Thanks to the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) and Seth Gitner for the nice feature in the November edition of News Photographer. And shout out to fellow UNC J-school alum Carolyn Van Houten and of course, the fabulous Chad Stevens, also featured in the edition.
If you’re an NPPA member, check out the whole article. If you’re not, here are some of the highlights:
On collaborating with clients:
“‘We look at every project as a collaboration. We bring the storytelling expertise; they bring the knowledge of the issue,’ Rue said. ‘We learn from them. They learn from us.’
Part of [StoryMine’s] job is to help the client make the germ of an idea better. ‘If we can work with them in the Story Design process, we can teach them why they should use video. That was a big part of our UNC education. You don’t just say ‘I want to do a video story or a photo story,’ the story has to dictate the medium…It’s not fun for us to do a video that’s not a good use of video,’ Rue said.”
On being editors:
“The duo worked as editors on a large project with Chad A. Stevens on his recently-released film, Overburden….’It was really helpful for me – as a shooter – to understand how he approached a certain scene.’ Rue said. ‘In the end, we both knew all of the footage and were able to make a plan for what scenes would get tackled, and then divide them up.’
‘The more you edit video, the better video shooter you become because you know what you need as an editor.’ Orr said.”
On being entrepreneurs:
“Rue and Orr also take great pride in how they’re running their business. They see the experience as building a story onto itself….’If you think of it in terms of how do I develop the business? how do I value the work?…That’s all part of the enjoyment we get out of running a business. For us, that’s the beauty of collaboration,’ Orr said.”