Players' corner: Jerry Williams
By Daniel Neman - Oct 06, 2002
- Job: Writer, producer and director. Also runs a Web site devoted to people involved in the local film and video business, http://www.tvjerry.com.
- Previous jobs: “The Man in the Dark.” Reviewed movies for WTVR-Channel 6, 1974-1989; also reviewed movies for Style Weekly for 10 years.
- Stats: 52; born in Williston, Fla. Moved to Richmond to attend Richmond Professional Institute (now Virginia Commonwealth University); graduated in 1971. Lives with his partner of 13 years, Mark Reed. Has a grown daughter, Shenandoah, who works for Linda Ellerbee’s Lucky Duck Productions in New York.
Q. What do you write, produce and direct?
A. Corporate, educational, marketing and training videos and new media, such as CDs. Everything from how to take a blood test to a music video for the FFA [which used to be called the Future Farmers of America]. I recently finished up a training interactive CD for AMF Bowling.
Many of these jobs I work with local production companies. I also edit. One of the things I always say is video is written three times: the script, the shooting and the editing.
Q. You make some commercials, too. Why specialize in long-form video?
A. In some respects, they are more rewarding than commercials. Commercials are immediate, you see them on TV, but you are working with one to eight people sitting around the monitor, all with an opinion.
Q. How did you get started?
A. In 1972 I was hired by Heilig-Meyers furniture. They said, “Here, start doing training videos.” That was innovative, because video was still pretty new. And I worked in Richmond Public Schools for 10 years doing video production.
Q. Has your interest always been film production?
A. My degree is in theater directing from VCU. At the same time I was doing radio. I did Richmond’s first progressive rock radio show, called “Veronica Lake,” in 1971. We thought most people wouldn’t know who [1940s movie star Veronica Lake] was and they would think it was a place to go swimming.
We played everything from Frank Zappa to Jefferson Airplane to Muddy Waters. It could be blues, it could be even jazz, it could be off the wall, it could be anything. Bill Martin of Barber Martin Associates advertising was my program director.
Q. How did your background in radio and theater translate into film and video?
A. Combining the two was perfect for video, because you have all the different elements. Radio teaches you to combine elements like sound effects, music, voice to create a finished product. Video does the same, but it adds pictures.
In what I do, I can usually get it pretty close to what I envisioned. And it’s on tape forever and I can have what I want.