Mykl Trappler

Mykl Trappler

Producer / Designer

Washington D.C. Metro Area

Current
  • writer at Mykl.org
  • innovator at ...

see less...

2 more...

Past
  • web designer at National Visionary Leadership Project
  • post production at Verizon Business
  • teleprompter & script services at Prompter To Go

see less...

15 more...

Recommended
Mykl has 2 recommendation(s) 2 people have recommended Mykl
Connections
75 connections
Industry
Media Production
Websites

Mykl Trappler’s Summary

I'm focusing a quarter century's hands-on experience on projects that marry new and old media, creating products and services that entertain, educate, organize and converse. How the tech industry labels this new medium changes every few months -- multimedia, new media, immersive, convergence, web 2.0, social networking, social media -- and doesn't really matter. What matters is that everything about how we create and distribute media -- which is really to say, information, in any form -- is changing. It’s changing faster all the time. And it’s never going back.

I built a career and a business guiding clients down new roads. And I’m ready to work with you to create fresh and innovative media. Please contact me if you’d like to talk about it. I promise, it'll be fun.

Mykl Trappler’s Specialties:

interactive, netcasting, multimedia, web2.0, social media, web, television, video, games, consulting

Mykl Trappler’s Experience

  • producer / designer

    Feral Film & Interactive

    (Media Production industry)

    January 1991 — Present (18 years 7 months)

    I'm available to work freelance for a day rate. But if you ask me to bid on a whole project, or provide the crew and equipment for your production, that is done under the auspices my company Feral Film & Interactive. How did I choose this name?

    Feral - (adjective) wild, untamed.

    Film - (noun) the media of a shared vision.

    Interactive - (adjective) influencing or acting with each other, often in a conversational way, producing immediate results, greater than the sum of the parts.

    Feral Film & Interactive specializes in...

    • bringing rich media to interactive content,
    • bringing interactivity to media that was once passive,
    • bringing production crews to any location,
    • bringing the conversation to the world, and
    • bringing you services tailored to your project.

    We are conversant in multiple media.

  • teleprompter & script services

    Prompter To Go

    (Media Production industry)

    1987 — Present (22 years)

    You just whipped up a script in Word or email. Do you need it cleaned up, formatted and easy to read before the CEO arrives?

    You've got a dozen collaborators, plus micromanaging managers, in six different organizations on three different continents with eight different agendas writing at cross-purposes for five days. Do you need a calm diplomat who can work with them all to corral and correlate every contribution in one cohesive script?

    You've got pages of jargon that no one outside your industry understands. Do you need a writer who can translate that into a clear and captivating message?

    You're crossed-eyed after hours, days or month rehashing the same words. (Which draft is this?) Do you need a fresh pair of eyes to help you see you words anew?

    When that's done, do you need any of that read off a teleprompter?

    I've been providing all these services, and more, for over 20 years.

    (Read how I got started at http://PrompterToGo.com.)

  • consulting technologist

    Mykl.biz

    (Information Technology and Services industry)

    1979 — Present (30 years)

    I've always sought to mix "old" media with newer technology, though I often had to wait for technology to catch up with my ideas.

    I was the first geek you saw carrying a laptop computer everywhere, because it was a filing cabinet and a personal assistant I could tuck under my arm. I've carried my "office" in a backpack ever since.

    On the fly, I create custom databases that help me do the work of five people. I can design them for you, too.

    I do web design work, for myself and for clients -- and so I can speak intelligently to developers I hire for larger projects.

    I spend much of my free time reading. I used to read monthly trade magazines to learn about new hardware. Then I followed web sites writing daily about innovative software. Now I read news feeds and chat with professionals all over the world, in real time.

    Thus informed, and open minded, I tend to see the deeper potential in paradigm changing technologies a few years before most people even notice it's around.

  • writer

    Mykl.org

    (Writing and Editing industry)

    1968 — Present (41 years)

    I've been a writer since I learned to scribble a cogent sentence, and it's been part of my life and work ever since. I've written fiction, magazine articles, manuals, scripts, and interactive entertainment. I also write in several blogs, keep a journal, and enjoy using micro-blogs as a kind of haiku. Short of producing a video or film, writing is my best tool for expressing myself. I do some of my best thinking with both hands on a keyboard.

  • innovator

    ...

