“What is your favorite interactive component of your favorite TV Show?”, he asked. Probably the seamlessness between the bend in my elbow and the first drops of my favorite Shiner beer on my lips as I watch that favorite show, I thought. This isn’t what I said. He might have severed the connection we had between us right then and there. I was on a video call from Houston to New York. Thank you technology.
The job sounded awesome. You control the gamut of tricks and gimmicks to get people to interact with the show’s concept digitally, virtual tours, or games to unlock a secret episode and such. You push the connectivity of social media conversations, work to get hashtags related to the show you manage to “trend”, and a whole slew of other market moving agendas. A digital producer for MTV. What more could you want?
What he was asking though came with an assumption; the assumption that I watched TV regularly enough to notice trends or market niches; the same way I notice trends in a properly SEO’d blog, photography, or how many times DWade goes right instead of left but I don’t. Forget DWade by the way. Go Rockets and go Celtics.
Damnit. A childhood of mom saying TV would fry my braincells and there I was, getting the stink-eye because I didn’t watch TV. It gets worse, and I’ll spare you the suspense. I didn’t get the job, and I’m glad. I’m the friend in the group that chuckles at what I think is a witty comment. Someone else in the group tops that with a phrase that makes us all laugh and then it happens. Someone inevitably turns to me and says “Have you seen that movie?” Shit. Not again. No, I just thought it was a funny comment. But when someone asks “Where are we going out tonight?” or “Where could I go for wi-fi and a cool atmosphere?”, “Do you have any good new music?” I’m the first person on the horn figuring out the best place to make their request happen, the best way that it could. Lately though, my supportive boyfriend, Drew has been showing me the cool new places that I never knew existed. I’m such a lucky lady and I have a passion for learning new things, for enriching people’s lives through positive experiences, experiences where they get out of their element. And I want them to have a documented story to remember it by. I only know this passion because I’ve been forced out of my element enough to realize the beauty of it. Finding your way through another country alone because you have no choice is now something that excites me. Spending the night in the mountains of Africa with nothing but a box of wine (and I do mean box) that we kept cold in the river is something that reminds me I’m human, body and bones in my purest form of being. And experiences are the only thing we have to create perspectives, loves, hates and the loot.
I would have not been living a life that I wanted to live up there and they would not have had the best person for the job with me in the chair. I like to articulate by my own hand the aesthetics, the cinematics, and the stories of journeys. I’d rather lookup keywords, write about experiences, design brands, take photos, then turn them into websites that become someone’s livelihood. That’s what moves me and if anything, this interview with MTV reminded me of just that. I know someone is going to kickass at the job and I’m just glad I got to experience it.
