WMS e-newsletter

The project was significant, its purpose: to demonstrate the impact of energy producing technologies on India's rural communities. The challenge: to produce the video at the client's facility in Bangalore, India.

Producing a broadcast quality video in India provided many interesting challenges for Tom Wohlmut, the director/editor for the project. For one thing he had to be able to work in isolation. The only locally provided technology was a consumer grade PAL camera and PAL TV Monitor. All additional professional equipment and technology had to be hauled on the 23 hour flight to Bangalore from San Francisco. It was therefor necessary to travel light. For this purpose he chose an HP 7020/17inch wide laptop, Adobe Premiere Pro and enough backup storage to digitize over 50 hours of original taped footage. All this gear fit into two small carry-on cases.

Upon arriving in India, Tom converted an empty client office into his own, private editing studio. He assembled the portable laptop that was both PAL and NTSC compatible. And when the client needed additional footage, Tom pulled out a digital camera that they owned and went out into the field to do original shooting.

The India that Tom recorded is vibrant; alive with color, depth, and the extremes of life for Indians; poverty, spirituality, ritual and struggle. The resulting program demonstrated the many benefits of producing and editing on site. These benefits included saving time and money and to expressing a greater degree of depth and credibility.

The content for this video was born in San Francisco but matured in India where the unique circumstances and the richness of the culture influenced and informed the finished product. Tom used the environment to tell the story authentically and those who watch the program can actually feel what it's like to be in India.

Tom approaches every project holistically; strategizing the objectives and the content and presenting to his client the whole concept. His uncanny ability to think ahead, to trouble shoot, to be prepared for obstacles and to pounce on opportunity are invaluable resources to his clients.

Edit Suite In A Bag

Bangalore Editing Suite

"As always, Tom Wohlmut contributed 200% to the effort, maintaining a flexible outlook and devising solutions on the spot, often working late into the night in order to turn new edits around in time for the next day's production review. As a result, we were able to produce a half-hour documentary literally from scratch in about 10 days---a record undertaking by any standard."

- Bob Burdett (client)