A week ago I was exhausted and stressed and really not looking forward to being away for 6 days. But I needed the money and this is one of my very favorite clients. So I said, "A week in Oklahoma? Sure, sign me up." and was determined to grin and bear it. Now that we're done and on the long slog home (Tulsa to Houston to Jackson MS, to Baltimore to Albany then drive to Boston tomorrow) I can say this was a great week.
Here's why Museum on Main Street is one of my very favorite clients: we talk to the most interesting people that I would never have a reason to meet otherwise.
I started the week physically and mentally wiped out so the fact that all our shoots were in the afternoons and evenings was just what I needed. The first night I think I slept 12 hours just to catch up. And the rest of the week I got full nights' sleep as well. That makes all the difference in the world. Add to this the fact that I wasn't producing, so Tiffany had all the responsibility and all I really had to do was show up and shoot. When you take away everything else and just leave me with a camera in my hands I really am happy. This turned out to be the most relaxing week I've had in months. (And they pay me for this!)
The first 2 days of shooting we were in Newkirk, OK, a town of ... I'm not sure, maybe 3,000? We were talking to the coaches and players of the high school football team. About 50% of the boys in the school are on the team. It was a practice one day and a scrimmage the next and for both they pretty much let me go anywhere I wanted. I don't know much about football so I wasn't very good at anticipating the action, but the nature of practices is that they do things over and over so I had plenty of chances. And they all loved that I was there and were very accommodating. The coach was friendly and welcoming and enthusiastic - as was the school principal and the head of the booster club, really an all access pass - and the players were polite and well behaved. Still teenage boys so not exactly eloquent, but they did their best. And a writer (the writer?) from the town newspaper got wind of our visit and came out to do a story. Took my name and interviewed Tiffany. Newkirk had hosted a MoMS exhibit so they knew who we were, and anyway The Smithsonian came to down. Never mind it's just Tiffany and me, we were a big deal.
After that we drove back to the suburbs of Tulsa to pick up a story about skateboard parks. There is a custom built park behind the community center in Sand Springs that was built by a company called Native Skate Parks. The mission of the company is to "bring skate parks to Indian Country." There is Greg who started the company and his son-in-law who is a skate park designer. Greg is a builder and wanted to build things that would give back to his community - he's Osage - rather than just building homes all the time. The kids in his community don't tend to like team sports. They don't want to be told what to wear and where to stand and how to run and be a faceless part of a pack of kids in gear they can't really afford. But they still need to be active, they need to develop habits of exercise before they get pulled into this epidemic of obesity and diabetes. He talked about the kids and why they love skating: it's individual expression, it's athletic, but also artistic, it's social, you're with your friends and encouraging them rather than competing against them, everyone has a chance to "win" just by landing a trick. Then we spent 2 evenings shooting the kids while they skated and everything Greg said was true. They were friendly, they were social, the older kids helped the younger kids. They were clean cut and well spoken and sad that skaters have a bad reputation because they don't want to hurt anyone's property, they just want to skate and so they're quite happy to do it here at the park. They were good kids. They wanted to send us to a different park where there were better skaters than they are so that our video would be better. But of course we didn't want the best kids, we wanted the real kids. I also thought it was interesting that the skateboard kids were much more articulate than the football kids. But then football is much more about listening to the coach and doing what you're told. Skateboarding is much more social and interactive so they've had more practice talking to people, and talking about their sport.
None of these people would I have met in my day to day life, but they were all friendly and interesting and I'm really glad that I got a chance to talk to them.
Sounds like a fabulous week!
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