JL: How long have you been a part of the Iowa State family?

DM: I started in school in 1982, and I have been, in some way, shape or form, associated with Iowa State – except for maybe two or three years – since then. I was gone for a few years in the ’80s, but since then, I’ve pretty much been in Ames full time.

JL: How long have you been an instructor at Iowa State?

DM: This is my fourth year as an instructor.

JL: In between your time as a student and as an instructor, have you seen a lot of change in the advances of television technology?

DM: Television technology has gone through a complete metamorphosis since I was a student. [Everything] was big and bulky; you couldn’t edit any dissolves, fade to black or add a title to the show. Here we are 15 years later with equipment that costs a tenth of what that equipment cost, is many times more mobile, is infinitely more flexible.

JL: You’ve gone from being a student at Iowa State to becoming an instructor. Is it tough seeing yourself as an instructor, even after being here for four years?

DM: I think being a teacher has given me tremendous opportunities to do some other things that I wish that the instructors and professors would have done for us in the ’80s. Students need to grab the gear, go out and produce, so I’ve structured my classes to be as hands-on as possible.

JL: What is the most important thing you want students to get out of your class?

DM: We’re changing the way that we handle [Journalism] 306 because we are giving about half the class to field production. What we’re trying to do is to give a more well-rounded experience and a basis for understanding how it all works. Then, if they so desire, they can then move forward from there.

JL: What do you want students who work for ISU4 to get out of that experience?

DM: I think students should get whatever it is that they want to get out of ISU4. I don’t think that there should be a lot of decision making above the student as to what is appropriate and inappropriate for ISU4. Obviously, we have decency standards. If the appropriateness of the show conflicts with decency standards, then that’s a problem.

JL: You’ve done a lot of outside projects in your time here. Are those hobbies for you? What’s the purpose of them?

DM: I’ve done a couple of movies here. The movie that we did this past summer, I was the executive producer, which really means that I put up some of the money and helped do some brainstorming. The great thing about that project was I was mostly just an actor in it, and so it gave me a new experience because I haven’t done a lot of acting.

JL: What’s the best project you’ve ever worked on?

DM: “Escape Velocity.” We were graced with a tremendously good cast and crew and that made all the difference. Finding those people who not only could do the work, but were very enthusiastic about it made it a good project. It was a difficult project to work on, but I think it’s been the most rewarding.

JL: What drove you to want to do television production?

DM: The defining time in my life had to be the summer of 1977, when “Star Wars” came out. As a kid, I was one of the proud few who watched reruns of the original “Star Trek” enough times that they decided to make a movie out of it.

“Star Wars” came out; it was the first time that anybody had ever taken that kind of vision and made anything like that.

JL: Where do you see yourself going in the next few years?

DM: The next few years are going to be tough for any non-tenure faculty at Iowa State. I’ve already been given the official heads up that there very likely won’t be any funds for my position after next semester, which I expected. With the budget cuts from the Legislature, there just isn’t going to be much money, if any at all, for any temporary faculty. So teaching is probably going to come to an end for me. I have a screenplay that I wrote that I want to produce next summer, and I’m going to aim at doing that, whether or not I’m back in the fall.