Video Production

E. J. Stewart, once the area's largest video production facility, has quietly resumed operations at its old site at 525 Mildred Ave. in Primos. At its closing in May 1988, the company employed about 65 people, operating two of the largest sound studios on the East Coast. It now has a full-time staff of eight. The facility is being renovated, and the company has hopes of regaining its prestige in the video productions business. "We're focusing more on quality rather than quantity," said David Bowers, the company's general manager.

Employers use them to train workers, salesmen use them to sell, and manufacturers use them to teach workers about new machinery. They're corporate videotapes, and they're very big business. The Brush Report, the industry's prime analyst, projects that $5 billion will be spent this year on corporate video production, up from $207 million in 1973. As the industry has settled down to a steady growth pattern, all segments of the video-production business in South Jersey are doing quite nicely, thank you. The camera operators, scriptwriters, director/producers, the electricians, the technical crew, the editors, the salesmen - all are pleased about a trend that experts say eventually will lead to a proliferation of individual work stations that let workers view videotaped material.

On one flat-screen, a young woman talks about being stalked. On a monitor across the room, another sexual-assault victim describes the incident that changed, and still haunts, her life. "The next thing I remember, he was on top of me," she tells the interviewer. "I distinctly remember saying, 'I don't want to do this.' " Her name is Katya Palsi, and on the day we meet she is watching herself on video in a Rowan University editing suite, hoping that her candor will help prevent what happened to her when she was 15 from happening to others.

THE TRI-COUNTY BAND played at the Hatboro Baptist Church Sunday to honor Robert J. Clark, founder of Cinekyd, which teaches video production. Clark (left) and Mayor Joseph Celano help Martin Henley prepare to tape the show.

D. Ray "Bud" Bunting, 54, an award-winning video producer who directed the annual video production of the Philadelphia Folk Festival, died of lung cancer Saturday at his Mount Holly home. He had lived in Mount Holly for 24 years and was born in Deland, Fla. Mr. Bunting owned Ray Bunting & Others, a Mount Holly video production company. He founded the firm more than a decade ago after working in video production for RCA, Media Concepts in Philadelphia, and Temple University.

Employers use them to train workers, salesmen use them to sell, and manufacturers use them to teach workers about new machinery. They're corporate videotapes, and they're very big business. The Brush Report, the industry's prime analyst, projects that $5 billion will be spent this year on corporate video production, up from $207 million in 1973. As the industry has settled down to a steady growth pattern, all segments of the video-production business in South Jersey are doing quite nicely, thank you. The camera operators, scriptwriters, director/producers, the electricians, the technical crew, the editors, the salesmen - all are pleased about a trend that experts say eventually will lead to a proliferation of individual work stations that let workers view videotaped material.

Halloween festivities will include video entertainment this year at Springfield High School. Under the direction of video artist Julius Vatali, 10 students in the school's video production class created a 5-minute Halloween video to be shown on the district's education station - Channel 2 - on the Suburban Cable Television network. Vatali worked with the students for 10 days, through a grant the school received from the Pennsylvania Council for the Arts. His assignment ended Friday.

Orange juice, sunshine and teenagers. These are the video images Eveie Wilpon, 16, hopes will lead to a trip to Walt Disney World. As part of a contest sponsored by the Florida Department of Citrus, the Neshaminy High School student is writing, directing and producing a video on oranges and children. To the tune of Katrina and the Waves' "Walking on Sunshine," Eveie's fellow Neshaminy High School students sing, dance, drink orange juice and generally look and act youthful on her video, which she is now editing.

Executive producer Lauren Placko, 17, stared at the television monitor and grimaced. "Lesha, can you come look at this?" she yelled, furrowing her brow. "You can't fit everybody in this shot. " Too eager and impatient to wait, Placko hoisted the 12-inch monitor off the floor, marched over to technical director Lesha Sanders, 17, and set down the screen in front of her. Sanders, who was assisting the video cameraman, glanced at the monitor and immediately began barking out orders - Hollywood style.

The Writers Guild strike is still crippling Hollywood productivity, but there is no work stoppage among the creative minds in the West Chester Area School District. On Saturday night, 17 young filmmakers from all three West Chester high schools will present their original works in the auditorium of Bayard Rustin High School at the 2008 West Chester Student Film Festival, the first of its kind in the district. The festival, rescheduled after inclement weather closed schools on Feb. 1, is the brainchild of Aya Hoffman, a Rustin student who came up with the idea for her senior project.

