interview

PODCAST EPISODE #84: Emily Chan, restaurant owner, on being the subject of a story

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I’ve done 83 episodes of the Telling the Story podcast and, in the process, interviewed nearly as many talented storytellers and journalists.

Episode 84 is different.

This time, I interviewed someone on the other side of the camera – someone who was the subject on an in-depth story I produced late last fall.

Her name is Emily Chan. She’s the co-owner of JenChan’s restaurant in Atlanta. I did a five-minute story about the restaurant last year, spotlighting hers to represent the challenges faced by so many in that industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. I spent six shoots in two weeks with Chan, and I was able to tell a compelling, all-encompassing story as a result.

Last month I learned the story had won an NPPA Best of Photojournalism award for Hard Video Essay. When I posted about it on Facebook, Chan responded with a lengthy comment that included the following sentences:

“This interview still haunts us…and not in a negative way; it simply captured our vulnerability – which is truly every small business owner’s vulnerability during this past year. I went back and watched it last week and it was painful; it still is. We are still fighting week to week and we still see the light at the end of this tunnel. Thank you for sharing our story so thoughtfully and carefully.”

We shouldn’t need reminders of how our stories impact those we interview, but this was a big one. I decided it could be a subject of further exploration.

Chan is my guest on Episode 84 of the Telling the Story podcast.

 

I’m so grateful Chan took the extra time for this, and I think you’ll find it a worthy listen.

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Tom Brady, Super Bowl LV, and the stories we could’ve done but didn’t before the pandemic

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Remember the days when we used to scoff at a Skype interview?

They really weren’t too long ago. Less than a year, if we’re being specific. And we can be specific, because any video storyteller knows exactly when the rules changed and dictated new ways we’d all be required to do our jobs.

These days, when I turn on my station’s evening newscasts, the majority of interviews are done over Zoom. When I watch some of the most innovative storytellers at stations across the country, I often see a new definition of a two-camera interview. One camera focuses on the reporter facing a computer monitor. The other isn’t even a camera; it’s a screen recorder.

In most cases, these look like limits. I have refused to stow away my camera during the COVID-19 pandemic, preferring to shoot stories and interviews whenever possible, but I recognize the difficulties in doing so. I can’t put a lavaliere mic on my interview subjects, and I can’t get within six feet of another human being. I’m not allowed to shoot stories indoors, which means I’m especially grateful to work where winter temperatures rarely dip below freezing. But rain and wind can hinder a shoot, and I can’t control it.

Yes, there’s plenty we still can’t do.

But I’m constantly reminded, including during Super Bowl coverage this past week, of what we can do – and what we could have done before the pandemic but never did.

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Kevin Hart, Jerry Seinfeld, and the interview advice I didn’t know I needed

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In my first post of 2021, I spoke about a quote from fictional character George Costanza that helps ground me when I stress too much.

In my second post, I cited NPR great Ira Glass and one of my favorite authors, Anthony Doerr, and discussed their ruminations on chasing perfection.

Now comes Post #3, and I’m again inspired by a kernel of wisdom in an unexpected place.

Kevin Hart, the ridiculously accomplished standup comedian/actor/content creator, now hosts a podcast. It’s called Inside Jokes, and it follows a familiar format: comic superstar interviews another comic superstar for nearly an hour.  The first episode dropped Monday. Hart’s guest? Jerry Seinfeld.

I couldn’t help but click, and within five minutes, I heard an observation from Seinfeld that gave me a jolt about my own line of work.

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PODCAST EPISODE #76: Chris Hansen, senior photojournalist, KUSA-TV

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For five months, the Telling the Story podcast has been delayed by current events – both external in the world (COVID-19) and internal in my life (the arrival of my second daughter!).

But it returns now – and with an all-star guest.

Chris Hansen is a senior photojournalist at KUSA-TV. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, he was a standard-setter in finding beautiful, innovative, and thoughtful ways of shooting and editing stories. Since the pandemic – with numerous restrictions on where he can shoot video and how he can conduct interviews – Hansen has found new ways to persevere. Take this story, where he interviewed neighborhood residents on their front lawns with the help of their cell phones. Or this one, where he used the drone to capture and illustrate the emptiness of Denver’s streets during a stay-at-home order:

Hansen is my guest on Episode 76 of the Telling the Story podcast.

