thestoryofjory.com

About two months ago, I stumbled across a video that I just fell head-over-heels for.  It’s the music video for Kid Cudi’s new song, “Pursuit of Happiness,” and it’s fantastic.

Regardless of whether you like the song, you have to admit that there are so many elements that make this video really work.  In my opinion, this video is a superbly subtle criticism of modern hip-hop music videos.  My interest was so piqued by this video that I just had to know more about how it was made.  So I tracked down the editor, Joseph Krings, and did the unthinkable.

I asked him personally.

I emailed Joseph and told him that I really admired his work on the video and asked him questions about his technique.  Joseph is currently working in my dream career, and he’s doing some great work that is well above my current skill level.  To be honest, I didn’t think he’d reply. It seems that a lot of creative people in filmmaking/editing are protective of what they’ve learned.  Well, it took almost a month, but I finally received a thoughtful reply from Mr. Krings and lots of encouragement.  He’s given me some great advice about techniques and education, and it turns out that we have a few things in common.  Despite being a busy professional, Joseph took time out of his day to mentor me, and it’s hard to articulate how much that means.  We’ve since exchanged more emails, and I look forward to learning more from Joseph in the future.

The point of all this is to say that the experience of reaching out to someone has been so rewarding.  It really gives me hope that there are good people in this industry who want you to succeed.  Mentorship of young, future professionals is so important in every industry, but I think it can be a scary thing to ask for.  In his last email to me, Joseph told me his life and career motto: “People will give you things, but you have to ask for them.” He is absolutely right.  After all, the worst that can happen is someone says ‘No’ – and then all you have to do is keep asking until someone says ‘Yes’!