On one flat-screen, a young woman talks about being stalked. On a monitor across the room, another sexual-assault victim describes the incident that changed, and still haunts, her life. "The next thing I remember, he was on top of me," she tells the interviewer. "I distinctly remember saying, 'I don't want to do this.' " Her name is Katya Palsi, and on the day we meet she is watching herself on video in a Rowan University editing suite, hoping that her candor will help prevent what happened to her when she was 15 from happening to others.

SPORTSCASTER Lou Tilley introduced District Attorney Seth Williams to speak Friday at a Ritz-Carlton event kicking off the Philadelphia Soul/Greater Media Radio's Stand Up campaign against child sexual abuse. As the event ended, Tilley went over to shake Williams' hand and compliment the speech, only it wasn't Williams, but a member of his security detail, whom Tilley had mistaken for the district attorney. Tilley, who works on the "Propper Hockey" Flyers show and will broadcast Soul games on WMCN-TV, laughed when we called him about the mix-up yesterday.

WHYY announced Tuesday that it had completed its seven-year capital fund-raising campaign by going $2 million over the $50 million goal. The campaign ended June 30. The total of $52 million includes $3.5 million - the largest single gift to the campaign - from the Dorrance H. Hamilton Charitable Trust for an addition to the public broadcaster's Independence Mall headquarters, which opened last year. WHYY uses the Dorrance H. Hamilton Public Media Commons as a training studio for audio and video production and as a site for community events.

SIGMA SOUND Studios (212 N. 12th), where David Bowie recorded his classic "Young Americans" LP in 1974, and where founder Joseph Tarsia hosted other major projects, is reinventing itself. Music producers Durell Bottoms , who has worked with Pink and Boyz II Men and Adam Blackstone , who recently recorded Jill Scott and toured with Maroon 5 , are among partners who have taken over the recording studio and transformed it in to a one-stop facility which can handle recording, video production and a concert space for private parties.

WHYY's headquarters on Independence Mall has grown and is about to become more welcoming as the public broadcaster's $12 million capital improvement project nears completion. The Dorrance H. Hamilton Public Media Commons has added 8,000 square feet to WHYY's 60,000 square feet of studio and office space on Independence Mall. The building stretches from the station's front door on Sixth Street to Seventh Street. The addition will be a hub for teaching audio and video production - for television, radio, and the Web. "What we're going to do in this facility is transfer our digital knowledge to our audience so they can use digital technology to tell their own stories," WHYY president and chief executive officer William J. Marrazzo said.

The Writers Guild strike is still crippling Hollywood productivity, but there is no work stoppage among the creative minds in the West Chester Area School District. On Saturday night, 17 young filmmakers from all three West Chester high schools will present their original works in the auditorium of Bayard Rustin High School at the 2008 West Chester Student Film Festival, the first of its kind in the district. The festival, rescheduled after inclement weather closed schools on Feb. 1, is the brainchild of Aya Hoffman, a Rustin student who came up with the idea for her senior project.

The Metropolitan Opera's new regime will be credited with and accused of many things in the coming weeks - but "demure" won't be among them. The Monday opening of the 2006-07 season looked more like the Oscars than the opera, with a red carpet for pop star Rufus Wainwright and movie actor Jude Law, seen on giant video screens both in Lincoln Center Plaza and in Times Square. Rock star Lou Reed was seen lining up at the bar at intermission. Retired mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne merrily greeted fans.

You may get an overpowering urge to smoke a cigarette after listening to The Sex Album by Abington native Jessica Vale. That's because, according to the liner notes, every note on the CD, other than Vale's voice, is created by manipulating the sounds of couples making love. Yes, aural sex. The gimmicky project has gotten heavy-breathing attention from Howard Stern and other media, but Vale, 26, isn't the digital Donna Summer. And despite its title and origins, The Sex Album isn't an erotic experience.

Lisa Rysinger is celebrating some firsts. She was among the first group of students to receive a degree from the master's in writing program at Rowan University in Glassboro in 2001 and is the first out of that class to receive a contract to write her first book. Rysinger, 31, also a teacher at Camden County College, is the owner of Camden County-based Video Imagery Digitally Enhanced Productions Inc. She said her first passion - digital technology - led her to study at Rowan.

For students who like their entertainment on video, whether it's MTV or PlayStation II, the morning assembly itself was a yawner. There was Keith Kinyon, the principal at Richboro Middle School, giving a Veterans Day speech. The school choir was singing in a really high pitch, and some teachers who served in Vietnam were talking about what it was like to be there. But then there was Suzanne McDonnell, an eighth grader with blond hair and a mouthful of pink braces, taping the whole thing.