Fire-Wired Blog

This is me, day one on the job at Iowa Public Television. That was November 7, 2014. How has five years gone so fast? I am a big time believer in "time flies when you're having fun." While one of the major downsides to believing happiness is the most important element in your life, there's no legitimate reason to complain about being happy? Over the course of five years I've filmed the four corners of the state, directed a bunch of television shows, learned some fun camera tricks, met the President, met countless people who could be president, dressed up as a robotic monkey and danced around on live television, gone on all kinds of outdoor adventures for work, traveled to California for a documentary, met dozens of Iowa filmmakers and talked shop with them, and plenty of other things I'm omitting to keep this list from getting out of control. I REALLY love my job and I love the work I'm allowed to produce. Not every day is cupcakes and confetti, but ...

Tonight marks the 29th episode of Iowa Outdoors for which I have been a producer; and yes, do I ever wish that was a beautifully round 30, but as Mick said 'you can't always get what you want." As of 6:57pm tonight, Iowa Outdoors has aired eight full seasons of programming. While I only started at IPTV in November 2014, I've been a fan of the show since it's second season. I love the outdoors and from the moment I saw a producer position for Iowa Outdoors was open I knew I was gonna get that job. Maybe that's arrogant but I prefer to think of it as star-crossed confidence. I'm a former boy scout, I love all outdoors experiences, and I make sure to include outdoor adventures in every vacation I take. So yeah, I had the skill and the drive so I was bound and determined to get the gig. Four years and three full seasons in, Iowa Outdoors has been everything I hoped it would be and more. I've covered fishing stories, hiking stories, conservation...

When I got my first, personal GoPro one of the first videos I shot with it was a drive through Northern California's Avenue of the Giants. Now I've been cutting together personal travel videos for a long time now, but when I sat down to edit the Giants drive down... I just couldn't do it. Driving through the redwoods was just too cool to condense. So on our 20mbps home internet connection I decided to upload all 38 minutes of the 1080i drive. As the upload slowly progressed Marieta asked "Who's gonna watch 35 minutes of us driving?" Well as of this post the answer is more than 10,000 people. Click to watch the video YouTube. While Marieta is still baffled about the success of this video, I get it. If you want to experience a place you're hoping to visit or relive a personal favorite; a polished cut-down video doesn't do it. Videos like this uncut drive offer unfiltered access. So following this experience I've looked for similar opportu...