Kaplan is executive producer of documentaries at Grey Matter Media and has been involved in video production and training work since 1979. He has been the recipient of numerous international awards for single documentaries and series. In 1980, he was appointed the first coordinator of the Community Video Resource Association at the University of Cape Town, the first community video project in South Africa. In August 1982, after two months of detention in solitary confinement, Kaplan was deported to Zimbabwe. From there he traveled, via Canada, to Boston, where he joined the masters program in film and video production at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and studied under Richard Leacock. In 1986, Kaplan co-founded Capricorn Video Unit in Harare, Zimbabwe, providing production and training facilities to the Southern African region. He founded Intermedia in 1989 as an independent production arm of Capricorn and, two years later, returned to South Africa, working on a freelance basis for five years before joining UBUNTU TV & Film Productions. Kaplan later joined Rapid Blue and founded Grey Matter Media.