Reno Wired again this year. Last year’s experience was awesome. So great to come together with a group of professionals passionate about what they do and working hard for a worthy cause. Reno Wired is a 24 marathon effort to re-brand a non-profit in 24 hours flat. This post is about my contribution to the effort. For the full scope of what was done in only one day, check out Reno Wired.
The Client: Ridge House
“The Ridge House is the only statewide organization that provides comprehensive re-entry services for former offenders in Nevada. Through compassionate services and strategic programming, our clients are able to become productive members of society.” RidgeHouse.orgReno Wired Video
[caption id="attachment_1561" align="aligncenter" width="800"]
Mt temporary video Editing Station at Reno Collective for Reno Wired[/caption]
My job again this year was to shoot and create a video that tells the story of what Ridge House is and why they are worth supporting. The hard thing about this is that we know nothing about the organization before 8:30 Friday morning when when Steve Burt from Ridge House presented a detailed overview for us. From there, My sister Carrie Bushá, from KPS3, and I had to pack up and start shooting. We basically condensed the video capture with the discovery phase. Where ordinarily I’d do pre-interviews and create a script or outline to shoot to, here we just went out, turned on the cameras and started asking questions.
Video Story Telling Process
The condensed timeline of this project makes for a solid 24 hours of work. During shooting, Carrie was asking questions and taking notes for the content team and to help develop an outline for the video. Back in the Reno Collective, I logged all the video so I knew what we had. Then I edited to the outline. Carrie, Tyler Saint Pierre and I reviewed the draft at about 11:30 PM and came up with a new plan, and I dove back into it. [caption id="attachment_1566" align="aligncenter" width="800"]
Trying to work while Kevin Jones photobombs.[/caption]
Wee Hours
The sky behind the downtown Reno buildings started glowing before I realized so much time had passed. Somewhere around 2 or 3 AM I came up with the 75% concept for the titles in the video and was able to talk with Steve from Ridge House about it and he liked it. The way he prased the recidivism stats made it kind of hard to understand. But I finally understood that what he was saying is that without Ridge House 75% of ex-offenders re-offend and go back to prison. With Ridge House, only 25% go back to prison. The recidivism rate is the number of people who fail. I wanted to show a more positive stat and show the percent who succeed. [caption id="attachment_1563" align="aligncenter" width="800"]
Presenting the video to the team and Client at Reno Wired 2014.[/caption]
There were times in the night when sugar and Red Bull and lack of sleep lead to some lapses in professionalism and decorum. But I think that’s supposed to happen: so YOU’RE WELCOME.
By 7:00 AM I was presenting it to the team. and by 8:00 it was live on the site.
Recovery
I’m no stranger to 24 hour events. I do a few 24 hour mountain bike races each year. But thinking creatively at 4 AM is a lot harder to do well than riding your bike fast at 4:00 AM. At the same time, it is very energizing to feel good about what you’re doing. And if I am going to donate 24 hours of time to a cause, I’m EXTREMELY happy that I get to do it for Reno Wired. Because knowing that I can do something that is part of a huge effort that will have a huge effect on an organization makes me feel good about my self and what I do. And that it’s over and done with by 8:00 AM Saturday so I can get on with my life and business makes the experience that much more valuable to me. By 12:00 I was home taking a nap with my son on the beautiful sunny afternoon.- Thanks to Kevin Jones and Julia Kruper and Jenna Hubert for inviting me again!
- Thanks to Carrie Busá and Tyler Saint Pierre for the creative collaboration!
- Thanks to the whole Reno Wired crew for being awesome and doing awesome work!
- Thanks to Steve Burt and Zarina Holman from Ridge House as well as Ken, Rene, Dan and Dawn for letting us help tell your stories!
- I admit, I cheated. I re-shot one of the interviews after the fact because the audio bad.