, nor can I remember when my client's best interests were ever handed down to me unilaterally without my considered input. My client's best interests always evolve from our relationship. I don't worry about straying from my client's best interests as long as our relationship is intact and healthy. Again, if you don't know the names of your client's kids, you probably have very little knowledge of your client's best interests.

Q: What is your vision of what the next phase of our industry is going to look like?
The imperative of technology to accelerate itself and everything that touches it suggests to me that more automated media platforms will emerge as a means to eliminate the friction associated with the commercial sale and purchase of so much tonnage. The proliferation of friction-free automated platforms will in turn drive down profit margins across the entire media food chain, compel even more inventory consolidation among media giants, exert more pressure on small and mid-size franchises, and further erode per-unit performance of media across all channels. Media strategies and brand strategies will become indistinguishable as big advertisers realize that the only thing that works across the media landscape today is utter ubiquity, which -- of course -- constitutes the polar opposite of performance, and -- of course -- represents a strategy that only the biggest media budgets can afford.

The deep penetration of broadband and wireless is already converting the Internet from an information-based medium to an entertainment-based medium, suggesting that we may have less to fear from Orwell's 1984 Big Brother vision and more to fear from Huxley's Brave New World vision -- in which we essentially amuse ourselves to death. The revenue models to support the current transition from information to entertainment will elude most digital marketers as their misplaced fealty to and faith in new and improved targeting technologies continues to elicit DROI and general collapse across the media channels.

Smarter marketers and brands will begin to turn away from high-tech targeting technologies and automated platforms. Smarter marketers and brands will begin to understand that in an on-demand world it makes less sense to target your audience and more sense to let them target you instead.

Q: Please share a snippet of wisdom that you would like to impart on our readers.
To understand the true nature of advertising, you must learn the difference between hunting and fishing, and take the time to discover the power of your own authentic voice. Embrace your ignorance as your single greatest resource, always ask why before you ask how, and never check your email before 10am.