Meet Russell Lasson, CreativeCOW.net Leader

Russell Lasson Kaleidoscope Pictures Provo, Utah USA

Russell started video production in high school. Several of his teachers became tired of reading written reports and thought it would be a funny experiment to give the students the option to make a short film on a subject instead of writing a paper. The option to get out of writing a report was more than Russell could resist. This started a series of silly short films created with a Hi-8 video camera, two consumer VHS recorders, a cheap title generator, an audio mixer, one audio cassette player and two CD players. Russell learned patience while trying to edit fourth generation VHS tapes with an accuracy of one to two seconds when making an edit.

Following high school and a two-year mission for his church, he purchased a poor man's laptop (G3 iMac DV Special Edition)--figuring that video people use Macs--and started his way through film school at Brigham Young University. Russell's professional career started with positions on several independent features. His positions included very exotic titles such as production assistant, key production assistant, boom operator and location sound mixer.

In 2002, Russell married his sweetheart and moved to Southern California to follow his wife's career. She worked in the high-rise buildings and he worked across the street in the Apple store at South Coast Plaza Mall selling computers and teaching Final Cut Pro classes. Life couldn't get much better.

After a year in Southern California, Russell returned to Utah, finished his BA, and started working with Kaleidoscope Pictures as their Lead Editor and Post Production Supervisor. During his four years in that position, Russell has helped Kaleidoscope edit and finish over 80 high-end international training films for FranklinCovey, four documentaries, one feature film, and a variety of other projects. In that time, Kaleidoscope Pictures has received over 25 Telly awards for different shows.

In 2005, Russell purchased color correction software called FinalTouch, which improved Kaleidoscope Picture's ability to deliver high end finished products. In November of 2006, FinalTouch was purchased by Apple. This started Russell's quest to learn the fate of the software. The quest brought him to Creative Cow Forums. Between that encounter with the Cow and Aharon Rabinowitz's awesome After Effects Podcasts, he was hooked and has been posting ever since. (In April of 2007, Apple packaged FinalTouch with Final Cut Studio 2 as Color.)

In his time as a Final Cut Pro editor, he's had many late nights with all sorts of problems. By sharing the solutions he has found to those problems, he feels like it's his way of giving back to the community from which he has learned so much. Be warned though, he has a very dry sense of humor which sometimes shows through in his posts. For example, if he says, "Sure, you could use control+option+1+P to do that, but one out of every six times you push those keys, it vaporizes an ant colony in Africa. When the ants go marching to get their revenge, don't say I didn't warn you," he's probably joking.

Russell is also an amateur photographer and musician. While he has high hopes of continuing to develop those talents, most of his spare time is spent on home improvement projects, many of which get started only to get put on hold to start another "more important" home improvement project. His hopes are to finish these projects so he can live at home instead of having to work there too.

Russ says: "I just want to thank everyone who participates to make the Cow possible. It's such a great resource and community that takes a lot of time and effort from so many different people. Thanks and keep up the good work!"

You can find Russell Lasson hosting in Creative COW's Apple - Windows on Mac , Apple Final Cut Pro , and RED Camera forums.

Articles by Russell Lasson

	Creative COW Magazine feedback 21st Century Cinema: An indie look at Digital Cinema You may have heard that digital cinema is coming, and that it will be big. Both are true, and Creative Cow leader Russell Lasson is one of the people making it happen. Here is a look at how digital cinema works, and how one indie company is building their business around it. Also, a closer look at professional-strength Windows on Mac workflows. Feature