We all know the saying Jack of all trades, master of none. I consider my self to be a Jack of Many Trades, and yes I, Brian Prom, am a Master of some of them at least!
Master of the Video Production Industry
For a large phase of my life I was the master of the video production industry. I was what my colleagues nicknamed the fastest video editor in Southern Minnesota. When someone had a video project that was needed to be done quick AND done well, Brian Prom was the guy they called! After close to a decade of editing 48 hour film project films, you learn to work at a high standard with great attention to detail – the competition was stiff! [Learn more about the project]
I’ve found that in the current age of the media production age, being a mater of one trade doesn’t cut it any more. The video production world is blending with the internet. The internet has gone mobile. Video went mobile with the internet. TV is now on demand more than it is scheduled. Video production formats continue to change and merge. The list could go on and on… We’ve also seen industry standard companies sell out, merge, or fall all together.
Master of Website Development
Website development has always been a passion of Brian Prom ever since his High School teacher introduced him to it. It started with small projects and manual HTML. But every step of his career path seemed to fall back to an instance of “I could make a website to do that” for various employers. Many projects for this, that or the other thing, and many lessons learned.
A static website is called a maintenance nightmare. That of course leads to dynamic code, databases, and functions to power the whole thing. That then lead to developing several frameworks from scratch. Admittedly, none are notable or published to the public, but some are still in use today and were stepping stones in building this area of mastery.
From time to time I contribute my work to the open source community which can be found on Brian Prom’s Github page.
Master of E-Commerce
With the changes in video production industry brought a change of heart. I was looking for a new challenge to become a master of. Website development had always been a side-passion of mine. And that landed me a role doing video production and website development for an E-Commerce company. This introduced the era of Brian Prom – Master of E-Commerce.
This career path lead through several E-Commerce platforms, versions, and server architectures. Magento is the platform of mastery for this industry, with plenty of experience in other platforms. I’ve contributed to the core code via bug fixes and sharing my knowledge of Magento for others to leverage.
Master of Content Publishing
I’ve always enjoyed sharing what I know with others, and thus have become a master of content publishing. This can be for fun, education, or solving problems. My video production career led to a fairly robust YouTube channel.
This blog is another example of the content I have published. It’s a collection of knowledge, oddities, and quirks I’ve come across over the past few decades. I’ve also contributed to a parenting and life blog – The Way It Really Is – where I give a glimpse into more of my personal life and career/hobby like this blog covers
Master of Many Skills
Not to brag, but this is a rough outline of the many skills I’ve become a master in through my life.
- Website Development
- HTML
- PHP
- CSS
- Javascript
- MySQL
- E-Commerce
- Magento (Version 1 and 2)
- WordPress
- Computer Operation Systems: Windows, Mac, Linux
- Home Assistant
- Live Television Production
- Director
- Technical Director
- Producer
- Camera Operator
- Audio Board Operator
- Tape Operator
- CG
- Film Production
- Pre-Production
- Production
- Post Production
- Video Production
- Final Cut Pro Studio (Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro, Motion, Livetype, Soundtrack Pro, Compressor)
- Adobe Production Software (Premiere, After Effects Encore DVD, Photoshop, Audition, Flash, Illustrator, Media Encoder)
- Woodworking
- Home Repair
If there is one message to take away from this for your self, continue to strive to learn the next thing on your list of ideas to learn and research. There is a lot to learn, lot to do in life. Enjoy the journey!
