I didn’t get into the “visual arts” to show others how to do it. I don’t consider myself a good or even poor teacher. I know this because I tried it at several different colleges as a guest lecturer: Lyndon State in Vermont, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Eastern Illinois University. I have tons of experience and even like to talk in front of people. But I lack an important ingredient teachers must possess: patience. I don’t even have patience with myself much a less a room full of young adults, most of whom are hungover, disinterested or like I was as a student: already knowing everything.
But since I’ve been doing videos for the University of Utah, perhaps in lieu of teaching, I’ve learned to enjoy helping young people help themselves. I’ve done several videos for UU, the latest being this one (it’s only a minute so check it out). A group of my wife’s marketing MBAs wanted to enter a case competition at another university. They needed a video to accompany their application: an encouraging requirement for people like me. I was returning from Chicago on the Sunday following Thanksgiving and they needed it shot that afternoon, edited and submitted the following day.
Fortunately, my news and weather experience came in handy. The weather first because by the time I met the students to begin shooting, we had approximately two hours of sunlight left. I knew it would get cold fast so we wasted little time speeding around campus to the shooting locations with all six of us in my X5. My news instincts took us to the football stadium where I was hoping the gates would still be open. I was right and we all got in to get the fun shots you see. My news experience also helped me edit the whole thing that evening and make my deadline in plenty of time.
The students didn’t get in the competition but they were grateful and I was happy to help. I hope I can do more stuff like this. Partly because, still having virtually no patience, I miss the excitement and challenge of the news business and its relentless quick turnarounds. But mostly it’s because it’s the way I can help these young people create their own jobs of the future- like I did.
