ABOUT
No, I'm not that Alex Parks. Whatever happened to her? I'd love to know too — I hope she's well.
I'm a studio technology and operations leader working at the intersection of entertainment and product. I started my career as a producer and consultant — branded content, live events, comedy — before building a post department at Funny Or Die and eventually joining Netflix, where I've spent the last eight years.
At Netflix, I've led the development of technology that supports production operations across thousands of global originals annually. That work has meant living on both sides of the table: understanding how studios actually work from years of production experience, and using that fluency to help product and engineering teams build things that matter to the people making content. My most recent focus has been studio technology strategy — program management, platform development, and the unglamorous infrastructure that keeps a global studio running.
Before the platform side, I spent time on the comedy team overseeing post on everything from standup specials to sketch shows — including my personal favorite, I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson.
As a producer, former clients include U2, The Rolling Stones, Taylor Swift, Kanye West, and brands like Google, Adidas, and T-Mobile.
SNAPSHOTS
From productions around the world.
CERN
An incredible life-sized, cross section view shot of CMS. This was the first stop on our CERN tour, before we had even decided what to shoot. We had no idea what we were in for.
Just below this photo is the massive hold they dug in the ground to build this sucker. Check out some video from CERN for killer construction videos.
Follow along @CMSexperiment
Some stuff for CMS. Are they servers? Wifi routers? Who's to know.
Follow along at @CMSexperiment
ATLAS. The mack daddy of LHC experiments- "searching for new discoveries about the origin of mass, extra dimensions, and dark matter."
They're all stunning, but ATLAS is like the pack leader of the LHC gang (though the other experiments wouldn't admit to that). It's one of the most stunning things I've ever seen in real life. And inside was just me and Jeff Frost. And a guy who didn't speak English but was a complete badass.
Follow along with @ATLASexperiment.
Underneath ATLAS. Special permission to shoot under the mega structure, lookin' like the underbelly of the USS Enterprise.
Follow along at @ATLASexperiment
Under the colossal CMS. The CMS team was incredibly gracious, letting us spend nearly a day underground before it was sealed up again for tests as they attempted restarting the LHC.
Follow along at @CMSexperiment
This is what an LHC experiment looks like all closed up. Tons and tons of beautifully, meticulously constructed discs stacked together and ready to detect some damn particles.
Follow along at @CMSexperiment
It's not all competition at ATLAS. Just come on into their kitchen and take advantage of the hugging point.
The grand entrance to ATLAS, as seen from the lot. Hundreds of feet below the earth's surface is the largest particle collider/ science experiment in history. Nice try doing it justice, mural.
Follow along at @ATLASexperiment
Every once in a while you'll look around and notice something looks not quite like the others... this for instance is a slice of a vintage accelerator. The LHC is just the latest (and greatest) in decades of experimenting with particle collisions. The work being done today comes from a long and fascinating line of experiments dating back from the post war period. While the Americans were trying to get to the moon, the Europeans decided to smash some particles together instead.
When you get to spend some time above ground, you're surrounded by panoramic of Mont Blanc and the rest of the swiss alps.
Our favorite team at CERN (don't tell anyone else we said that). Michael Doser and his team at AEgIS may have been working on experiments that we understand less than any others... but they made us lasers. Like... went into a back room and came back with a bunch of freakin' hand built lasers (shout out to our buddy Ruggero Caravita for that one).
The team is working on launching a Kickstarter to fund one of their more ambitious projects. Looking for to forking my money over to these guys. Follow their experiment here.
Another mess of who knows what at the CERN antimatter factory. Is knowing where the wires go just one guy's job? Or do a couple of them share it or something?
Safety first. Second: inserting and turning a special key followed by a special containment chamber with a retinal scan followed by taking and turning another special key follow by feeling like a badass.
Super critical to label ur lazers, y'all. Check out more about the experiments happening at nTOF.
