A Vision for the Future
Since leaving my job at the University, I’ve been doing a re-assessment of my career. I went right from grad school into developing interactive learning materials; educational products for the computer.
Emphasis in grad school had been on film and video production. Traditional documentary film, with classes in the anthropology department, the cinema school, and the journalism department.
So at the time I polished the skills, never questioned my own passion for telling stories about real people, watched and discussed hundreds of hours of the world’s best documentaries, and learned I could make a great short film in 36 hours.
The world of interactive media was something new. The shift of the Subject from Viewer or Watcher to User or even, Experient, was the result of a seismic shift in media issues: suddenly the conversation was two-way.
In the years since, it’s become only more so. The development of blogs – media consumers commenting on big Media, and its stranglehold on public opinion – and getting the word out to others; the rise of YouTube; its ability to bring down hypocrites and potty-mouthed racists—these developments demonstrate the structures of two-way communication that are now a part of our daily lives.
These things have been on my mind.
Watching Bill Moyers tonight, I suddenly had a vision of my future self:
Teaching classes in Guerrilla Journalism. Locally based. Personal. Telling video stories; getting your footage seen – establishing a creative practice with a video camera, a microphone and a software editing suite on a good computer.
This is such a good fit to my professional biography AND my passion. I feels right in a way no other career paths that I’ve explored have. (The world needs its future Bill Moyerss.)
Why didn’t I recognize it earlier?
Thoughts of going into a more journalistic practice have been at the back of my brain for a long time. But because I am not a journalist and have not been doing documentary as an ongoing practice since my grad school days, I worry about geting back up to speed. Real newsroom journalism is a scary thing to jump into, particularly since I’ve never had the experience of making my living that way.
It occurs to me now, though, that doing daily short pieces is the creative equivalent of a chef doing a stint on the prep line. It makes the hands faster.
So this is the challenge. My practice really needs to move in this direction. This is going to be a lot of work. But it is work I know I can do, and it’s work that really feels right as a daily practice.
I need this daily practice in order to reach for that vision.
Emphasis in grad school had been on film and video production. Traditional documentary film, with classes in the anthropology department, the cinema school, and the journalism department.
So at the time I polished the skills, never questioned my own passion for telling stories about real people, watched and discussed hundreds of hours of the world’s best documentaries, and learned I could make a great short film in 36 hours.
The world of interactive media was something new. The shift of the Subject from Viewer or Watcher to User or even, Experient, was the result of a seismic shift in media issues: suddenly the conversation was two-way.
In the years since, it’s become only more so. The development of blogs – media consumers commenting on big Media, and its stranglehold on public opinion – and getting the word out to others; the rise of YouTube; its ability to bring down hypocrites and potty-mouthed racists—these developments demonstrate the structures of two-way communication that are now a part of our daily lives.
These things have been on my mind.
Watching Bill Moyers tonight, I suddenly had a vision of my future self:
Teaching classes in Guerrilla Journalism. Locally based. Personal. Telling video stories; getting your footage seen – establishing a creative practice with a video camera, a microphone and a software editing suite on a good computer.
This is such a good fit to my professional biography AND my passion. I feels right in a way no other career paths that I’ve explored have. (The world needs its future Bill Moyerss.)
Why didn’t I recognize it earlier?
Thoughts of going into a more journalistic practice have been at the back of my brain for a long time. But because I am not a journalist and have not been doing documentary as an ongoing practice since my grad school days, I worry about geting back up to speed. Real newsroom journalism is a scary thing to jump into, particularly since I’ve never had the experience of making my living that way.
It occurs to me now, though, that doing daily short pieces is the creative equivalent of a chef doing a stint on the prep line. It makes the hands faster.
So this is the challenge. My practice really needs to move in this direction. This is going to be a lot of work. But it is work I know I can do, and it’s work that really feels right as a daily practice.
I need this daily practice in order to reach for that vision.
4 Comments:
Very cool. Don't you love those moments of epiphany?!
May I put a link to your blog on my page? I'm verrrry slowly getting up to speed.
judith
Yes of course! May I link to yours?
Rina is around somewhere, too. I'm finding my old friends over here slowly.
Good to see you here.
Thankyou, Ruby. Absolutely! of course now I'll actually have to post something worth linking to.
It will take me a while to get up to something vaguely resembling your speed.
I like the idea of the "ideal blogosphere" Surely the technology exists? if no, they need you!
Judith
It's a great feeling when finally something feels just right, something you've been looking for, and here it is, sort of out of the blue, but not quite - as the preparation has been ongoing in your subconscious, and in the conscious, too. I am not certain about the specifics in which you want to implement your vision, but it sounds like you know exactly what you want, and the "how" will come naturally.
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