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Investing Time, Gets Results

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How long does it take to produce an eight minute video? Its nearly impossible to know if you don’t know what the story’s about. Everything is a negotiation and takes longer than planned. There are always problems and delays and even the smallest issue can derail an entire project before it begins. Planning for the unexpected is something experienced producers budget for. But even then, there are plenty of other challenges waiting in the wings.

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Ed Jahn, OPB Producer
Ed recently received the 2014 national “Edward R. Murrow” award from the Radio, Television & Digital News Association for his documentary work and has won 13 regional Emmy Awards for his work on Oregon Field Guide.

Ed Jahn is a 15 year veteran with OPB and a producer of one of its most popular and longest running shows on OPB, Oregon Field Guide. I had a chance to talk to Ed recently about time management, unexpected issues, and exactly how long it takes to produce a story for Oregon Field Guide. He answered just as I expected by saying, “there is no rule of thumb on that.” Here’s a brief Q&A with Ed about the challenges he and his crew faced shooting a story called Urban Youth & the Zen of Fly-fishing.

John: How did you get this project off the ground?

Ed: I was looking into programs that connect inner-city youth with the outdoors and found the name Soul River Inc. came up over and over again. I set up a meeting with founder Chad Brown, and quickly realized he was the story. He was a veteran from the war in Iraq and Afghanistan who, like a lot of veterans, suffered from PTSD. Chad was different though. He had found a cure for his nightmare on the river. He liked it so much, he started a non-profit organization alongside his already successful career as a graphic designer and web developer.

John: How much time planning went into getting the project started?

Ed: We started with that two hour face to face meeting followed by about 10-15 lengthy emails about when and where he was planning his next trip. The trick for me was getting all the kids to have a signed photo and video waiver form from their parents or guardians. Without those forms, the whole project would have never happened. It was about two weeks before we got all of them back. We spent a good chunk of time getting them in. That wasn’t the biggest issue we had though.

The biggest issue came from our friends at the U.S. Forest Service. They threatened to not allow us to shoot unless we paid their new photography permit fee. I was floored. The story was about a U.S. veteran of war who suffered from PTSD who was now helping troubled kids reconnect with nature. This is the kind of story they should’ve been happy to have us produce! In the end we basically told them when and where we were going to be and to come shut us down if they wanted to. They never showed up.

John: Wow. That’s crazy! Glad you made it through all that. What was next on the agenda?

Ed: The original cinematographer we contracted with fell through at the last minute. It was too bad too because he was going to shoot some amazing close-up and slow motion footage with his RED Camera. We where looking forward to that but we ended up going with one of our own, Todd Sonflieth. I’ve worked with Todd for 15 years so he knows exactly what I’m looking for and I know exactly what he’s capable of. Todd is amazing and the shoot worked out beautifully.

John: How do you decide how many people to take on a shoot and how do you divide duties?

Ed: This story was just two people. The camera operator and myself. He shoots and I do the audio. Because of the nature of the story, there was quite a lot of interviews done. But I knew the real story was going to come from the reaction shots of the kids experiencing nature, some for the first time ever. This meant a lot of close-ups of faces, interpersonal interactions, that sort of thing.

John: Ok so you have all the footage, what are the next steps?

Ed: The next 5-6 days are for the pre-edit. That means we transcribe and log all the footage then start the radio cut. The radio cut lets you know if you’re missing a critical part of the story or if there is a new unexpected direction you should explore. After that, it goes into rough cuts for about three days. Finally, I’ll ask another producer to look at the piece and get their feedback. Once that’s done I’ll give it the green light, then it hits the air. Some piece are more complex than others and never make it to air but we put in considerable time upfront deciding if there’s a story there before we shoot. We’ve saved a lot of time and money doing it this way.

John: So the piece makes it to air, everyone loves it and you’re off to the next video right?

Ed: Wrong. Now we start the social media campaign in ernest. If we’ve been doing things right, we’re posting pics here and there through out the production. Our team is really good about that. I’ll hit the usual suspects like Facebook, Twitter, and more recently Instagram. You have to keep in mind, there are about five to six projects just like this one all happening at the same time. They’re all in different stages of development and they all have their own unique set of challenges. My job is to keep all the plates spinning. Its something of a hurricane around here but I love it.

87 Comments

on “Investing Time, Gets Results”
87 Comments on “Investing Time, Gets Results”

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