CONNECT
Sometimes I panic when people ask me what my favorite food is.
Maybe panic isn’t the right word, but I usually freeze up, and I can’t think of anything. I mean, anything… I’m fortunate to eek out some mumblings of unintelligible nonsense that I clean up by quickly changing the subject. I’m not sure why I do this because I really love food; I love all kinds of food. You know, even as I write this I’m trying to decide what my favorite food is, and I’m honestly having trouble. No one even asked me the question, but here I sit in front of my computer screen only thinking of animals and colors.
The funniest thing about this is I’m a pretty decisive person. When a seemingly tough decision needs to be made on the spot I usually rise to the pressure and make something happen. Go figure right?
I’m sure you’re wondering what the heck my inability to state a personal food preference has to do with media production. Honestly, I can only draw one parallel between food and video. There are millions of options one can choose when talking about food. There’s Chinese, Italian, Korean, Mexican, etc. And, within each of those types of food there is an even more complex list of possibilities, dim sum, pizza, bulgogi beef, tacos… The list is literally endless, and for every item on this endless list there are thousands of opinions about each option.
This is where I draw the parallel. Video is much the same. Video is audio, still images, moving images, spoken word, music, effects, color contrasts… another endless list. And, as many options as there are for video there are thousands of opinions accompanied.
The funny thing here is unlike my favorite food phobia, I love the pressure to make a decision, and cause something great to happen with video. I love the feeling of being charged to tell someone else’s story with passion and excellence, and hitting it out of the park. Hearing statements like “I never would have thought to do it that way, but I can’t imagine doing it any different now”.
There’s nothing like communicating through audio and visual media to inspire, entertain, and even capture the greatest moment of your life. The hard work and effort that goes in to getting everything just right is nothing compared to knowing I was able to serve someone’s dream and tell their story in a way everyone, with all their opinions, can appreciate. I guess that’s what I have to offer… a visual meal for the masses to enjoy.
To your greatest story,
Jonathan Mills
