November 12, 2024 • 37 mins
Host Michele Terpstra (1995) talks about the new internal video production studios at Ford Motor Company with the Executive Producer Creative Strategy Ford Motor Company, Bill Hasler, and Video Producer Jon Curtis (2014).
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To learn about ways you can support GVSU film and video students:
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- GVSU F/V Alumni: https://www.facebook.com/groups/gvsufilmvideoalumni
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Welcome to Alumni Live (00:03):
The Podcast.
These are conversations with GrandValley State University film and video
graduates about the industry, thefilm, video, major and alumni profiles.
Welcome to another episodeof Alumni Live: the Podcast.
I'm Michelle Terpstra withthe GVSU Film and Video Alumni
Board and the class of 1995.
(00:26):
I would like to welcome Bill Hasler andJohn Curtis from Ford Motor Company.
Bill is the Executive Producer ofCreative Strategy, and John is an alum
and he's the Video Producer at Ford.
Can you talk about yourroles a little bit at Ford?
What do you do there?
Yes, so currently I'mactually a Video Editor.
(00:46):
So most of my day consists of editing thevideos that Bill's production team shoots
so I mostly edit those videos and then wepost them on our site, Ford University.
John's pretty humble.
He's an Editor, that's thetitle we give him, but, he's
also a really great storyteller.
And that's what a good editoris, a good storyteller.
We can shoot great or bad film.
(01:07):
But once they get it, they're theones who make the story come to life.
John's been very good at helpingtell stories through editing.
you're more than, just our Editor, Jon,you're like our creative genius over here.
But anyway, as you mentioned,Executive Producer; it's just a
fancy way of saying that I leadFord's in house production team.
And on a day to day basis,You know, I have two roles.
(01:28):
The one side of my job is managingthe operation of our business unit.
But then the second half of my job, whichis the best part, is just getting in this
creative space that we get to get intoevery single day that we come to work,
trying to figure out fun and excitingways that we can share information
about our vehicles, our products, ourservices not only with our dealers, but
(01:51):
with all of our customers out there.
Nice.
There's a couple of thingsI want to touch on there.
First of all, you mentioned University.
Can you talk a little bit, what isthe University you're referring to?
We've created a program at Ford.
We call it Ford University.
And as you might suspectit's a knowledge house.
It's where we basically createproduct awareness, where we create
(02:14):
how to training, where we just createvisual representations of how they
might operate or what they mightlook like when they're out there.
And our purpose is really to not onlyeducate our dealers on our vehicles
and our services I mentioned, but alsoto create content that our dealers can
share with their customers, whetherit's through the internet, whether
it's through social channels, Or maybeeven virtual sales rooms, so that the
(02:38):
conversations they have with theircustomers become a little more impactful.
So we create stories about howour vehicles function, about how
they fit into people's lifestyles.
And then we allow our dealersto use that content to help
connect with their customers.
For people who might already own a Fordthey may come to us to get information on
the product that they purchased from us.
(03:00):
That's great.
Probably a lot better thangetting information from TikTok.
Much better, and there'sno tuition charges.
It's free, so , you don't gointo debt getting this education.
Very cool.
You also mentioned your in house studio.
Is this something you've recentlybrought back, this in house studio?
Yeah, so we've never done this in houseat Ford, at least not in recent times.
(03:21):
If you go back to the 1920s, HenryFord actually had a film company and
was very much into creating film,but also taking a lot of photos.
But, we decided, at Ford, in order forus to be able to compete with Tiktok,
YouTube, a lot of the places wherenot only customers, but even our
dealers are going to get information.
(03:44):
And Ford just thoughtthat's unacceptable.
We don't know that the folks on Tiktok are100 percent accurate about our products.
We don't know that the claimsthey're making are valid.
Buying a car is the second, mostexpensive purchase you make in your life.
We want to make sure that peoplehave the best information so
that they make the best decisionfor themselves or their family.
(04:04):
So Ford decided to insource thatcontent production so that we could
create that influencer style contentand share it with our customers and
our dealers so that we know they'regetting the most accurate information
about our products and services.
So what is it like to workin your in house studio?
(04:25):
I felt like there was a needfor this from the beginning.
An in house studio just makes so muchmore sense when you think about it.
Having to go out and find contractorsmakes sense sometimes, but not all the
time, especially if you have to do aquick turnaround or something like that.
It just makes way more senseto have an in house team.
So having the opportunity to be on thisteam, I reached out to Bill actually
because I was so excited that this washappening and I wanted to be a part of it.
(04:46):
, I think that having thisin house production studio
is a great asset to Ford.
And for my role specifically, having inhouse editors makes just the same amount
of sense because how many times have wehad quick turnarounds that you have to do.
Just having us available isway more beneficial than having
to call someone and hope thatthey're available to do an edit.
(05:07):
So, from my perspective, that'swhy I think it's beneficial
to have an in house team.
I think that was your question.
what is the culture like
We call ourselves the in house productionteam, the content production team.
And as we said, we recognize thatadvertising right now is in social media.
It's on YouTube, it's in Tiktok.
Smart money in traditional advertisingis usually around live events, a
(05:29):
sporting event where we know peopleare watching those live and they
are forced to have to go through thecommercials and in the traditional way.
But look how much of our contentingestion is now coming through
social media or other channels.
And I think we've all been a part ofsituations in life where we've read or
heard something in social media thatwe later find out was not accurate
(05:53):
or it wasn't factual or it was justcompletely wrong, but the way in which
it was presented really assured usthat it was accurate or it made us
feel like it was good information.
Now in politics or other topics, I guessit's what people want to tolerate.
But if people are going to gomake an expensive purchase, we
don't want them making thosedecisions with bad information.
(06:15):
This is going to give Ford an opportunityto get information to that's accurate
and better represents our brand.
