Casablanca Spotlight - Chet Davis (yep, that's me!)
Perhaps this is a bit odd but I have been asked by some of the members of Casablanca Expert.com to share a little more about myself, so here goes...
I was born in Salt Lake City, Utah but really consider California my home state as my family moved to Anaheim (Southern California) when I was just 3 years old.
I spent my first couple of years in school there and my father moved us to Northern California where I spent what I call my 'Crest years' (as in the toothpaste). I 'grew up' here in a small town called Moraga - a commuter town in the the East Bay (San Francisco metro area). I graduated from Campolindo High School where I spent a lot of time in the music department (trumpet & vocal music)
I attended San Jose State University where I earned a B.A. In Radio/TV Broadcasting with a Minor in Broadcast Journalism. It was here that I got my appetite and first tastes of video and media production. In my Sophomore year I became involved with the campus FM radio station -KSJS - as a DJ...and more heavily involved in my Senior year as I became the General Manager of the publicly broadcast radio station. It was a great experience, not only in the craft of radio but all the behind the scenes work... I managed the FCC License Renewal that year, balanced community programming requests, figured out how to leverage fund raising through underwriting (sponsorship) - without crossing that very thin line to make it advertising (FM stations below 92 mHz on your U.S. radio dial is non-commercial)
In addition to the classes in my major, I was fortunate to work for the ITV Center - the Instructional TeleVision. We supplied TV monitors, video playback and even live feeds to the many classrooms all over campus.
The other great learning for me occurred in the Broadcast Journalism Department. I did my first editing here, on an open reel VTR. For those of you who did not have the 'pleasure' of working with this ancient technology - you had to thread the open reel of the videotape around the video head drum and get it just right. Primitive but taught me solid lessons in the art and science of video editing that I still use today. I also served in each crew position as well as on-air talent for our weekly news program that was aired on the local PBS affiliate.
I also got to use among the first VCRs to hit the market in the US... the Sony Betamax. And we had the industrial models, with timed playback, editing, etc. I also saw the full-time employees in the ITV center work on campus and community productions. There three gentlemen were full-time professionals whom I admired greatly. They produced great programming and I saw them do it on 2" Quad VTRs. This thing was the size of a refrigerator and tool some serious skill to operate. Truly amazing how technology affords us today to edit in a small box that we can tuck under our arm!
I did a lot of volunteer work during college at the local Community Access TV Center (which was good experience and usually enjoyable). I played in a Top 40 Band that me and my room-mate put together (trumpet and vocals) and got a job in Radio. I worked first as a 'board op'. That's the technician who runs the sound mixer/audio console. This was for a new-talk radio station and it was a blast. During the afternoon news I would have all 12 channels of the audio console going at different times with live mics in studio, remote reporters on telephone and radio, traffic reports, network news feeds and actualities (recordings from interviews) played back from multiple cart decks (like 8-track cartridges but specialized for radio/tv).
I worked for a few months at Great America running the live audio console for one of the performances (got to learn some of the illusions from Doug Henning's Broadway Magic Show). Then landed my first real job after college as a DJ and Production Technician at an FM radio station in Santa Rosa, California. It was fun there as I learned and practiced a lot of cool audio editing (analog editing -- with a razor blade on open reel tape!). I did not love the craft enough to put up with all the anomalies of smaller town radio and found my next employment at a local high school district.
It was here that I was back doing more video production work. Started out assisting teachers with the whole assortment of audio-visual equipment and working with a small group of students using video porta-packs.. those late 1970s video cameras that attached to a separate VCR by way of a 10-pin cable. I loved teaching the students and the administration took notice of our efforts. I was able to work up interest in the district and they connected me with the County Office of Education who agreed to sponsor a new program. Using my industry experience and my degree in the field, I completed courses at UC Berkeley and received my Vocational Teaching Credential in Media Communications.
I developed a program using both single camera (ENG) and studio style video production. I taught 6 classes a day for 17 years... students in Video Communications I worked in teams of 4-5 and produced 4 major projects during the year course. While the Advanced Video Communications II produced a live 5-minute campus news program each weekday morning. At various times, they also produced a community magazine show, competed in regional, state and national vocational competitions and produced a number of campus and community video projects. I was very proud of what the students were able to accomplish and was delighted with the many benefits they received even if they had no intention to pursue media in their career.
I was very involved with technology efforts at the school and district and even became involved in educational restructuring and reform work with the faculty and staff. I even had the honor of testifying before a U.S. Congressional Sub-committee on the Importance of Technology in Education (yep - my testimony is in the Congressional Record!). And based on student nominations - I appear in two volumes of ' Who's Who in American Education'. I was also privileged to have chaired the Video Production competition at the National VICA (Vocational Industrial Clubs of America) Convention.
