Class Notes: Week 8

  • Lisa Everson Skype Session
    • Law school – history major
    • Summer between college and high school
      • Real work experience – looked in classifieds – assistant for a production company – wonderful little company called Wombat Productions – documentary production team that did biographies on old time movie stars
    • Didn’t go to law school – that was moment and turning point in life
    • Cinemax bought films – mostly A&E biography, Lifetime intimate portrait, couldn’t get enough
    • Went on to work for ABC News doing local figures – insatiable appetite for biography for a long-time, market is endless. It is all reality now.
    • Can’t do time lapses, let piece breathe, certain constraints. Still wanted storytelling. Getting a bit of character. Finding authentic part of a person. Hard to get to.
    • Role as producer – organize interviews, out in field shooting, spent time in Colorado doing stories about the pot, big story in Colorado, did a lot of shoots in the field, small business Saturday – Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday. Bring a lot of assets out into field. Golden Colorado to shoot that show. Gearing up for small business Saturday. David vs. Goliath story.
    • Weekly show – certain segments take up 12 min, sometimes have to crash in 3 days – dedicated editing. Something longer is 4.5 days.
    • Lisa generates all questions and conducts all interviews
    • Effective interviewing – pre-interview everyone, no one ever gets on camera without talking to Lisa first.
      • Deals with marketing schpeels constantly, we always search for a lesson, some takeaway from the piece. Small business owners, entrepreneurs. People who dream about being their own business owner. Something that they can apply.
      • Let marketing get out of system, open up and be honest as an interviewer, warm up, easiest questions at beginning and toughest at end. Hard question is always left at end. Can’t take back what they said at the beginning. Make them comfortable at the beginning.
    • Struggle with trust in telling story – pizza, Martha Stewart
    • Be as honest with people as possible – pizza story good example of being scared of telling story, watch my show, objective is to help people and tell stories that run businesses, make people’s lives better
    • Client work that challenges you morally –
    • Worked 7 years for BBC news – went all over the world. Worked on Discovery channel programming. Went to tallest building in world. Suspended. So exciting. Amazing experiences there. BUT – freelancer there, sometimes get unsavory things to do. Went through a little burned out period there. Lowest point – freak accidents – awful stories to tell in sensational way. These calls are killing me. Don’t feel good, shouldn’t tell these stories. Change angle of project.
  • Becky Martinez – WUNC – James Madison University
    • Station connected to MacRock – Harrisonburg in April – lot of bands music festival with radio stuff, discovered NPR Junior year, paid attention to breaking news and how they work on news stories
    • Takes its time telling story and manages to do so in a short time
    • Having 4 internships and portfolio from college newspaper, women’s issues talk show helped. Interned at Weekend Edition for a summer
      • Learned a lot about production, timeline, pitching to teams
      • This is cool – why should we care – hard thing to deal with – Tuesday after Tuesday, most clueless person. Super good practice.
      • Temping at different shows – learned different timelines – get along with people and do what it takes to get done.
      • Leave national scope and get down to state level. Member stations. Focus on communities. Global issue to talk with in favor of next thing.
    • Wyoming Public Radio – less competitive than Seattle, LA – didn’t get it – moved to VA and became an agriculture reporter at a small newspaper. Churned out 2 stories a day, very fast. Get over stage fright very quick. I have a reason to be here and talk to you. In your best interest to answer my questions, not everything was good. Worked up enough body of work to get hired at Wyoming to be a host, live editor.
    • Learned length, phone when you put it on stereo speakers. It was awesome. Whole time learning about risky – you get hate. Deal with it. Think skin.
    • Listen to stories all day. Journalism is for thick-skinned people. Careers where you can be sensitive. Have to stand up for yourself. Can learn anywhere.
 
