As someone who has followed and reported on the last four General Conventions for my diocese, I’ve come to believe that there is only so much General Convention a person – even a die-hard Episcopalian – can take at one time.
Combine that with the severely depleted attention span of the modern American and what you’ve got is the need for General Convention (GC from here on out) to be offered in dollops that can be consumed in no more than three minutes. One hundred and eighty seconds. That’s it, tops.
That’s where this video blog comes in.
filming with the awesome crew in the Exhibit Hall in Columbus
In Anaheim in 2009, I worked with The Episcopal Church’s digital media department on a short, daily video segment called The Daily Wrap. Each day it was my job to distill the actions and developments of the previous 24 hours into a 500 word script. Then I combed my hair and slapped on lipstick and read it before the camera from a laptop-turned-teleprompter that occasionally worked. (In 2006 in Columbus, I did a daily segment as a part of the longer GC nightly newscast.)
On-air reporting is not my calling. My voice goes especially high and squirrelly when I’m nervous. I sometimes have difficulty articulating my words because of a childhood speech impediment. I’m not trained for this.
What was I DOING doing this?
But here’s the thing: People seemed to like it. One communicator kindly said, “It was like having a good friend explain General Convention to me.” Well, you know, there’s something to be said for that.
In addition to The Daily Wrap, I did a number of interviews. Those were fun and allowed people across the Church to hear from those they might not otherwise. I believe there is great value in letting people tell their own stories and share their own passions. It’s a privilege to get to ask the questions.
No matter what the topic or who the speaker, three minutes of video seems to be about the right span of time to tell all that needs to be told. Beyond that, it’s “blah, blah, blah.”
We discovered this in 2008 when my boss, Bishop Steve Lane, went to the Lambeth Conference in England. He, with his wife Gretchen as videographer, used a Flip video camera to record a brief message each evening for the people at home in the Diocese of Maine. He emailed it to me – it always arrived around dinnertime which made my husband a little crazy for two weeks. I edited it and then posted it on his Lambeth blog. People loved it. He was a brand new bishop that summer, and it gave everyone a chance to get to know him better. He did the same thing in 2009 at GC in Anaheim. Since then he has continued to offer short, simple videos on important topics to the people of the Diocese of Maine.
These are not slick. The production values are pretty meh. Still people – in our diocese, anyway – seem to value them because someone they trust opens a little window into their world and talks frankly and concisely about the issues that are important to the people of God in this place.
With indy 3:00 – general convention three minutes at a time we hope to do just that. The difference is we intend to open that window several times a day over the course of GC. In addition to a daily news summary, The Daily Lap, we’ll offer interviews with Maine deputies and other interesting and informed people, we’ll cover the quirky story that presents itself, and, of course, we’ll offer Bishop Steve’s daily updates and insights.
We will cross-pollinate with our other GC blog, “Mainers in Indianapolis” at www.gc2012.net and the Bishop’s blog, “Round Maine with Bishop Lane” at bishopstephen.wordpress.com. I will also pick up the blog “Six Word Sermon” started in 2009, whereby I condense every major sermon preached at GC into six words and then challenge readers to offer theirs. Check it out at sixwordsermon.wordpress.com
My one concession to cool will be the opening titles. My good friend Jim Williams – whom I met during freshman orientation where we argued about which was better, Star Wars or The Empire Strikes Back – agreed to create an animated clip for the opening. Here’s a charming opening animation he did a few years ago for our son Colin’s video about learning to scuba dive.
So stay-tuned as we approach July. If you are a fascinating person with a great story to tell and would like to set up an interview in Indianapolis ahead of time, please drop me a line at hshott@episcopalmaine.org.