    (Entertainment industry)

    1963 — Present (46 years)

    Since childhood, my passion has been telling unusual stories with new or innovative tools and techniques. I'm incredibly lucky that I get to do this for a living.

  • web designer

    National Visionary Leadership Project

    (Internet industry)

    2008 — 2009 (1 year)

    Create a cost effective web-based registration system and online databases.

  • post production

    Verizon Business

    (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; VZ; Telecommunications industry)

    2005 — 2008 (3 years)

    My work at their studios has included producing, post production supervision, script services and technical support.

  • teleprompter & script services

    Prompter To Go

    (Media Production industry)

    1993 — 2008 (15 years)

    Without ever advertising or promoting this service, for over two decades, a regular (and growing) group of clients have been calling on (and referring) me for teleprompter, script writing and editing.

    In the '90s, when I became a producer, and raised my rates accordingly, I assumed that priced me out of this work. To my surprise, clients kept asking for me. At first, I thought this was just force of habit. After they found other and cheaper 'prompter operators, yet still called me, I began to ask them why.

    Clients call me when they need more than a teleprompter operator. My clients know they can hand me a script or an outline, or just a few bullet points, in almost any format, and I'll make it work, in the time we have, tailoring it to our talent -- whether that's an actor or a president, reading 'prompter for the very first time or the fifth time since lunch.

    They know I'll just get it done.

    (Read the full story at http://PrompterToGo.com.)

  • interactive designer

    The Walters Art Museum

    (Non-Profit; 51-200 employees; Museums and Institutions industry)

    1999 — 2007 (8 years)

    I designed and produced several interactive kiosks for The Walters Art Museum, creating a virtual library of illuminated manuscripts, allowing anyone to flip through the pages of ancient one-of-a-kind books, even zooming in to hand-painted details that a magnifying glass wouldn’t show you. I'm doubly proud that mine was The Walter's first foray into interactive media. My "Book of Kings" kiosk, made in cooperation with the Morgan Library, was part of a traveling exhibition that toured several museums around the country.

  • script services

    Sprint Nextel

    (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; S; Telecommunications industry)

    2006 — 2007 (1 year)

  • web producer

    MCI WorldCom

    (Telecommunications industry)

    1998 — 2005 (7 years)

    Old client, new name, following MCI's merger with WorldCom. I continued to produce television, encrypted satellite broadcasts and webcasts for old and new clients within the large corporation. I also edited interactive training videos for the web.

  • interactive producer

    National Geographic Society

    (Non-Profit; 1001-5000 employees; Publishing industry)

    1996 — 2000 (4 years)

    As computers became faster and cheaper in the ‘90s, I could finally focused my work on interactive media. I passed up a television producer gig to work as a technician, learning the nuts and bolts of new media tools. A couple months later, I was editing multimedia projects. And a few month after that, I was producing and redesigning educational CD-ROMs for National Geographic. This was also the first time I worked a stint as Executive Producer (which was more fun than I had expected).

  • television producer

    MCI

    (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; MCIP; Telecommunications industry)

    1993 — 1997 (4 years)

    I produced multiple live and interactive television series for technology clients like MCI. Always wearing out sneakers, always on the move, always taking the stairs because I couldn’t wait for the elevator. Between live shows, I produce educational and motivational videos. And I setup networked calendar and contacts software for the entire production department, which forever simplified the scheduling of equipment, facilities and personal.

  • online editor

    United Way of America

    (Non-Profit; 51-200 employees; Non-Profit Organization Management industry)

    1989 — 1993 (4 years)

    I was lucky to work in a prototype all-digital online suite -- back when that was magic -- donated by Sony to United Way of America, before they’d even written a manual for it. We figured it out. And I was one of the first in our production house -- "are you nuts?" -- to say we needed nonlinear editing systems, years before "Avid" became synonymous with professional video editing -- back when executive producers were still getting used to the idea that we didn't cut on film.

  • associate producer

    Production Group International

    (Privately Held; 201-500 employees; Events Services industry)

    1990 — 1993 (3 years)

    In my early days as a freelance producer, I was one of the first to persuade a client to accept an "edited master" output directly from a computer. Of course today, you wouldn't do it any other way.

  • teleprompter operator

    Prompter To Go

    (Media Production industry)

    1987 — 1993 (6 years)

    Teleprompter Operator was one of those jobs that found me, not the other way around. At the beginning of my career, I saw it as a mere stepping stone, perhaps a task worth learning, admittedly another way to earn a technician's day rate, but not an end I was seeking. At first, I was just glad to be sitting in the studio, control room or on location, a perfect vantage point to see, hear and learn from a production crew firsthand.

