After Videowest sadly went kablooey in ’84, I tricked KGO-TV into hiring me. I worked there for four years, writing, producing and directing news and a docu-reality series. A job took me to DC in ‘89 (where I met my future wife), to NY, and LA in ‘92 where I’ve been since.  I’ve worked in several TV genres (as well as some radio) and NONE of it would have been imaginable without the education/training I got at Videowest, for which I remain endlessly grateful. I have two amazing daughters (26 and 22), and I’m rather grateful for them as well. ;-)  Find me on Facebook if you enjoy anti-fascist rants, and/or (likely for you) tedious blather about motorcycles, which inexplicably continue to fascinate me.

According to the Irish Times, “You wouldn’t mistake Erik Nelson for a layabout. A hugely chatty, endlessly friendly man in the senior stages of middle age, he has been a producer and director of documentaries since the 1980s. His collaboration with Werner Herzog delivered such classics as Grizzly Man and Cave of Forgotten Dreams. There have been films on Harlan Ellison, JFK, Anne Frank and the death penalty. Actually born in Hollywood, California (the hospital is now one of the Church of Scientology’s bossiest buildings), Nelson began in pop videos before when they still called music promos. TV and documentary features than followed.”

I joined Videowest in an unusual way, although I was at the time only minimally involved. Fab started putting my name up at the end of shows as EXECUTIVE PRODUCER. The Executive Producer is the person responsible for getting the money to fund the shows...which I proceeded to do to the best of my ability.  After VW, I spent 35 years at CBS Television in New York. I was the first person from a U.S. Network to get programming on in Russia, China and Brazil. For the last 25 years, my boss and I were responsible for every aspect of the release of over 100 DVD CBS movies and series per year around the world.

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Larry began his career as a news producer/director at the CBS-TV affiliate in San Francisco. As a music video producer/director, he helped develop the “rock video” format.  Since then, he has produced documentaries, commercials and entertainment specials that have won several Emmy nominations, including the award-winning film, “Michael Jackson: A Case for Innocence.”  He is the founder of The International Student Film Festival which features award-winning young filmmakers from such diverse places as Belarus, Zimbabwe and China. Nimmer has a weekly Man on the Street column in Carpinteria’s Coastal View News, and for the last 13 years, has performed a “Dance for Peace” from Carpinteria to Santa Barbara on New Year’s Day. Recent projects include a series of films shot on location in Vietnam, documenting and promoting sustainable fishing practices. More at Nimmer.net and NimmerArt.net.

Since my days at VW, I have been trying to find ways to use technology to enlighten and educate. Once on the Interwebs, I found ways to expand those goals and it’s been a great ride. I am currently the Web Designer at East Bay Regional Park District.  I really lucked out marrying my childhood sweetheart almost 30 years ago and we enjoy our pets, our friends, family and practicing Tai Chi every chance we get. I’m on Facebook.  

During my VW years, I was half surly, half adorable. That hasn’t changed. Everything else has. After getting a creative writing degree at SF State, I somehow became an accountant, briefly. My weekends are spent picking and giving away all the tomatoes in my garden, restoring my old doll house, and pretending to repair the actual house.  Weekdays I work as an HR Manager at Booking.com to pay my mortgage. I’m local; come visit me. Take some of these tomatoes.

Tell me about it.

I was a Camera & Sound Operator at VW, then Owner/Partner in another video production company.  I moved to Seattle where I was a real estate agent, then a massage therapist. From there, I moved to Whidbey Island, a beautiful, peaceful enclave where I still live, and became a Program Manager of an after-school program for teens.  Currently, I am Office & Grants Administrator for a nonprofit foundation and enjoying island life. I’m on Facebook.

I was merely a ragamuffin pantaloon shanghaied by Videowest to write and perform in disreputable and ribald interstitial programming. It was the most fun I ever had making no money. To my utter horror, I have since become a semi-reputable writer for themed entertainment venues and museums (including the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library!!!) The Themed Entertainment Association even gave me their "Master of the Craft" award last year. Luckily, they've never seen "Mr. Wine." Please don't tell them.

Videowest is what happens when you lose out on a cool energy job at PG&E and you had spent two years at Cal earning bucks running cameras and switchers.  Became tape librarian, post-production supervisor, editor, sometimes production assistant and even camera. Trying to make a living as an editor for the past 40 years. Lot of fun for the first 20 years, less so the last 20. But still alive. Got started working the Mill Valley Film Festival through VW which has been a cool gig. This will be my 40th year with the festival. If you want to have fun and watch films that few will ever see but should, volunteer/work at a film festival.

A three-time winner of the coveted Zippy Award, Tony denied any responsibility and skated through a long career in TV news until they finally caught on to him in 2007. He now works for the Democratic Party, which is like VW but less organized.