Matt Townley has more than fifteen years of experience in rich media design, production and development.
Matt is the founder and president of Northern California based MST Productions. MST Productions is a single source for all things media. They ... [ more] Matt Townley has more than fifteen years of experience in rich media design, production and development.
Matt is the founder and president of Northern California based MST Productions. MST Productions is a single source for all things media. They serve a diverse market, including Fortune 50 corporations, nonprofit organizations, musicians, filmmakers, educational institutions and consumers.
His educational background includes a B.S. in Information Technology and Multimedia Communication.
Prior to founding MST Productions, Matt managed the Media Services division of National Video and worked as a Creative for Apple. He has spent thousands of hours volunteering for community, church and non-profit organizations.
Matt lives in Dublin, CA with his wife Melissa, son Denver and two super-muts Dingo and Tiger. They enjoy traveling, tackling do-it-yourself home projects and searching for the world's best glass of wine. | | | | Member Since: April 16th 2009 | | | | |
| | | | | | Update digital signage on the fly?by Matt Townley 2 hours agoI have an event coming up for a client and as part of the live event we are producing, we will need to have some digital signage in the room (viewable by the audience) that can be updated on the fly.  | Re: Update digital signage on the fly?
by David Eaks 30 minutes ago
Is going to be viewed on a projector Many projectors have a "freeze frame" function. So, for example you could put up an image, freeze it, then begin working on the next graphic immediately. When you
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| | | | | Low-cost display for producer/clients?by Matt Townley 1 month agoHi - not sure which forum this fists best, so this seemed as good a place as any. I'm looking for a new display to use for my client producer station in my editing suite. Nothing fancy, but needs to l | | | | |
| | | |  | Turn off text underliningby Ty Ford 2 months agoHI, I'm a Pagemaker cast off from years ago. (Dear Adobe, thanks for moving the controls to places I'm not familiar with so I know what I want to do, but can't find the thing to click on.) I have CS3 | Re: Turn off text underlining
by Matt Townley 2 months ago
Ok, got it figured out. You have a Paragraph Style applied to all of your text, even though each text box modifies that style. If you open your Paragraph Styles pallet you should see a style called Ty
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| | | |  | Simple DVD Packagingby eric dole 6 months agoHere's my issue. I want to burn 80 DVD copies or so of a piece that I produced to give away. Now, I have in the past gone through the "pro" route with a 1000 copies replicated with the box, the artwor | Re: Simple DVD Packaging
by Matt Townley 6 months ago
Hi Ed, My company offers DVD duplication with full color, thermal printing directly on the surface of the disc. It's a glossy, water proof and smudge proof print that's similar to a semi-glossy magazi
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| | | |  | PROBLEM: Strange colors in Indesignby Pawel Parzyszak 11 months agoHi everyone. First at all, I sorry for my poor english:(. I have problem in Indesign (I'm absolutley beginner). There's the screen for program, take a look: I can't delete this strange pink, gray and | Re: PROBLEM: Strange colors in Indesign
by Matt Townley 11 months ago
Hi Pawel, Those colored backgrounds you are seeing are not "actually" part of your layout. They are being displayed to indicate various composition errors or indicators. The pink background means ther
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| | | |  | Highest quality Blu Ray blanks?by Nick Griffin 11 months agoI'm surprised that I can't find this on the COW, so maybe I'm missing something. That said, What's the highest quality most reliable brand of Blu Ray blank disks Are there different grades, for exampl | Re: Highest quality Blu Ray blanks?
by Matt Townley 11 months ago
Hi Nick, I have tried Line 1, Falcon, Verbatim and a few other "off brand" discs for BD-R. So far I have been happiest with Falcon and Verbatim. We use white thermal discs in the shop here, but I know
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| | | | | Burning to DVDby Kevin Allmond 11 months agoSo, this is a question that has been asked here, and on other forums a million times, but the answers are never very definitive. Let me ask this question a little different: I've recorded footage on m | Re: Burning to DVD
by Matt Townley 11 months ago
Your video has to end up as MPEG2 files to go to DVD. If you use anything else, you can assume your authoring software is encoding it for you in the background, which you typically want to avoid.
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| | | | | disc printingby John Culleton 11 months agonot sure if this is the right forum but does anyone have recent problems with robotic duplicating printing systems like the Primera composer not picking up discs this seems to get more and more of a p | Re: disc printing
by Matt Townley 11 months ago
I would ask your sales rep about it. If you can narrow the problem down to being that specific, it sounds like you are right about it being a disc-specific issue. Even if they won't admit to changing
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| | | |  | InDesign paper layoutby Heraldo Borges 11 months agoHey there! I'd like to make a layout with two columns, one for text and the other for imagens and footnotes related to the text in the first column. The layout is a A4 paper sheet on landscape. The ma | Re: InDesign paper layout
by Matt Townley 11 months ago
Hi Heraldo, Welcome to the COW. It sounds like you know what you are looking for, so I'm not sure what part you need help with. Do you just need to know how to create the text boxes that are the size
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| | | |  | recording to thumb driveby Dan Asselin 12 months agoI have a job coming up requiring the recording of presentations of up to 2 hours in length with it being very important the speaker gets a copy of the presentation immedaitely after they are finished. | Re: recording to thumb drive
by Matt Townley 12 months ago
Never done it, but even just the thought of it scares me. I wouldn't rely on it. If it's THAT important, I would rather rely on a known-good method to record the file to hard drive or a faster form of
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| | | |  | Best AVCHD converter/player?by Michael Locke 12 months agoMy roommate just got a GH2 (on my recommendation) for interview event videography, and she has no NLE. My Canon .MOV files played on Windows or Mac, but AVCHD is not so easy. Is there a favorite best | Re: Best AVCHD converter/player?
