I've made it onto the CF9 video interviews at Adobe.com

Note: This blog post is from 2009. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.

Let me tell you about them and the process.

One is a 3-minute conglomeration of comments from several people. These are both the "official" Adobe talkinghead-style videos, and some are more like "live remote shots" taken from the floor of CFUnited. Besides a couple of appearances in it, near the end they included me saying something fairly quotable. I'll let you find it. :-)

Then there's a another set of individual interviews with different folks (the talking head style), which appear (currently) at the top of the CF9 product page. You click on whichever one shows up (or click "community feedback") and an interface like slide show picker appears. You can pick any of them and at the end it offers to advance to the next. (That link to them at the top may eventually no longer appear on that page, I suppose.)

It was a treat being interviewed for these.

About the process

I got the invite over the summer and was told they'd be taken in a room at CFUnited. I assume the others were done there, too, but I don't know. The room was staffed by a video production team.

There was no way of telling for sure as we did them whether what we said would be included ultimately, and/or how much. Indeed, the interviews were a lot longer than what was showed (about 30 minutes for less than a couple), so much ended up on the cutting room floor for each of us, obviously. That was to be expected, of course, and I'm just thrilled to have been included at all.

Any disappointments?

My only disappointment: well, if you look at the videos and even the pictures at the top of the page, you'll notice something about mine stands out from the others. The production folks had made a point from the start about wanting me to "be sure to use my hands", so my inteview and picture show me gesticulating pretty vigorously. :-) It's not really my normal style, but if that's what they wanted.

But then I notice NO ONE ELSE is. Maybe I was an early interview and they dropped it eventually. If I knew the folks doing the interviews, I might feel like they punked me. :-) Heck, even on the tight shots (where they zoom in the editing) you can still see my fingers flying into the frame. Grr... :-)

And yet another appearance spotted

I notice that my shiny face also appears (for now) further down the product page next to a link labeled "Get Inspired". That's cool to see. I suppose it may well rotate with other folks (but it hasn't when I've refreshed it today).

Guess my 12 years of CF experience have born yet more fruit. Thanks, Adobe. And certainly I hope what I said is of value to some viewers, brief though the interviews are. Next time, if invited back, I'll also wear a less floppy-looking shirt! :-)

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