I'll speak to my role, since, you know... it's mine. I'm head of video for Giant Bomb. Where Jeff is head of editorial, I'm head of video. We both report into the same boss. That means for my part in CBS Interactive, I'm responsible for all our video production. That's costs, technology, archiving, how we're spending man hours, etc. Luckily, I have fantastic producers like Drew and Jason that make my job a lot easier. Being in content is not actually my main responsibility. Making sure there is video content on the site is. I think that's important to remember.
What is my week like? Currently, a lot of it is navigating this studio build and laying the foundation for more content here. Currently we have a lot of issues, from actual studio space, budget, and getting network access. All of these things need solutions. From putting holes in a wall to asking IT to allow access to Xbox Live, everything requires meetings and time. We're still working on getting air conditioning in the studio. The lights went up yesterday.
So Monday, I come in and go through data and emails. If I can I'll usually start playing a game to QL I will. Let's take an actual week. So I'm playing Castle in the Darkness prepping for a QL. Then I jump into Lisa. At about 1:30 there's a meeting with my boss to go over video and whatnot. At 2:00 there's a meeting with Drew and Jason to go over the week in production. I'll play some more to prep. That week happened to be the week our quarterly budget was due, so I probably spent more time working on that.
Tuesday we recorded Castle in the Darkness, Grow Home, and Lisa. Had a meeting from 4-5, probably did more studio crap after that.
Wednesday start prepping Supreme and Darkness Assault. Spent a long time trying to find where Darkness Assault saves, I remember that. Couldn't find it so I had to replay some stuff in the studio. Had a Wednesday meeting 1-2pm. Then I meet with Drew every Wednesday to see how he's doing over there. Not sure where the rest of the day went, but making those quarterly budgets eat up a lot of time.
Thursday we recorded Supreme, there's a weekly meeting with the whole team, and I think I spent a bunch of time trying to figure out why the colorspace on our videos was mismatching. I think I also tried to rig a better baffling solution that week in the studio. Got a new capture device as well. Figure out why one of our capture machines wouldn't record 4 channels of audio (kind of...).
Friday we recorded Darkness Assault and Sunless Sea. Did some other stuff. Can't remember, I actually have to run. Giant Bomb East is not an island. So let me move on.
If corporate is concerned with where their money is spent, I have never heard it. Actually, you're maybe the first person to question my work ethic in my 15 years of doing this. Not offended by it. I can see how a lot of what happens doesn't make it to the public.
We don't have the money to hire someone else to build the studio. That's the short answer and actual one. Who is going to build it? Same reason we don't have someone else to record and post the videos. Or clean the studio. Or fix the 135 problems we run into a day that go into doing content. Everything costs money and we need to stay profitable.
Ok, really have to run! Hopefully, this answers some of your questions! If not, let me know. Happy to share.
--Vinny