Frank Weeks, Digital Cinema South

Frank Weeks is used to being out ahead of the pack.

"My first editing job was for Broadside Television in 1977," says Weeks, "so I got my start in video production the year that Elvis died. In fact, a rep walked in to our office to show us a cutting-edge technology called 3/4" inch tape, and said 'did you hear The King died?'"

Weeks first editing project an hour-long video of the Bill Monroe-Ralph Stanley Bluegrass Festival, which Broadside was hired to produce, and since then he's not looked back, working Who's Who of regional players in the communications arena, and: from his early work at WJHL as assistant sport director to his more recent work launching High School Football Weekly and So You Think You Know Sports for Charter, Weeks has seen it all. 

"When Broadside moved to Nashville, I decided to stay in Tri Cities," says Weeks, "and I took something closer to my marketing degree from ETSU: I went to work as a manager at K-Mart, in charge of the Ladies Apparel section. It was their biggest section at the time, but after a year, I really wanted to get back into video."

Weeks' friends told him about a new set of equipment that was being delivered to WCYB-TV but no one knew how to run it. So Weeks approached Bob Smith, News director of the station, who told Weeks he'd have to take a pay cut to come to work at the station.

"I wanted that job," says Weeks, "since it let me get into shooting and editing nightly news stories with first rate equipment."

Within another year, Weeks found his spiritual home at WJHL-TV in Johnson City. He became a sports anchor and assistant sports director at the station, working with Sports Director Tony Treadway, Anchorman Claude Wood (Co-founder of Masters Entertainment), and Dr. Carrie Swanay, who is now a professor of Communications at Milligan College, training many students who go on to work at WJHL.

"I remember Carrie Beth's first day on the job," says Weeks, laughing at the thought that the group of them have gone on to pioneer public relations and marketing throughout the region. "Besides the local television work at WJHL, though, I also enjoyed the freelance work we did for ESPN, CNN and CBS Sports, back when they would accept local submissions to fill airtime slots. John Madden even did a promo for Tony [Treadway] and I that aired locally."

Weeks stayed with WJHL until 1984 when he left broadcast television to to start World Class Productions, the Tri-Cities first independent production company.  

"When we started WCP, we were housed in a studio in downtown Johnson City," says Weeks. "During the nearly 25 years since we started WCP, we produced marketing and sales videos for many of the regions most progressive companies as well as  television programs for local and regional broadcast."

Weeks has maintained World Class Productions, in its varying forms, since those early days, where the company set a number of firsts for the region: first independent production company  with component (3-chip) equipment, in-house film production, computer animation and digital non-linear editing.

"My hat's off to those who grew the computer animation base in the region," says Weeks, who returned to graduate school in 1997 at the ETSU Advanced Visualization Lab. "I saw the value of computer graphics and animation, within the video and film field and was fortunate to have some first rate instructors and training at ETSU. The things I learned there a decade ago, are of dally use to me today. I remember having to work on Silicon Graphics machines to obtain my Level 2 Certification in Alias/Wavefront (creators of Maya). Things sure have come a long way."

Weeks continues to learn - and to mentor. Besides pursuing training in graphics, computer animation, desktop publishing and digital imaging while at ETSU - under the teaching of Dr. Keith Johnson, Jeff Morris and Neil Owen - he's also trained several shooters (as video and film camera operators are called) in the region, including the likes of Sean Harris and others.

Weeks has also spent several months studying his new equipment, a 4K digital cinema camera and 2K digital cinema editing package.

"We have the region's first RED camera," says Weeks, referring to a new camera manufactured by RED that shoots in 4K - 4.5 megapixel - images, at about eight times the quality of HD. "The waiting list for RED was over a year long,  and I've had it now for several months. Like anything that's very specialized, though, I believe in spending time working through all the options before I use it at a customer job."

Weeks has won over 20 awards for excellence in marketing and advertising, including Addys and a region-wide Charter award for the Kingsport Chamber's ChamberZone 100th episode. But he says his best work is ahead of him.

"This camera is the closest thing to film production that we've had in the Tri-Cities market," says Weeks, who has changed WCP's name to Digital Cinema South, adding "we can now produce motion picture quality content at a fraction of the price. I look forward to introducing the new digital cinema technology to clients, as well as training a few others in the region on how to take advantage of a technology that has now been embraced by Academy award winning directors like Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings) and Steven Soderbergh (Traffic).  It's an exciting time."

Additional notes from CTIA 2011 keynote by Federal Communications Chairman Julius Genachowski

These notes augment a published article on the topic, which can be found at http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/Editorial/Featured-Articles/CTIA-NAB-and-the-FCC-Battle-Over-Wireless-Spectrum-Reallocation-74523.aspx

Quotes from Federal Communications Chairman Julius Genachowski's keynote the CTIA 2011 trade event, held at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.

"We've made progress on a few points on the FCC's broadband plan, including open internet and transparency in roaming, specifically data roaming."

Open internet. Progress has been made, although we recognize the difference between mobile and fixed-wired broadband.

Data roaming. "We also understand the need for a competitive marketplace so we are pushing forward with, and continue to address, broadband roaming charges. Consumers should be able to roam anywhere in the country without roaming fees. We understand that many providers need roaming fees to remain competitive but we need to move forward with a roaming-free broadband details."

Spectrum re-allocation. "We see an estimated $30 billion in revenues for the government. We also see estimates that say broad consumer benefits may be ten-fold. While the number is not perfect, that could yield benefits up to $300 billion."


