Seanie BLUE CV 2015

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Current Work

Instructor of Photography, Boston University's film school in Georgetown. Since March 2013, Harris has been a photography instructor at BU's digital imaging center where he has taught more than 100 students photography, photo editing, video editing and movie production. His student ratings at the school were one of the highest in the school's 10-year history.

Producer, “The Light & the Tide: Bill Kitchen & the Isolation of an Island Lighthouse,” current. Harris under the stage name Seanie Blue is Producer, Director and Writer of a 60-minute movie about the music producer Bill Kitchen’s decision to leave Manhattan for an island in northern Maine, where he is now the Lighthouse Keeper.

Producer & Designer, “IMRZD” mulitmedia travel entertainment project, current. Harris is the sole architect of the IMRZD travel publication designed for in-flight entertainment. The project involves video, audio, photography, music, design, and journalism in an interactive entertainment module. Associates involved include photographer Helmuth Humphrey (“Apertures”), editor David Snider (“Photography Channel”), and producer Sandra Bishop (“Wonder 101”).

Producer & Cameras, “The Light at the End of the World” mulitmedia project, current. A 31-minute movie designed for tablet interactivity, this project is meant to be a book, movie and slideshow. A part of the project will be on exhibit and for sale at the Hotel Djupavik (Iceland) in the summer of 2013. Subject material is the decade-long effort by Harris to shoot the aurora borealis in difficult conditions at the Arctic Circle.

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Recent Freelance Work & Recent Creative Projects

Photographer, hired by Qatar Airways to shoot several projects for the airline, including the maiden voyage of the first Dreamliner from Boeing’s Seattle Field to Doha, Qatar. Harris shot and edited both stills and video about the Qatar Airways’ CEO at several functions in Washington, and worked in Doha to present and organize over 1,000 pictures and over 10 hours of video about the initial Dreamliner flight. October-December 2012.

Producer & Cameraman, with David Snider of the Photography Channel on various projects, including the video interviews included in photographer Steve McCurry’s iPad application published in February [Link: http://vimeo.com/57332877]. Other projects with the Photography Channel include: interviews and camera work on the documentary “My Friend, James Dean” about Magnum founder and photographer Dennis Stock [Link: http://vimeo.com/58939739]; writing and editing the short movie on photographer Donna Ferrato’s work, “The Surprise,” premiered at the Bubble Lounge in Tribeca in 2011 [Link: http://vimeo.com/58939243]; interviewing, shooting and editing the short documentary “Nuclear Witness: Ken Hackman” on photographer Hackman’s experiences shooting nuclear bomb tests in the 1950s [Link: http://vimeo.com/56959574]; writing and editing the short movie “My Own Private Afghanistan” for Montreal photographer Teresa Nabais.

Writer & Director, “The Drummer: Michael Jerome Moore & Rhythms As Language & Ideas,” current. An artistic documentary by Harris about keeping time, showing the work of drummer Michael Jerome Moore, who drums for John Cale [ex-Velvet Underground], Richard Thompson & Better Than Ezra, and who also has his own ambitions and ideas about rhythm and its place in the daily lives of music lovers and melody makers. Harris toured with Cale’s Velvet Underground show in Portugal, with Richard Thompson’s concerts in Benelux, and with Better Than Ezra in Pennsylvania and at the House of Blues in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. Moore also performed on four songs composed and produced by Harris in the Moonlight Project.

Photographer, Writer & Director, with David Snider of the Photography Channel on the 41-minute movie “Eleven Faces,” starring the Icelandic model and actress Halldora Markusdottir. Released January, 2010.

Photographer, featured in the Photography Channel short movie “Night Light: Seanie Blue’s Pursuit of the Aurora Borealis,” for the 2010 FotoWeek festival in Washington DC. The 10-minute movie illustrates the 9-year effort by Harris to photograph the northern lights in dead of winter in the Arctic Circle. Released October, 2010.

Producer, Composer & Director, “The Moonlight Project,” created with Peter Fox and produced by Harris, Fox, Sandra Bishop & Steve McCormick in Venice Beach and Washington DC. The musical project involves the production of 144 variations on 12 songs co-written by Harris. The songs were written and produced in the studios of Groovetown USA (Venice Beach, CA & Washington DC), and McCormick Audio (Mar Vista, CA). Musicians include: drummer Michael Jerome Moore (John Cale, Better Than Ezra, Richard Thompson, New Kids on the Block), bassist Joe Karnes (Fitz & the Tantrums), steel pedalist Eric Heywood (The Pretenders, Ray LaMontagne), drummer Steve DiStanislao (Loggins & Messina, Crosby, Stills), opera singer Meri Siirala (Sibelius Academy, Helsinki), singer Helena Lalita (Warner Records), saxophonist Stanley Behrens (War), cellist Hailas Baatsch (Symphony Orchestra, Portland OR), ghazal singer Seema Sugandh, singer Jonelle Vette, and guitarist Sophie Holt. The most recent variation of the musical is “Wild Bird,” written by Harris with Ariel Francis, Helena Lalita, Sandra Bishop and Peter Fox, and this variation consists of a 75-instrument, 120-track symphony of 33 minutes length. This project began in late 2009 and is ongoing.

