Q&A

Our team recently sat down with Alan to discuss his career path, editorial vision and approach to producing and editing digital video stories.

What kinds of digital video does your team produce?
The digital video team makes a wide variety of stuff, from short breaking-news videos all the way up to long-form documentaries. The basic categories are explainers (2- to 5-minute pieces giving context about newsworthy people and events), features (longer, more investigative pieces that tell an in-depth story, often in partnership with Bloomberg writers), and series (multiple episodes on a single topic, such as startups, scientific innovation, or travel). A notable example of our work from last year is Hello World, a 10-episode tech and travel show that was nominated for an Emmy and a Webby.

Producing and editing digital video stories is a collaborative effort. What are the benefits of working as part of a team? What are the challenges?
The collaborative aspect is really important. A one-person video team wouldn’t be able to accomplish much. Filmmaking combines a lot of different disciplines (writing, editing, interviewing, cinematography, animation), and everyone on the team has a unique skill set. I’m lucky to work with a ridiculously talented group of people at Bloomberg, and we all make each other better through feedback and sharing of techniques and ideas. The major challenge with a team of filmmakers is ensuring all of our output has a cohesive style – that you can watch anything we make and say, “That’s a Bloomberg video.”

Why did you pursue a career at Bloomberg? What brought you here?
I started as a freelance editor and assistant editor here in 2013, working on a science and technology series called Brink. I was impressed by the editors and producers I worked with on that show, so I accepted a full-time position. My goal is to make visually and emotionally engaging documentaries, and I’m able to do that at Bloomberg, but what’s kept me here is the caliber of talent among my fellow producers and the writers.

What makes your approach to digital video unique?
I don’t know how unique my approach is, but it’s very important to me to try to bring out the human or emotional aspect of whatever story I’m telling. That’s often challenging with a business or financial news story, and I don’t always succeed, but it’s what I strive for.

Of all of your current projects, which is most exciting to you and why?
I’m currently working on a documentary series about the disruption of the music industry by MP3 technology, along with my colleague Jed Rosenberg. In many ways it’s the biggest story our team has ever taken on – we’ve shot dozens of interviews with major figures in the music industry, and sifted through many hours of archival footage. We’re very excited about it.

Where in the world has your job taken you so far?
I’ve been to the Panama Canal, the Arctic Circle, Ford’s test tracks, the Goose Island brewery, BMW headquarters in Munich, the National Cancer Institute, a hot sauce factory in Louisiana, a sustainable fish farm in the mountains of Northern California, and of course many times to Silicon Valley.

What gear do you take on a typical shoot?
Depends on the shoot, but usually a couple of cameras (we mainly use Sony FS5s and FS7s, and the Sony A7S when we need greater mobility), one or two lights (mainly Diva-Lites and LED panels), tripods, a wireless lav mic, and possibly an Edelkrone slider or Ronin stabilizer if I need to move the camera.

What are you looking forward to covering next?
I’m really interested in CRISPR gene-editing technology and the unbelievably wide range of ways it’s being used, from creating a spicy tomato to bringing wooly mammoths back to life. It’s still early days for the technology, but it’s going to change everything.

– Gabriela Tama