I had nothing.

I was driving this past Thursday up to Jasper, Ga. — population 3,684 — with a potentially great story on my hands. We had learned of a woman who was born with congenital heart disease but had beaten the odds — and open-heart surgery — to play tennis in high school. She never received her letter jacket, though, but would get it in an honorary ceremony … 38 years after the fact.

If everything went well, I would leave Jasper that day with a touching moment — a woman earning a small victory after a lifetime of hardship. It would undoubtedly make for a great ending.

But everything until the ending? I had nothing.

Let me explain. I spoke with the woman in question — a lovely lady named Fredia Watkins — the day before. I wanted to interview her before the big ceremony, get some B-roll that would give viewers a window into her personality, and capture the necessary footage to compellingly tell her story to set up the climactic moment.

But Fredia did not want to do the interview at her home. Her husband recommended we do it in the conference room of his workplace, and we agreed to meet there the following morning.

A quick but important note: conference rooms are the most sterile, uninteresting places in any office. From a videojournalism standpoint, they are the opposite of what you want.

And I did not want this.

I wanted to capture Fredia in a way that showed her personality, and I knew I had a far lesser chance of doing that in an unnatural, confined space.

When I walked into the conference room, I saw my worst fears confirmed. It was plainer than vanilla yogurt.

At that point, I remembered an article I wrote earlier last week for the NPPA’s TV News Storytellers page. I discussed the importance of remembering the humanity in a story’s subject, and I mentioned various tips for enabling people to relax on camera.

One of those tips? Take your time.

The TV experience, for many, can be daunting and unnerving. Sometimes the key is to spend time with your interview subject before turning on the camera. Allowing everyone to get comfortable can go a long way toward creating a more conducive environment for natural moments.

In this case, I asked Fredia to tell me a little bit about her background. I learned she had come up with the idea to receive her letterman’s jacket when she bumped into her old principal at a local diner.

Lightbulb.

“What if,” I asked, “you guys went to the diner now and we did our interviews there?”

Everyone agreed.

And it made a huge difference.

The diner — what Georgians more accurately refer to as a meat-and-three, because you get the meat and three sides dishes of your choosing — provided the ideal setting to encapsulate the small-town feel of Jasper and the circumstances under which Fredia could concoct her letter-jacket idea.

And the moment itself? The ceremony was touching, and I was able to surround it better in the story because I could more powerfully set it up.

From nothing came something … and a moving story.

Matt Pearl is the author of the Telling the Story blog and podcast. Leave a comment below or e-mail Matt at matt@tellingthestoryblog.com.