Now, what does that mean in terms ofbuilding an in house production team?
Why do we need to do that?
Jon mentioned a minute ago thathe heard we were standing up this
program and he came and found us.
And he's one of many who did thatwhen we were standing up this program.
(06:38):
We found that there were actuallya lot of people, even within Ford
Motor Company already, who have abackground in Film, Video Studies,
this type of work, that maybe didn'talways have this kind of opportunity.
Maybe as an audio engineer, they wereworking with the engineers to try
to figure out how to reduce noiseinside of a vehicle much different
than the audio tech who's with usright now, recording, this podcast.
(07:01):
Two different things.
By bringing this team in house, we areactually creating a team of experts,
which helps ensure that the contentthat we create is fair and accurate.
But it also allows us to hire enthusiasts.
People who are proud to wear thatblue oval or to represent the
blue oval when they come to work.
And I think in exchange,Ford has recognized that
(07:25):
creative folks are different.
We don't necessarily sit incubicles in an office like
traditional corporate employees.
So, when you are in the building thatJon and I work out of, It's almost like
they've divided it down the middle.
On one side is the business operation,the program that supports this program
that Jon and I are running here.
then the other side is our studio.
(07:46):
And depending on which door you go in,the working is drastically different.
And that's because in our space, wehave to have a space that helps us
think creatively, and helps us invent,and helps us try to make things
sticky, we call it, sticky, meaningthat people retain the information.
And we found that the best wayto make that stuff sticky is
(08:08):
through creative storytelling.
So where we've taken traditionalproduct knowledge training, which is
usually thought of as maybe more boringor read this, answer some questions.
We're putting it on a level of likewhat Netflix and Amazon Prime Video do.
And that is to entertain you and toget you talking about what you just
watched at the water cooler the next day.
(08:30):
So if we can start to create fun andexciting content around the Ford brand
that's in the style or in the samevein as what we're seeing influencers
do, then we're gonna start to commandtime and attention from our dealers
and our customers and take that timethat they're giving to influencers
away, and give that time to us instead.
Yeah.
So to plainly answer thequestion, the culture is great.
(08:51):
The culture is phenomenal becauseas Bill mentioned, everyone
is from different aspects.
A lot of people are fromthe production world, but
everyone's from different aspects.
That doesn't mean they were actuallydoing production work before this role.
Maybe they were somewhere else andthis is what they wanted to do.
Every time I come here, We'realways talking about the movies
we've seen, or how cool it was thatthis shot happened in this film.
We're just film buffs, I feellike, so it's very cool to have a
(09:14):
bunch of people in the same spacewho appreciate the same thing.
So I hear that Ford likes employeesto work on their own projects.
And you recently worked on a film.
Can you talk a little bit about that?
Yes, we shot the film in 2021, soit was a very long time ago, and
we just finished editing this year.
Right before I started this role.
But we have talked about how many otherpeople on this team have things outside
(09:37):
of this job that they are passionateabout There's a couple people who have
films who are doing the film festivalcircuit right now as my film is.
So yeah, just having those people,like I said, in the same space
where we can talk about that.
That's very cool to have.
Having that opportunity is amazing.
I think it goes back to the question onthe team culture that we've built here.
(09:59):
And I recognize artists are artists.
It doesn't matter what art form it is.
They just love to create.
And they're most comfortable andin their best element when they're
in that creative environment.
And so as I was thinking about howdo I attract world class talent
in video production to a car maker?
Because as I went through collegeand studied Film Video Production
(10:24):
and then eventually went into theindustry myself after college, I
didn't think coming out of college,Oh, are Ford and Toyota hiring, right?
I was looking more as like what'sin Hollywood or what's in New York.
So as I started thinking about howare we going to get the kind of
talent that we want to get here?
I started thinking about what are weable to offer the staff that they can't
(10:45):
get or traditionally is difficult toget out in the real world so that we
both benefit from this relationship.
So I've long told my staff there'stwo career tracks on this team.
There's the lifelong track where you comeand work with us creating Ford Productions
as as long as we're in existence.
And then the other trackis, what do you want to do?
(11:06):
Maybe you do want to be out in Hollywoodwith Steven Spielberg creating movies.
Well, it's hard to get fromcollege to working for Spielberg.
There's usually some steps in betweenthere, and a lot of the time, that
is perfecting your craft, developingyour artistic senses, and really
honing in on what you do well,and just taking that to the max.
And so here we can affordthe team those opportunities.
(11:29):
They've got resources through the team.
But then they also know that, Hey,what you do in your off hours,
like any job, that's your time.
I'm not going to stop artistsfrom creating in their free time.
So I just said, Hey, let's encourage it.
And we're even finding as some of theteam is looking to create independent
films or things outside of work, they'reactually tapping one another to come
(11:51):
and work on their projects with them.
Which is awesome because maybethat more junior level audio
person gets an opportunity tolead audio for an independent film.
Gets that credit on their resumeand allows them to grow in
some way, shape, or form.
And I've even told the team whenyou know where you ultimately want
to go, please let me know so we canfigure out how to help you get there.
(12:14):
There's enough folks on this teamwho've got a network of people that,
we can help make calls, we can helpget folks to where we want to go.
So, buttoning up the question on theteam culture and how you get to express
yourself creatively on this team.
I think for us it was just makingsure we hired people who want to do
that and that's their passion andthen just getting them together.
(12:36):
The next few months I'm excitedto see what this team starts to
create as we ramp up production,because I've never worked with such
a group of passionate people before.
They were actually rioting becauseI was holding back production
like we're not ready yet.
They were coming to me like everyday like we need to shoot something.
We're going crazy.
The people make thedifference, as they say.
Now, a lot of students now reallyhave this idea that the jobs
(12:58):
out there are all just gigs.
that It's not full time employment.
Do you have experienceworking as a freelancer?
