The Making Of The Hurt & The Healer
So, I know it’s been a while since I’ve been on here and I’m working on ‘repurposing’ things around here, even if that means getting back to just adding content on here. For now, I figured I’d let you in on a little something that I’ve been working on since, well, October I guess.
Back at the beginning of the recording process for MercyMe’s ‘The Hurt & The Healer’ I thought it’d be cool to try and capture the entire process. It was just me and a camera so I shacked up with them for a few weeks in the studio. The result was nearly a terabyte of video footage and really no plan for what to do with it.
My friend Ryan and I started talking and decided that if we got a little live footage, and sat down with the band we could have ourselves a pretty cool little documentary… or… soft-rockumentary… or something. Since Ryan likes to edit video and I like to tell people what I think is cool, it worked out pretty well and I’m pretty happy with what we came up with. In the end it’s over thirty minutes of studio footage, photo shoot outtakes, interviews, behind the scenes junk and some live performances.
Now, I’ve never really “directed” anything before and honestly I don’t even know if that’s what I did on this. On top of that I’ve never really “filmed” anything for more than silly YouTube videos so this was a bigger project than I anticipated, but I think it turned out pretty cool. So here’s the deal. This thing is available Tuesday for sale on the band’s website so go over there in a couple days and check it out. I’m curious what you all think.
Do What You Want
This whole internet thing has been around for a while. And the past few years I’ve seen it’s really take off. I have an eye for these things you see. Seriously though. With this whole blogging, Twitter, Facebook, Social Media boom, I’ve noticed more and more “experts” popping up. Experts that tell you how to become the best Social Networker in the world, or become the best at Twitter. Really?! Become the best at something called “Twitter”? I don’t know about you, but I’m a little sick of the advise. I’m sick of being told how I should do something to widen my digital footprint. You?
“But Brody, that’s what you do for a living right? Social Media strategy?”
No.
Some people might think I’m an “advise guy” or “Social Networking person” and as uncomfortable as that makes me, I can see where they are coming from. I know more about certain things than they do. Fair enough. What I do is passionately encourage people to be themselves online. If you’re not a “catchy title” person. Don’t force yourself to write catchy titles. If you like video blogging over typing, grab your flip and go to town. If you want to focus on Facebook, do it. If you’re the quick one liner type, rock Twitter. Who cares how you do what you do. Just do what you want and be yourself.
“But Expert A. says in order to get more followers I need to do x.”
Okay. Well, if you are doing it for more followers than what happens when those followers find out that you tricked them? What happens when being yourself sneaks out and you offend the masses?
Now, I’m sure there’s ‘advise’ on this blog. Times where I’ve tried to sound like I know what I’m talking about and again, I might know more about something than other people. There’s a thousand other people out there that know more than me about different things. That’s what makes the internet fun right? See, I look at it like this. I’d never walk into your living room and start telling you how to decorate to maximize space. I’d never say that the color you decided to paint the walls wasn’t accommodating to the general public. Or that your carpet was ugly. I’d never say that your ‘style’ wasn’t good enough for people. I look at blogging, and Social Networking the same way. Do what you like. Who cares if it’s not “right”.
This morning I read a blog post by Don Miller briefly touching on this and I couldn’t agree more with him. This internet is a huge place and no one needs to fit into a perfect box to ensure readership. Sure, learn from people. Take what they say and apply it to YOU. I’m never going to be Seth Godin, but you know what? He’s never going to be me.
Art Direction-ing
So, I’m art directing another record and today is the photo shoot. For the rest of the day this will be my view. We’ve found a rooftop in downtown Nashville that we’ll be doing most of the photos and I’m crazy excited to see how it turns out. I don’t have a lot of details yet, because, well, it’ hasn’t happened yet, but I’ll make sure to give you some updates after today. For now, I need to get some coffee and based on the weather today, it looks like a warmer jacket.
I could get used to this art direction thing. We’ll see how it goes.
Expert Noise
I make a living off of social networking. My entire job and the creation of my company is to ensure that people can connect online with other people. Sure, I work primarily in the music industry, but the concept has spread like wildfire. A few years ago it wasn’t happening and now it is more than ever. So what’s the problem? Isn’t this what you wanted?
Here’s my current struggle.