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Past Work & Employment History

Producer & Photographer, the WonderBox 2010-2011. Two-year project created with architect Andy Cassatt in a 12,000 sq ft studio in Washington. Project’s goal was a synthesis of theatre, prose, video, photography and music in a private studio setting. Dozens of movies and books were created during this time, including Harris’ “Bankers & Bombshells” multimedia project about the foreclosure and bankruptcy process, and “Skipper,” the memoir of Harris about his childhood in Lebanon and Spain as the son of a gentleman spy. One of the projects in the Wonderbox, created with writer Alana Nason, was “Creation 24” in which attendees to the 24-hour event had to create a piece of art from scratch, influenced by the energies expended by other attendees; nobody could leave the property during the 24-hour period, and all creations were displayed at a public event immediately upon conclusion of the exercise. The Wonderbox studio also hosted Harris’ photo practice. During this period Harris shot dozens of models, musicians and artists on a freelance basis.

Photographer & Artist, independent production, 2004 to present. Harris working under the stage name Seanie Blue has pursued a variety of independent projects for the past decade. He has shot commercial products (tango shoes, allergy relief capsules, nasal sanitizers, real estate) as well as fashion (clothing catalogue, jewelry, shoes), portfolios (models, musicians, artists), and nature and travel topics. He has produced videos for real estate and banking regulation companies, and multimedia projects including photography and video for a variety of organisations, many shown elsewhere on this resume. Clients included: Nozin (Bethesda), iFilmEvents.com (Potomac), PhotographyChannelTV.com (Washington), Legal Forensic Auditors (Warrenton VA), Debbie F. Tangoe Shoe Importers (Virginia), Carina’s Tango Company (Washington), Stay In Touch real estate services (Washington), SIGCAT (Reston, VA), the Morris Arboretum (Philadelphia), the U.S. Botanical Garden, The Anacostia Watershed Society, National Wildlife Federation, Creative Capital Associates (Silver Spring MD), Nora’s Restaurant (Washington), IMAGO music productions (New York), Conservation International, biologist Mark Plotkin, the National Zoo and others dating to 1993. Some of these client references include work done with Ecomedia, a 501(c)3 non-profit created by Harris, Eric Gravely and Sandra Bishop during the Betapunks years with the purpose of distributing information and entertainment about wilderness preservation.

Producer, Writer, Director, BadTV 1997-2003. With Sandra Bishop, Harris produced weekly shows on Warner’s cable network in New York. In addition, BadTV was one of the first publishing sensations on Youtube, with videos often topping more than one million views. The self-surfing format of the show attracted loyal followers from the beginning, and the BadTV refrain of “Don’t touch the remote, we change the channel for you” was popular at the first of Youtube’s sanctioned “Meet-Ups.” BadTV ceased weekly broadcast in 2003, but has still produced a few shows since. BadTV excerpts have been used on several national broadcast shows, including Jay Leno and Good Morning America.

[Link: http://www.youtube.com/user/BadTvDotCom]

Editor, SIGCAT 1996-1997. A user’s group dedicated to the spread of CD-ROM technology, SIGCAT became the de facto trade association for the introduction of the DVD. Harris was hired to produce the organization’s newsletter and marketing materials, and in the second year he produced the annual SIGCAT conference in Reston. The job required liaising with Kodak, SONY, Panasonic, Western Digital, Seagate and other corporations that became key players in the development and sales of the most popular technology introduction in the past quarter-century, the DVD.

Producer & Composer, “The Black Hole Buddha” 1995-1996. With Peter Fox, Harris created the musical based on Aristophanes’ play “Lysistrata,” and the musical won instant acclaim and the backing of “Hair” creator Galt MacDermott, who called the BHB “determinedly outrageous.” Harris was briefly represented by entertainment giant Paul Marshall before signing with attorney Alan Bomser. Fox and Harris split after two years of continuous collboration, but would later join again to create the Moonlight Project in Venice, CA.

[Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2ssnVaYwJc]

[Link: https://soundcloud.com/user106794431/barely-human-studio-live]

Producer, Writer, Director, Betapunks 1990-1994. The underground arts collective was created and led by Harris until his diagnosis with cancer in 1994. The group inhabited the Blagden Alley Warehouse in Washington and regularly held events that caught the attention of the city’s media. Theatre, music, movies, video, poetry, art and dance were staples of the Betapunks’ mix, and a variety of talented people passed through the Warehouse during its heyday. The Betapunks produced four movies that gained positive critical acclaim.

