About

Growing up in rural Pennsylvania in the 80’s my family only had access to four basic TV stations, one of which was the local PBS station. Being a visual person I was quickly drawn to all forms of visual story telling and found most of the programing I enjoyed and learned from was provided by that PBS station. It wasn’t surprising that my vocation ended up being in visual story telling with a focus on serving communities.

Using visual media to instill a more understanding view of our world…

Visual media is the manipulation of the perception of reality and this manipulation can be good, bad, or even both. As video producers and content creators we have a responsibility for how we present and represent the world around us. I have approached this responsibility by studying folklore and combining it with my more than twenty years of video production experience. The result is I seek to create more culturally responsible video content that serves the communities it takes place in as well as being accessible to the general public.

What is folklore?

There are many definitions of just what folklore is and they’re constantly evolving, but generally speaking a basic understanding of folklore is a living shared culture of people. Yes, it’s quilts, basket weaving, and traditional ballads, but it’s also children’s playground games, workplace traditions, and family observances of special occasions. It’s the Coyote tales of the Navajo and the jokes uncle Frank tells at the family reunion. It’s the pride and critical eye a welder has in joining two pieces of metal and the tales (spooky and otherwise) told around a campfire. Folklore is everywhere and everyone has it, even if yours looks a little different than your neighbor.

So why combine folklore and visual media?

Most broadcasting programs follow either the journalistic or cinematic methods of visual story telling (and this isn’t necessarily a bad thing) but they usually lack a certain culturally sensitive approach. As I began to develop my own preferred style to visual story telling I noticed this lack and wanted to find a way to both be sensitive to these cultural differences and nuances while also being more effective when communicating to and with them. I found the study of folk lore provides these perspectives and methods for not only better understand the frame of reference of communities and cultures but also how to best interact with and serve them as well.