Pitches
 
  • Melissa and Chris
    • Dolly’s – already pitched it
      • Story Arc:  there yesterday, such weeded things. See why, where they get all this stuff. Funky inside to shoot.
      • Tension: talk about how to change locations a few years ago, gentrification of downtown Durham
      • Other interviews: estate sale, private sale,
    •  Morgan Imports (neighbor from home owns store)
      • Story arc: how do you maintain location, sell everything and nothing at same time, has been an old institution. Family owns it. Layers that need to be uncovered.
      • Tension: Dealt with location as price increased so much, change way market, prices, selling. Morgan Imports is pricey.
      • Other interviews:
    • Michael Williams
      • Story arc: Family here, he’s a pastor, MFA, enroll at Duke MFA program, doing project
      • Tension: struggle of having family, moving to school to have passion project come true
      • Other interviews: Family, people he has worked with
    • Vidal’s Phone Company – film production company
      • Story arc: Has garden/farm, free-range chickens and film production company that makes films about that stuff
      • Tension: How do you separate story from home
      • Other interviews: Family at home/work, short videos at Full Frame, Victoria student at UNC.
  • Tristan and Jillian
    • Hunky Dory
      • Story arc: record/smoke shop person with kid, go thrift shopping with him, talking about being robbed
      • Tension:
      • Other interviews:
    • Joyce – Virtue Event Planning
      • Story arc: Specializes in dinner parties – involved with every aspect of everything, has an automated phone, interesting to center it on her and look at the event planning world around her. Specializes in dinner parties is image-conscious – talk to her about type of images she is trying to project, what she is selling people, how she introduces herself in a blazer
      • Tension: How she is making livelihood, how she makes it work
      • Other interviews:
    • Napoleon Wright II
      • Story arc: his life experiences moving him into arts, videos/images reminds him of his life, always getting into projects, military brat, new friends group (art was comforting for him), making career out of arts, bucking off corporate America – 3 keypoints, fantastic nat sound
      • Tension: Challenge would be narrowing it down to keep it short
      • Other interviews: The RealLaww, wife Catherine – social work with Hispanice (Caucasian) – interesting as well
  • Nathan and Cassidy
    • Vector Dance Company
      • Story arc: Leah Wilkes – multimedia dance company – uses dance, video, photography, documentary to question societal norms, what this dance’s role is in the Durham community, what members of the community think of what they produce, local artist/choreographer
      • Tension: Pushing boundaries of movement and media, role as teacher/dancer, improve dance company at Old Durham Hosiery factory (pop-up) DIDA – whole series of shows they are doing. Find unique spaces that fit the pieces – experimental. Do it in Durham for a reason. How do they reach audience.
      • Other interviews: People who have seen show, Leah Wilkes, photographer, collaborative partner (video/documentary experience), might be helpful to treat one of them as main character and guide through other characters
    • SplatSpace (in Durham)
      • Story arc: local maker space, memberships, build/make things (3d printers, laser cutters, woodworking), community space for hackers (expanded term), game nights
      • Tension: Funded solely by membership fees, want to bring that money right back into community, how does it sustain itself, Nathan is interested in that
      • Other interviews: Spend time in space, find out what they are working on, who are stars going to be, figure out who we are talking to – very easily become too large.
    • Shopboat
      • Story arc: computer numerical control router – gantry. Neurosurgeon. Didn’t have tool he wanted. Left neurosurgery and made machine. Has his own company. Pretty big. Biggest name in computer numerical control machines. He never even made the boat.
      • Tension:
      • Other interviews: owner/starter,
  • Cara and Alex
    • Chris Vitiello
      • Story arc: CAPS (creative arts public/private schools), does poetry labs, does his Poetry Fox, why did he go into arts/poetry of all things
      • Tension: How do you get poetry to the masses, certain idea of what poetry is like, how he is bridging gap between everyday folks and poetry, he is a very interesting guy – little bio is freelancer, poet, extremes he will go to. Dichotomy between curator and Fox costume. Hook ‘em with Fox.
      • Other interviews: Artstigator event, get student’s perspective, interviewing people he works with, capture people interact with him differently in his two different roles – contrast there, logistically – Nathaniel Mackey – have Chris Vitiello and them talk together. Click Photography Festival
    • Beatmaking Lab
      • Story arc: began at UNC, web-series, some of it is online, about people who are making beats – online platform, centralized thing. Also expanding now to go into open source, beatmaking app. Brick & mortar, right next to Runaway shop on Main Street.
      • Tension: Young children, cultural exchange, how to do that during music, why is cultural exchange important in Durham. First UNC course and grew into UNC program.
      • Other interviews: Saleem, Apple Juice Kid, rely heavily on characters, people who are great, passionate, can convey that – all is not lost. Shooting a computer screen can only go so far.
  • Jenny and Brandon
    • Dear Hearts
      • Story arc: Record shop owner/stylist
      • Tension: Downsizing, project when it doesn’t work when you want it to, wants it to be more than store – hang out spot beyond close circle of friends, works with Hopscotch, not sure if willing to talk about failure
      • Characters:
    • Fencing Spot
      • Story arc: not biggest sport, why did you coach down here as opposed to take other offers, sport locally vs national. Great b-roll and nat sound. Caters to people who used to fence and don’t do it anymore? Or next generation? No big name people visit clinic. People who want to learn, and people who have done it before.
      • Tension: how does it have a niche in community, big clubs are in Durham/San Fran, don’t think of fencing in NC, don’t assume audience knows a lot about fencing – try to use characters and footage to explain why this is interesting for people that have done this since you are little, three completely contrasting stories (why are you here)
      • Characters: Jennifer Oldem (Durham Mag Women of 2013 – big name)
    • Cosmic
  • Wei and Sophie
    • Bee Downtown
      • Story arc:
        • Small company that more or less puts beehives between apiaries (multiple hives on rooftops)
        • Interesting relationship with Burt’s Bees – cool to contrast small company with big corporation
        • Teach people about sustainability – push back in Durham community
        • Lee’s family is a third generation of beekeepers – personal story
          • Lots of opportunity for archival footage, still photographs, etc
          • Opportunity to get interview with grandfather -
        • People do not ease in general about bees in city is scary
      • Questions to ask about tension
        • Ask about push back in community
        • Curious about environmental impact
        • How do you deal with bees in a city environment
        • Go to parks and flowers nearby
        • Legally – how do you do it?
      • Possible characters
        • Lee – owner and founder that Sophie has spoken to
        • Someone from Burt’s Bees
        • Someone from rooftops that has implemented bees on roof
        • Beekeeper would be cool
        • Another beehive in Raleigh
        • Two – one at American Tobacco, smaller version
        • Design them personally – cool visually. All different shapes, colors, sizes.