Your Boutique Multi-Platform Media Arts Shop
About Us
Erie Looking Productions is based in Ashtabula, Ohio. We are a boutique multi-platform media arts shop available for contract work. From work in LaTeX2e to audio production to video editing, we provide unique solutions for you. Examples of audio works we have created can be found online at the Internet Archive.
If you're looking for the blog of Stephen Michael Kellat, please head over instead to Coyote Works which is powered using ikiwiki.
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Support Your Local Small Business
As a sole proprietorship we are not part of the gold rush to seek funding from the Small Business Administration's loan program under the CARES Act in response to the COVID-19 crisis. We are on our own and are definitely too small to qualify. We are sustained by honest trade with you rather than federal largess.
To Reach Us
For more information as well as price quotes, please contact us via Telegram or via Skype. Our rather secondary presence on Facebook can be found at https://www.facebook.com/erielooking/ and we generally prefer to operate outside the hegemonic realm of the House of Zuckerberg.
Serving You In The COVID-19 Crisis
Although much of the business world was disrupted by the COVID-19 crisis, we continue to stand in the gap to assist others. We have been proud to be able to assist in ecclesiastical matters during the crisis. Whether it is looking up scriptural references in response to inquiries from bible class teachers handling prep or handling the logistics of a “drive-in” church service, we’ve stood in the gap.
We have been able to record condensed worship services for a variety of video platforms on short turnaround. Typesetting of worship materials using LaTeX2e is one of our specialties that we have had to leverage repeatedly. Utilizing thorough knowledge of radio frequency tech we even got a church parking lot rigged legally for FM sound temporarily for a drive-in service. With multiple church supply vendors not functioning we’ve also taken up prepackaging communion as needed to help meet local health authority requirements. These solutions and more have been part of our work during this crisis.
In a time of many questions we can offer solutions to at least some of your problems. We may not be a traditional partner that you would consider but in these times of change are problem-solvers worth considering. Contact us for a consultation.
Regular Commercial Services Offered
We offer many services on a general commercial basis. During the COVID-19 crisis we may not necessarily be able to fulfill all service requests. Please contact us to discuss the availability of services.
Audiovisual
We handle:
- Audio editing
- Radio ad production and placement
- Audio production
- Podcast production
- Limited music recording for release
- Single-camera video recording of events
- Radio airtime brokerage
- Systems analysis in conjunction with South Shore Microphones
Education
We handle:
- Non-credit teaching using Saylor Academy curricula
- In-person test proctoring
- Print media production using LaTeX2e
- Support for churches in preparing worship materials for print and overhead display
- Booklet and print collateral design as well as production using appropriate sub-contractors as needed
Other Matters
- Referral of out-of-scope projects to other appropriate vendors as necessary
- Book collection analysis and purchasing recommendations
- Limited IT consulting to include Linux system setup
Works in Progress
Supporting A Vibrant Local Media Environment
A continuing research effort on our part is to look at venturing into the creation of microfilm works as well as establishing our own small press. Our local media environment is growing darker. We are looking for ways to keep the light of knowledge lit. The radio landscape is also becoming less responsive to local needs which requires us to look at innovative ways to respond.
We recognize that during the COVID-19 crisis there are radio stations, television stations, and newspapers dying across the country. Ashtabula County is at a very special risk of losing any "local" media. It is with abject horror that we have watched newspaper chain after newspaper chain shutter titles in both their print and online forms since the start of this crisis. The horror only continues as we see the list of radio stations seeking special temporary authority from Federal Communications Commission to go into extended silent periods get longer and longer.
Eventually we will need to prepare and present a post-crisis plan for a new media future for Ashtabula in terms of our community having a locally-originated media. Cleveland-area outlets ignored our community prior to the crisis and with them all being at reduced strength they will not be in a position to provide us with coverage and reporting. When Lake County is being referred to as "outlying" and "distant" to Cleveland perhaps Ashtabula County is on the dark side of the Moon?
Other Efforts
We have a variety of general matters that are works in progress before us. Due to the COVID-19 crisis we may not be able to proceed expeditiously in concluding these matters. Works include:
- Development of a short film concerning an Internet outage in the Pacific
- Development of a short film about all the churches in the Ashtabula area that are closing or have buildings up for sale
- Finishing an artsy short film for the Dam Short Film Festival about views on perspective
- Re-work of other short film efforts for later submission to appropriate film festivals
- Development of new podcasting projects as well as development of audiovisual streaming using OBS Studio
- Continued experimentation in optimal Over The Air television receiver systems design
- Writing and review of various fictional works
- Monitoring of submissions to various outlets
- Responding to Federal Communications Commission proceedings as appropriate
- Development of plans for establish a drive-in movie theater
Our Recent Works
Support of Yester-Tech LLC
We were proud to have the opportunity to support Yester-Tech LLC with a custom multimedia display at a small business tradeshow on Black Friday 2019 in Eastlake, Ohio. We deployed open source software using the Raspbian Linux distribution on a suitably configured Raspbbery Pi device in the field. This was a rapid-deployment project for us with minimum turnaround.
Our credit slide from the multimedia show
Over The Air Reception
We have been experimenting with various styles of receiving television signals. With the recent "channel repack" the landscape has changed a bit as to what we now can receive. Displayed channel numbers on a television screen for Over The Air stations don't necessarily have to match the actual RF channels in use. This work helps us explain to clients the engineering limits of our constantly changing over-the-air television broadcast environment.
KCRW 7th Radio Race (2019)
We had the opportunity to participate in the KCRW Radio Race which is part of the station's Independent Producer Project. The submitted piece was entitled: "When Local Media Isn't Truly Local". The track is available for download from SoundCloud for listening. We didn't win but were happy to have the chance to participate with a submission that certainly did not simply fit the mold the rest of the pack did. We look forward to next year's competition.
Continuing Experimentation
We do attempt to keep track of developments in the realm of microcontrollers and single board computers. These are important items that help drive various aspects of our work. The primary software in use is gitit which is a somewhat lower-impact wiki compared to other options out there. We currently utilize a headless Raspberry Pi unit to run that.