[Link: http://www.seanieblue.com/critix-on-blue/]

Reporter & Editor, Executive Compensation Reports & Countertrade Outlook 1984-1989. DP Publications in Northern Virginia hired Harris full-time and part-time as an editor, writer and gofer for five years. He secured several stories from Buenos Aires, Lima, Montevideo and La Paz on unconventional trade finance.

Writer & Editor, The Fort Myers News-Press 1983-1984. Sportswriter at the Fort Myers FL daily newspaper.

Managing Editor, The President’s Private Sector Survey on Cost Control 1982-1983. Presidential commission set up by WR Grace CEO J. Peter Grace, Harris worked directly for White House liasion Janet Colson, editing all reports by investigators seeking to cut U.S. government spending across all Federal agencies.

Associate Editor, McGraw-Hill Publications 1977-1982. As Associate Editor, Harris was resposible for the layout and editorial content of several newsletters published at the company’s National Press Building HQ. These publications included weekly bulletins “Green Markets” on the fertilizer industry and “MineReg” on the coal mining industry. Several reference books published by McGraw-Hill were edited by Harris during this time, including the annual reviews of the fertilizer industry. Harris worked on MineReg with Chris Joyce, who is currently the U.S. editor at NPR, and with future Betapunks collaborator Will Rokos, who co-wrote the movie Monster’s Ball for which he was nominated for an Oscar.

Freelance Reporter, 1979-1987. After finishing scool in 1978, Harris wrote about a variety of subjects for newspapers in the USA and Canada, on a freelance basis. This meant pitching and executing hundreds of stories as an independent reporter. Subjects included environmental sciences, entertainment news, editorials, travel, and sports for more than 75 daily newspapers, including Washington Post, Washington Times, Seattle Times, Baltimore Sun, Toronto Globe & Mail, Montreal Gazette, Houston Post, San Jose Mercury News, Lexington Herald, Boston Herald, Buffalo Courier-Express, and the Albuquerque Journal.

Personal & Professional Addenda

Education

Sean Harris was educated under the London Scool Board system of “O” Levels and “A” Levels at St. Anthony’s College in Malaga, Spain. He attended class at USDA graduate school as a condition of employment with McGraw-Hill as a teenager.

Personal

Sean Harris speaks Spanish fluently, and speaks his first language, French, with a flawless accent but limited vocabulary. He understands Portuguese if spoken extremely slowly. He has traveled to more than 80 nations as a photojournalist.

Technical

Harris shoots video with a SONY EX1, using the XDCAM codec. He uses Audio-Technica shotgun microphones or Sennheiser lavaliers. He shoots with a Nikon D800 and a Nikon D600 with vintage prime lenses. He edits FCP 7 and FCP X, and works fluently in Photoshop and InDesign and Lightroom. He regularly uses Soundtrack, Type and Compressor softwares.

Client List Curent & Past

PAST CLIENTS:

Hilton Hotels Luxury Division (foto)
Race Across America (foto)
EcoDomo Leather (foto) (current)
LiveSyphon Inc. • Athens GA (vid)
Bread.org (foto)
Food for the World (foto)
Salsa Magic/Bachata Congress (current)
Public Contracting Institute • WDC
Relay Rides Inc. • San Francisco (current)
Pike & Rose Audio & Visual Festival
MReport Magazine
American Student Government Assn
Blue Car Rental • Iceland (current)
K4 Associates • Rockville
PG Hospital Center (vid)
PGHC surgeon Dr. Naficy (current)
ImageXL.Co • Washington
David Bromberg (current)
Belize Institute of Archaeology (current)
Edible Magazine
Yekta Supermarket, Rockville
RoughHouse Records • Philadelphia
Timbaland Studios • Philadelphia
Lebanese Taverna (current)
Crystal Auto Rental • Belize (current)
Nozin Pharmaceutical, Bethesda
Critical Path Institute • Tucson
San Jose Mercury News
Lighthouse Digest Magazine • Maine
Buyer First Real Estate Co. (current)
Long + Foster Potomac (current)
Nora's Restaurant
Prince Georges Hospital Center
Daniel Donnelly Design Studio (current)
Bromberg Fine Violins • Wilmington
Bandshell Management
Qatar Airways
PUBLIC NYC PR (current)
Jazz Singer Lisa Engleken (current)
Boston University (current)
Boeing Co.
Steve McCurry, photographer
Kitchen Synch Productions NYC (current)
SIGCAT
National Zoo
Morris Arboretum, Philadelphia
Monterey Aquarium
Center for the Digital Arts
Fruitcycle
The Nth Power • Providence
Creative Capital Associates (current)
Oxymorons & Erica Antonelli (current)
Hotel Djupavik, Iceland (current)

Athena, master of the Barra Negra, Oaxaca.

Bill Kitchen's Tides: Documentary about a late-season life change by Seanie Blue