Ryan Schlagbaum is a freelance video producer with 7 years of experience in a broad range of production venues. He cut his teeth as a sound technician working with Chris Bell, an award winning cameraman based in Denver, Colorado. They worked together for 3 years and had clients ranging from The Today Show, to Discovery Health, to ESPNʼs Cold Pizza. Toward the end of his time with Chris, Ryan was taking on camera jobs through Chris and building on his experience with national level quality programming.

He was busy finding his own clients during this time as well. Ryan began working with local churches, a golf training aid company, and was able to help coordinate a short film group that independently produced a number of projects. He acted as producer, providing training, equipment, and direction as they developed production skills in a great group of volunteers. These shoots were different than the television work he was doing and really complemented his experiences with Chris Bell. Most often the t.v. work he did was a 3 person crew: producer, cameraperson, and soundperson. They brought in one or two pelican cases of lights and focused on interview setups with some b-roll. The best challenge of this kind of work is to take this fairly static set of tools and use them in a wide variety of setttings to optimal effect. They had no preproduction, so they had to be quick on their feet and extremely efficient to get everything done to national broadcast quality levels. Conversely, the short films were an opportunity to try out new ideas, scout locations, organize shot lists, and manage a crew of people to create visually compelling stories. It was also a way to build up experience editing for narrative. Along with all of this, Ryan was making instructional and corporate videos, which blended these two worlds together in varying levels. Ryan was planning the overall structure of a project, but shooting in often unscouted locations and usually working with only one or two other people. After 3 years in Colorado, Ryanʼs wife was finished with school and he was getting pretty well established in his field. Ryan already had a broad range of experience in production. His goal had always been to work in feature films and he was learning that the film and television worlds stay pretty separate from each other, despite the outward similarities. He knew that it would be harder to leave Colorado the longer he stayed there, and Ryan and his wife both felt that they wanted to live closer to their families. An opportunity to move to Pittsburgh opened up and they decided to take it. Shannon would be working with preschool kids there, which was an age group she wanted to focus on, and Ryan was connected with a Best Boy that was active on the feature film productions in Pittsburgh that were starting to become more prevalent at that time. The film commission there had made some great tax incentives and a lot of Hollywood productions were trekking to western Pennsylvania because of it. The work on these sets was invaluable. Ryan was experienced with small tungsten and HMI lighting for television, but the feature film sets offered him a chance to study how Hollywood Cinematographers were using every kind of light to get a very high quality image. He was able to follow their lead and then see how the lights he was setting up looked through the camera monitors. While there is a formula to lighting, there was much more artistic creativity in lighting styles on these movie sets versus the often static format of television lighting. Ryan went from key lighting with 650 fresnel soft boxes to 18k HMIs. Just the variety in the amount of light you can throw at a subject does wonders for the flexibility of how you light a scene.

Ryan spent one year on these movie sets and learned a lot. Shannon and Ryan were spending a lot of weekends in Columbus at that point and commuting back to Pittsburgh just to work their jobs. They decided Columbus would be better for them and started looking for a job there. Ryan ultimately accepted a technician job at a local tv station with the hope that he could find a place in their production department in the near future.

The technician job was short lived. He began looking for freelance work shortly after arriving in Columbus, and was laid off from WSFJ after 5 months of working there due to budget cuts. Ryan commuted back to Pittsburgh for another feature film, and was filming on weekends with a local acting class in Columbus. He found a still photography job at MJR Sales and spent the next few months there while continuing to build up his freelance work. When an opportunity arose to produce television programs that focused on local arts and culture in the Columbus area, he took it. The station was WDEM. He and one other producer, Jason Perkins, would be responsible for all of the local programming. They became a great team. Jason was good at preproduction and he served as on-air talent. Ryan handled all of the production and post production work. Essentially, Ryan took care of all of the technical aspects of putting the show together: lighting, camera work, directing, editing, graphics, audio. Most of their shoots were one or two camera set ups. Ryan often ran both cameras. They did get into 3, 4, and 5 camera setups as well. Ryan directed those, occasionally running a camera. Jason and Ryan shared writing duties.

This job was a great experience, in part because of the autonomy it allowed. Because the crew was so small, it was easy to maintain good quality on tight deadlines. There wasnʼt room for slack. There was a great response from the community and a lot of positive feedback on the three main shows. Lifeline Columbus was a news magazine style program that focused on the art galleries, restaurants, and cultural points of interest in the greater Columbus area. Columbus Film Factory was a venue for local independent filmmakers to show their features to a television audience. It was hosted by Christina Grozik, who shared background information and “fun facts” about each film between commercial breaks. Finally, Frontstage TV was a live music program shot in conjunction with CD101, the local independent radio station. They interviewed local prominent bands and showed them performing their original songs.

Unfortunately, the station wasnʼt bringing in the ad revenue they needed to keep the local shows going. Jason and Ryan were laid off in November of 2009. Ryan is still proud of his part in all of the programming that was made and hope a future arts and culture program will surface in the greater Columbus area.

Currently Ryan is continuing to seek out and do freelance work in Columbus. He has a broad understanding of production that has grown out of his broad experience in so many levels of production. Ryan is very good at organizing and directing large and small teams for the frantic pace of a shoot day, or the longer grind of post production. He understands how to get great results no matter the amount of equipment available or the size of the crew. Ryan is always interested to take part in a new idea. He feels equally at home helping fulfull the plans of others as he does creating his own projects. That is what he feels it takes to create excellent work. A team of knowledgeable, dedicated people can do incredible things. And Ryan Schlagbaum loves to be a part of that team.