Full Text:

Amateur Producer Is Bringing Dogs To The Little Screen

(with photo)

BY JAN HOWARD

A Newtown resident has combined her love for animals with an interest in TV

production to bring information to the public regarding concerns and problems

related to pet ownership.

Patricia Byers recently produced a one-hour show for Community Access Channel

21 of Charter Communications in which she interviewed professional pet sitters

Lisa Peterson and Adria Henderson on the subject of dogs, including care, new

owners, and mistaken ideas.

This TV production has led to plans for others.

Her next video for Community Access will be with representatives of AARF, a

non-profit, volunteer organization dedicated to rescuing homeless, injured,

and unwanted dogs and cats throughout Connecticut.

Her first experience with TV production consisted of five video shows that

featured photographs she had taken during her 1996 trip to Rome. Ms Byers

provided the voice-over for the shows plus appeared in front of the camera

telling anecdotes about the trip.

"When I travel to Europe, I make books of my photographs with captions telling

about the photos for my friends, and write up anecdotes about the trip," Ms

Byers said this week.

"In 1996 I did a book about my trip to Rome, and thought it would be fun to do

a video of the photos and do a voice-over," she said. "In 1997 I put the

photos on videotape. Charter set me up with a camera in their Newtown studio.

I focused on the photographs and panned them as I read the captions from the

book. The image was very sharp."

Charter used a photograph from her book blown up as a backdrop behind her when

she told anecdotes about her trip. Each segment of the five-week series

featured a different photo in the background. "It looked like I was sitting in

front of it in Rome," she noted.

The shows appeared in a series of five half-hour segments on Cable Channel 21,

and were repeated several times during 1997.

"After that, I didn't do any more. The technician I worked with was promoted.

I had relied on him for my videos, and I lost touch with the whole thing," Ms

Byers said.

She became involved in producing her own videos after seeing an advertisement

on Channel 21 for an internship program that would teach people how to produce

a show for TV.

Then, she said, she met Gregory Van Antwerp, Charter's senior local access

coordinator. After talking with him, she decided to join the workshop.

"It's free and fun, and I learn a lot," Ms Byers said. "It makes me capable of

producing a show. We're taught how to edit and produce.

"They give you a lot of help," she said.

At the same time Ms Byers was learning about video production, a friend took

her to a meeting about the Newtown dog pound. "I'm a dog lover, and I started

to get interested in dogs and the pound."

"I'm taking photographs of the dogs at the pound for The Bee ," Ms Byers said.

She said as she learned more about the pound, she become aware that some dogs

come and go at the pound. "There are problem dogs that people have

encountered. They bring them back," she said.

Some of these dogs were euthanized. "This was very disturbing to me," Ms Byers

said, adding that there are techniques to train dogs with problems, such as

separation anxiety. "I decided to make videos about these problems."

This led to the recent video with Ms Peterson and Ms Henderson. "They are very

knowledgeable about dogs," Ms Byers said. "We talked about new dog owners.

Many people don't understand dogs. They could harm a dog when it's not the

dog's fault. Through a little knowledge, they would learn not to leave a dog

alone with a child or food. Dogs are very emotional and intelligent animals."

Ms Byers has invested in her own video camera but sometimes needs help with

filming if she is doing on-camera interviews. She does her own editing of the

film at Charter's studio. Though she could use Charter facilities for

interviews, she prefers to go to a person's home or to a veterinarian's

office. "It's a more interesting environment than a studio," she said.

A resident of Newtown since 1972, Ms Byers earned a bachelor of fine arts at

the Rhode Island School of Design. An artist, she has had some shows but is

not painting at the present time. "I paint in phases," she said.

She has worked as a graphic artist and was art director at Grolier in the

1980s.

"I'm going through a career change with these videos. I'm projecting into the

future, with writing and photography. The medium of TV suits me well. I've

worked as a freelance photographer and writer," she said. "Writing is an

important part of me, and I've always photographed my own work." She describes

herself as a "jack-of-all-trades, master of none."

While her programs are dog related now, Ms Byers said she would like to do

another travel piece. "Different ideas come up," she said. "I adored Rome. I

would like to go to England and follow the trail of Roman ruins. That would be

a really interesting book to do."

However, for right now, Ms Byers said, "This business of dogs is important.

It's a contribution I can make to address the problems and concerns that would

be good for dogs."