thestoryofjory.com

I recently re-watched this segment of Ira Glass on Storytelling while discussing the series with my class.  Ira’s message about being a ‘ruthless killer’ and cutting anything that doesn’t add to the story is really ringing true for me this week. I’m working on two more videos for Stan Clark Co.’s 20-year service award recipients, which is a huge undertaking.  I had less raw footage to deal with this time, but taking 6+ hours of video down to an end-product that’s 15 minutes long is still a monumental task! Adding to this challenge is the story’s form – I’m letting the interview subjects tell the recipient’s story with no voice-over or scripted narration.

With every cut and cull, I find myself asking if I’m ‘propping-up’ the recipient’s story or confusing the story’s natural flow. Particularly when there’s no script involved, one has to pay careful attention to editing, so that the interviewee’s statements make sense in context with others around it; and also that these statements aren’t edited so as to deceive their true meaning. This leads to situations wherein I have an amazing clip – the person is saying something funny, deep, or genuine and it really sings – but I don’t have any other material to support it and make it the best it can be. If I keep the clip, I’m only doing so because I selfishly love it; not because that’s the best context or helps the story. Thus, even though I’ve fallen in love with the clip, I have to let it go. It hurts for now, but with Ira’s support I’m sure I’ll have a story that’s a lot stronger in the end.

Also, my week apparently ends on Monday.

Yesterday was Stan Clark Companies’ annual manager’s meeting.  It is a day I look forward to and dread all at the same time; on one hand it’s fun to see everyone together at once (which rarely happens) and we usually go out for drinks on Stan at Eskimo Joe’s afterward.  On the other hand, Tanner & I usually get designated as the tech support for our colleagues who can barely use Powerpoint.  Adding to my stress this year was that I had made two more 20-year Service Award videos for some unsuspecting employees, to be unveiled right at the start of our meeting.

I’ve been an SCC employee for almost 5 years now, and I’ve attended this meeting for the past 3 years.  I’m happy to report that I think this year was the best yet.  We did not have a single A/V problem, because in the month prior to the meeting, I asked Stan and Emalee (the bosses!) to let me handle the A/V needs.  I coordinated with company managers throughout the month to give them guidance, answer Powerpoint/Quicktime/iMovie questions, and to make sure their presentations were playable.  I had them turn in their presentations to me Friday before the meeting, and I spent a few hours Saturday cleaning things up and putting it all together.  On Sunday, I wrapped up the finishing touches on the Service Award videos and started burning DVDs, so all I had to do Monday for the meeting was plug my laptop in and hit play.

I know that probably doesn’t sound like much of a big deal to most people, but most people don’t work for SCC.  We have a lot of good people who just aren’t technically adept, and because of that, Stan wasn’t able to give his speech his own meeting last year.  All of the technical problems pushed the meeting way late, and I know it bothered him.  This year, we finished right on time, didn’t have any technical issues, and everyone got to share their presentations with the rest of the company without any glitches. Of course, Stan was extremely happy with everything (though he’s pretty much always happy!),  but the highlight for me came at the end of the meeting – one of the EJPPG’s sales guys took the microphone and gave me a huge shout-out; it was slightly embarrassing but also very flattering that everyone stood and clapped for me.

Anyway, the point of this longish-post was to 1) explain where I’ve been for the last week and 2) remind everyone that it’s a good idea to ask for more responsibility at work from time to time. When you ask for that responsibility and deliver something really nice for your coworkers, it elevates you.  And that’s a good feeling.