At The Sweet Setup:
Every week we try to post a new interview with someone about what software they use on their Mac, iPhone, or iPad. We do these interviews because not only are they fun, but a glimpse into what tools someone uses and how they use those tools can spark our imagination and give us an idea or insight into how we can do things better.
Today’s victim, er, interviewee:
My name is Andreas. People on the Internet know me by my nickname Zettt. I work as a video producer focusing on introduction videos, iOS App Previews, and motion graphics. My company is named zCasting 3000.
I’m also one-third of a German podcast called Der Übercast. Patrick and Sven are my co-hosts. We fly an old Cessna. We sometimes have a bumpy ride, but as an experienced flight technician, I try to fix everything in post. (Wait, what?)
I have used a Mac since 2003. I started my career as an audio engineer, and around 2006 when the first MacHeist bundle was sold, I got SnapzPro X as part of it, and I was wondering what to do with it. One night it dawned on me that I could record a tutorial for some audio software, explaining a workflow that was horribly complicated to show otherwise. After a glass of wine or two, I uploaded the thing to YouTube – my first screencast.
I have made screencasts ever since. I loved it so much that I worked on tutorial DVDs and eventually founded Mac OS X Screencasts (now named MOSX), which some of you hopefully still recall. It was fun. When I did my master’s degree, I decided to quit my audio career and start in video production. Since then, I have acquired a profound knowledge of motion graphics because it solves the customer’s need to “explain stuff” more elegantly than a screencast could ever do. I discovered the usage of screencasts and motion graphics in prototyping too.
I also used to work as lecturer. This was around the same time that I released my first screencast. It explains why I chose the career that I did. I love to explain things and share knowledge. It has such a big impact on students’ learning efficiency and ability to understand that I always wanted to teach with screencasts. This is the reason I lead my company the way I do: we live that kind of showing and telling that we want to see, and it is also the reason why I love to give presentations. They give me the opportunity to work on my storytelling skills, and they are a good way for me to get out of the rut of my usual ways and think on how I need to present my own ideas to a broad audience so they understand it. I cover a relatively broad range of topics, too, because I believe that it’s easy to learn new stuff and I just enjoy learning new things and telling other folks about them. I gave presentations on “101 things you didn’t know about your iPhone”, “Mac A to Z”, as well as “Hair Management”, to give you a relatively unusual example.
You can catch Andreas’ complete story here: Andreas Zeitler’s Mac and iOS setup.
“Back issues” can be found here: Sweet Setup Interviews.
