New Perspective

I’ve been struggling to keep up with the blog because between quarantine, less freelance work, and the general state of the world I’ve been having trouble thinking of things to write about. This past weekend however, I was invited to a business growth seminar which included various local small business owners here in Bayonne. My friend and client, Mike Stanlaw hosted the event as a means to create a group, conscious of our own successes and failures, and able to help each other succeed. Meeting this group of people, learning from them, and planning to collaborate with them helped me look at things from a new perspective.

Sometimes a change in perspective is all you need to reframe something, both literally and mentally. As a television professional, I adjust camera angles, lights, and edits all the time to see things from a new perspective, so why not do the same when it comes to all creative outlets?

I have a friend, a former colleague, who runs camera on field for MLB every season, he does a LOT of post season work in particular and this year, due to the ‘Rona he was sent to one of MLB’s post season “bubbles” where, prior to start of play he needs to quarantine for 8 days without ANY human contact. His meals are delivered, dropped at the hotel room door so that he doesn’t encounter the waitstaff delivering the food, he is allowed to request an hour of outdoor time a day, but when granted he cannot use the hotel elevator. Those of us who work in live television are used to weird rules from time to time, ranging from working in the elements to security sweeps by the secret service, but I’ve never been asked to avoid all humans for 8 days. That isn’t to say I wouldn’t do it, if given the opportunity to work post season baseball, but I’m sure a lot of people wouldn’t be thrilled with the idea. My friend is a very creative and funny guy, he’s generally very upbeat and does what he can to make people on a job site laugh…and it usually works. So rather than take the perspective of annoyance he started a video blog, a “quarantine diary” of his stay. It is hysterical, and very well done, and is yet another reminder to me that a little perspective is all we need.

It seems to me, that we can find themes in our own lives for any given period of time. Mine this week, is obviously that of perspective. After attending this seminar, and watching my friend’s quarantine videos, I had to teach a class last night. My students’ first major assignment of the semester was due, and about half of them really did it correctly. Under normal circumstances I might be frustrated, but with this idea of new perspectives I decided instead to work directly with the students who struggled on the assignment, and give them a second chance. Now I am not going to give them endless opportunities to follow the instructions of the assignment, however, I know that many of them are new to college, those who aren’t had a rough spring semester with it being half digital with no notice due to the pandemic, all of my students have jobs, they have family obligations, and for many of them English is their second language. So, how can I help adjust their perspective on the assignment so they better understand it? That’s what I’m working on today. I want these students to perform well, I’m not here to trick them into getting a bad grade and hopefully by adjusting my own perspective on their work, I can help them adjust their own.

‍

‍