He is also a speaker at the upcoming NPPA Virtual Video Storytelling Workshop, taking place August 7 & 8 online. I’m directing the workshop and am thrilled to bring on two dozen talented journalists to present about topics from COVID-19 to digital dominance. Sign up now, and get ready to be inspired.

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Sometimes a great story can be as simple as a table and two chairs

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This article can be found in the March/April 2019 issue of News Photographer, published through the NPPA.

I’m big on new.

In the last few years I’ve worked with drones, gimbals, and a mirrorless camera. I’ve created Instagram-first food segments and half-hour documentaries. I’ve done all of this from a newsroom – WXIA-TV in Atlanta – and under a company – TEGNA – that preaches innovation.

But when I wanted to attempt a new approach and story structure for a segment involving person-on-the-street interviews – a format that seems to funnel towards boring and uninformative – I reached back to a far earlier creation.

First, my producer and I bought a wooden fold-out table and two fold-out chairs at IKEA. Then, we asked our promotions team if we could commandeer an easel. Finally, we begged our in-house graphical guru to create a poster we could place on said easel, with a recurring question: “What’s your untold story about __________?” For each story we would do, we felt, we would fill in the blank with a relevant subject.

It worked.

On Thanksgiving week and requested stories about gratitude. On Mother’s Day and Father’s Day we found stories about parents. And this past Valentine’s Day, we learned stories about kind gestures. Each time, we shot in multiple locations that represented different communities in our region. We set up multiple cameras, from a traditional TV news kit to a GoPro and iPhone. We didn’t leave until we had interviewed at least three people.

Most importantly, when we did those interviews, we took our time. I didn’t ask for the quick sound bite and leave. I sat for around ten minutes, conversing and learning more about the person across the table. Often I discovered a more compelling story hidden beneath the initial back-and-forth.

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MMJ advice: my interview on the “Thrive on TV” podcast

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It is rare that I am on the receiving end of an interview.

But when it happened a few weeks back, I greatly enjoyed the opportunity.

Bakersfield, Ca. sports anchor Casey Keirnan asked me to be a guest on his “Thrive on TV” podcast, and we did the interview a few weeks back. We spoke about the highs and lows of multimedia journalism, the value (and potential distraction) of awards, and transitioning from sports to news, which I did gradually over the first half-decade of my career.

I also share the story of my worst day in television, which still makes me shudder more than a decade later.

But amidst all the storytelling tips and thoughts in this podcast, I think I mostly appreciated the chance to talk about how my job fits into my life. Casey and I discuss that towards the interview’s end, and I think it’s a worthy conversation for any younger journalist wondering about his or her future.

You can listen to the podcast at this link, and check out Casey’s web site as well. Enjoy!

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

MY OLYMPICS JOURNEY: Savoring the “small” moments

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I keep getting the same nagging feeling.

With each passing day of the 2014 Winter Olympics, I am bombarded with experience after unique experience.

But, I wonder, how many will just as rapidly slip from my memory?

I am a big believer in capturing moments however possible. On a week-long vacation, I will snap a thousand photos. When I have time at home, I write a journal about my day. I do it all in a seemingly vain pursuit: to remember as many of the numerous encounters and events that make up my life.

But at the Olympics, in a strange way, this task is more difficult.

Even though I am equipped with a variety of moment-capturing devices – my WXIA-TV video camera, for starters, as well as a smart-phone and laptop – I cannot possibly find the time to snap everything I see in Sochi. And the experiences happen both sporadically yet furiously.

The smaller moments – the more likely ones to slip through my memory’s cracks – are the ones I savor the most.

These are the chance encounters: the cheerful Russian Starbucks barista who remembers my name every day; the Asian journalist who tried to trade pins with me despite a massive language barrier; the Dutch speed skating team that happily granted my interview request by the Olympic rings.

When will these moments ever come up in conversation? When will they naturally pop into my head? How will I remember them if I experience so many of them?

With that in mind, I write this entry both as a window for my readers and a public continuation of that vain pursuit. I want to share a few of the “smaller” encounters that have made this Olympic experience so rich:

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