I’ve known Satch for a long time. I first met him when we recorded and early “Songwriters in the Round” show in 1992. He performed a song of his called “I Am Not a Priest” and I thought he was great.  https://marksteeleproductions.com/satch-kerans-and-bill-jenner Ruthie and I would go out and see Satch and his band, The Catalinas, around Salem and the North Shore. We’d always say hello and that’s the way we knew Satch. Then I started shooting my series, “RESONANCE” and I asked Satch if he’d like to record one and he did. He’s a thoughtful songwriter and performer. https://marksteeleproductions.com/satch-kerans Then recently Satch contacted me to see if I would…

The last time I recorded with Tom Rush he talked about the guitar he has that has an inlay in the fretboard of a naked lady. He has mentioned this inlay before and actually has 3 guitars with the same naked lady. This time, however, he mentioned the name of the woman who had done the inlay work. When I got the footage home and was working on the show I heard the name, Christine Hayward, a few times so I decided to Google her to see if she was still around. There are a few Christine Haywards but one person was an artist and had a website.    http://www.christinehayward.com/.…

Tomorrow I’m going to have the first Premiere of a film I made. Well, it really isn’t a “film” it’s more of a video. And, it isn’t in a theater or anything like that. It’s at the home of a girlfriend of a friend of Dugie’s because she has a nice big screen TV. There won’t be a big audience, just 10 people, maybe 8. But I’m very happy about it. I know what I do in the field of video and I know it doesn’t reach a large audience but after all these years working in the television business I’m doing my own thing. I think that I have…

Last week I did a shoot by myself. I like to work like that because there is no one with a second opinion. Besides, the shed was too small. The subject was Dugie Russell, an 84 year old man who has had many life experiences, is on track to have a few more and had a “near death” experience that changed his life. You can see the video here: https://marksteeleproductions.com/dugie-russell Meeting interesting people and spending time with them is rewarding in itself, being able to create a lasting document of their lives is an added bonus. It makes the experience worthwhile. But I’m here to talk about the process, the…

Next up, Bill Clinton. Hot on the heels of my first production experience with HarvardX in DC recording John McCain and Yusef Komunyakaa I was asked to go to Harlem and record Bill Clinton reciting a poem by Langston Hughes titled “Harlem”. Who would say no to that? I packed the gear, 3 cameras in the kit and a 4th for safety, lights, microphones and we were off. My crew was a HarvardXer named Beyza.  For some reason we thought it prudent to take about $20,000 worth of gear on the subway up to Harlem from Penn Station. I suppose we could have taken a cab but that would have…

If I sit around and think about it too much it’ll never get done. Throw ideas out there and if one sticks, even a little, go do it. Things happen because you are in the right place at the right time but that place is very rarely your couch. You can get a Lucky Break but if you’re not outside it will pass you by and someone else will get it. Thirty years ago my wife and I joined a group called Art Salem. It sounded like a good thing, we were new to Salem and we went. At the first meeting a fellow member at the meeting asked if…

I had a recent location shoot that I did by myself. It was four cameras, four mics and two people. I’ve done these before and I take some pride in the fact that not many people can set up that kind of production by themselves. I’ll describe how I go about it but before I get too deep into it I’ll say that I would have benefited from having my friend and production partner Frank Coakley with me. He was away that day so I Rambo’ed along and did it myself. The shoot was for Tom Rush’s Patreon subscription program called “Rockport Sundays”. I’ve been shooting and editing this for…

I want to start somewhere in the middle. 1984 at Multivision 34 years old. The people I met there are still my friends today 40 years later AND I met Ruthie there and we got married. It seems as though that is the fulcrum point. In 1984 there were no personal computers, no cell phones, no email but Multivision had a CMX 340 computer aided editing system. The edit suite was an A/B roll room meaning there were two source machines, the A and the B, and a third machine to record on. When I got there the machines were BVU-200’s but that would change very soon.  I have to…