Ira Glass Just Made My Day

Moments ago, one of my ambitions was crushed by Emmarie's post about the Ann Arbor news website. As mentioned in my first post, I intended to create AnnArborist.com, but was beat to the punch by the local newspaper. Should I fight for my dream? The credibility, man-power and financial scales all lean their way, so I think not.

This door is closed, but per cliche a new one has opened... or become more ajar to be more specific.

And who has come to rescue me from the sorrows of failure?

It's the smooth talkin', hip walkin', spectacle totin', 1.7 million listenership boastin' host of the team that brings This American Life to your cars, bars, homes, and phones, where ever your iPod roams. That's right people. Hailing from Baltimore, Maryland, the man who's words lit a fire under my @$$, Mr. Ira Glass.

In his YouTube video's on storytelling, Ira has shown me the light. Ira has shown me that there is success in failure. And so I now look back at this failure with pride. In a matter of minutes, finishing my second blog comment and moving on to links for this weeks class, I moved on from a dream crushed to realizing my true potential in doing what I truly love -- filmmaking.

Yes, I will use his advice on the two building blocks of storytelling (anecdotes and moments of reflection, or potatoes and vodka as we called them in class) to further edit my podcast. Yes, I will retain the images he presents of the difficulty in finding decent stories and the importance of killing one story to make a better story live. Specifically, I found the note that all mediums digress from the energy of the source and that we, as presenters/journalists/artists, must be ruthless to make it good, to be helpful in justifying the need to be inspired to post.

Most of all, I take his messages about the "good taste gap" to heart. I want to make films because I love films. I am inspired when I watch a great film (saw JCVD last night... WOW), yet throughout my filmmaking career I have felt disappointed with all of my projects. As I mentioned in class, I have yet to be fully satisfies by any of my work, but I now see this in proper perspective. Ira says that for the first few years, what you're making is not so good. The ambition is there, but the quality lacks. As someone with good taste, you can see that your work is crappy. Yet, this can be overcome.

While most quit when they find themselves failing again and again at what they want to be doing well, what they want to be inspiring others with, the best keep on keeping on. Ira explains that the only way to catch up and close the "gap" is do huge volumes of work. So, I will continue on making films until they meet my standards. Ira says that it takes a while to fight your way through it, but with time, "the work you're making will be as good as your ambitions."

Furthermore, he offers two great ways to make this happen. Around the 3 minute mark of the third video, Ira goes back to a terrible report he made 8 years into his career at NPR. Not only does this show me that the people who are great at what they do did not always operate in such a manner, but it presents the important lesson of revisiting old work to see how you can do it better. I can teach myself how to be better by seeing where I have come short in the past.

The second advice, which is something I struggle with is creating deadlines to force yourself to produce a greater volume. So, a plan of action is to make a movie every two weeks this summer to hone my skills as I near the end of my collegiate career. Even if I fail, I will succeed. As Thomas Edison once said in regards to trouble with inventing the incandescent light bulb, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

Lastly, the pitfalls that Ira associates with storytelling relate to film well.

One: Be yourself. As he says, don't imitate someone on TV because they already exist and no one wants the Ted Koppel knock-off when they can get the real deal. Or, as I see it, just because I love Wes Anderson films I should not try to imitate him. Instead, his films can inspire me, but I must speak in my own voice.

Two: Be interested in other people and about the world. No one wants to listen to someone that only speaks about themselves. Ira suggests that you should be in the story as a personality, but focus on others as the main character.

So, in a meta-cognitive manner I think that by relating Ira's wise words, I have illuminated my own path. True, I may stumble and sometimes fall on my face, but understanding that everyone goes through this I can continue forward. Or, as Alfred says in Batman Begins, "Why do we fall, sir? So that we might learn to pick ourselves up."