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We recently completed a recruitment video for Vanderbilt that I’m especially proud of. For starters, it has some cool elements, like a hospital rooftop scene with the helicopter trauma unit. We shot the video entirely on the Canon 5D Mark II using the Glidetrack portable dolly and a Steadicam. Most of those “high production” shots are in the beginning and the middle of the video. But for me, the most compelling footage was shot off-the-shoulder (by myself, thank you) during a ceremony at the school called “Match Day.”

I attended the gathering on a whim, really, not knowing exactly how it would fit into the overall piece. I figured, at the very least, it would be good practice for me since I’d never shot on the 5D myself. Plus, I wondered how the camera would do with documentary-style shooting since the depth-of-field is so terrifyingly shallow.

Match Day is more exciting than it sounds. Every year, at medical schools across the country, graduating students find out — at the same appointed hour — where they will be doing their residencies. No one knows for sure until that moment if the school they picked, in return, chose them. Every school does it differently, but at Vanderbilt it is positively theatrical: students are called forward one by one, handed a slip of paper, and placed before a microphone to announce their match to an assembled audience of peers, family, and faculty.

By the time I left I knew I had something special, but I still had no idea how it would fit into the video. Thing was, I just felt the moments I captured spoke so much more forcefully — and convincingly — than any prepared sound bite. I’m certain the final edit surprised our client because the entire back-end had almost no talking heads; it was just the ceremony as it unfolded. But I have to say, as I watch the piece for the 500th time, it makes even me want to apply to med school.

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I had a troubling shoot this morning that I just can’t shake. It was supposed to be an inspiring piece about a 28-year old son who was giving his father a kidney. We’d followed them through the entire process up until this morning when they arrived, at 5:30 am, for the surgeries. We rolled as they checked in to the hospital and were led up to their rooms.

Finally, a nurse called us back to visit the son before he was wheeled into surgery. But as we approached the room his surgeon emerged with a look of utter disappointment and told us to turn the camera off. He was in no mood for protests, so we complied and returned to the waiting room. A few minutes later another nurse informed us that the son had, at the last minute, changed his mind. We don’t know why. Presumably, the nurse told us, cold feet. It almost never happens in transplants given the rigorous screening process.

Our crew just looked around at each other in shock. Never mind that our story just imploded, but how in the world would the son be able to live with himself? How does he go back to his father, who’d finally let himself believe that he might live a normal life and would now return to painful dialysis? What do you say after holding out the promise to save someone’s life, and then snatch it away?

I didn’t know, either, as the father came to tell us the news himself. I’m still not sure how to interpret the look I read on his face. Disappointment? Anger? Relief? For my part, I just nodded and let him return to his family. Our shoot was over and I’m still not sure whether any of our footage will be used. I just keep thinking about the long drive home in that family’s car today as they grapple with two broken men now instead of one.

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People often ask me what was my favorite story to cover when I was a reporter. I always stumble at that question. There were so many of them — literally, thousands of stories. There was the one about the runaway camel and the hapless sheriff’s deputy sent to catch it. And the one about the one-legged man who hiked the Appalachian Trail.

In my seven years in front of the camera, I covered countless police stand-offs and court cases, witnessed dozens of perp walks, and sat through more city council meetings than I care to remember. But what I loved most, as I look back, were the stories about people who never sent press releases. They were folks I met on the street who almost never understood why I would want to follow them around with a camera. Most would indulge me, but they couldn’t see — until they watched the finished story — what was newsworthy about their lives. I guess sometimes it takes someone on the outside, someone with a little perspective, to connect the dots for us. We can all trace in our own lives what storytellers call a narrative arc. It’s just a matter of getting far enough away to perceive its outline.

I came to see my feature stories as gifts to the uncelebrated who, for the most part, had spent their lives in obscurity. Which brings me to my favorite story. I’ve given this a lot of thought. It’s perhaps not the most exciting, or technically spectacular, but it challenges me. It makes me want to live outside of myself. To look for ways to serve other people. And if by some chance my viewers back in 2007 felt the same way when it aired, then it might have been the most important story I ever reported as well.

I hope you enjoy Mailman Jack.

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Awards aren’t everything, of course, but it was fun to find out earlier this week that we’d won a Silver Telly for a video we produced for my friend Jeremy Cowart. Last year he came up with a great idea he called “Help Portrait” which caught on, literally, all over the world. His idea grew into a movement that attracted international media attention and will probably grow even more when he does it again this year. Go check out his website here, and if you still have time, watch the video too! Enjoy.

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I keep trying to take a mini-sabbatical, but I don’t think my clients are going along with me on that. My longest stretch without interruption was three hours on Thursday, but that was probably because everyone was watching the World Cup. People take breaks for different reasons. I have two of them. One is simply to catch my breath: I’ve crammed a year’s worth of work into the last four months. But the other reason is that I need to steer myself out of the fast lane for a bit to figure out where I’m going — and where I’m taking this company.

Leave it to me to bring existential questions to bear on a business model. “Yes, this project is bringing in money — but how will the world be different when it’s over?” Clients love to hear that one! But the question really is, for me, a matter of how best to use my time and talents in these years I’ve been given. I’d like to think that this company and the videos we produce are an extension of my own values. But I’m not sure if I’ve ever sat down and actually figured out exactly what those are.

That’s what this sabbatical is for. Stone Castle Pictures, as an idea, is still coming into focus. So we’re a production company — got that. But what, exactly, do we produce? Commercials? Documentaries? Television series? And more importantly, why? Maybe the vision won’t come all at once, but these at least are exciting questions to mull over — which I intend to do over the next several weeks… by the pool.

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Every once in a while we’ll bring along an extra camera on a shoot to capture the mayhem behind-the-scenes. Sure, everything looks glossy in the final product, but the real drama is played out just off-camera, as camera techs and grips are frantically setting up for the next shot so we can stay on schedule. But, you know, these shoots are a lot of fun, too, especially when you have crews like mine who enjoy a good 10-hour challenge. One day I’m gonna pitch a reality show on the making of a reality show.

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