And if you do, can you compare itto working for a company full time?
My whole life has been eitherfreelance or corporate.
There's not really beena lot of in between.
One of my first gigs out ofcollege was a full time position
in Austin, Texas that I took.
(13:20):
Then I moved home, worked as a freelancerfor a while until I got this job.
So there's pros andcons to both, obviously.
The corporate gig, is more of astable job, so to speak, where,
you know for the most part whereyour next paycheck's coming from.
The freelance world isn't quite likethat, but you have a lot more freedom in
the freelance world to do other things,to take some time off if you want to.
(13:44):
There's two different kind of monsters.
I have found that, now being a fatherand having a home and everything,
the corporate gig is more for me,but I also have friends who still to
this day are doing freelance work inDetroit and very successful doing that.
So it just really dependson, how you feel, but there's
a lot of jobs out there in both.
So I would tell the studentsto explore both options and
(14:08):
see which one fits them best.
And certainly know, like you just pointedout, the pros and cons of both options.
because, oftentimes youdon't have a choice.
Some productions just by nature areonly gonna work with a freelance crew.
Movies are like that a lot because whenthe movie's over, it's not like they start
shooting the next episode of that movie.
Maybe if there's asequel, that's different.
But, those folks who work together onthat Steven Spielberg movie, only a
(14:31):
handful may go on to a different project.
And then the other handful go on toseveral other different projects.
They don't necessarilymove around as a group.
And for people who like that sort ofvariety, one time you want to work on
a movie, maybe another time you wantto work on a movie that's on location
remotely, or you want to work on anepisodic, series or something like
that, you get that, flexibility, and toyour point, you control your schedule.
(14:53):
Hey, maybe you don't want to workfor the month of August, so you
don't book any, gig jobs then.
The downside, you don'twork, you don't get paid.
We look at our team here and, everyoneon my team is a full time Ford employee.
They get all the health care benefitsand all the other benefits that
all the other Ford employees get.
They get paid time off.
There's not a whole lot of production jobswhere they pay you not to come and shoot.
(15:17):
And then obviously like sick personaldays and then all the benefits of
being an employee of Ford Motor Company.
So, as Jon mentioned, for some folkswho may not always fit the traditional
production mold, it's hard to be married.
It's hard to have a family whenyou're in production because you
work long hours, you work long days.
We often joke, we see ourproduction counterparts more than
we often see our own families.
(15:39):
And sometimes that's sad.
Our family should always be,number one, but we also have to pay
the bills and make life happen.
I would say for any student outthere who's thinking about this as
a career, be prepared for that.
Some gigs, you may end upfreelance and bouncing around.
You may enjoy that.
It may be the only way youcan make a living at first.
But also start lookinginto, corporate gigs.
(16:01):
Traditionally, corporations haveoutsourced this type of content
production, but as we've startedto get into this space more, we're
starting to find out there's afew other companies that are going
in this same path that Ford is.
I think Ford's probably one of the moreaggressive companies out there in this
in house content creation, but whenElon Musk can go on X every five minutes
(16:23):
and make false claims about his productsover ours and we have to go to an agency,
develop a treatment, schedule it , runit through legal, and then get it out.
Elon's already covered 20 othertopics in that amount of time, and we
missed our opportunity for rebuttal.
With an in house team, and I'm not sayingthey created an in house team to go talk
(16:44):
to Elon Musk, but it allows us to bequicker to market, to get information
out faster, to get information to ourcustomers and our dealers more quickly.
We couldn't do thatwithout an in house team,
Plus, consistency is another thingthat an in house team can bring.
Absolutely.
And people ask, Well, how are you modeled?
And I'm like, I've onlygot 40 people on my team.
Now, only 40.
(17:06):
Some people might think, wow,that's an army and others
may think, how do you do it?
If you were creating a feature filmfor a Steven Spielberg movie, 40
people that's the craft service team.
That's such a small crew.
But, we made sure that in additionto hiring passionate people, we
also made sure that the peoplewe hired had multiple skill sets.
We wanted them to be able towear multiple hats to work.
(17:28):
Jon yes, he's an editor,that's his main function.
But John can do so many other productionrelated things to us that it allows
us to work in a model that we callpods, where all 40 of us can come
together to form a single pod, wherewe could go create something that's
more feature like, like an independentfilm or a more long form story.
(17:50):
But then we can also break outour 40 individuals into smaller
pods of three, four, five people.
So we can cover multiple things at thesame time, and the versatility of the
individuals on the pod allows us to coverthe important things, sound, light, and
obviously recording the video portion.
And that allows us, with just 40 people,to be able to produce over 200 pieces
(18:13):
of video content in a single year.
Henry Ford inventedmass production of cars.
We like to say that Ford's also inventingthe mass production of video content.
And we couldn't do that if wedidn't have a versatile, passionate
team delivering that work.
So I guess for students out there,as you're thinking about, how
do you get your foot in the doorthink about the versatility, your
versatility (18:34):
what are your good skills?
What are your okay skills andwhat are your horrible skills?
Be cognizant of those.
We have these reviews of our videos.
And the goal is not to sayanything great about the video.
Instead, the goal is to talk aboutwhat we call continuous improvement.
How could we have made it better?
(18:54):
And it's not meant to be mean,like, oh, the sound guy's horrible,
he should be fired, right?
No, it's not that at all.
It's more along the lines of whatcould we have done differently
to have a better product.
And in that process, there's alot of wins that come out of it.
To me, the single most important win isthat individual is learning something.
They're being given informationthat they can then go act on to make
(19:17):
themselves better at what they do.
The second win is obviously for FordMotor Company and for its customers,
in that we're continuously drivingthe quality of the content that we
produce to give you the absolutebest product that we can give you.
