Anson Burtch, Senior Integrated Producer
Bio
Anson brings concepts and scripts to life in television, radio, webcasts and dynamic media pieces. Equally familiar with large budget TV commercials and low budget e-blasts, he communicates powerful ideas that grab the viewer in any form of audio or video. In his spare time, he enjoys listening to Bluegrass and Americana music and traveling to any music festival within a sane driving distance. On the weekends he can be found tending his BBQ smoker where he is working on becoming the Barbecue champion of North Carolina.Articles
-
Job Tip Series #6: Possibility in Action
Apr 13, 2009 :: Anson Burtch :: 0 CommentsThis is the sixth article in the Capstrat series, Getting Your First Job. We hope to meet you at our Annual Networking Night, April 14 at 5:30 p.m.
One morning in late January, I got a surprise call at my desk from the Human Resources department. In a matter of minutes, my personal belongings and I were walking out the door. Due to severe workforce reductions (aka layoffs), my services were no longer needed.
My immediate reaction was to spend the next seven hours drinking heavily. After my hangover wore off, I thought, "Uh-oh...now what?!"
Fast forward three months, I landed a fantastic new job. Through the process, I learned a lot about job searching and how to go about it successfully:
Brainstorm - What do you wish your job was like? Remember when you were a kid, and you wanted to grow up to be a ______? Grab a piece of paper and start writing down all the possible jobs that interest you.
Research - Now you're armed with your ideal job description. But what companies might need such a person? Research will generate lists of companies and people.
Handy notebook - Keep your research in it. Keep contacts you've talked to or plan to talk to. Write down each time you talk to someone and the results or next steps identified in the conversation.
Network - Notify your network that you are looking for new work. It helps to have a short spiel about what you're looking for. It's all about who you know.
A good resume - There's an entire industry around resumes, so I'll keep it simple. Yes, you need a resume.
Informational interviews - Remember that ideal job you've created for yourself in your head? Chances are people have it. Track them down and ask them how they got there.
Not all jobs are advertised - It is possible to get hired without applying for an existing opening. If you are the right fit for a company, they may create a position for you.
Be patient - When Fred Flintstone starts driving, his feet go really fast paddling the ground before his car actually starts to move. That's how the beginning of a job search is. You exert a lot of effort, and for a while, it feels like you're going nowhere. Have patience, and soon your search will gain traction.
The Douglas R. Burtch (my brother) approach - If you've found the absolute perfect place to work, simply keep after them until they hire you. Did you get a polite "No" from HR? How about a "We're not hiring right now?" Call them back every now and then. Jog the company's memory that you'd be a great hire for them.
You CAN get the job of your dreams, but no one is going to knock on your door and offer it to you. With a little bit of initiative, persistence and patience, you can put your career in the place you've always wanted. Good luck!
-
Does Facebook own your old content?
Feb 18, 2009 :: Anson Burtch :: 3 CommentsFacebook's recent change in their Terms of Service is causing quite an uproar. To professional photographers and others who post original works, it has serious implications.
For many of you this is probably a moot point. Who cares if Facebook owns the drunk photos of you in college? But what if they then licensed the pics to classmates.com or an online dating service and your mug suddenly showed up in banner ads everywhere?
A quick summary of the change: You own your stuff as long as your account is active. However, once the account is closed the line that protected your old content has been removed from the Terms of Service, so technically Facebook now owns it.
Will they do anything with all this old content? That remains to be seen, but the possibility that they can worries many:
http://www.adotas.com/2009/02/facebook-now-owns-old-content/
http://consumerist.com/5150175/facebooks-new-terms-of-service-we-can-do-anything-we-want-with-your-content-foreverand commentary here:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/16/zuckerberg-on-who-owns-user-data-on-facebook-its-complicated/
-
Has "Green" gone too far?
Dec 19, 2008 :: Anson Burtch :: 3 CommentsA font that supposedly saves 20% ink usage in printers because it has holes in it.
http://www.ecofont.eu/look_at_ecofont_en.html
Is this the next step in green? Or is it just over-the-top stupid?
I think a real test would be to type out an entire page of the font in 10 or 12 point size, print it out and see if it's readable or just looks like swiss cheese.
-
Entertainment Blockbusters - A Whole New World
May 9, 2008 :: Anson Burtch :: 1 CommentsA new entertainment blockbuster was released everywhere on April 29th. The media was all over its release with stories, reviews, and commentary. Fans lined up in droves the day before to be the first to experience it. After the first day, the blockbuster had raked in hundreds of millions of dollars in sales.
What caused all this stir? Was this the new Indiana Jones movie? Or maybe the latest Rolling Stones tour? No, the blockbuster in question was Rockstar Games latest release, Grand Theft Auto IV (GTA). That's right - a video game. Welcome to the 21st century, where movies, television shows, and concert tours compete with console-based video games. Games give an added dimension in that they incorporate these other forms of entertainment and then give the user the ability to control them. Witness the popular Guitar Hero video game which is like rock concert except you are the one playing. Or GTA itself, which is highly cinematic in its lighting and camera angles so it feels like you are moving around inside a movie.
While the target demographics may be narrow for such titles as GTA, the profit margins are anything but. The game sold 3.6 million copies on its first day which translated into $310 million in sales. By the end of the first week 6 million units had sold for a total of $500 million in sales. The movie release of "Iron Man" that very same weekend generated a mere $104 million at the box office. GTA's numbers smash the income garnered from most Hollywood films during their entire theatrical release.
