| Author | Message | ||
     Danger_dave |
Wanna do an interview for the Kiwi Rider site? Tell us/show what you do and how you done dun it? I can pay in buttons or used stamps. | ||
| Barker |
Sure. I hope I'm not to boring. How do want to do it? Email? Phone? I wish I could come to NZ to do it in person. (Message edited by barker on June 06, 2009) | ||
| Barker |
Or better yet, you come to the land of Jack Daniels and the Dragon. How are you with riding on the right side of the road? | ||
| Danger_dave |
Right here? Tell us about some of your recent projects? How did you get started in cinematography? | ||
| Barker |
Got laid off when they closed that asbestos factory, and wouldn't you know it, the army cuts my disability pension because they said that the plate in my head wasn't big enough. Every time Katherine revved up the microwave Id piss my pants and forget who i was for half an hour or so. Well I am Married to my wife Kath and have two kids and my dog Snotz. Watch out for Snotz hes got a little Mississippi Leg..heh heh if you know what I mean. It's better to let him finish. Let him have a ride and he'll take you all the way to town. I've been out of work for the past seven years. Kath says I should find some temporary work to help pay the bills but I'm holding out for a management position. So with the extra money I bought me a Recreational Vehicle and she is a Beaut... Only problem is the Shitter gets backed up whenever I eat too much of that Mexican food. Just kidding.  Where it all started: At age 16 -- a week after I got my driver's license -- I drove to the nearest TV station, found the owner, and told him I wanted to learn to make TV shows. He took a chance on me and told me to show up Saturday morning at 5 a.m. I did just that. For the next few weekends, I watched the producer and director work on the weekend programming (news, talk shows, a country music video show, and a televangelist show). One weekend when I showed up, there was no producer or director to be found. I stepped up and somehow did both of their jobs for the day. (One of my gifts in life is my ability to watch someone do something and remember the sequence and details very well.) When the owner showed up later that day and discovered me covering for the producer and director, he fired those guys and hired me. So as a high school junior, I found myself producing and directing 3-8 TV shows on the weekend. I fell in love with the job. Stay tuned for more. (Message edited by barker on June 10, 2009) | ||
| Xb9ser |
Barker wow! great story | ||
| Americanmadexb |
nice....tell us more.. You could always do a Skype interview with video and post it here. | ||
| Ulywife |
Timing is everything! Looks like you fell into it good fashion Barker! | ||
| Danger_dave |
>>Stay tuned for more.<< I'll look after the puns thanks. :-) Whereabouts was School - home town? | ||
| Court |
Cool | ||
| Steve_mackay |
Barker's work is all over! Even on the Milwaukee news! http://www.fox6now.com/sports/witi-090608-high-spe ed-rides,0,3436648.story | ||
| Barker |
I grew up on a farm near Martinsville, VA in a little community known as ‘Horsepasture.’ Nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Martinsville's only current claim to fame is its NASCAR track where drivers like Junior Johnson, Richard Petty, Rex White and Wendell Scott got their start. I found growing up near a NASCAR track to be an annoyance. Imagine a sea of 60,000 shirtless rednecks screaming at the top of their lungs while throwing chicken bones and beer cans. In its heyday, this little town was known for being home to several textiles and furniture manufacturing industry giants. When I was growing up, Martinsville was home to DuPont’s largest nylon plant, Lee Jeans, Tultex Corp. (at one time the largest textile company), Nike Apparel, Basset Furniture, Stanley Furniture, Ridgeway Clocks, American of Martinsville Furniture, Hooker Furniture and other various manufacturing companies. Just about everyone in the area worked in a factory--until NAFTA. These days, nearly all of the factories have shut down. It makes me glad my parents beat into my head that I had to figure a way out of the town and not work in a factory or on farm. Here’s a deeper look at what Martinsville is facing: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/sports/otherspor ts/31nascar.html | ||
| Gregtonn |
"Imagine a sea of 60,000 shirtless rednecks..." Daisy Duke, Gretchen Wilson, Faith Hill... Dang!!! Don't do that! G  | ||
| Glitch |
Nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, I knew I liked you for some other reason than your boyish good looks!  | ||
| Ferris_von_bueller |
Glitch, are you speaking of the dude with the five gallon bucket on his head or the one sporting the red hardhat? | ||
| Glitch |
The one with the mohawk on his helmet | ||
| Glitch |
 | ||
| Barker |