And then I would even argue the thirdwin there going back to the individual
(19:37):
who you're giving the critiquing to,it allows them to start networking with
other members on the team who may beparticularly good at that skill set
and to almost peer share knowledgeand learn from one another and even
coach each other to better success.
So the same can be donefor students in college.
How do we get into the industry?
Well, what do you want to be?
Oh, I want to be a writer.
(19:58):
We don't need to be employed.
Just start writing every single day.
Give yourself a topic, create yourown fake TV series, think about
character development, think aboutstory arcs, all those sorts of
things and just keep practicing.
And then find people who cantell you the things you don't
usually want to hear, right?
Don't give it to your mom.
Why?
(20:18):
Every time I give my mom something,all she tells me is that I'm the
most gifted guy on the planet, right?
She is not a good person for meto give my stuff to because she's
just going to tell me it's great.
My dad, on the other hand, he has noproblem telling me that something wasn't
good or this could have been better.
But that's always not good enough.
So I look to a friend of mine who notonly can tell me when things aren't
(20:39):
good, but he actually gives me theinformation on why he feels it's that way.
That's the recipe for success whenyou understand the why part, it
allows you to make adjustments inwhat you do, in your process, in your
development, to just get better at it.
Same thing with the camera operator.
Oh, I want to be behind a camera someday.
Grab a cheap camera.
Your phone is a camera, right?
And just practice shooting things.
(21:00):
Practice framing.
Go back home and edit it.
When you chop two different thingstogether, did the cut look funny?
Maybe it's because you had thepeople on the same side of the screen
when you needed them on oppositesides or whatever that might be.
So for those students listeningout there that want to get
into this industry, just start.
It's really that simple.
Jon, I don't know if you havea different perspective on it.
No, just go do it with your friends.
(21:21):
I know it's kind of cliche, but mywhole life has been making dumb videos
with my friends, and then I went toschool for it, and we made a little
bit better videos with my friends.
And then you get into this, andnow on this team, we're making
videos with our friends, basically.
So it never stops.
I'd say you just haveto get out and do it.
I had the privilege of seeingJoel Potrykus' film this last
(21:42):
weekend at the Grand Rapids FilmFestival, one of the things that
he said, was the exact same thing.
It's all about just makingstuff with your friends.
And it can be dumb, and no onewill ever see it, probably, but
you have that experience now, andyou can grow from that experience.
And you just keep doing that over andover again, and even if you never
make a feature film that people see,at least you'll make a feature film
(22:03):
that you and your friends have madetogether, so I think that's important.
So Jon speaking of learning the craft, arethere things that you learned at GVSU that
helped you in your career and in this job?
Yes, I mean, there's so manythings, but the best thing was
just the people that I met there.
The person that shot my shortfilm was one of my good friends,
(22:26):
Sean Mouton, from Grand Valley.
I met him at Grand Valley.
Half the crew was from Grand Valley.
You remember the people you hadin class, you remember those
interactions, those relationships.
When you get out in the realworld, you remember those people.
And I had the privilege of using alot of those people on my film set.
Meeting the people was oneof the most important things.
I didn't have a chance to dothe summer film, but that is an
(22:47):
amazing experience for people.
To actually be on a film set as a student,learning the different types of roles
that you wouldn't have learned otherwise.
I Think a lot of people go tocollege for film and they just know
director, writer, cinematographer.
They don't know the other aspectsthat come into making a film.
So to have the summer film and to bethose production designer, or maybe
(23:08):
a role that's less glorified is superimportant because maybe someone will
find a role that they didn't evenknow existed that they fit right into.
So I think that's super important.
Like I said, I didn't get a chanceto do that when I was there, but
a lot of people I know did andthey've found careers from that.
We're taking a short break totell you about the Dirk Koning
(23:28):
Memorial Film and Video scholarship.
Here's Gretchen Vinnedgeremembering Dirk Koning.
The Koning Scholarship enables studentsto get that kind of an education, to be
a good filmmaker, to be able to expresstheir voice and to continue Dirk's dream.
For more information, and todonate to the scholarship, visit
the link in the description.
Now, back to the show.
(23:49):
So Bill, I know that you want tobuild a relationship with GVSU.
Can you talk about why andwhat your hopes are for that?
Yeah so my niece is a Laker.
She went to Grand Valley,graduated last year.
She was studying lower education.
She wants to become a teacher.
And while she was at Grand Valley shehad told me over the holidays one year
(24:12):
about a video class that she took there.
Obviously she knows the work that I do.
When I lived in New York City andshe was just a little kid, one summer
she got to come out and spend a weekwith Uncle Bill in New York and I
sent her to a film camp in New Yorkfor young kids, and she loved it.
So she was just telling me aboutGrand Valley's program and how
her friend Hannah was in it.
(24:35):
And I just started thinking like,oh, we're going to have turnover
on our team as our team memberswant to graduate and maybe go on
to Hollywood or do other things.
And we're going to need amechanism for discovering talent.
I'm not an alum of GVSU, but I am analum of another Michigan college, and
I thought, Michigan's got severalreally great universities and colleges,
(24:58):
and I just started thinking, like,there's a wealth of talent that just
needs to be harvested , and developed.
I literally asked my niece, hey,can you give me your friend's number
and let her know I'm going to texther so it doesn't sound creepy.
She introduced me to one of herprofessors, Suzanne, and we just started
chatting about what could we do withGrand Valley and have a mutually
(25:20):
beneficial relationship where Ford canbenefit from having young, talented
folks who've got thoughts and ideason how we can do things differently.
And how can we help them perfect theirskill sets and develop them further so
that they can get the best opportunitythey can give themselves to go out into
the real world and secure some work.
So, we've been talking about everythingfrom using our team to help mentor some of
(25:45):
the students on some of their projects.
We've talked about actually comingout to Allendale or somewhere in
the Grand Rapids area and actuallyshooting one of our productions
there and inviting folks to come andshadow us during one of those shoots.
