From 3D Cameras to the Digital Future, with Bryan Wetzel

A four-lens 3D camera lab. A crash course in corporate chaos. A front-row seat to the switch from film and chemicals to digital video and modern production. Gary Pageau interviews Bryan Wetzel about his path from photography school into Nishika Corp.’s R&D lab, experimenting with lenticular 3D imaging, large-format printing, and early efforts toward computer-based 3D, plus shooting Nishika projects including an instructional video with Alan Thicke and a commercial with Little Richard.

Wetzel takes us inside his time at Nishika, where lenticular 3D photography meant optical processes, experimental rigs, and constant problem-solving. From there, we dig into the realities of shooting and editing, why “fix it in post” can become an excuse for sloppy work, and how being early to digital created real opportunity when clients suddenly wanted faster workflows and better quality.

Then the conversation widens to the business of media and entrepreneurship: why Georgia’s transferable film tax incentives helped studios and crews actually take root, how Wetzel helped build a teacher-led educational video platform before online learning was polished, and what happened when he accidentally became a gym owner and later took over a restaurant right before lockdown. Along the way, Wetzel shares the most useful small business advice he learned from a no-nonsense mentor: say no without explaining yourself, don’t fall in love with your business, and write the business plan before your heart lies to your head.

Wetzel explains transitioning from still photography to video because corporate clients wouldn’t fund film, adopting early digital editing and cameras in Georgia ahead of the 1996 Olympics, and building a corporate client base. He discusses Georgia’s transferable film tax credits, then describes launching an educational-video company around 2008 that produced about 1,500–1,900 teacher-led videos and assessments for schools before being sold. He later acquired a gym (2017), briefly ran a restaurant through COVID-era challenges, sold it, and now writes books, sharing key business lessons on saying no, not overcommitting emotionally to a business, and writing realistic business plans.