Michael Kubler

Michael is a 27 yr old web developer, photographer, film maker and grass roots sustainability activist.

He has approximately 10 years of experience in photography, and 8 years experience in web development and film making.

Address: Swan Avenue, Klemzig, South Australia
Mobile: 0433 483 008
Email: michael@filmsonthefly.com
Website: www.filmsonthefly.com

Web Development

Michael programs HTML5 websites for both desktop and mobile using technologies like jQuery, PHP (+Yii), MySQL, Wordpress, CSS (with Bootstrap or Yaml), jQuery Mobile, Node.js, CouchDB, Git, Redis and more.

He is also a system admin and runs a number of servers in USA and Australia, hosting over 30 domains. He prefers the command line (ssh terminal) to tools like Cpanel cause he's l33t like that.

Photography

Michael has been taking and editing digital photographs since the first consumer 1 megapixel camera. These days he uses a Canon 7D| for both photography and video work. His primary skills are in product photography, on-set photos and studio portrait work.

He ran a photography studio at the Port Adelaide markets for a year, taking photos of people against a backdrop, with lights and would then photoshop the images in front of people at their request and print them on the spot. His photography work has drifted more into a combination of corporate work and documenting grass roots activism events.

Film Making

Michael has made a number of short and feature length films and taken on many roles, whilst primarily the cinematographer (person who presses the buttons on the camera), he has done lighting, gaffer, editing, directing, script writing, producing and audio recording. That said he doesn't venture in front of the camera too much.

Michael has spent the last few years working on Films on the Fly, a startup company he co-founded based around the concept of Multipath storytelling a form of interactive online video. In collaboration with the MRC and volunteers we created enough films to prove the concept however getting the required funding has taken a lot longer than initially anticipated.

Work and Experience


Worked From: Feb 2012.
Worked Until: Current.
Description: Michael works at NextFaze doing HTML5 websites for mobile and desktop.
Skills: Web Development System Admin HTML5 jQuery (Mobile) Javascript PHP


Worked From: April 2006.
Worked Until: November 2009
Position: Customer Service Officer (CSO).
Description: Michael worked on the Internode helpdesk for nearly 3.5 years, although was only working part time towards the end.
Skills: Technical Support Phone Operator ADSL Support VOIP Mentoring


Worked From: November 2011.
Worked Until: March 2012
Position: IT Support
Description: Michael helped the Adelaide Festival deal with a particularly large influx of new staff during the festival season, he also helped implement some technical work for Barrio and took lots of photos in his spare time.
Skills: Desktop Support Citrix Lotus Notes


Started in: Feb 2009
Worked Until: Current
Position: Co-Founder
Description: I co-founded Films on the Fly with Sunny Wu and John Willanski whilst going through the (then called) Mobile Enterprise Growth Alliance (MEGA) course on entrepreneurship.
The goal of Films on the Fly was to commercialise the concept of Multipath Interactive online video. The startup won a $35K development grant and has run multiple film making workshops and developed an alpha prototype of the platform, however the project ran out of funding and has been put into hibernation.
Skills: Entrepreneurship Film production Web Development Running a business Management


Started in: July 2011
Worked Until: Current
Position: Co-Founder
Description: Teacher Time was founded at the Sydney Startup Weekend.
Skills: Entrepreneurship Web Development Yii PHP framework System Admin


Started in: Feb 2010
Worked Until: March 2011
Position: Technology Officer
Description: As the Technology Officer at ANAT I did everything from Desktop Support for a Mac environment through to server and web system admin and more. During my time there I replaced their Windows SBS 2008 server with a Linux server. I also did a lot of work on the (mainly WordPress) powered websites.
Skills: Desktop Support Web Development System Admin

Skills

As with many people I consider that having 10 years experience in a field you are constantly trying to achieve better in allows you to achieve a level of mastery of the craft (a black belt if you will).
That said when new techniques or technologies come out such a scale can not be used. In that case I consider my familiarity and abilities compared to what I at least perceive as being the A grade.

Web Development

I have been creating websites since before Firefox was a browser, back when layout was done in tables. These days I specialise in HTML5 sites for Desktop and Mobile, especially the 'one page' apps which don't need to be refreshed.

Mastery of Web Development (90%)

I consider myself only a year away from being a full master in the craft of web development. Someone capable of developing a library or framework or pushing the envelope of HTML5.