And then we're even talking aboutnext summer hosting some interns from
Grand Valley, and how we would pickthose interns would be based on merit.
What have they done through the universityto showcase their work and earn their
(26:10):
way into an opportunity to come andbe part of our team for a summer.
And see what we can do to helpthem get their career going.
Nice.
When I did my internship, I have to say,I learned so much in the first week even.
It was the most beneficial thing I didduring my career was have an internship.
Yeah, I agree with that.
Especially in this industry where, alot of times you have to be discovered.
(26:34):
In order to be discovered, you just got tobe in the right place at the right time.
That old saying is it'svery true in this industry.
My whole career started with me beingin the right place at the right time.
I wish we could say it was because ofall this money I spent on my education,
or all the stuff that I knew when, infact, it really did not go that way.
But obviously, my success sincethat opportunity was based on
(26:57):
what I knew and what I couldbring creatively to the table.
So when you think about that,yeah, you need to be in the right
place at the right time, but mostimportantly, you need to be prepared.
this is where I would say to thestudents, it really appears like
all you need to do is have a phoneand you can start to create content.
And you can . but I promise youit's not going to be good content.
(27:21):
Stories have a beginning, they havea middle, and they have an end.
You're spending your money, ormaybe your parents' hard earned
money, or maybe you're borrowinglots of money to get your education.
Study the craft.
Learn the science of lighting, learnhow images are affected by lenses and
all these other things, understand howsound can help enhance a production.
(27:43):
We will watch a production thatwe do without any audio on, so
that we just focus on the visuals.
And we'll turn around and watch thatsame production with the monitor off,
and all we're doing is listening to it.
And they are very differentexperiences when you watch
them in those different ways.
So would you tell us a littlebit about your career path?
You've touched on this a little bit,but where did you go since college?
(28:06):
How did you end up here at Ford?
Yeah.
So real quick, I just want to circle backbecause I forgot to mention the one thing
I did at Grand Valley because I didn'tdo the summer film, I had an internship
and that did change the course of my lifebecause having that internship, I met
a gentleman who I ended up working for,
for the rest of my life and now we'relifelong friends too because of that.
So, definitely go out and do one of thosetwo things . I know you have to, I think,
(28:30):
at Grand Valley, but if it's an internshipor the summer film, those things are so
important to do as a young filmmaker.
Make sure you do those thingsbecause you have no idea how they're
gonna affect the rest of your life.
So after I graduated Grand Valley, Ikind of fell into a lot of positions.
I applied for a job at ahumor blog in Austin, Texas,
(28:50):
and they somehow accepted me.
So I moved to Austin, Texas for two yearsand worked as a video editor for them.
Then the gentleman I had interned forwas starting up his own production
company in Detroit, and he offeredme a position there, so I moved back
to Michigan to be a part of that.
We did a lot of work for the autoindustry doing mostly PR videos.
While there started my own productioncompany where I did just independent works
(29:14):
on my own and then had a bunch of oddjobs as, as a freelancer during this part
of my life where I bounced around a lotworked on a couple of commercial sets,
did a lot of independent stuff myself, andthen I was looking to have that corporate
experience again because I didn't like thenot knowing when I was going to work next,
when my next paycheck was going to come.
(29:36):
So, I just happened to find a jobthrough an agency for Ford Motor Company.
For an organization thatbasically made videos to promote
a new working style within IT.
It's a long drawn out thing.
I won't bore you with that.
But I got this positionfrom applying there.
And then through that position,networking with other people at Ford,
(29:58):
I ended up moving into the executivetechnology office where I worked
with the executives, making videosfor them, running conferences for
them, doing their live broadcasts andthen from there found this position.
It was a lot of going out and lookingfor it, but because of that, I
was able to find where I am now.
So I was born and raisedin Southeast Michigan.
(30:19):
I was always aware of Ford.
Loved Ford as a kid growing up.
Never thought I'd actually work forthe company, but really liked it.
I grew up in a householdwith divorced parents.
So my grandparents helpedmy mom out at times.
And on the weekends would spendtime with my grandparents.
And on Fridays, my grandpa would letme stay up late past my bedtime as
grandfathers are supposed to do, andhe would be watching Johnny Carson.
(30:43):
And, I was little, so I never alwaysgot the jokes or understood the
political humor or whatever it wasthat Johnny Carson was making fun of.
But I did understand laughter.
And I always remember as a littleboy just watching my grandpa
laugh, and I found joy in that.
The fact that he was happy.
And it made me say, I want to do that.
(31:04):
Be Johnny Carson.
Well, that didn't work out for me.
But, I went to college in Michiganstudied film, video, couple of other
things, did the internship circuit.
I worked at a radio station in Detroit,WJR, it was an AM radio station.
I had the 4 AM to 7 AM internship slot.
So I would wake up in Ann Arbor at 2.
30 in the morning, leave my dorm at3 o'clock in the morning, drive all
(31:27):
the way to Detroit to do my radiointernship, and then drive back to
Ann Arbor for a full day of classes.
And I did it because it was anopportunity that someone gave me.
And I wanted to try tomake the most of it.
When I graduated school, I applied to filmschool at UCLA, was going to go out there.
And in the summer, betweenundergrad and grad school, I decided
(31:49):
I'd just go do an internship.
I applied for a bunch of internships.
Probably 12, 15 different internships.
And I ended up gettingone for David Letterman.
So I went out to do the internship,worked there for the summer, and was
pretty much thinking about packingup to head home so I could pack
up to move west for film school.
And I got a call that they wanted tohire me into a full time position.
(32:12):
So I got in at the bottom atLetterman, literally working as an
Assistant to the Executive Producer.
Have you ever seen themovie Devil Wears Prada?
That is working inside of a HollywoodProducer's life right there.
