About Tom
May 18th, 2007 by Tom Murphy
beyond words LA is a chronicle of Tom Murphy’s media projects, from the early 1990’s to present day.
Before I moved to California in 1994, I worked in video and audio for broadcast and art projects in New Orleans, my home town. I freelanced on productions of live music performances and documentaries about the deep roots of blues, jazz and gospel. Journalism with a heart.
Production work is really physical for big events at stadiums, festivals and auditoriums. In the ’90s, it was a world of BetaCams, miles of cable, mobile studios. Japanese clients brought in Sony’s early Hi-def cameras. Technology moved fast. I still have the Nagra field tape recorder that I used before moving to DAT walkman.
Long days and nights laying cables, climbing towers, camera assist, b-roll audio, driving cargo vans, or watching Bob Dylan perform. The New Orleans Jazz Festival was our annual gig. Outside of the paying jobs, I was always up to mischief with multimedia art.
I made art videos and photography with my partner Marta, a photographer and writer. We made the rounds at film festivals and art centers. Won awards for being experimental and carrying on like genuine artistes. One of my favorite events was a U.S. State Dept. sponsored presentation of our work to a touring group of international filmmakers. Visit our Spooky LA website for more about the art and writing.
Los Angeles in 1994 – Worked my tail off as Multimedia Director of House of Blues on Sunset. A few months later I launched HoB New Media as Creative Director. A while later, four years on the syndicated HoB Radio Hour. More on that ride here.
I worked all along Sunset Blvd, floating like the Cheshire Cat through a few well-funded new media ventures. Then the first dot-com crash emptied a lot of CAT5 wired warehouse spaces. But it came back. See Tom’s resume.
I pay the rent creating websites for entertainment professionals and companies. Specialist in designers’ portfolios. Larger projects usually have media catalogs with HTML5 video and GoGrid Edgecast delivery. Hands-on coder of html, css, javascript, jquery. Responsive Adaptive mobile frameworks, open-source bootstrap. Skilled in Photoshop, Illustrator, and media editing programs.
Successful new media campaigns are achieved by a multi-disciplinary team. An experienced Producer gets the best out of every individual on the team. Consider the different skills required: code (front end, server side), graphic designers, code artists, action-scripters, project managers, client manager, accountant, writers.
The Golden Triangle: Time – Resources – Quality… all interdependent. The schedule allows for proper development so the strategy is consistent with the budget and resources.
Favorite hosting service is Media Temple. I’m a happy camper with my GoGrid CDN service on Edgecast.
Thanks for visiting.