The good news is that even when you think you know everything about something and have perfected techniques to achieve your goal, you find out you were wrong.
There’s always something new to learn and new ways to challenge yourself — pushing your work to new horizons. I enjoy that learning process; the zen cycle where the student becomes the master, and the master the student. I’ve also heard it referred to the black belt fraying and becoming white again. It’s humbling and invigorating.
I find myself at one of those crucial times of trying to push my skills to the next level. I’m taking a different approach this time, more methodical and perhaps even academic. I’ve been listening to podcasts and radio programs with a more critical ear and open mind and watching television programs, movies and documentaries with more focus. It’s a self-study process in which I’m dissecting the ways stories have been pieced together, how real and implied visuals are incorporated into the context of a program, how audio backdrops are crafted and how narration is used to move the story and engage the audience. I’m particularly interested in how certain elements used in video presentation can be adapted to audio presentation and vice-versa in the hopes that something new could be created.
I plan to look carefully at a variety of content from amateurs and masters and will happily accept recommendations and guidance from anyone.
My journey has begun by studying the masters (obvious though they may be)… Ira Glass and Ken Burns. Given the opportunity, I would do what I could to apprentice/work/slave for each for a few days. I’d love to learn more about their thought processes, research techniques, how they develop and piece together their ideas and put it all together. I don’t think any of that can be properly communicated in featurettes. To truly learn that stuff, you have to be in the middle of the action.
Ira? Ken? Any members of your teams? Where do I sign up for my bootcamp?
Photo: Pushing him up into the red by Pupski.
For the last few years, many of the most prominent social and new media conferences have focused heavily on sharing skills within the fish bowl to help novices and veterans advance their styles. We’ve also tried to increase our audience and awareness of out content by trying to turn a long explanation into a tight elevator pitch for those unfamiliar with what we do.
