I’m John Lane, currently living a few miles from downtown Knoxville, Tennessee. I am comfortable with everything from chisels and saws, to animation applications on computer workstations. Early in my career I illustrated for magazines and advertising agencies in Florida. Technology and consolidating businesses transformed media, and I adapted. I moved back to my home town of Nashville, Tennessee and produced graphics for a network news affiliate. The pace was exciting, and the crew, reporters and producers were a smart and diverse lot, many with interesting backgrounds. I was recruited by better pay to video production houses, working with ad and music video clients. I enjoyed working again with film directors and art directors, as I’d done in Florida. My graphics suite was also calm, quietly focused, a good place for stressed creatives to convalesce. During another period of acquisitions I moved to the comparative safety of broadcast networks. I designed and animated show packages for CMT (Country Music Television) and TNN (The Nashville Network), which were ultimately purchased by Viacom.
I’d like to make a note here that many of the engineers, editors, gaffers and audio professionals were a pleasure to work with. I remember impressive skill and professionalism. Always thinking ahead, anticipating, their problem solving skills were notable. Long gone now, TNN was the home of danger sports – bull riding, auto racing. Prior to being bought, this network pioneered aspects of remote live broadcasting. Some of the equipment for this was made bespoke, in house by a staff video engineer. That’s exceptional, not normal. It’s the kind of thing that can happen when there’s both trust and autonomy at work.
After I’d worked decades, with more all-nighters than I could ever count, I decided to take a real vacation. I went trekking through mountains on three continents. The higher the altitude, the higher the likelihood of civility. A well known quote from Samuel Clemens starts with ‘Travel is fatal to prejudice’. I believe that’s true – for travelers who are willing to contemplate other people’s realities.
After I put my passport away freelance assignments started up, a mix of illustration and animation. While the evolution of technology has obviously increased in speed, I’ve maintained an appreciation for traditional tools and materials. This is not nostalgia. Many projects, of course, would not be possible without advanced software. Yet, there seems to be a type of choreography that happens when working by hand. The method imparts a subtle, unique additional narrative that may be imitated, but not created by coded machine process.