Author Archives: Gordon

About Gordon

Gordon Highland is a video producer/director in the Kansas City area who also makes music and writes fiction.

Going on Location

Posted on January 19, 2007 by Gordon

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 →

Posted in writing | Tagged | 2 Comments

Open Up (Say “Ahh”)

Posted on January 19, 2007 by Gordon

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 →

Posted in multimedia | 1 Comment

1st and Ten

Posted on January 13, 2007 by Gordon

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

Posted on January 10, 2007 by Gordon

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 →

Posted in music | 1 Comment

Movies I’d Pay to See

Posted on December 7, 2006 by Gordon

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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My Television Education

Posted on December 6, 2006 by Gordon

I like to think that all those years spent in front of the idiot box made me a better person. TV is a great way to learn about how the world works. Were it not for television, I would never … Continue reading →

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Gain Staging

Posted on December 6, 2006 by Gordon

The audio levels on both the camera and the mixer looked good, but everything was distorted when we played it back. What the hell could it have been? There are many places where things could’ve gone wrong. That’s why it’s … Continue reading →

Posted in multimedia, music | 1 Comment

Literary Ventriloquism

Posted on December 3, 2006 by Gordon

so what’s your take on how to write good, engaging, and realistic dialogue? i’ve heard some writers say that you should never use “he saids” and “she saids”. other writers say you HAVE to identify who’s talking at least every … Continue reading →

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Voice-Over and Over and Over

Posted on November 30, 2006 by Gordon

The narration track he gave me was pretty much unusable. A little noisy, there’s all kinds of mouth sounds, odd breaths, sloppy pronunciations . . . How can I salvage this? Well, this is why he’s in a booth and … Continue reading →

Posted in multimedia | Tagged | 2 Comments