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At the two-year college where I head up the Digital Media Design program, I’m known as Dr. Digital. I teach digital photography, Web design, multimedia, and 3D animation. I round out the curriculum with courses in mass media, design fundamentals and video production. In between quarters I produce interactive projects for museums, online training, designs for corporate branding, and Web sites.
The rest of the time – which is early morning and late evening – I can be found at a local coffee shop writing either into a journal or my trusty Mac laptop.
I began my career as a filmmaker. As early as age 14 I was making my own movies; the very first was a parody of "Music Man" about the new android in town.
After studying engineering at Case Tech, I begged my way into film courses at Kent State, pursuing a degree in broadcasting. I honed my creative skills writing for the newspaper, taking photographs for the yearbook, and writing, producing and directing theater on campus. I was one of the first directors of the campus television station.
The day after graduation I was in Columbus, Ohio, working as a cameraman for a local television station where I worked my way up to principal news film editor. I left Channel 6 for state government where I was the governor's "Director of Photography," and then federal government where I produced films and PSAs (Public Service Announcements) for the Administration of Justice division.
A few years later, with two partners, I started a multimedia production company called The Media Group. Multimedia in those days was still analog and often meant synchronizing multiple-projector slide shows (sometimes over two dozen slide projectors) with film and an audio track. I produced, directed and shot most of our film productions, including films for the U.S. Department of Energy and commercials for McDonalds.
I began writing the scripts for the longer films and remembered how much fun writing was. I started writing screenplays at the dining room table.
About the same time I discovered computer programming.
My first screenplay, a sci-fi parody entitled “Panda Bears From Mars,” went off to producers. Paramount offered to distribute it if I got it produced. New Line Cinema called to let me know they had loved it, but decided at the last minute to shoot something else that year. The screenplay also got me my first agent.
In 1981 I finally found time to marry and start a family. I also formed my own independent film production company "Sattelmeyer Filmworks" and its computer graphics subsidiary "Digital Graphics Group." By 1985 I was so involved in creating computer animation that I was spirited away to the East Coast by an offer I couldn't refuse to design computer graphics systems specifically for designers instead of programmers.
That job led to a 3-D product development job in Silicon Valley in 1989, but when the Quake of '89 wrecked havoc on northern California (You know, the one that measured 7.1 on the Richter scale and which collapsed the Oakland Freeway and part of the Bay Bridge, killing dozens), I decided that it was a wake-up-call to get back into design and production instead of creating tools for others to use.
I began producing films and computer graphics again, working for clients like IBM (I helped them "brand" multimedia as "Ultimedia"), Intel (I worked on the interactive tools for the Pentium series of processors), Compaq/RadioShack (more marketing interactives), and Microsoft (the release of IE 4).
I continued writing screenplays. Again, they were read, enjoyed and circulated around Hollywood, but never made production. Granted, “Major Catastrophe” required several hundred cats to perform on cue (years before computer graphics was good enough to create 101 dalmations).
When my agent finally retired from the business, she encouraged me to try converting the screenplays to novels: no $100 Million budget required. I began writing short stories and novellas simply as a means to practice my craft.
Returning to Ohio in 1999, I continued interactive work, both online and for interactive kiosks. Some of my work can be found in a holocaust museum, at the Arab-American museum, and the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame.
Along the way I found I had a knack for explaining complex concepts in plain and simple terms. I lectured on the computer graphics conference circuit for awhile and co-authored a textbook on multimedia. I now head up the Department of Media Arts at a two year college where I am priveleged to be able to teach the next generation of creative individuals.
My wife and I separated amicably at the end of the millennium but remain close. Our son graduated from high school, enrolled in the computer science curriculum in college, and now does computer and network support. He isn’t aware of it yet, but has a real gift for writing.
Maggie McAuley came to life while I was mid-life-dating a childhood friend who I married in 2003, and she has been a wonderful editor. I wouldn't be who I am today without Chris.
It’s now Sunday morning. The coffee is a dark roast that accents the cranberries in my scone. I’ve answered my e-mail, will shortly edit a Web site for a writer friend, and then do an edit on a “Pitch” Black story. This evening I’ll probably put another hour or two into research on a story idea I’ve been thinking about.
And then there’s that third Maggie McAuley novel that’s begging to be written.