With Social Networking blowing up the way it has, the platform for the ‘expert’ has literally spread to even the most shaded parts of the internet. I can’t even look at my computer without being given some five-point plan on how to become as awesome as the person writing it. Five points to being a better husband, five points to being a better boss, five points to being a better social networker, five points to writing better five point lists. Everyone is an expert. And it instantly makes no one an expert. Just another noisemaker.
And here’s the thing. It’s really not that I want to be considered an ‘expert’ with the rest of them, because I’m not. I’m really bad at putting bullet point lists together and I don’t really care if anyone thinks what I am doing is the best way or not. Here’s the part that jacks me up. Because of all the noise and the details of my job, it’s become increasingly important that I pay attention to all these social networking strategies. To survive I need to be ahead of the ‘experts’. I need to dig deeper, know more, execute faster and succeed loudest. Frick. No pressure huh?
When I started this thing, very few were on the social networking train. Twitter was still in diapers and blogging was for action figure collectors. So there weren’t the ‘experts’ forcing their ways into my phone, email and web pages telling me what I needed to keep up with. And I could handle it. I could focus on things that needed to be executed and made sure they were done well. With the increase of ‘experts’ out there, I’ve noticed a huge stress in my life to “keep up” which I think only hurts the end product. Not so expert.
I recently downloaded Twittelator Pro for one very specific reason. The mute feature. I like following people and checking in on people, but I realized I simply can’t handle all the ‘expert’ noise out there. I can’t do it. I can’t keep up with everything that everyone thinks I should be doing. What I can do is keep my head down and work as hard as I can to do the very best I possibly can for the artists that we work with.
So for now, I’m working on that. I’m working on getting these ‘experts’ out of my head and off my phone, and I’m working on doing the best I can for the people I need to. And I don’t need to prove to you I’m an expert to do that.
So let’s hear it, anyone else notice an huge increase in your life’s expectation since the ‘social networking boom’?
MercyMe’s Lovewell Live
So, I’ve decided to really put some focus on photography this tour. I don’t really know what that means, but one thing I think would be cool is to actually know what I’m doing when I’m taking pictures. I’ve had all sorts of photographers ask me different things about the concert photos I take and I’m tired of telling them, “I have no idea. I just point the camera and push the button when it looks good.”. I even thought about getting some new lenses before this tour, but then realized how much they cost so I changed my mind. The cool thing is that Jim has a really nice camera and awesome lenses so he’s letting me play around.
At this point I can still only say that I pointed Jim’s camera at things and pushed the button when it looked cool, but I’m learning and I’m even going to start writing things down, like settings and F stops and all that.
One thing I’m not sure on is the editing process though. What do you guys think of these? Too “scratchy”? Is that ‘so 2009′? It was late last night when I was editing these so I’m not sure my “arty judgement” was all that great. But this morning I think they still look kinda cool. What do you think? Is a clear picture better than a “roughed up” one? I suppose I could do both.
Anyway, if you guys are cool with it, I might throw some stuff on here during the tour and see what you think. I doubt I’ll do pictures from every show on here so make sure to check out MercyMe’s page too where I’ll most likely be putting pictures up from every show. Appleton, WI is today. Let’s see what happens.
Team Building
So, if you’ve been around me for the last few months you’ve probably heard me going on and on about two things as far as work is concerned. Team Building and Communication. I know it sounds all touchy-feely and all that, but I don’t care. I think there are some really important keys to the success of businesses and being able to put up with each other is a big one.
Now, I’m not claiming to really know anything about business, because quite frankly, I don’t. I’ve never run a business and I’m trying to grow with the company as well. Seems like a decent thing to do right?
So here’s my first step in the ‘team building’ process. A reading list. Yep. Like a book club. Like Oprah. I’ve got the first three books planned already. I don’t know if I want to tell you the names of the books just yet because I think it’s important that we finish reading them first, but I’m curious what books you would recommend for smaller companies looking to create a team?
And yes, I know who Seth Godin is. I’ll let you know when we’re done with the first book.
2010 Dove Awards
Well, it was a long night for sure, but I had a great time. Bart and Natalie did a great job hosting, the performances were great, the ‘comedian’ was…. well… the rest of it was good. My job was to basically hang out with Bart and Natalie and take pictures with my phone or camera. So that’s what I did. I like to call it documenting. All in all it was a great night. I’m glad Kristin was able to be there and come back afterward and hang out with some of the folks I work with. I still am taken back a little when I think about what I do for a living, but it’s a fun ride and as long as things keep popping up, I’ll keep saying yes.