I also learned the industry from theground up and every element of production.
I am not an expert in camera, light,or sound, but in terms of running a
(32:34):
production operation, I really learned howto do that while working for Letterman.
I worked for his productioncompany, Worldwide Pants.
Worldwide Pants made videos, notclothing, but Dave probably, while I
was there for the 15 years, probablydid five, six different TV pilots,
a couple different movies, and so Ireally got to learn production in the
(32:54):
big leagues, working for who I alwaysthought was a legendary figure.
But they also taught me the right way.
As an intern, I helped writethank you notes to the guests on
behalf of the executive producer.
And I can't tell you the number of timesthat he would walk out of his office
and I would get the stack of lettershanded back to me, and 95 percent of
(33:15):
them just had a big red X through it.
No direction at all.
Which just meant youneed to rewrite this.
And at the time I thought, this guy isa jerk, tell me what you want it to say.
Why don't you write this thing yourself?
And what I didn't realize was that hewas actually grooming me to be a writer.
And taking me through the writingprocess of, yeah, you think
this story's done, it's not.
Tear it up and start over.
(33:36):
Rethink it.
Writers just continuously tweakand update and try to perfect it.
And that's what he taught me,was everything you're gonna go
produce starts with a script.
If that script is flawed orthere's something wrong with
it, then your production'snot going to go all that well.
So, nurture that thing and get it ready.
And then from there, itwas being thrown on set.
(33:57):
I was even doing castingsessions at times.
So I learned a lot.
How all those things worked.
All this started from an internship.
So, any of the students at Grand Valleywho are thinking, how do we get started,
even as Jon mentioned, there's internshipseverywhere and whether they're with
David Letterman or Jimmy Fallon orKimmel or whomever you should also look
at opportunities at corporations andlook for corporations that, you like
(34:22):
what they stand for and what they do.
If you don't like cars, you mighthave a hard time getting passionate
about creating content around carsif you're working for Ford or GM.
But if you are passionate, consider it.
Look for internships.
And again, Grand Valley students,I think you guys are lucky because
right now you're the only universitywe're forming a partnership with.
And that's mostly because we really likethe ideas that Suzanne came up with.
(34:46):
We don't want to have an internshipprogram because we think the interns are
going to create something great for us.
Maybe they will, that'd be awesome.
But we want the internship programbecause we want to help develop talent.
We want to help people getto where they want to go.
We have a saying within Ford where allthe roads in America are paved for all of
us and all these roads will help us getto achieving our dreams and our goals.
(35:09):
And at Ford, we take it very seriouslyas we develop our vehicles, knowing
that our products are gettingpeople to their goals, to their
dreams and where they need to be.
So that's in our DNA as Fordemployees to want to help to want
to make the community better.
And we want to do that with youngkids today, because 10 years from
now, I'm going to be working for them.
And they're going to be creatingthe messaging and marketing and
(35:31):
content materials of the future.
So if we can have any hand in helpingdevelop good quality, smart storytellers,
not the sloppy influencers who don'tthink and just think they can turn
on a camera and their sillinessis going to get them attention.
We don't want to cultivatethat kind of talent.
We want true talent, smart peoplewho really think about storytelling
(35:52):
and can help us deliver on that.
This seems like a match madein heaven, GVSU film and video
and the Ford Motor Company.
So, I want to thank you so muchfor interviewing with me today.
It's been a pleasure and I think thisis really exciting what you're doing.
We're excited about it for sure,and we're really excited about
partnering with Grand Valley.
I just think that the program you guyshave over there for film and video
(36:14):
studies, it's amazing as we've learnedmore about it, we're excited to get the
opportunity to really watch what yourstudents do this year with their projects.
We're looking forward to selectinga few of them to come and join our
team this spring and summer.
I think it'll be a win win for all of us.
So, I appreciate you having us.
Thank you so much.
(36:34):
Thank you for joining us for thisepisode of Alumni Live: The Podcast.
Subscribe to our podcast, to hear morefrom our alumni across the industry.
Check out Alumni Live on Facebook,Instagram, and YouTube, for more
conversations and networking.
Let us know what topics you wantto hear our alumni talk about the
Grand Valley State University FilmVideo Alumni Network is here for
(36:54):
you, and we're glad that you're here.
Thank you for listening.
The Podcast.
These are conversations with GrandValley State University film and video
graduates about the industry, thefilm, video, major and alumni profiles.
Welcome to another episodeof Alumni Live: the Podcast.
I'm Michelle Terpstra withthe GVSU Film and Video Alumni
Board and the class of 1995.
(00:26):
I would like to welcome Bill Hasler andJohn Curtis from Ford Motor Company.
Bill is the Executive Producer ofCreative Strategy, and John is an alum
and he's the Video Producer at Ford.
Can you talk about yourroles a little bit at Ford?
What do you do there?
Yes, so currently I'mactually a Video Editor.
(00:46):
So most of my day consists of editing thevideos that Bill's production team shoots
so I mostly edit those videos and then wepost them on our site, Ford University.
John's pretty humble.
He's an Editor, that's thetitle we give him, but, he's
also a really great storyteller.
And that's what a good editoris, a good storyteller.
We can shoot great or bad film.
(01:07):
But once they get it, they're theones who make the story come to life.
John's been very good at helpingtell stories through editing.
you're more than, just our Editor, Jon,you're like our creative genius over here.
But anyway, as you mentioned,Executive Producer; it's just a
fancy way of saying that I leadFord's in house production team.
And on a day to day basis,You know, I have two roles.
(01:28):
The one side of my job is managingthe operation of our business unit.
But then the second half of my job, whichis the best part, is just getting in this
creative space that we get to get intoevery single day that we come to work,
trying to figure out fun and excitingways that we can share information
about our vehicles, our products, ourservices not only with our dealers, but
(01:51):
with all of our customers out there.