by Matt Townley 12 months ago
In no particular order, here are some that I know of to convert AVCHD on the cheap: http: www.ifunia.com avchd-converter-mac.html http: www.wondershare.com pro dvd-converter.html I also believe some o
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| | | |  | Clipping pathsby Roen Davis 12 months agoHi All, I am an AI twinky. I am trying to disassemble an Illustrator project that I have inherited so that I can animate it in AE. I have done a release to layers but on some items there are clipping | Re: Clipping paths
by Matt Townley 12 months ago
It's hard to picture the exact scenario, but it sounds like you may need to expand some items and then use the pathfinder tool to subtract the parts that are currently being clipped. This will result
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| | | |  | How do I select just part of my art?by Ignacio Holiday 1 year agoIn this pie chart, I want to select just the first section of the pie slice, before it's bisected by the circle, in order to fill it. But it keeps selecting the entire wedge. How do I select just the | | | | |
| | | |  | AI Welcome Screenby Mark Welch 1 year agoA brand-nube here. How do I set up Illustrator to display the welcome screen indicating recent documents and "Create New" options I'm on Mac OS, went into AI preferences and couldn't find it. This wel | Re: AI Welcome Screen
by Matt Townley 1 year ago
In Illustrator, go the the Help drop down and select "Welcome Screen." Once it opens uncheck the box that says "Don't Show Again." It should display every time you open Illustrator now.
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| | | |  | Exporting to a PDFby Kyle Solomon 1 year agoHow do I export my AI file to a PDF to be viewed on the internet | Re: Exporting to a PDF
by Matt Townley 1 year ago
File Save As Format: Adobe PDF. I am assuming you are making a file for people to download from a website, because a PDF can't technically be "viewed on the internet." Although most modern browsers wi
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| | | | | auto tile 100's of images?by sean miller 1 year agoHey guys, i have used batch process to make a whole bunch of photos one size. I need to create a single 'photo wall' jpg out of them in which they're all tiled, the long way of doing this is to obv op | Re: auto tile 100's of images?
by Matt Townley 1 year ago
Don't know about photoshop, but if you already have them batched as squares, you might try the "Create Collage" tool in Picasa. Don't know how much control you have over the settings, but it's free an
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| | | | | looking at fontsby Tylor Larson 1 year agodoes any one know of a fast way to look at fonts in illustrator back in cs3 on a PC you could highlite a font or text box and then click on the font box and then simply used the up and down arrows to | Re: looking at fonts
by Matt Townley 1 year ago
In Illustrator CS 4 (and I think 5) on Mac, the fonts are only previewed from the Character Menu and Character Panel, but NOT the control panel. If that doesn't take care of it, you might want to chec
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| | | |  | San Francisco Area Equipment Rentalby Bill Celnick 2 years agoI'm a NY based event videographer scheduled to shoot a conference in San Francisco July 8-10. I'm considering lightening my load by renting tripods and a back-up camera just in case something of mine | Re: San Francisco Area Equipment Rental
by Matt Townley 2 years ago
Check Rental Express. http: www.rentvideo.com I have used them to rent various cameras and decks over the years and know them well. They'll take good care of you and have a pretty wide diverse selecti
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| | | |  | Stream my live audio from PC to Iphoneby Steven Talley 2 years agoI have JumiCAM and can stream live video and audio from my PC to my Iphone but I cannot turn off the video part. I am looking to only stream live audio to save bandwidth. Video uses about 10mb per min | | | | |
| | | |  | How do I say it politely (re: watermark)?by Richard Herd 2 years agoQuick back story: I bid for a decent contract (shoot and edit) in December 2010. Here we are now planning the shoot for April 2011. Long process, lots of calls, lots of hand-holding and explaining... | | | | |
| | | | | sms soundsby Dan Newton 2 years agoHey all I just bought an I PHONE 5 I wanted to know how i can add custom sounds for when I get emails or sms etc.., | Re: sms sounds
by Matt Townley 2 years ago
Hi Dan, I've only have my iPhone 4 since it was released on VZW back in February, so I'm still a bit new to the device platform as well. I think you must have an iPhone 4 as well, since there is no 5
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| | | | | Unique Duplication Optionsby Benjamin Henson 2 years agoHello everyone, I'm looking for unique ways to deliver college recruitment material to potential students. Traditionally I have delivered on DVD but have recently considered thumbdrive duplication. Ca | Re: Unique Duplication Options
by Matt Townley 2 years ago
What about an engraved iPod Shuffle Put a short message on it and load it up. They'll remember you each time they use it. A bit more expensive, but unique.
