When the show calls for something graphic

Allan Wells

Screens technical director and/or technical director. Wells is also the founder of three Universal City-based companies -- Fontastics, MDots, GakWorks -- that work in conjunction with awards shows.

Current credit: He is the screens technical director for the Emmy Awards, the traffic cop who routes electronic images -- clips, montages, audience reaction shots and graphics -- onto the big screens on the set.

The Emmys setup: “We have 11 screens going out, so it is a multimedia sort of environment .... We have plasma screens on the set, standard rear-projection screens. Just a various assortment of displays.”

Job description: “My job on this show as well as many of the other ones is multifaceted. My company [MDots] does the entire design package for the show. We produce all of the graphics that will be used on the screens. The production designers can design this beautiful set in concept, but until we feed the imagery to all of these screens, it’s just a blank. I am also the graphics designer on the show.”

Once the design content is assembled, “the material goes to the actual screens director. He’ll create all the cues. I am on-site as an operator. That is where I become active as a screens technical director. I run the [GakWorks computer] system that switches the content to the entire screen.”

Pressure: “Doing the show gets somewhat stressful at times. The nice part is that, by and large, the core format of these awards shows is the same.”

Problems: “There’s everything from some of the equipment failing to the playback equipment goes down. This is the most common: We try to get audience shots of the nominees as we run their clips. If someone is in the bathroom, it throws our whole sequence off. With the effects we are doing now, and the screens presentation, all it takes is one nominee out of their seat and it changes up our whole sequence.”

Location: “Our screens operation is traditionally in a construction-type trailer next to the main mobile unit.”

Rundown: “We pretty much do the same shows every year. It’s generally the same group that goes from show to show from a technical standpoint. The year will start with the Golden Globes and then we move into the Grammy Awards. That is our first really big one because it’s a big-screen show and we design the graphics for the Grammys. It’s the wake-up call for the year. It really challenges us. What has become more challenging for us recently is that it and the Academy Awards are now just one or two weeks apart.”

Background: “I actually had a scholarship to college for scenic and lighting design at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Not a big theater college, but I grew up in Las Vegas. But my first love had already been television. When I was 14 or 15, three friends and I had a community affairs show on the local ABC affiliate there. It did pretty well. That kind of solidified where I was going for a career. I went to UNLV for a month and a half and then I got a full-time camera job offer at the same station. Although I sort of miss college now, to some degree it seemed like the thing to do. No regrets looking back.”

Union or guild: International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 700

Resides: Studio City

Age: 43. “Aug. 28 I will be 44. My birthday present will be a good clean show and good reviews on the graphics and the screens.”

-- SUSAN KING