Nice.
There's a couple of thingsI want to touch on there.
First of all, you mentioned University.
Can you talk a little bit, what isthe University you're referring to?
We've created a program at Ford.
We call it Ford University.
And as you might suspectit's a knowledge house.
It's where we basically createproduct awareness, where we create
(02:14):
how to training, where we just createvisual representations of how they
might operate or what they mightlook like when they're out there.
And our purpose is really to not onlyeducate our dealers on our vehicles
and our services I mentioned, but alsoto create content that our dealers can
share with their customers, whetherit's through the internet, whether
it's through social channels, Or maybeeven virtual sales rooms, so that the
(02:38):
conversations they have with theircustomers become a little more impactful.
So we create stories about howour vehicles function, about how
they fit into people's lifestyles.
And then we allow our dealersto use that content to help
connect with their customers.
For people who might already own a Fordthey may come to us to get information on
the product that they purchased from us.
(03:00):
That's great.
Probably a lot better thangetting information from TikTok.
Much better, and there'sno tuition charges.
It's free, so , you don't gointo debt getting this education.
Very cool.
You also mentioned your in house studio.
Is this something you've recentlybrought back, this in house studio?
Yeah, so we've never done this in houseat Ford, at least not in recent times.
(03:21):
If you go back to the 1920s, HenryFord actually had a film company and
was very much into creating film,but also taking a lot of photos.
But, we decided, at Ford, in order forus to be able to compete with Tiktok,
YouTube, a lot of the places wherenot only customers, but even our
dealers are going to get information.
(03:44):
And Ford just thoughtthat's unacceptable.
We don't know that the folks on Tiktok are100 percent accurate about our products.
We don't know that the claimsthey're making are valid.
Buying a car is the second, mostexpensive purchase you make in your life.
We want to make sure that peoplehave the best information so
that they make the best decisionfor themselves or their family.
(04:04):
So Ford decided to insource thatcontent production so that we could
create that influencer style contentand share it with our customers and
our dealers so that we know they'regetting the most accurate information
about our products and services.
So what is it like to workin your in house studio?
(04:25):
I felt like there was a needfor this from the beginning.
An in house studio just makes so muchmore sense when you think about it.
Having to go out and find contractorsmakes sense sometimes, but not all the
time, especially if you have to do aquick turnaround or something like that.
It just makes way more senseto have an in house team.
So having the opportunity to be on thisteam, I reached out to Bill actually
because I was so excited that this washappening and I wanted to be a part of it.
(04:46):
, I think that having thisin house production studio
is a great asset to Ford.
And for my role specifically, having inhouse editors makes just the same amount
of sense because how many times have wehad quick turnarounds that you have to do.
Just having us available isway more beneficial than having
to call someone and hope thatthey're available to do an edit.
(05:07):
So, from my perspective, that'swhy I think it's beneficial
to have an in house team.
I think that was your question.
what is the culture like
We call ourselves the in house productionteam, the content production team.
And as we said, we recognize thatadvertising right now is in social media.
It's on YouTube, it's in Tiktok.
Smart money in traditional advertisingis usually around live events, a
(05:29):
sporting event where we know peopleare watching those live and they
are forced to have to go through thecommercials and in the traditional way.
But look how much of our contentingestion is now coming through
social media or other channels.
And I think we've all been a part ofsituations in life where we've read or
heard something in social media thatwe later find out was not accurate
(05:53):
or it wasn't factual or it was justcompletely wrong, but the way in which
it was presented really assured usthat it was accurate or it made us
feel like it was good information.
Now in politics or other topics, I guessit's what people want to tolerate.
But if people are going to gomake an expensive purchase, we
don't want them making thosedecisions with bad information.
(06:15):
This is going to give Ford an opportunityto get information to that's accurate
and better represents our brand.
Now, what does that mean in terms ofbuilding an in house production team?
Why do we need to do that?
Jon mentioned a minute ago thathe heard we were standing up this
program and he came and found us.
And he's one of many who did thatwhen we were standing up this program.
(06:38):
We found that there were actuallya lot of people, even within Ford
Motor Company already, who have abackground in Film, Video Studies,
this type of work, that maybe didn'talways have this kind of opportunity.
Maybe as an audio engineer, they wereworking with the engineers to try
to figure out how to reduce noiseinside of a vehicle much different
than the audio tech who's with usright now, recording, this podcast.
(07:01):
Two different things.
By bringing this team in house, we areactually creating a team of experts,
which helps ensure that the contentthat we create is fair and accurate.
But it also allows us to hire enthusiasts.
People who are proud to wear thatblue oval or to represent the
blue oval when they come to work.
And I think in exchange,Ford has recognized that
(07:25):
creative folks are different.
We don't necessarily sit incubicles in an office like
traditional corporate employees.
So, when you are in the building thatJon and I work out of, It's almost like
they've divided it down the middle.
On one side is the business operation,the program that supports this program
that Jon and I are running here.
then the other side is our studio.
(07:46):
And depending on which door you go in,the working is drastically different.
And that's because in our space, wehave to have a space that helps us
think creatively, and helps us invent,and helps us try to make things
sticky, we call it, sticky, meaningthat people retain the information.
And we found that the best wayto make that stuff sticky is
(08:08):
through creative storytelling.
So where we've taken traditionalproduct knowledge training, which is
usually thought of as maybe more boringor read this, answer some questions.
We're putting it on a level of likewhat Netflix and Amazon Prime Video do.
And that is to entertain you and toget you talking about what you just
watched at the water cooler the next day.
(08:30):
So if we can start to create fun andexciting content around the Ford brand
that's in the style or in the samevein as what we're seeing influencers
do, then we're gonna start to commandtime and attention from our dealers
and our customers and take that timethat they're giving to influencers
away, and give that time to us instead.