GTA reportedly cost about $100 million to produce. Compare this to Spiderman III ($258 million) and even Titanic ($200 million in 1997 dollars), and the video game is starting to look like a bargain that generates huge profit margins. With this kind of consumer anticipation, media fenzy, and return on investment, video games have come of age. No longer are they the second cousin or a nickel and dime industry. Monetarily, video games have arrived and will be a permanent part of the entertainment landscape for decades to come. -
Public Opinion in Presidential Elections
Mar 28, 2008 :: Anson Burtch :: 0 CommentsI attended a fascinating lecture by CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider last night at UNC’s school of Journalism and Mass Communications. While the title of the lecture was “The Role of Media in Politics,” the discussion focused more on the role of public opinion and how the mood of the times shapes the political debate and ultimately decides who gets elected.
Schneider opened with a quote from former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. "There are only two things you must know to pursue a career in public life. You must know yourself, and you must know the times." As someone who analyzes polls for a living, Schneider identifies “knowing the times,” as the key to political punditry.
Public opinion saved Bill Clinton’s political career. When the Monica Lewinski scandal hit, the media declared Clinton finished. A poll was taken, and Clinton’s already high approval ratings went up 10%. Two-thirds of Americans believed he should not be removed from office, even though the same two-thirds agreed he lied under oath. Overnight, conventional wisdom shifted, and the media was now talking about the “comeback kid.”
When it comes to public opinion and presidential elections, Schneider coined a concept he calls the “law of missing imperatives.” It asks the question: what do the voters want that they are not getting from the incumbent? In 1968, American politics, especially the Democratic Party was in turmoil. Violence and unrest were prevalent, and the country seemed to be coming apart. So voters elected Richard Nixon, because they viewed him as a strong man who could bring order. He was also a moderate republican in the middle of the political spectrum.
In 1976 after the Watergate scandal, Americans felt lied to and betrayed by their president. Polls showed the American public wanted morality. Along came Jimmy Carter who famously stated, “I will never lie to you” and won the election. Four years later in 1980, Carter had earned a reputation for being wishy-washy and indecisive. In response, the country now yearned for a strong decisive leader, and Ronald Reagan fit the bill.
We can apply this logic to each presidential election cycle. In 1992 Americans saw George Bush Sr. as out of touch with regular everyday people. Bill Clinton, on the other hand, played saxophone on the Arsenio Hall show and specialized in empathy. His ability to connect won him the White House. Most recently, in 2004, John Kerry ran on the platform of a strong ex-military veteran, someone capable of taking on the role of commander-in-chief. According to Schneider, Kerry read the times wrong. People felt like they had a strong commander-in-chief already and weren’t looking for someone to fill that role. While this type of analysis does oversimplify things and paint very broad strokes, there is some truth to it and it illustrates the importance of public opinion.
Mr. Schneider went on to talk about this year’s crop of candidates. One of the most unique things about Barack Obama is that he is an African-American politician who does not come from the civil rights movement. His perspective isn’t one of racial grievance, as others have had, and he’s not making it a part of his campaign. Obama is also running as an outsider, someone not tied to special interests or “politics as usual” in Washington. Schneider believes that Obama is in tune with the times and is aware that people want to be united. They are tired of the rampant partisan politics perpetrated by the Bush administration and are looking specifically for someone to bring them together. (Ironically, before being elected president George W. Bush said, “I’m a uniter, not a divider,” and then spent the next eight years doing the exact opposite.) Hillary Clinton is running on her experience. She delivers, Obama inspires. That is why the race for the Democratic nomination is so close. Both options are attractive.
Mr. Schneider pointed out that while this election should be a sure thing for the Democratic Party, it is not. John McCain also offers a uniting policy. He is viewed as outside the Bush administration and has acted bi-partisan in the past. In order for the Democrats to win, they must paint a McCain presidency as if it would be Bush’s third term.
A dynamic speaker, Mr. Schneider was insightful and confident about his topic. If there was one take-away from his lecture it is that politicians must know their times and ignoring public opinion will cost them.
-
The Writers’ Strike OR How I learned to love the blog
Jan 16, 2008 :: Anson Burtch :: 0 CommentsI’ll admit it. I have never been a fan of blogs. When the phenomenon first appeared, the very advantage it offered – now anyone can get their opinions out in cyberspace for the world to read – was exactly what kept me away. Who are these people? Why waste your time reading what Joe Schmo has to say on a topic he probably knows nothing about? As the popularity of blogs grew and even as blogs started appearing that were written by actual experts, I remained unconvinced. Call me old fashioned, but I preferred my news with some sense of credibility and fact checking behind it.
Then something happened that fundamentally changed my view. The Writers Guild of America went on strike in November. This is a huge issue, which not only affects millions of TV viewers, but hundreds of thousands of people employed in the entertainment industry (but that’s a subject for a different post). Immediately I scoured the web for information about the strike. I tried the traditional news outlets, TV station sites, newspaper sites, magazines, and came up with nothing. A few gave it a brief mention, but I was amazed at how such a huge issue that affects a large segment of California’s economy barely moved the needle. (Of course then I realized, the networks and the news are owned by the very companies the writers are striking against…D’oh!)
Further research led me to Unitedhollywood.com, an unofficial blog started by some of the guild's strike captains. Needless to say, I was immediately hooked. Here was a place where I could get unfiltered information straight from the source. While obviously biased, this was exactly what I wanted - a blow-by-blow tally of the ongoing fight complete with strategy, tactics and the dirty tricks the other side is playing - things that would never make it in the nightly news. I’ve got the site bookmarked and now check it daily. Ironically, reading this blog led me to (gasp!) read other blogs. All those embedded links were so inviting it was easy to click through and read someone else’s opinion. I hear that the comments sections are a big part of the blog experience, but I’m not that far gone….yet.
All Articles