Jeff Green (multimedia artist)

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For other persons named Jeff Green, see Jeff Green (disambiguation).
Jeff Green

Jeff Green at a radio production console
Born: June 21, 1956
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Occupation: Multimedia Artist
Nationality: Canadian
Genres: Speculative fiction, Dystopian fiction, Metaphysics, Radio Drama, Children's Television
Website: http://www.strangermedia.com/

Jeff Stuart Green (born June 21, 1956) is a Canadian writer, playwright, producer, and director working in a variety of media including radio, television, computer and DVD-based multimedia, and in live club settings[1]. His work has earned him critical acclaim[2][3] and a number of awards. In addition to the work he has created, he was instrumental in the evolution of broadcast radio in the Ottawa, Ontario, Canada market during the late 1970s and the 1980s — specifically, the Carleton University non-profit radio station CKCU-FM[4] and the commercial album oriented rock station CHEZ-FM.

Currently, he is working on a DVD-based interactive multimedia production, titled "Stranger Still", as a follow-on to his CD-ROM based productions, "Midnight Stranger" and "Mode"; a speculative fiction novel featuring the lead character from his radio plays "Spaxter" and "Spaxterback"; a philosophical treatise on the nature of reality entitled "Everything's True"; and every two weeks he produces and hosts an overnight radio show on CKCU-FM.

In addition to his work in multimedia, he is also heavily involved in the practice of yoga, has a black belt in aikido and has studied it in Japan, was a Western Ontario Secondary School Association all-around gymnastics champion, received his Masters level of canoeing from the Taylor Statten Camps of Canada, and has taught canoeing in Australia.

Contents

[edit] Work

Jeff Green began his career in radio in 1972 at Carleton University's CKCU-FM, when it was only running with a carrier current license — "broadcasting" by closed circuit to the university commons areas, and through a transmitter in the residence building to the students there. He was one of the founding Production Managers when CKCU-FM received its FM radio license in 1975. In 1976, he became the founding Production Manager at the Ottawa, Ontario album oriented rock station CHEZ-FM. In 1980 he received a Canada Council Explorations grant to create the radio drama “Epiphanies”, intended as a pilot for a series that was never produced. In addition to his work in radio, he was editor for the now-defunct tabloid entertainment paper Ottawa Revue from 1981 to 1983. From 1983 to 1985, he was Central and Eastern Canada’s first VJ, presenting groundbreaking video programming at Ottawa rock and roll venue Barrymore's before music video television was generally available in Canada (MTV had just launched and was only available by satellite television, which was relatively rare at the time).

In Ottawa, from 1979 through 1983, Jeff Green designed and executed an annual series of popular[5] live club multimedia performances at Hallowe'en entitled "Ne'ewollah"[6]. The first commercial "Ne'ewollah" occurred in 1979 at the "80s Club". Subsequent events were held at various venues including "Barrymore's" and the "Paradise Lounge", all featuring numerous projectors, smoke, lasers, pyrotechnics, and other effects. The 1982 "Trontastic" show was based on the movie Tron, had blacklights illuminating fluorescent strips on the railings to look like a Pacman game, and waitresses in black with flourescent strips that resembled the characters in the film. During breaks from live performers, arcade video games played by local "experts" were projected on a giant screen, and their sounds mixed with contemporary music. The "World War '83" Ne'ewollah featured the club laid out with sand bags, camouflage netting and parachutes, and the video screen playing war-themed rock videos, movies, and documentaries matched to rock music. Participants were invited to come in military costumes and a "war game" was undertaken. "Passports" were stamped with drink purchases to increase "power", and individuals could join in groups to engage in refereed "conflicts" with others using their amassed "power". At least once an hour, there was an "air raid". The club would go dark, and loud plane and bomb sounds, pumped through specially installed subwoofers, would occur, accompanied by smoke and flash pyro effects. At midnight, the band "8 Seconds" played Greg Lake's song "Nuclear Attack", after which occurred an "air raid" warning of an incoming thermonuclear event. The room went dark, there was a massive silent flash effect in the centre of the room, a projected mushroom cloud, a bank of blacklights came on as the only illumination, and "8 Seconds" began a 40-minute version of the song "The End" by The Doors.

In 1985 he began the series of radio dramas that became known as “Soundings”. “Soundings” went on to win several awards, including a silver medal at the New York International Radio Festival. Originally aired on Ottawa’s CHEZ-FM, episodes of the series were eventually broadcast on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and National Public Radio (USA) networks, as well as London England’s LBC Radio station. The radio plays are presently part of the roster of XM Satellite Radio’s Sonic Theater channel.

In 1990, Green began an association with members of Ottawa’s Salt & Pepper Theatre Company which resulted in the 4-season “Cowboy Who?” television series, an all-ages satire of children’s programming for which he was co-creator, co-writer, producer, director, and performer. The series was broadcast from 1991 to 1995 on the Mid-Canada Television Network, and won the 1992 Canpro Award (Canadian Independent Television Producer’s Association) for Best Children’s Series.

In 1993, he teamed up with the Animatics Multimedia Corporation, which resulted in the award-winning video-based interactive multimedia productions “Midnight Stranger” and “Mode” on which he acted as co-creator, writer, and director. These dramas were notable for their innovative interface and "point of view" social interaction, and were noted as being some of the finest productions available in their genre[7].

