I watched Obama’s infomercial tonight, but only to check out the production values and editing, I promise.

But really, I think it was a brilliant example of the power of story. Obama took the personal stories of 4 families (from swing states, of course) to illustrate concretely what his policies will mean for them.

And it worked so much better than just a list of of what his policies will do. Much better. Story allows a personal connection, and reminds us of our human connection.

When working on the preproduction promotional video for Church Community Services, they asked me what the key thing was to create a connection with the viewers. I immediately replied- story. Personal stories. The writer was able to include many stories, which personalized an undermarketed organization.

It’s not just Obama who is using stories to create connections. Joe the Plumber is a powerful personal connection coming from the McCain campaign.

Oh- and vote.

Recently, I went to a showing of a documentary on immigration. Now, immigration is a topic that I’ve worked with a lot, in particular with the documentary “Fuerza,” but also as an issue that come up while I was living in Honduras and the D.R., and visiting Guatemala. So I was interested in the approach that this documentary took.

This documentary, which was developed as a curriculum for churches, took a much different approach than what we took in Fuerza. Most of the voices heard in the video were from “experts” – professors, mainly – who looked at the issue from the standpoint of theology. It worked to engage the head, whereas Fuerza worked more on telling personal stories, which engages more of the heart.

After the showing, there was a panel of people who had been involved in the making of the video. Two were professors at a theological seminary with very different approaches to educating the public. One was very soft spoken, and when talking about immigration made sure it was very palatable. He made sure to that his words would not push people away from becoming interested in immigration issues.

The other professor was much more inflammatory. He spoke what he considered the truth, things that are not easy to hear. That US foreign policy has often served to destabilize countries, often deposing democratically elected leaders and putting in dictators. That this policy is more concerned about US business interests than the people. That people immigrate to the US because they are following the trail of money that was stolen from them. That US policy encourages people to cross a dangerous desert, so that they die and discourage future migrants.

That isn’t pleasant to hear, and can serve to further alienate people from the human rights issues around immigration.

However, as someone there pointed out, there need to be a variety of approaches to spreading the message. Some people will react positively to the soft spoken professor. Some will react positively to the more inflammatory one. Some will connect with a deep theological debate. Others will connect through stories of immigrants. Others will connect through a numbers heavy, fact driven video like this one.

So while I continue to favor story-driven video, I also realize the need for a wide range of approaches to get across a message. But be careful about this- you still need to define an audience for each project. Stick to one approach per project- otherwise the message will get muddled.

At the beginning of the school year, I posted my Eating Well Guidelines for the school year. Now, as my school year winds down, I thought I’d give a quick look at how I fared.

1. I ate very cheap this year.
2. I think I ate relatively healthy, but could definitely improve.
3. I often went for cheap instead of healthy.
4. I bought meat once- terrible ham on clearance for really cheap.
5. I don’t think I bought a single premade dessert all year.
6. I definitely dumpster dived much more than I bought.
7. I didn’t eat many dumpster dived doughnuts.
8. I bought way too many frozen pizzas and chimichangas. I know, I’m guilty.
9. I did an okay, but not great job of buying local.
10. Eat out? I barely did it.
11. I think I only did one late night Taco Bell run.
12. I definitely didn’t meet my goal of making a new recipe every week.

My homemade meals were generally baked squash with apples or omelets. I got really good at eggs. We’ll see how I do this summer, especially with a lot more locally grown fruits and vegetables available

Has anyone else seen any of the Fox Republican Debate from last night? I caught the tail end (with Guiliani refusing to stop talking),?and then watched the focus group afterwards.

Was it just me, or was it incredibly fake? I’ve never seen such solidarity for one candidate (Thompson) and against another (Paul). The responses were canned.

I’ve really been fascinated to watch how much control media has over the election. They can easily just say “This person is not electable,” and it suddenly becomes true. This is happening on both the Republican and Democrat sides.

Won’t this just cause us to get more of the same, as the front runners are decided before it ever gets to the polls?

I do, however, really appreciate the roles the fringe candidates are playing in pushing a variety of views more into the mainstream.

I thought I’d do a bit of a year end by the numbers wrap up:

• 0- Number of resolutions made for 2007
• 1- Computer that died and so far is still unreplaced
• 3- Countries visited
• 6- Major moves
• 15- different video projects worked on for 5 different clients
• 16- flights taken
• 30- hours of footage shot, give or take
• 43- different beds slept in (an average of a new one every 9 days or so)
• 130- blog posts, averaging between 2 and 3/week

I doubt any year in the future will be quite as insane for me (not that I’d complain, necessarily). I moved constantly, spending no more than 4 months in any one place. Who knows what the next year will hold for me? This is what is in the works:

• Buying a Mac Book Pro and Final Cut so I can freelance easier (feel free to donate a few bucks to the cause by using the PayPal Donate button on the side)
• Editing the school paper, The Record
• Graduating from college, barring anything major
• I have a couple freelance possibilities up my sleeve- I’ll let you know
• Moving somewhere. Don’t ask where. I don’t know yet.
• Killing this fruit fly that keeps buzzing around (short term goals are important, right?)
• Getting the Socially Aware Media Group up and running

Anyways, have a great new year.

When Jeanne Assam, a volunteer security guard, shot a gunman at New Life Church in Denver on Sunday, she was lauded as a hero by law enforcement and her pastor.

And my first thought was… she had a gun? In a church? And this is being thought of as a good thing?

For the record… I will NEVER attend a church where there is armed security.

Guns
do not make me feel safe. I don’t care whose hands they are in. And why
should they be in the hands of the church? To keep out the bad people?
I thought that was who needed the church the most…

(Sorry for not posting for awhile… I had finals, then moving home, and starting a new job. I promise to try harder.)

I was at Kroger’s last night, and saw a table with a couple plastic and paper bags with some groceries in them. A large sign said “Donate food to the needy” or something along those lines.

There are bags for $3, $5, and $10. Customers can simply buy a bag, then leave it at the store, to be donated to charity.

Sounds good, right?

Well, kind of. Maybe. The problem is that I looked in these bags. And it’s awful food.

One bag had ramen noodles and saltines. That’s not even something people really want to eat, let alone healthy.

If you decide to give this Christmas (or ever), make sure your gift is worth giving. Maybe junk food is better than no food, but can’t we do better?