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| | | |  | Video to start from the iPad desktopby Michael Sacci 2 years agoI have a client that wants to give their client an iPad with a sales presentation on it. But they would like to have an icon on the desktop that can launch the movie so they don't need to go through t | Re: Video to start from the iPad desktop
by Matt Townley 2 years ago
Hi Michael - I've seen a number of questions about this on the COW and a few other forums. There is no native way to do this (that I know of), so I have been working on an app that would allow this ty
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| | | |  | mount with 1/4 - 20 female on back?by Jason Brown 2 years agoI'm wanting to use an ipad as a quazi prompter...with just bullets for on camera talent. I have a NOGA cinematic arm, and would love to mount an ipad on the 1 4-20 male thread. Any ideas | | | | |
| | | | | iPad as a Video Monitorby Jane Colalillo 2 years agoWas looking for a small lcd field monitor to use for industrial video prod. when someone told me the next generation of iPad is reported to have video input, making it useable as a handheld video moni | Re: iPad as a Video Monitor
by Matt Townley 2 years ago
I am a total and complete noobie to the topic (and don't even have my iPad yet), but could an adapter be made to plug into the 30-pin dock connector to add some type of video input, and then create an
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| | | | | Repication vs Duplication Blu-Rayby Mark Steele 3 years agoWhat is the general consensus about the reliability of duplicated Blu-ray discs I'd like to make a run of about 500 discs but will bag it if they won't play in my customers home blu-ray players. | Re: Repication vs Duplication Blu-Ray
by Matt Townley 3 years ago
Hi Mark, We do a fair amount of Blu-ray Disc duplication and seldom hear about problems with compatibility. I think the biggest concerns are about the difference in the format of BD-R and BD-Rom repli
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| | | | | Somebody explain this to meby Nick Griffin 3 years agoI understand how social media works and how valuable it can be in business, career, etc. I'm especially sure that this is useful to people in big companies who need to foster network relationships to | Re: Somebody explain this to me
by Matt Townley 3 years ago
I share your concerns and questions, Nick. As you mentioned, I am confident in the value our services provide our clients, but that doesn't mean I want to air a detailed list of their contact informat
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| | | | | Copy protect DVDs from Encore?by Nina Bjer 3 years agoHi, Is there a way to copy protect DVDs from Encore When I try to do that the program tells me I can't do that. Thanks in advance for any help! Nina | Re: Copy protect DVDs from Encore?
by Matt Townley 3 years ago
We offer Rimage Video Protect as an add-on to our DVD duplication. We have encrypted several thousand DVDs and have never had a complaint regarding compatibility. I agree that no form of copy-protecti
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| | | |  | Collateral material?by Todd Terry 3 years agoI'm curious what you guys, especially those who own or run production facilities, have in the way of marketing and collateral material. We're a production company that mostly does broadcast commercial | Re: Collateral material?
by Matt Townley 3 years ago
We are in a bit of a different boat than you, because our core business is not production. Our primary business is CD DVD Blu-ray Risc duplication and replication, and that is supplemented by graphic
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| | | |  | HR Requirements (Full of Crap)by John Grote, Jr. 3 years agoGood day all, Every time I read a posting for an editor, graphic designer, audio engineer, (insert creative position here) it really pisses me off that a huge majority of these listings ask for a two | Re: HR Requirements (Full of Crap)
by Matt Townley 3 years ago
Mike Cohen "I agree with this. You should not go to school specifically to learn software hardware etc. You go to school for the fundamentals and to learn how to work hard." Agreed. By the time I fin
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| | | |  | What do they call you?by Mark Suszko 3 years agoI used to just shrug it off when people introducing me in work settings couldn't quite name my job and would describe me to the person being introduced as "video guy", "camera man", "the TV person", e | Re: What do they call you?
by Matt Townley 3 years ago
I have a few clients at large companies who forgo titles altogether. Instead, their biz cards have their name and a department, ie: Joe Bob Policy, Government & Public Affairs I see this trend at more
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| | | | | Pricing by project or per minuteby Nathan Abbott 3 years agoI've decided to start my own small business and need advice on how much to charge pricing. The main focus will be hospitals and private practices. I'll be putting together "informational" videos on pr | Re: Pricing by project or per minute
by Craig Seeman 3 years ago
One thing experience would tell you is that a 5 minute video could take you a day or it could take you weeks. If you don't want to charge a client hourly than you should be very good at estimated the
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| | | |  | DVD logo usageby Steve Kownacki 3 years agoSo are we all putting the logo on the discs illegally http: www.dvdfllc.co.jp logo lg_who.html Steve  | Re: DVD logo usage
by Gary Hazen 3 years ago
We have small simple text on our discs that reads either: DVD video, DVD data, CD audio or CD data. It's helpful for diagnosing problems when the client says, "I put the shiny thing in my computer and
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