Samuel Bilodeau Email & Phone Number

Greater Salt Lake City Area

Providing HDR consulting, training, color correction, and creatively driven workflow solutions to the professional video creation market. Filmmaker and educational strategy expert for results driven learning experiences for everyone else.

Pleasant Grove, Ut

Supporting Mystery Box's creative production through advanced HDR & 8K workflows, including exhibition grade HDR color correction and content mastering.

Pleasant Grove, Ut

Bluffdale, Ut

At Mystery Box, my primary responsibilities involve researching and implementing new technologies to continually reestablish Mystery Box's market-leading position pairing the most advanced tools and techniques commercially available to the film and video markets.Most recently I have pioneered Mystery Box's Gen2|HDR™ initiatives, giving creatives a new way to think about their content in the world of multiple format delivery.While the day-to-day tasks relating to this purview changes with the overall projects the company is working on and managing, generally speaking my responsibilities include:- Researching and qualifying camera systems to meet project requirements and maximize final image quality- Refining and optimizing existing computer hardware and software systems to increase workflow efficiency. My initial optimization increased efficiency by 100% without any loss of quality.- Researching and implementing next generation video systems, including delivering the industry's first 5K mastered footage for exhibition, building the first independent HDR mastering system outside of the major companies backing the systems (Dolby, Sony, BBC, NHK), and developing workflows for 8K and beyond.- Advising company management on industry trends to establish competitive market advantage through cost-effectiveness, ROI, and longevity analysis of entering new market areas.- Minimizing company risk and liability through asset management workflows and policies.- Training and teaching third party organizations on emerging technologies & workflow best practicesIn addition to the general purview, I'm actively involved in the creative production side of the business, working in positions on and off set to achieve specific creative and technical goals. This has included creating content and strategy for new media and YouTube-first marketing, seeking to minimize metric values such as cost per conversion while maximizing engagement.

Under the pseudonym of Tech Adams, I created and ran an educational video series called Tech Laboratories, teaching on scientific topics such as light and sound, and other technologies related subjects.Currently the channel has over 2 million views, and is the home for the number one video on YouTube about a specific piece of technology.Largely this was an opportunity for me to practice and develop presentation & animation skills, while focusing on pedagogy for large web-based technologies, as well as an opportunity to explore the opportunities available to both individuals and organizations in the world of digital content creation.

As an undergraduate student, I instructed a course as part of the Theatre and Media Arts Department entitled Digital Video Technologies.I developed this course for the department in answer to the changing market of cinematic production, with the industry shifting more and more towards digital production and exhibition each year, and away from traditional film. Having grown up in the classical film world, the department faculty lacked the necessary background to instruct on the emerging tools to a degree that the students would be able to master the tools and apply them creatively.The course covered a broad spectrum of technologies, from the history of video in the analog tradition, to the modern digital acquisition using digital cinema cameras, demystifying topics such as video compression and transmission, and culminating in the emerging digital cinema exhibition and 3-D markets.I discovered at the time of first conception a lack appropriate reference materials for beginners; so, in conjunction with the course development I authored a text book on the subject to be the primary reading for the class. While unpublished, the research and process of writing has allowed me to master both a breadth and a depth of knowledge in the technologies of film, from camera technologies through consumer exhibition technologies and every element in between, giving me both a deep and broad specialized technical knowledge set that when applied to creative projects ensures the highest quality of the final product, and the optimization of all minor processes in between.

As the lab manager I was responsible for the maintenance of four separate computer labs that because of the needs of film production, operate independently of the standard university computer support. I was directly responsible for hardware selection and acquisition, software deployment & troubleshooting, and student training on these systems within the labs.Notable responsibilities included managing both video and SAN networks, working with professional decks and equipment, instruct students on how to use and care for the computer and video equipment in the labs, learning and training students on cameras and production equipment available for separate checkout, managing faculty & student expectations for use, and maintaining a high-availability environment that matched industry, rather than academic, standards.During my time here, I recommended and implemented the expansion of the video systems by acquiring technology beyond that which was available in other parts of the state and most academic institutions, including expanding into HDCAM-SR, the acquisition of the RED ONE camera for the department (prior to it being available anywhere else in the state), the creation 4K file-based workflows and best practices documents at a time when the industry was still transitioning to 1080 HD systems, assisted the department in fundraising efforts and demonstrations to donors and other internal and external specialists through the creation of department media, and many other creative and technical tasks, as required.

Mystery Box was founded in 2010 with the purpose of providing advanced digital equipment access with the necessary operational skills to the Utah film department, and my role right from the beginning was the management of technologies & solutions side of the business, especially within the realm of Post Production.At Mystery Box, through my technical expertise and knowledge of creative needs, we implemented the first boutique scale color correction facility using professional software in the state of Utah, while being among the first to offer digital file based workflows & DIT solutions at a level available to a larger independent film market, including purchasing the first RED EPIC Camera System available to rent in the state.Additionally, I was able to build up services within the company offerings typically found only in major post-production or specialized facilities, including the creation of deliverables for V.O.D, Digital Cinema Exhibition, and mastering for DVD and Blu-ray consumer releases, and to offer these at a professional quality.

At MB Foster my role was the primary day-to-day management of IT services to free up the time of the head of department, who was also a developer and project manager. Within six months of my contract, I'd solved the backlog of IT issues and troubleshooting needs that were interfering with company productivity as a whole. Then, I researched and implemented new upgrades to the hardware and software infrastructure, to increase the security of network applications and further improve reliability. With the backlog cleared and the updates in place, the only remaining day-to-day IT work was simple troubleshooting that was easily managed by the HOD with minimal impact, after my departure.