    But I was disappointed when clients discovered I had a knack for 'prompting, especially automating it's time consuming aspects (under deadline) with personal computers. Not only did they grow accustomed to editing the script right up to the last minute (because I could still load it into the 'prompter right before we went to air), but those early clients became reluctant to hire me for "better" jobs.

    Little did I know, then, that I'd still be doing it two decades later!

    (Read the full story at http://PrompterToGo.com.)

  • Camera Operator

    Arlington Independent Media

    (Media Production industry)

    1990 — 1992 (2 years)

  • video editor

    United Way Productions

    (Motion Pictures and Film industry)

    1988 — 1990 (2 years)

    I stayed after work to teach myself "online editing" with 1-inch videotape. Even as I was still learning, the Executive Producer started hiring me, at first for underfunded projects. I worked cheap, getting paid to learn my chosen craft.

    I cut television commercials for the NFL. I made a visually rich biographical film about an elder union leader, despite the fact that all photos and mementos of his long life had been destroyed in a flood. This was the first project I ever produced (if only because the project had no budget for a producer). I edited dozens of videos. After a while, I realized I wasn't charging enough.

  • instructor

    Montgomery Community Television

    (Broadcast Media industry)

    1987 — 1989 (2 years)

    I taught introductory and intermediate classes providing hands-on training in field and studio production. What I learned about explaining poorly documented, highly specialized and deeply technical know-how, clearly and quickly, to complete novices, has served me well, almost every day, ever since.

  • video technician

    Montgomery Community Television

    (Broadcast Media industry)

    1987 — 1989 (2 years)

    I got my start in television at a local station, working as a technician with the analog equipment of the day. I learned video editing on 3/4-inch "cuts only" equipment. I operated old-style tube video cameras. I became much sought after as a lighting designer. And I learned enough of everything else to at least speak knowledgeably to all members of a production crew, to this day.

  • database designer

    United Way of America

    (Non-Profit; 51-200 employees; Non-Profit Organization Management industry)

    1987 — 1989 (2 years)

    I got my foot in the door at United Way Productions working parttime, job-sharing with their media archivist. In the days before the Windows operating system was commonplace, in an organization that wouldn't buy Macs, I created an easy-to-use computerized multi-media inventory system.

  • game designer

    Game Scribes

    (Publishing industry)

    1983 — 1987 (4 years)

    What began as a creative undertaking that wouldn't require the large upfront investment (then) necessary for film production, turned me into the young owner, author and designer of a start-up publishing business. I worked long and hard, without ever breaking even. Yet, I still profit from it.

    Everything I learned (about management, operations, negotiating, business relations, self-motivation, and doing the work of three people by being organized and using the right tools) became the foundation upon which I've erected all future endeavors. Plus, it was the genesis of many wild ideas for interactive entertainment, which had to wait until the new millennia to even be possible.

  • stage manager

    Perspective Troupe

    (Performing Arts industry)

    1978 — 1981 (3 years)

    Starting as a teenager, I worked as a Master Painter, Scene Designer, Stage Manager and Director. Figuring out how to motivate young and sometimes moody volunteers, while working with paid staff 2 to 4 times my age, taught me more about management than any business school could. It was the first time I was made responsible for production budgeting and spending. I didn't realize it then, but in three years I'd laid the foundation for my career as a producer.

    At the same time, I happily worked as a carpenter, and discovered a life long love of lighting. I studied acting and voice, even though I hated it. And I experimented with early videotape equipment. Oh, and occasionally I went to class. Somewhere in a box I have the diploma to prove.

Additional Information

Mykl Trappler’s Websites:

Mykl Trappler’s Interests:

that which defies ready classification, uncommon juxtaposition, moving fast, new ideas, living without right angles, life on the road

Mykl Trappler’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

  • career opportunities
  • consulting offers
  • new ventures
  • job inquiries
  • expertise requests
  • business deals
  • reference requests
  • getting back in touch

View Full Profile

Public profile powered by: LinkedIn

Create a public profile: Sign In or Join Now

View Mykl Trappler’s full profile:

  • See who you and Mykl Trappler know in common
  • Get introduced to Mykl Trappler
  • Contact Mykl Trappler directly

View Full Profile