Justin Bosar loves his job. After all, he sets his own hours, uses cutting-edge technology and works with film and television star Jennifer Garner.

But what exactly does the 2002 College of Communication alumnus do? That's hard to say.

"Hey Steve, what's my title?" Bosar asked as he peered around the two oversized computer monitors on his desk. He tried to get the attention of his boss, Steve Muckerheide, who was on the phone across the hall.

One of the six workers of Backlot Imaging, a local media imaging company, the ponytail-wearing Bosar soon came up with his own title.

"As a small company, you have to wear a lot of hats and do a lot of tricks," he said thoughtfully. Casually dressed in well-worn jeans and hiking boots, he eventually decided on "media specialist or artist."

Just like Bosar's work description, the description of his workplace, Backlot Imaging, 233 N. Water St., is hard to pin down.

Based in Milwaukee's Historic Third Ward, Backlot juggles local corporate media projects and Hollywood film contracts.

Muckerheide and Bosar started the company in January 2004 with the idea that Milwaukee had a competitive edge on both expensive Los Angeles visual imaging companies and cheap overseas workers, according to Muckerheide, Backlot's president.

"L.A. sends the work to us, rather than California, Taiwan, Australia, South Korea…" he said. "They can bring some of the skill sets home, where you don't have language and cultural barriers."

As a smaller company, Backlot typically undertakes Hollywood grunt work. Bosar's affiliation with actress Jennifer Garner — at least for now — is limited to digitally removing her stunt wires from scenes with action sequences.

But this type of technology has been groundbreaking, Bosar said. It has allowed directors like George Lucas to make their "crazy ideas" a reality.

And Backlot Imaging, unlike most other small businesses, uses custom-built computer workstations with technology similar to those Lucas used in "Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith."

"He's got a thousand (computers) and we've got two," Bosar said with a laugh, "but the technology is very new, cuttingedge."

In addition to its location and technology, quality local employees also drive Backlot, according to Muckerheide, an '82 Marquette alumnus from the College of Speech whose enthusiasm for Milwaukee seems to run from his leather loafers straight to the tips of his spiky gray hair.

"The talent in Milwaukee is every bit as qualified," he said, even though the Midwest lacks the prestigious film schools of California.

For Muckerheide, former vice president of worldwide technical operations for the Walt Disney Studios, the trick to finding Milwaukee talent was finding people as passionate about his vision as he was.

He teamed up with Jim Culhane, an '86 Marquette alum and co-founder of Tri-Marq Communications, a media production company based in Milwaukee and Chicago.

"The idea of working in one market and seamlessly transferring it to another market was something we were already doing," Culhane said.

And after years of kicking around the idea, they decided to launch Backlot as visual imaging technology was becoming increasingly sophisticated, he said.

"With so much stuff going on DVDs and interactive CDs, the timing just seemed right," Culhane said.

Today, Backlot Imaging tackles a wide variety of projects, including animated graphics, 3-D architectural models, Web site design and digital effects in film.

Although it has enjoyed success with its "create the work you want" attitude, Muckerheide said, its workers are still thinking Hollywood big.

Images of the pioneering and graphically intense blockbuster, "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow," grace the computer desktops in the Backlot office.

"It would be really cool to do something like that," Bosar said. "That's another level of creativity."