Why Do You Think It’s Safe For Me To Put This Camera In Your Face?

If you dislike navel gazing blog posts, then turn away, because it’s going to get ugly.

I am enrolled in a multimedia reporting class. The largest responsibility for the class is filming our subjects for short videos that we will put on our own blogs. I’ve felt a tightness in the chest ever since I learned I was going to take this class. As a matter of fact, when it was first announced to my class, I booed. What can I say, I lived in Philadelphia for five years.

I feel a slight sense of panic at the prospect of the class because I don’t understand why people would want to talk to me, let alone have me film them. What makes a person trust me with getting their story correct? What drives them to hand over their life to me? I have serious trepidation and doubt about a person giving up their valuable time to let me film them, only to have it posted on a hardly read blog that will be accessible for years on the Internet.

“I still haven’t reconciled this idea,” says one like minded classmate, though she is in the minority. Most classmates seem to be filled with bravado and confidence.

“No, people will trust you. They’ll let you take control and tell their story, they’ll be willing to put themselves in your hands,” said one classmate. Sure enough I saw him a few days later and he had gathered a number of interviews with people. After only speaking to him for a few minutes, I could see how he managed to get those interviews. He has an easy going, calm personality, whereas I was hyperventilating and freaking out about the assignment. (Note to future employers, I have a tendency to freak out–at least initially–all the time. I always get the work done, and done well.)

Choosing the subject matter will of course, affect the chances of success. Initially I intended to focus on the collapse of the commercial real estate industry as prices fall off a cliff and the credit markets tighten. My hope was to track down someone that had property, but couldn’t obtain financing to build on that property. It’s a dangerous idea to manufacture a subject for non-fiction, as I learned. It’s even more dangerous to ask people to talk about their failures, I was warned. While I don’t think that not getting financing in this credit environment is a failure, I understand if people don’t want to go on the Internet and say, “I’m sort of screwed.”

At the same time, I think people should want to air their grievances, especially if they’ve been smacked by bad timing. These market conditions are not their fault, yet they have to suffer. This could be a compelling story. Ultimately, I think this is the reason people will talk. They have a compelling story to tell and I can be their bullhorn. Or as a classmate put it in this pithy response (over G-Chat), “ppl like to talk.”

“I guess people are always flattered to have someone ask what they think about something,” said a recent graduate of my program, adding “And people like to tell their stories…it seems almost like a reflex, not something that people really consider rationally.”

I was beginning to feel okay about my chances of getting someone on tape. Then I asked this classmate, but what about being filmed? The response was a little less assuring, “Yeah, video is a little different. I think I would run away from a camera.” He quickly added, “But probably some people get turned on by the thought of strangers admiring them and listening to them talk.”