In 1996 I said "I do" to my lovely wife Rosemarie. The best two words I have ever uttered on this planet! She is also an educator and a photographer. She has been incredibly supportive in all my endeavors. We have a son Colin who turns 10 today ... and some in the Casablanca community have met my now 17-year old son Nathaniel from my previous marriage (his brother Joseph is now 21 and is married and on his own.
I wasn't looking to leave the classroom but an opportunity pretty much fell into my lap that caught my attention. I was presenting a session at the California State Technology Conference (CUE) when an audience member asked me if I knew about Casablanca video editors. I told her I was vaguely aware of the editing devices... She invited to put me in touch with the company management and said they should give me a demo model so I could share my experiences with the other educators who I came in contact with. Over a few months I had a phone conversation with David Slone in the Boulder office of MacroSystem US (then Draco Systems). Two of the Draco staff members saw me present a session at the next Technology Conference and I was then invited to co-teach a session of Casablanca University.
In the summer of 1998 I worked with Greg Hales to teach I believe what was 7 participants as we worked on the Cassie Classic in a small room in the Boulder offices. I accepted an offer to serve as consultant to the educational sales efforts at Draco. I prepared the 'Casablanca Classroom' experience for trade shows & events where up to 20 people would sit and experience 25-minute hands-on session with the new Casablanca editors. I also produced content for the Draco website and developed a complete curriculum that enabled teachers - new to video - to work with a class of students and successfully produce a short video project in just 10 days.
I presented a session on Audio and your Casablanca at the first company sponsored Casablanca Convention. It was at this conference that Eric Kloor and David Slone offered me a position with the company - Education Sales Manager to focus on the burgeoning success of the Casablanca editor in the K-12 classroom I loved teaching and had a great program at the high school but did not want to be 5 years old thinking 'I wish I would have taken that opportunity' so I said yes! I traveled to many states providing demonstrations and classes at technology conferences and school district facilities.
In August 2002 my wife, our then 3-year old son and I set out in a 37' motor home to tour North America and spread the good word about Casablanca and it's success in the classroom. The idea was for me to get out and get in front of as many educators as possible to share the successful implementation of video in the schools and to highlight Casablanca as the ideal editing tool. We visited 41 U.S. States and 2 Canadian provinces, teaching and demonstrating to many educators and even hobbyists/video professionals along the way. It was a memorable 12 months for my family and I made friends with Casablanca colleagues that last to this day.
After some 'restructuring' in the MSUS management team where the President David Slone and a number of my colleagues were laid off or left I added West Coast Sales Manager to my duties and then after 2 years under a VP of Sales who knew little about the video industry I advocated and was promoted to VP of Marketing & Sales at MacroSystem US.
I thoroughly enjoyed this phase of my career as well as we worked to develop and implement creative marketing programs with very limited budgets. My focus was to strongly support the existing customer base with an increased amount of communication and resources while reaching out to prospective customers through our reseller network. During this time Jim Meeker launched the March Get Together in Moline, Illinois which has become the annual event amongst the Casablanca community in North America. I enjoyed presenting Casablanca products at National Events like Videomaker Expo, WEVA, 4EVER Group and NAB.
In January 2009 I received a phone call and the sudden, surprising news of my termination of employment with MacroSystem US. With about 24 hours of surprise and disappointment I realized the opportunity that lay before me... for years I had heard Casablanca customers asking and pleading for additional training resources. I secured domain names and began building an online resource for the Casablanca community. The day the company publicly announced my termination I had an announcement of my own "With excitement and grand optimism I have begun a new business titled 'Casablanca Expert'. I opened my subscription based website and foretold of the training DVDs and workshops which would follow.
I was blown away with the out-pouring of support, offers of assistance and well wishes from the Casablanca community. It was and continues to be heart-warming and I am so glad to have decided to stay connected to this great community of Casablanca 'folk'. I have been pleased as well with the new friendships and business arrangements that have been forged with Casablanca community members across the world (with supportive resellers/distributors on 3 other continents and website customers/subscribers from the UK to Sweden, Cyprus to Australia, New Zealand to Thailand and South Africa.
In October 2009 I launched two new online resources, this Casablanca Expert Blog and Your Technology Tutor, a blog designed to provide assistance, tutorials and references to help folks become more successful with 'home technologies'.
Although the bank accounts are still more than slim - it has been very rewarding and I love what I am doing... I look forward to the coming months and years and what the future will unfold.
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