Navigating from a successful career in television news to forming a production company comes with some risk. You’re on your own and you don’t have the audience that needs to be informed, educated or entertained. You’ve also lost your steady income, your benefits, you’re out of the limelight with the only thing to go on is pure determination! But if you can tell compelling stories and find a market for your content, you’re halfway on your way to thinking you haven’t messed up your career.
I love writing and at the risk of sounding vain, I think I’m a halfway decent storyteller. At least winning a couple of awards for excellence in journalism tell me so. I was spoiled when I worked in television news -I had my own cameraman and video editor – two skill sets that I’ve subsequently learnt and feel well equipped to build Oxpeckr around, along with photography and motion graphics. I’d hazard a guess that many videographers have the technical expertise to consider things like lighting, sound, camera angles and the like and be able to do colour correction and other tweaks in post production, but am pretty sure many don’t have the creative writing chops that can take their videos to the next level.
I feel that that’s my biggest asset. When I first ventured into television news from radio news broadcasting, I’d write long descriptive stories because that’s what I was used to. I was also writing scripts and then viewing my footage. My editor told me that I should let the pictures tell the story so look at your visuals and then write. And when you do, keep it short and simple was the advice. Keeping it short and simple doesn’t mean there isn’t room for creativity and that’s a value I like to introduce in any production.
By far, the biggest hurdle really was designing the Oxpeckr website. Completely self taught, it’s probably been the worst decision I’ve made as a self-employed, independent contractor. I’d absolutely outsource next time around. I’m proud though that through dogged determination, I was able to complete it and have it ready for Spring 2024.
I’d like to think everything is in place as I anticipate a formal launch. After a 14 year career in journalism, I hope getting into production will be as rewarding, and here I don’t mean financially satisfying though that would help but just reveling in the joy of creating art and helping clients fulfill their objectives.