HTML

I am up with the latest changes to the HTML5 spec and can create PHP scripts which create Javascript which output HTML and CSS so know my stuff. That said there's always little tips and tricks which I haven't yet stumbled upon.

CSS

Whilst I'm yet to fully explore all CSS pre-processors (I've played with LESS but not SCSS) I have been debugging layout issues since before IE6 and developed my own internal CSS framework before using YAML, Blueprint, Grid960 and most recently Twitter's Bootstrap. I develop using responsive design and try to use CSS transitions where possible and jQuery animations as a fallback if needed. As such this page is best viewed in Google Chrome.

jQuery

jQuery is a Javascript framework which abstracts away a lot of the complexities of dealing with different browsers but also makes coding HTML5 websites fun. It's very powerful but uses syntax differently to normal Javascript. I actually learnt jQuery before Javascript and it is my native tounge. I think in terms of jQuery. My primary reason for not listing anything higher is that I haven't released a jQuery plugin to the public... Yet. Mainly because there's almost always already a plugin for whatever jQuery doesn't do out of the box.

PHP

I taught myself PHP and it was my first server side scripting language. In recent years I have become quite proficient with Yii, which is deamed one of the fastest PHP Frameworks. As I have been using PHP for so long I consider it my native language, although Javascript is starting to take over as my server side scripting language of choice (Node.js).

MySQL

It seems that you can't have any decent PHP website without MySQL (or a similar RDBMS). Whilst I'm good at maintaining MySQL databases, creating new schema's and writing most SQL code I'm not a super wizard able to create super long SQL calls which return everything in one go, I got into NoSQL before achieving such mastery. That said I've not found a MySQL problem I haven't been able to fix.

Javascript

Whilst I've been dabbling with Javascript for a number of years it is only recently that I've really gotten particularly passionate about it. From Node.js on the server side to 1 page mobile apps on the client side.

NoSQL

I'm still learning a lot about the various NoSQL databases and how to use them properly. I've used CouchDB in production and done a lot of work with Redis and am about to sink my teeth into MongoDB, however there's just so much here. That said I have read and enjoyed a number of the main white papers such as the one on Amazon Dynamo so have a good fundamental understanding.

System Admin

I've been hosting websites for over 12 years. I started with a Linux box under my desk and have progressed to running 30+ domains hosted overseas and in Australia. I am the primary sys admin for www.teachertime.com.au and have done a lot of system admin work for ANAT and 2moro mobile. I've migrated over 30 servers and have dealt with Ubuntu and Debian through to Red Hat Linux. Ubuntu is still my favourite for its ease of use, although would like to play more with the ZFS support in FreeBSD.

Photography

Photography is in my blood. My parents and grandparents have been involved in the photographic industry in some way or another in their lives, so in a way I was destined for it. I love photography, especially the speed with which you can get feedback on new styles, how well the skill compliments web development and just how pervasive photography is. It's just unfortunate that there aren't more people like myself with more than 10 years experience in trying to actually get better in the art.

Mastery of Photography (80%)

My first camera was the first consumer grade 1 mega pixel camera. Since then I have been doing digital photography and image manipulation. I'm mainly a Canon user (although Nikon's are cool), and love the quality I get from my Canon 7D. I used to specialise in Studio Portrait photography but these days do more event and activism related work.

Portrait

Working with people is a blessing and a curse some times. The most beautiful, amazing and emotional photos are those of people, however it requires a lot of practice and skill to be able to engage with people and bring out the best of their smiles and look.

Studio

Lights are fun, when you have control over them the backdrop and environment. Photography studios allow for a different type of photography style, one that I often prefer. I developed my off camera flash skills after reading lots of Strobist and I have my own portable backdrop and lighting kit, although some of the gear is soon due for an upgrade.

Children

Taking photos of young children is a hard skill to master and one that I have some years experience with, from running my own portrait photography studio to working at the Magic Cave in David Jones.

On-set

Being on the set of a film shoots is both a lot of fun and often a long drawn out process, but I enjoy it when I get the opportunity.

Product

I'm actually fairly good at product photography, I've done a fair amount of it and generally enjoy it. I understand the Light, Science and the Magic of it all however I've not had the chance to try particularly complex product photos like cars or lots of bottles so only consider myself an expert but not a master.

Films

The Remainderman

This short film was created in a collaboration between Amy Campbell, Films on the Fly and the Adelaide University as part of the Oxford law film competition.