Author Archives: Gordon

About Gordon

Gordon Highland is the author of the novels Flashover and Major Inversions, with short stories in such publications as Word Riot, Black Heart, Noir at the Bar Vol. 2, and Warmed and Bound, among others. He lives in the Kansas City area, where he makes videos by day and music by night.

On-Set Translation

What they say. What they mean. “Picture’s up.”Get out of the frame and shut your pie holes. “Let’s go again; that shot went a little soft.”Because you’re also an exec producer, I’m blaming the focus puller for your wooden acting. … Continue reading

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Book Learnin vs. Dirty Hands

I would love to hear, from your point of view, whether a fine arts degree worth its pursuit. Our province has many opportunities for folks in the creative community to work in the industry — both amateur and professional — … Continue reading

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Truths, Vol. 3

The quality of a magazine is inversely proportional to the number of ad pages before its table of contents. Perfection is possible, just unlikely. One single sentence can conjure more imagery than a reel of film. Not that sentence, but, … Continue reading

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Oscar® Hangover

How original, an Oscars post! Though neither nominated nor invited this year, I thought last night’s Academy Awards was a class broadcast all around. Sure, there were a few technical/timing gaffes, but having directed live variety shows before, I can … Continue reading

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Awards Show Etiquette

‘Tis the Season, and since I know all the industry insiders read this blog between meetings and lighting setups in their trailers, for your consideration I present the following tips to make your big night a memorable, gaffe-free one. • … Continue reading

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Going on Location

Talking writing here. Location is not simply what “frames the picture.” As the scribe of your story, if you consider yourself its cinematographer or cameraman and the reader as projectionist, then location is your film stock. (Yeah, so it’s also … Continue reading

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Open Up (Say “Ahh”)

Someone told me I should shoot all my video with the iris wide open, but I can’t remember why, and it doesn’t really make sense to me. Shed some light? This person was probably assuming you were going for that … Continue reading

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1st and Ten

We’ve all seen the yellow/blue lines in football broadcasts that indicate the scrimmage and line to gain. Ever wonder how it works? As you probably guessed, the line itself is superimposed via chromakey, so anything green- or dirt-colored gets replaced, … Continue reading

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Variax Verdict

you’ve mentioned playing a [Line6] variax on here before, and i was thinking about picking one up online (no music stores around here), but how’s it play? how well does it track notes? . . . any other gotchas? I … Continue reading

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Movies I’d Pay to See

In high-concept Hollywood, idea is king. The single-sentence pitch. Here are a few of my aborted attempts at “star vehicles” for celebrities who could use a career-energizing role. Normally I don’t like to just give away my golden tickets for … Continue reading

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