Web Videos Add Pizzazz to Entertaining Site

Entertainment Engineering magazine launches “EETV” — a video supplement for readers of the monthly web publication. The first episode uses embedded flash video to illustrate the engineering animatronics of Jurassic Park dinosaurs.

For anyone who has ever wondered what’s inside those Jurassic Park dinosaurs that make them move in ways that the old movie monsters never could, the answer can be found in the latest issue of Entertainment Engineering magazine, an online magazine that brings readers the technical “nuts and bolts” of today’s high-tech fields.

This month, Entertainment Engineering’s newly introduced web video, “The Muscles in the Monsters,” gives a behind-the-scenes look at animatronics, the science of making prehistoric creatures move smoothly and realistically.

Started in 2004 by Terry Persun and Bruce Wiebusch, the website, www.entertainmentengineering.com, features articles on the engineering solutions used in video gaming and in the special effects of television and movies, along with topics such as robotics and roller coaster design. The premise behind the site is that the technology used in the entertainment industry can be transferred to other venues, for example, aerospace, manufacturing, and medicine. But let’s face it, learning about a new type of motor is a lot more fun if it’s inside a T-Rex rather than on an assembly line.

Persun, a former engineer, and Wiebusch had worked together on other business-to-business press projects before joining forces to create the new online magazine. Their experience taught them that articles on “cool stuff” like movie special effects always drew a lot of interest. So why not focus on entertainment engineering as a way of bringing innovative tools and techniques to the engineering professional?

Before taking the plunge, they did some research on how engineers use the internet and looked at their potential readers’ outside interests. They discovered that engineers receive an average of 10 to 12 industry publications each month, so they knew that they had to do something innovative to capture their attention. They also knew that engineers love to learn, even in their down time, so their publication had to be both fun and educational.

Persun sums up his readership in a few words: “They want information, they want it quickly, and they’re really happy if it’s cool.”

The decision to go with a strictly web-based publication has proven to be a good one. Although not cheap, online publishing is still less expensive than print. By providing the articles in a proprietary online format as well as a PDF, readers can easily print out the pages that they want to have on paper. Subscriptions to the magazine are free, and the only e-mail that subscribers receive is a monthly notice that the current issue is available.

With high-quality layouts that reflect the style of a print magazine, the online issues are attractive and easy to read. “Our graphics and layouts are done by Sean Dailey over at verv creative,” Persun explains. “I’ve known these guys for a long time and Sean simply knows how to make articles look great.”

Using the web-based format also gives Persun and Wiebusch the opportunity to capitalize on the popularity of sites like Google and You Tube. With the latest addition of the 3-minute web video, they hope to entice even more viewers to click on their site. The first video, which features the T-Rex and his friends, was created with the help of Peter Wiant of Wiant Productions. Wiant immediately saw the relevance of adding video to the site.

Wiant explains, “The web video is the perfect delivery system for bringing people information in a compelling format. We can take the magazine’s stories and bring them to life.”

In the case of “The Muscles in the Monsters,” Wiant was able to use existing footage supplied by Persun and Wiebusch, keeping the cost down and speeding up production. Persun’s son T.J. provided the professional-level narration, which was shot in front of a blue screen and dubbed onto the video footage. The original soundtrack was written by Peter Lack of Cartwheel Productions, giving the piece a retro-rock feel.

“Terry’s goal,” says Wiant, “was to give the segment the feel of a mini TV show, while adding some flash and graphics to keep it a bit hip. He decided to focus on a specific product and a neat way that it’s used, while keeping everything relevant to the audience. By providing a direct link to the online articles and advertisers in the magazine, he gives the viewer an easy way to access more in-depth technical information.”

Developing and managing the website for Entertainment Engineering is Frank DePalma, whose Palmatec Solutions business in located in Port Townsend, Washington. Along with Persun and Wiebusch, he has watched the website grow to 40,000 readers per month in the last 3 years. These days, the site gets between 600,000 and 800,000 hits per month, up from 250,000 in January 2006.

DePalma enjoys the opportunity to work on the site, creating each month’s issue: “It’s great to be able to try out new ideas and keep our readers—and advertisers—coming back month after month. By using a tracking system developed by Terry, we can give advertisers a reliable and accurate indication of the response to their ads. If an ad isn’t working, we can help them tailor it to reach their audience or, in some cases, advise them that our readers aren’t the right audience for their product or service. That way we also make sure that we’re not wasting our viewers’ time with things that aren’t of interest to them.”

He continues, “It’s great when we hear that engineering professors are downloading and printing our articles for their classes. It let’s us know that we’re on the right path.”

What’s next for the Entertainment Engineering creators? They’ve just added a Career Networking Center and a Forum to the site, as well as an archive of back issues. And watch for more cool, hip web videos as the team at Entertainment Engineering continues their pursuit of keeping engineering entertaining.