Q1: When did you start working at MoG and what are your primary duties?

TP: My start date was July 13, 2005. I am responsible for producing all Museum video content, including documentation of artists, exhibitions, documentary films, promotions and TV ads, Hot Shop (visitor) tutorials, lectures, etc. So this means I shoot, produce, edit the content, and output it to DVD or tape.

One of the really fun parts of the job is scoring original music for the films. I compose the scores with a Mac program called Soundtrack Pro, which allows you to mix and match all kinds of sounds and clips—it helps us because it’s free (produced music can get quite expensive) and we own all the rights to it.

I am also responsible for the display (A/V) of those materials and activities within the museum, which means I get to figure out how all those projectors and buttons really work (!).

Q2: Tell us something about your background (education, prior work experience, interests).

TP: I grew up in Seattle/Vashon Island, got a BA in Broadcast Journalism at the UW. I was in broadcast (TV) news for 20 years, primarily as an on-camera reporter. The cool part of that job was being able to travel—stories in Vietnam,
Ethiopia, Switzerland, Scotland, USSR, France—and being on the scene for big stories like the Exxon Valdez oil spill (I lived/worked for 4 years in Alaska). The bad part was being the town crier of misery—I know it’s a shocker to say it (facetiously), but TV news these days focuses far too much on bringing folks down. I prefer to be in the up region.

Interests—most people at the Museum know I like to pretend to play the piano. I also like hiking and virtually any activity outdoors in this beautiful part of the world, and seeing movies on the Big Screen.

Q3: What influences have shaped your career choice(s)?

TP: Originally I wanted to be Edward R. Murrow, keeping the world safe for/from democracy, but then I woke up from that fantasy and realized that what I have to offer as a storyteller was misplaced. Change is tough, but it keeps you alive.

My watershed career moment came during the W.T.O. riots in Seattle, where it seemed our role as “journalists” was part of the problem—we were far too soft on the obvious assault on basic civil rights (for the record, I am not an “anarchist” defender either).
Then there was the time I was going live in a parking lot in Snokomish after the untimely death of a teenager and became surrounded by the deceased’s friends. I was trying to deliver my lines and they were all in my face threatening to beat the tar out of me and shouting, “It sucks to be YOU!!” It was a moment of clarity

Q4: What film projects are you currently working on?

TP: “Rene Roubicek”, a look at his residency here and his storied career. The opening features him scatting while playing jazz on the piano that we set up in the Hot Shop. He’s a character, an amazing talent, and it’s going to take some work to make it right—out of respect for him personally and for his important role in the history of glass. I am also going to be looking into making a “Why is the Museum of Glass here” film to show in the theater to prep our visitors. There’s also the ongoing documentation of artists such as Jean-Michel Othoniel and Maya Lin, which hopefully will turn into something for Mining Glass, and a film about Dick Marquis. There is also some talk of several TV ads to produce in 2007, in conjunction with exhibitions.

Q5: You did a lot of filming during Chihuly Week. How will that be used?

TP: The exact disposition of that video has yet to be determined. It would be great to edit down some of the High Definition video I shot that week, but at the moment we lack that equipment. Chihuly Studios is working on their Chihuly in Tacoma opus, so we’re hoping we’ll be able to draw on their considerable production resources (which do exceed our own) and show what they come up with in our theater well before it airs on TV—they figured it would be done this (2007) Spring, I believe.

Q6: What is the process for archiving film?

TP: As for now, we have our tapes stored on shelves in the A/V office, with a skeletal cataloging system, but there are plans to take this two or three levels of sophistication beyond that for preservation and information/data/research retrieval and we hope to get that going in the near future. One plan involves a duplicate archive at the UW, linked to a database.

Q7: Are there any future projects you can tell us about?

TP: I want to make a film about coldworking. And hopefully very soon we’ll be taking delivery of a very cool project—an animated film about the History of Glass—Walt Lieberman, myself and Susan Warner collaborated on this project with a British animator named Tony White and it’s from the dawn of time through Studio Glass, starring two animated characters named “Burnie” and “Ash”—it hopefully will appeal to kids and adults and we’ll play that in the theater. And there’s not enough room to tell you about the rest.

Q8: Are there any special challenges working in a museum setting (as compared to filming in other venues)?

TP: The hot Shop is like filming on a 90˚summer day—I have great respect for the HS team and what it takes to make it happen on a daily basis in an environment that I only step into occasionally. I have to be careful not to melt the camera and myself of course, that shot in behind the Glory Hole is a scorcher. I did break my first piece of glass the other day much to my horror, but the artist was very gracious—“It wouldn’t be glass if it didn’t break” said the artist. That’s the kind of stuff that can keep you (me, at least) up at night.