"While our appetite for innovation and mobile are insatiable, available spectrum is not. With three-fold spectrum inventory in place now, some analysts project a 35x increase in five years, meaning we will run out of spectrum within the next two years." [Other analysts contradict this statement, saying better spectrum management would resolve the issue.]

Wired, interconnected world. "When I visited CES, virtually every product on the CES floor was connected, primarily through wireless access.  It shows that broadband is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity. As demand increases, unleashing spectrum is important to American competitiveness and opportunity. [Gave iPad example of moving beyond befuddling to highly coveted]

Demographic and geographic disparities. Adoption rate for broadband is 67% overall, compared to Singapore's 90% adoption rate [fails to address compact size of Singapore vs USA]. Adoption is much lower for low-income and minority and rural areas [service providers don't make it available in many rural areas].

Innovation and Leadership. "Broadband is not only what you get when you plug into the wall, but also increasingly what you get on a mobile device. We see economic growth and global competitiveness through wireless broadband growth. Other than Japan, we have more subscribers for 3G mobile broadband, and we are the leader in 4G.

Yet by 2014 there will be more 4G devices in Europe than in US. We need to be innovating here and exporting to the rest of the world."

Legacy conundrum. "Broadband is a disruptive innovation that creates an innovator's dilemma in the US market, as the market leader. We have no choice but to develop a 21st century solution that accommodates 20th century legacy technologies, while other countries have an easier task as they have limited legacy technologies to integrate."

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. "There is an enormous costs of delay. 205,000 jobs could be created over the next five years, if spectrum is available. For instance, deploying towers will create 53,000 jobs, meeting the President's goal of bringing 4G to 90% of the US market. Making new applications will also generate jobs."

Socially Acceptable? A Call To Action Unheeded

Panel tackles role of social media In pushing premium content online—and off. 


The audience sat enraptured by the panelists, who discussed a blockbuster film set for its DVD debut just two weeks before Easter.

"The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader is set for DVD release on April 8, 2011 in the United States," said Simon Swart, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment executive vice president, "a perfect time for this audience to embrace the DVD as it did the theatrical release."

The audience Swart referred to included many attendees at the National Religious Broadcasters' event, held at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee in early March. 

The session, titled  “Connecting with Audiences in an Age of Distraction,” covered a number of faith-based films and online video projects that Sony, Fox and other premium content creation and distribution firms are gearing toward the NRB's core audience.

As part of the Super Session, Swart and fellow panelists explored the power of grassroots advocacy and—to a lesser extent—social media as a way to market premium content.

Michael Flaherty, an executive producer at Walden Media, the company that has seen its three Chronicles of Narnia films pull in over $1.5 billion in theatrical dollars, emphasized the importance of grassroots efforts to support a film.

"When we prepared to launch The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe with Disney," Flaherty said, referencing the distributor of the first to Narnia films, prior to Fox taking the lead on Dawn Treader, "we brought the trailer to show to your audience, just as we did with the second film, Prince Caspian."

Lion itself had over $750 million in box office receipts, in no small part thanks to its grassroots word-of-mouth marketing.

"You were instrumental in marketing all three films by word of mouth," Flaherty added to his appreciative audience, "from requesting that local theaters play Lion, to attending showings in record number."

During the Super Session, Flaherty and Swart confirmed that Walden and Fox were in discussion about adapting the next Narnia book, probably The Magician's Nephew, one of the four remaining books in the series written by Clive Staples Lewis in the 1950s.

When asked by panel moderator, Phil Cooke, about the importance of Facebook and other social media, one panelist discussed the difference between grassroots and social media.

"We've yet to see a direct connection between high social media interest and actual box office results," the panelist said, adding that one recent film he tracked had hundreds of thousands of likes on its Facebook page, yet the film didn't bring in business at the box office.

"It's possible that the sections of the film that were released on Facebook gave the potential audience enough of the film that they didn't feel a need to attend the actual movie," he said.

Still, this hasn't stopped social media from playing a role in driving online video, which the panel acknowledged. This may have implications on the 28-day release window if Netflix and others can convince the studios that its direct-to-DVD releases should also be released as online content on day-and-date. 

"We see several new models emerging," said Fox's Swart, who showed a number of DVD-only release "sneak peeks" to the audience.

John Schneider, of Dukes of Hazzard fame, also spoke about the impact of grassroots efforts on a film's marketing impact.

"I can't tell you how many TV commercials I've watched since I got TiVO in my house years ago," said Schneider, whose appearance at the event was intended to drive interest in Doonby, a movie Schneider will star in later this year. "If it were up to me, I'd spent a lot less on TV commercials to entice moviegoers and alot more on social media and grassroots efforts like this session."

Walden's Flaherty agreed that social media is important, but said that word-of-mouth's impact on consumer action is even more important.

"Even if you 'like' a film on Facebook," added Flaherty, "be sure you support the film at the box office, since that's the yardstick for which most premium content is still judged, and it will have a direct impact on being able to fund future films that you like."

Panel host Phil Cooke also talked about the importance of online grassroots efforts, including a fan base that might be a little "crazy" as he put it. Cooke talked about a previous event he attended, at which the Dawn Treader trailer was shown for the first time.

"At least the audience of religious broadcasters didn't film the trailer and post it online," Cooke said, which elicited a laugh from the radio and TV producers in the room, "but within twenty minutes of the trailer being shown, I saw a Google Alert in my phone's email inbox telling me that two sites already had detailed reports about the trailer."