Waganer Digital Video

Tucked away in a building next to the old London Fog complex off
of Londontown Boulevard, and with just a small sign to hint at its presence,
Waganer Digital Video has not really made itself known in the
Eldersburg-area.

This could be because, similar to GSE Systems, a company it
shares the building with, Waganer Digital’s focus is on something larger.
The relatively small staff has a plethora of skills that they apply to
shooting professional videos for multiple mediums, from television to the
Internet. The studio itself is a hive of high tech equipment, including
gargantuan computer monitors and top-of-the-line video editing software. All
of this is applied to creating quality videos for such big names as PBS,
Discovery, and CNN. They’ve even had requests to shoot advertisements in
Puerto Rico.

Why Eldersburg?

While the company does not cater specifically to the town
Waganer Digital is involved with the South Carroll Business Association
(SCBA), according to owner Rich Waganer. He mentioned that the cost of using
their services, and consequently the cost of running the business, was such
that it might be hard for some of the businesses around Eldersburg to afford
it.

“We do reach out to local business sometimes, and we’d like to
do more of that if we can in the future,” he said.

Waganer said a driving reason for the company’s location was
convenience. “We work a lot of long hours, and seven days a week sometimes,”
he said. Waganer lives within a mile of the company’s current location. He
explained that this allowed him to drive in and do some work whenever the
creative mood struck him.

In addition to this Eldersburg has a commercial area that is
conducive to production businesses, said Jeff Wilhelm, a Waganer employee.
“For a production company, almost anything you need to film a production is
within a very short distance,” Wilhelm said. This ranges from Home Depot for
a quick set design to Kohl’s for some clothing for costuming.

Another perk of the eldersburg location, Waganer said, was that
some of their customers simply enjoy the drive to the studio. “We’re against
the traffic… and we have plenty of parking here,” he said.

The life of a videographer

One thing Waganer stressed was that the business of video
shooting is not as glamorous as some might think, even with all the
cutting-edge technology. “It’s a lot of work, it’s a lot of waiting around,
waiting for, you know, jobs to happen,” Waganer said.

Some of the problem, he said, was that video is today treated as
a commodity. With a large amount of the population having still cameras that
double as video cameras or cell phones that covertly record, it is clear
that video in its basic form is not hard to come by. One need only look at
YouTube to see video is not a rarity.

Professionally done video, one the other hand, is something not
so common. “It’s kind of tough sometimes for people to understand the value
of doing a video and doing it the right way,” Waganer said. “I think we have
all the great tools and the talent here to do some great productions.” Some
of those tools he mentioned included prompters, virtual studio sets and
green screens and blue screens, high definition cameras and high-end film
cameras.

Videographers also have to be constantly on the ball, Waganer
said. “You got to be very adept with using computers, you got to be very
reliable and not worry about working, you know, weekends and nights and
holidays sometimes, because TV happens all the time,” he said.


Waganer Digital’s future

What’s in store for the company down the road? “Billions of
dollars,” Waganer joked. Really though, he hoped the company would start
doing its own productions, both for television and the Internet. .

“One of the things we’re going to be really gearing on over the
next couple months is moving back into video-based advertising,” he
explained. “I think we’re really good at making things look good and getting
people to look good on camera.”

Links:

Waganer Digital Video, Web site: http://www.waganer.com


More info:

Some services Waganer Digital provides:

• Single and multi-camera electronic newsgathering
• Video news releases 
• Public service announcements 
• Sports / Commercials 
• Documentaries 
• Corporate video training 
• Webinars and webcasts 
• Embedded Web site videos 
• Event videos 
• Tradeshow looping videos