By Adriana Rangel – Vallo Vision News
Mary Latocha is the Education Multi Media designer and producer at Alabama Public Television.
APT is a state network of public broadcasting service television stations serving Alabama. ATP produces educational television that cater to children and adults.
Latocha is a video producer and the motion graphic designer for the station. As a video producer, Latocha goes out and interviews people to come back and edit those pieces together. As a motion graphic designer, she creates logos, title treatments and creates graphic packages.
Mary works on many projects that can range from historical pieces to pieces showcasing local Alabama artists. Right now, Mary is working on animating all the graphics for Season 2 of DIY Science Time.
DIY Science Time is an educational children’s program that aims to make STEM fun by showing off different science experiments with the use of combining live action and animation.
Before coming on to ATP, Mary worked in local TV. She spent around 20 years in commercial TV stations.
“Working for news stations, it’s very different… very chaotic, they want things done yesterday. I did it for a long time until I worked for a public TV station and I much prefer this.”
Latocha says she enjoys the more laid back environment ATP has because it gives her more time to put back into her work.
“I get to put a lot more time and quality into things. Take my time and make sure that it’s perfect. I can do the other stuff but it’s not really enjoyable.”
Another reason for quitting local TV was for the fact Latocha didn’t enjoy the programming they were advertising. Latocha feels confident with the programming she is producing at ATP and feels comfortable watching it with her family.
“I had to promote stuff like the bachelor and all these TV shows and things like that. I don’t watch TV- which is funny cause that’s what I do for a living. But I don’t watch commercial TV other than maybe the weather and that’s just because I think most of what on TV is junk.”
Latocha says her daughter grew up watching PBS because she knew it would be “wholesome and good” and not have any offensive language.
“I like working for APT because our mission is people, and the family and the kids and I can stand behind our product… Our goal is to educate the people of Alabama. I love education… I believe the way to a better life is education.”
Latocha puts a big emphasis on learning. She says she’s always eager to learn and is big on education. She has a degree in communication radio and television and minored in photography.
“I like the fact I’m doing something to help the community…. instead of just putting junk on TV to make money.”
Latocha takes pride in her work. She sites “attention to details” as having a good skill to have. In a large video project, making sure you’re keeping up with everything is key. She also emphasis education. Latocha urges to have the motivation to always wanting to learn more. Latocha even says most of what she does is self taught; though she is hoping to get her masters in motion design in the fall.
“I’m constantly trying to figure out “what does this do?”. “How can I make this better?”. So I guess just having a life long passion for learning is always really good.”
Latocha says she loves figuring out how to make her animations go from “good” to “outstanding”.
“I don’t just want to be good, I want to be the best… Everyday I just want to try and be the best. I enjoy the challenge of figuring out graphically how this is going to work.”
Latocha says she knows people in Alabama and around the country are watching her stuff.
“I do know what I do does help the people of Alabama… and just from feedback and stuff like that, I know there’s a lot of people who appreciate what we do.”
Vallo Vision News 