He is currently working and teaching in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and produces and hosts a bi-weekly radio show on CKCU-FM. His current major project is the production of a loose sequel to “Midnight Stranger” entitled “Stranger Still”, set in the same streets an hour later than the original, which is designed to be experienced on DVD. He is also working on a novel based in the "Spaxter" universe, and a non-fiction book on the metaphysics of reality titled "Everything's True".

[edit] Works

[edit] Radio

[edit] Early radio plays

[edit] The "Soundings" series of radio plays

  • Epiphanies (1980, 60 min.) — a disillusioned politician faces an opponent with an uncanny power over sound
  • Spaxter (1986, 45 min.) — a sardonic near-future thriller that pits a techno-telepathic private investigator against a self-styled digital deity
  • The Tuning (1986, 45 min.) — a portrait of a future media indistinguishable from reality, and the change to reality it helps bring about
  • Flash! (1986, 45 min.) — three people flee holocaust in the wilds of Northern Ontario only to discover that fate has something different in store for them
  • Somebody Talking To You (1986, 45 min.) — a present-day alt-culture dilettante witnesses the takeover of the world, one Walkman at at time
  • She Dreams of Atlantis (1987, 45 min.) — an ad executive has visions of a past life that she just might still be living
  • Spaxterback (1987, 45 min.) — a near-omniscient future computer sets Spaxter on the track of an alien manifestation
  • Xmas Is Coming To The District Of Drudge (1988, 45 min.) — a government worker in a dystopian world devoid of passion encounters a strange substance
  • Vigilante (1988, 30 min.) — a wish-fulfillment fantasy, and an examination of the nature and morality of vigilantism
  • Psychotherapy (1988, 30 min.) — an homage to Edgar Allan Poe, set in a chilling madhouse
  • Plague (1989, 30 min.) — a nightmare future where the world's surviving populations languish under vast domes that hold a plague at bay

[edit] Prog Rock Documentaries

Written and produced by Jeff Green (he produced numerous others):

[edit] Additional radio shows

  • The Salt & Pepper Radio Show (1987, 8 episodes, 30 min. each) — produced and directed children's radio series
  • The War Of The Worlds Special (1988, 60 min.) — part audio essay, part remix of other productions
  • Bomb (2003, 10 min.) — written and produced, and recorded using binaural technology for a CBC experimental radio program

[edit] Television

  • Ki-Ai! (1984) wrote, produced, and directed series about aikido for Ottawa's Skyline Cablevision[9]
  • Cowboy Who? (1991–1995, 45 episodes over 4 seasons, 30 min. each) — co-creator, co-writer, producer, director, and performer

[edit] Multimedia

[edit] Awards

  • 1984 — Technical Award (Canadian Cable Television Association) for “Ki-Ai!” (innovative intro graphics)
  • 1988 — Best Radio Program of the Year, Ottawa (ACTRA) for “Xmas Is Coming To The District Of Drudge”
  • 1989 — Best Radio Program of the Year, Ottawa (ACTRA) for “Plague”
  • 1990 — Silver Medal (New York International Radio Festival) for the “Soundings” series as aired on NPR under the title “The Weird Worlds of Jeff Green”
  • 1992 — Canpro Award for Best Children’s Series (Canadian Independent Television Producer’s Association) for "Cowboy Who?"
  • 1993 — People's Choice Award (Macromedia) for “Midnight Stranger”
  • 1995 — Murphy Award for Best Story in an Interactive Multimedia Title (Electronic Entertainment) for “Midnight Stranger”
  • Inductee, ASFSFA Hall of Fame for “Spaxter” (American Society for Science Fiction Audio)
    Awarded a Mark Time Award for Best in Science Fiction Radio and Audio in the History of Recorded Sound[10]

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Barrymore's Video Kid, Jeff Green, Is Dusting Off Some Unusual Footage". The Ottawa Citizen, May 18, 1983 — about an Elvis Presley video presentation.
  2. ^ Crook, T. Radio Drama: Theory and Practice. London: Routledge, 1999. ISBN 0-415-21603-6
  3. ^ "CHEZ Radio Play a Sci-Fi Romp". The Ottawa Citizen, January 18, 1986, p. C16 — about the first airing of "Spaxter".
  4. ^ "Radio Carleton Ready to Roll". The Ottawa Journal, November 13, 1975, p.33 — features a large photo of Jeff Green at production controls, wearing torn shirt and jeans, Sennheiser headphones held together with duct tape, and with WWII-era military anti-snowblindness slit goggles on his forehead.
  5. ^ "Ne'ewollaH Devotees Plan to Invade Barrymore's". The Ottawa Citizen, October 29, 1982 — about the "Trontastic Luminous Ne'ewollah" event.
  6. ^ The backwards name derives from his having held multimedia rich Hallowe'en parties in his long and narrow apartment in the late 1970s. To get sufficient image size from the projectors, he aimed them down a hallway and bounced them off a mirror, hence all images were backwards. Source: email from Jeff Green.
  7. ^ e.g. Blackwell, G., "Take a Virtual Walk on the Wild Side". The Toronto Star, February 16, 1995.
  8. ^ The script for the first episode of Azort Starbolt: Space Android was published in a compilation of radio source material for secondary school media courses:
    Schell, W. and Woollings, M. Reading, Writing and Radio. Longman Canada Ltd., 1977.
  9. ^ "Lights! Camera! Ki-Ai! Aikido TV Series Shooting at RA". The RA News, December 1, 1984, p. 19.
  10. ^ Science Fiction Audio Hall of Fame

[edit] See Also

[edit] External links

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