By Emily Hambidge
Journalism senior

Nick Keiser and his video equipment at the Keith Urban concert in Europe

Last year alumnus Nick Keiser spent most of his time with pop singer Hilary Duff. Christmases he has joined country stars Vince Gill and Martina McBride. And this fall, he bounced around Europe with crossover hit Keith Urban.

Keiser, who graduated from Purdue with a B.A. in Communication in 2002, has traveled all over the world with celebrities. And he gets paid for it. A tour video director for Nashville-based MooTV, Keiser is working his fantasy job.

"Basically my job is to control the videos that you see on screens at concerts," he said. "I work behind the camera, run tapes, cue screens and decide what video is going to be put up for the crowd to see."

Keiser started working for MooTV in December 2002. Almost immediately he was put on tour, working for McBride and country superstar Alan Jackson. He did three Christmas shows for McBride and then spent the next eight months touring with Jackson as a cameraman.

Since then, Keiser has had little time for rest.

"I've been on the go for the past three years. It's a great job and I love getting to travel while I make a living," he said. "It's tiring, but I love what I do."

His busy touring schedule has included being a video director for Vince Gill and Amy Grant's Christmas tour, Wynonna Judd, Duff, Larry the Cable Guy, Veggie Tales and most recently, Urban. He was also nominated for video director of the year for his work on the Duff tour last year by Tour Guide magazine, an industry magazine in Nashville.

"I spent the last two weeks in Europe with Keith's tour," he said. "I have been on tour with him since August 2005 and will stay on tour until February. He has already asked me to tour again with him next summer. I'll be going because I love the group I'm with. We all get along well and work hard on Keith's shows."

Urban is one of Keiser's favorite artists to work with because he interacts with the group. Keiser said that Urban loves to be involved in the video directing, which is a rarity. He also said he loved to tour with Urban because his music is unique to the country genre.

"Most country music doesn't transcend across borders, but Keith's is the exception," he said. "He is more rock-based and this lets him travel all over the world. Keith can attract an audience anywhere he goes. Most country artists have to stay in the states to get sold-out crowds."

According to Keiser, a lot of these great experiences are thanks to the company he works for. He said working for MooTV has been a great way for him to get a lot of experience in a short amount of time because of how the company works.

"We are a video production company that does tour support, corporate shows and graphics editing," he said. "Clients come to us and contract out a project. This allows me to work with lots of different people. Our client list is always changing."

Purdue connections helped him land the job at MooTV, Keiser said. His first introduction to video production came in COM261 with Professor Marvin Diskin. Diskin introduced him to Bill Callison at the Elliot Hall of Music, and Keiser moved on to various internships around campus, including the "Joe Tiller Show." It was Callison who introduced him to Scott Scovill, owner of MooTV, whom Callison knew from his touring days, during a MooTV production in 2003 on the Purdue campus.

"I've been working with MooTV since then," Keiser said.

The company does more than just concerts, though. Keiser is also working on making DVDs of concerts for Brad Paisley.

Although it is easy to get caught up in the big names he works for, Keiser manages to stay pretty down-to-earth.

"I never planned to be in this industry, but now that I am I realize I am working with everyday people," he said. "My job is a lot of fun and it doesn't feel like work to me. The people I work with every day also love what they do. No one really gets caught up in the celebrity aspect of it."

As for the future, Keiser says he doesn't know where it will lead him but he would like to work in some variation of this industry. He said he hopes to continue what he is doing for the next 5-10 years and then see where it takes him.

"I'd love to find a way to stay in this industry but eventually travel less. Although I love it now, it's hard to have much of a life when you are gone nine months out of the year," he said.

Keiser added that his ultimate goal would be to make a movie. He has written several move scripts but has never found the time to get a cast together and shoot.