Education, that is a question I get all the time. What did you study or where did you go to school to get a job like yours. In elementary, middle and high school I was a below average student. I almost flunked out a few times. I was often placed in Special Education programs because of my dyslexia. My parents spent lots of money on summer tutors for me. School was always a drag for me. Technically I should not have graduated high school. Every year we got to "pick" our electives and core classes for the upcoming semester. Evidently no one checked my picks or my prerequisites. I always added extra electives and never wrote down the "core classes” that I had to have to get a diploma. Some how I skid by and never took senior English class, biology, physical sciences or algebra. Instead I opted for agriculture, drama, wood shop, study hall, home economics, journalism, metal shop, library sciences, and oceanography. I hated high school. I just wanted to get out of class and go work at the local TV station and make money. I was unmotivated student with poor grades. I wanted hands-on experience instead of a set curriculum. My philosophy somehow paid off. Three days after graduating from high school, I found myself heading to Wyoming to shoot a documentary of paleontologist for the Smithsonian. And so began my career. After working full time at the TV station for a while, I felt the pressure from my mom to go to college. After being rejected from a few schools, I decided to take night classes at the community college for a year. Nothing new there. I always refereed to my community college as high school with ashtrays. Mom was happy, but she wanted me to get a 4-year degree. I would be the first in my family to do so. She was elated when I got into the media studies program at Radford University, which had the best in our state. The class work was a breeze since I already had on-the-job experience. Within a few months, I was offered a work scholarship producing marketing and promotional videos for the university. My boss was a full-time video guru, not a professor. I learned more from him than I learned in my classes. On the day before my 21st birthday, my parents watched me graduate Summa Cum Laude with a bachelor’s degree in Media Studies. Somehow the Special Ed student who should have not graduated high school finished a 4-year degree in 3 years with a 4.0. So the moral of the story? Find someone with a heart of a teacher who is wining at what they do. Do everything in your power to learn as much as you can from that person. Maybe one day you can return the favor. | ||
| Danger_dave |
When asked 'what do you need to get a job like yours?' I answer 'Unlimited talent'. :-) What have been some of the best gigs? | ||
| Barker |
So far my favorite gig was my hardest so far. Following a few mushers on the 2009 Iditarod. I camped out for about a month as I followed mushers on an 1100 mile journey over some of the toughest terrain in one of the coldest places. I pushed my body and my gear to limits it has never been before. I experienced temps around -50 F with wind chills approaching 100 F. My equipment froze and failed repeatedly. I slept in snow caves and tents on frozen lakes. We got around by snowmobile and helicopter. I crossed part of the frozen Bering sea by snowmobile. My still photog I was teamed-up with had hard a hard time in the extreme conditions as well. His snowmobile blew-up on a 200 mile trip in the mountains. We submerged a snowmobile in a river. I crashed my snow mobile. We all suffered from chilblain and early stages of frostbite. I got 2 ear infections and pink eye in both eyes for the last week. We broke alot of gear. We often worked 20+ hour days and lived off of MRE's and what ever we could buy from the local villages. Believe or not my guide was a BadWeb Lurker. He was Blown away that I not only had met the famous Fat Bastard, but ride with him. It was an epic adventure. I got see places most will never see. It was the most beautiful places had ever seen and one of the most dangerous. It was the suckiest most awesome adventure I have ever had.              | ||
| Svh |
Those are some sweet pics! Especially the one with Tina Fey... | ||
| Danger_dave |
I reckon his hand is on her backside. Plans for the future? Professional Goals? What developments (sic) do you see in the medium? | ||
| Methed |
>Plans for the future? How about hiring a staff?  | ||
| Glitch |
I have no life  | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
Don't it just give you an inferiority complex when you come across people like Barker & DD! Knew I should have paid more attention at school.  Now I'm trying to drive it into the head of my 9 yr old. It's a hard old world out there, you need luck and talent. Well done to you for achieving your goals.  | ||
| Hughlysses |
+1 Glitch. The really cool thing is that Barker's done all this amazingly cool stuff and he's still a hell of a nice guy. | ||
| Danger_dave |
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| Svh |
+1 to Hughlysses. He has a certain energy about him that makes you want to hang around with him. Super nice guy and glad I got to meet him. He convinced my wife we need to at least visit Nashville area by not even trying to convince her. He seems to have a great job but I am sure there are plenty of tough times dealing with the "talent". Side note I wonder why they are called the "talent" when the people making them look and sound good are the ones with the true talent. | ||
| Spiderman |
Barker, I sent you a PM. | ||
| Barker |
I also really enjoy any gigs with Special forces. I had the opportunity to shoot for Army SF a few times. Its a real blast working with these guys.  Here are a few shots I threw together from the shoots. Plz watch in HD. |
