For over the past decade I have worked for the Pittsburgh FOX and My Network TV (previously WB) affiliates.
I started at the station(s) part time running studio camera, Chyron Max and creating evening graphics for our 10 pm newscast. Within a year I shifted into a full time graphic artist position where the design responsibilities moved into the on-air promotions, commercial and print work for magazine and large format (busboards/billboards) advertising.
From there I was promoted to the position of Art Director. I still kept the previous responsibilities and now had to supervise and maintain the station image, news graphics and animations, talent photo shoots, and the graphic artist's work flow and duties within the department. I have been blessed to work with amazing people in the department, doing our best to push ourselves and the station creatively. Some of the new opportunities included getting to design and build a set for "The Bill Cowher Show" and getting more involved in outdoor event setup and promotion. There's nothing more fun that trying to pull a 14 foot high inflatable back up off the ground (it tended to act like a sail in a strong wind).
As Art Director I started building many of the promos for our station(s) completely within our department, rather than just creating graphics and animations for the editors to incorporate. Also the editors started working more with us to learn the graphics and animation side, so our two positions slowly started to blend together, which for me was great fun because we got to share our knowledge of systems with each other and become more involved in the process from start to finish.
This blending of work flow brought me into my current position as On-Air Promotions Manager. I still do many of the duties the previous positions held, however I am now more directly involved in the promotions design, writing, producing, shooting... all the aspects that go into getting a promotion from the concept to on-air. This also allowed me to become more involved in the day to day operations of the Creative Services department and what makes it function beyond the creative element. As with each position, it has given me opportunities to try things I would not have been able to do before such as producing a weekly hosted movie show (Kiss Saturday Night Feature) and a half hour summer entertainment special (PMZ Summer Special).
One of the aspects of working at a television station is that you do not always have a huge budget for projects. That brings the excitement (and sometimes frustration) of seeing what you can accomplish with what you have on hand and a bit of creativity. For this I give many thanks to my years of appreciation for low budget film production, and of course MacGyver! Such projects included building a living room set in our studio, building and expanding our green screen wall (with Joe and Jason of course... you guys know who you are and your complete awesomeness!), and setting up an audio recording suite to improve our capabilities in that area.
- SOFTWARE/HARDWARE EXPERIENCE-
GRAPHICS & ANIMATION:
Adobe After Effects - Photoshop - Illustrator - Cinema 4D - Blender 3d - Daz 3d - Poser - 3d Studio MAX.
SHOOTING & EDITING:
VIDEO: Avid Adrenaline & Express - Media 100 - Adobe Premiere.
AUDIO: Soundbooth - Sound Forge - Audacity.
VIDEO FORMATS: P2 - Mini DV - DVC Pro.
-AWARDS & OTHER EXPERIENCE-
I've had the opportunities to work on some interesting side projects including a scifi series proposal from Richard Hatch (samples under Visual Effects in the "Library" section of the site) and a comedy film and animated web series from comedian Harland Williams (some samples in the "What's New" section).
I've also been honored to win Telly Awards in 2008 and 2009 (including a 2009 Classic Telly) for some of my promotions work.
I believe that roughly sums up the "About Me" description. Before my time at the station(s) there was the small multimedia company Western World Visions where I got my first step into graphics and animation, but they're sadly not around anymore. They were a great team of people.
If you want to know anything else please feel free to email me on the "Contact" page.
Thanks,
David Kerin