Yeah.
So to plainly answer thequestion, the culture is great.
(08:51):
The culture is phenomenal becauseas Bill mentioned, everyone
is from different aspects.
A lot of people are fromthe production world, but
everyone's from different aspects.
That doesn't mean they were actuallydoing production work before this role.
Maybe they were somewhere else andthis is what they wanted to do.
Every time I come here, We'realways talking about the movies
we've seen, or how cool it was thatthis shot happened in this film.
We're just film buffs, I feellike, so it's very cool to have a
(09:14):
bunch of people in the same spacewho appreciate the same thing.
So I hear that Ford likes employeesto work on their own projects.
And you recently worked on a film.
Can you talk a little bit about that?
Yes, we shot the film in 2021, soit was a very long time ago, and
we just finished editing this year.
Right before I started this role.
But we have talked about how many otherpeople on this team have things outside
(09:37):
of this job that they are passionateabout There's a couple people who have
films who are doing the film festivalcircuit right now as my film is.
So yeah, just having those people,like I said, in the same space
where we can talk about that.
That's very cool to have.
Having that opportunity is amazing.
I think it goes back to the question onthe team culture that we've built here.
(09:59):
And I recognize artists are artists.
It doesn't matter what art form it is.
They just love to create.
And they're most comfortable andin their best element when they're
in that creative environment.
And so as I was thinking about howdo I attract world class talent
in video production to a car maker?
Because as I went through collegeand studied Film Video Production
(10:24):
and then eventually went into theindustry myself after college, I
didn't think coming out of college,Oh, are Ford and Toyota hiring, right?
I was looking more as like what'sin Hollywood or what's in New York.
So as I started thinking about howare we going to get the kind of
talent that we want to get here?
I started thinking about what are weable to offer the staff that they can't
(10:45):
get or traditionally is difficult toget out in the real world so that we
both benefit from this relationship.
So I've long told my staff there'stwo career tracks on this team.
There's the lifelong track where you comeand work with us creating Ford Productions
as as long as we're in existence.
And then the other trackis, what do you want to do?
(11:06):
Maybe you do want to be out in Hollywoodwith Steven Spielberg creating movies.
Well, it's hard to get fromcollege to working for Spielberg.
There's usually some steps in betweenthere, and a lot of the time, that
is perfecting your craft, developingyour artistic senses, and really
honing in on what you do well,and just taking that to the max.
And so here we can affordthe team those opportunities.
(11:29):
They've got resources through the team.
But then they also know that, Hey,what you do in your off hours,
like any job, that's your time.
I'm not going to stop artistsfrom creating in their free time.
So I just said, Hey, let's encourage it.
And we're even finding as some of theteam is looking to create independent
films or things outside of work, they'reactually tapping one another to come
(11:51):
and work on their projects with them.
Which is awesome because maybethat more junior level audio
person gets an opportunity tolead audio for an independent film.
Gets that credit on their resumeand allows them to grow in
some way, shape, or form.
And I've even told the team whenyou know where you ultimately want
to go, please let me know so we canfigure out how to help you get there.
(12:14):
There's enough folks on this teamwho've got a network of people that,
we can help make calls, we can helpget folks to where we want to go.
So, buttoning up the question on theteam culture and how you get to express
yourself creatively on this team.
I think for us it was just makingsure we hired people who want to do
that and that's their passion andthen just getting them together.
(12:36):
The next few months I'm excitedto see what this team starts to
create as we ramp up production,because I've never worked with such
a group of passionate people before.
They were actually rioting becauseI was holding back production
like we're not ready yet.
They were coming to me like everyday like we need to shoot something.
We're going crazy.
The people make thedifference, as they say.
Now, a lot of students now reallyhave this idea that the jobs
(12:58):
out there are all just gigs.
that It's not full time employment.
Do you have experienceworking as a freelancer?
And if you do, can you compare itto working for a company full time?
My whole life has been eitherfreelance or corporate.
There's not really beena lot of in between.
One of my first gigs out ofcollege was a full time position
in Austin, Texas that I took.
(13:20):
Then I moved home, worked as a freelancerfor a while until I got this job.
So there's pros andcons to both, obviously.
The corporate gig, is more of astable job, so to speak, where,
you know for the most part whereyour next paycheck's coming from.
The freelance world isn't quite likethat, but you have a lot more freedom in
the freelance world to do other things,to take some time off if you want to.
(13:44):
There's two different kind of monsters.
I have found that, now being a fatherand having a home and everything,
the corporate gig is more for me,but I also have friends who still to
this day are doing freelance work inDetroit and very successful doing that.
So it just really dependson, how you feel, but there's
a lot of jobs out there in both.
So I would tell the studentsto explore both options and
(14:08):
see which one fits them best.
And certainly know, like you just pointedout, the pros and cons of both options.
because, oftentimes youdon't have a choice.
Some productions just by nature areonly gonna work with a freelance crew.
Movies are like that a lot because whenthe movie's over, it's not like they start
shooting the next episode of that movie.
Maybe if there's asequel, that's different.
But, those folks who work together onthat Steven Spielberg movie, only a
(14:31):
handful may go on to a different project.
And then the other handful go on toseveral other different projects.
They don't necessarilymove around as a group.
And for people who like that sort ofvariety, one time you want to work on
a movie, maybe another time you wantto work on a movie that's on location
remotely, or you want to work on anepisodic, series or something like
that, you get that, flexibility, and toyour point, you control your schedule.
(14:53):
Hey, maybe you don't want to workfor the month of August, so you
don't book any, gig jobs then.
The downside, you don'twork, you don't get paid.
We look at our team here and, everyoneon my team is a full time Ford employee.
They get all the health care benefitsand all the other benefits that
all the other Ford employees get.
They get paid time off.
There's not a whole lot of production jobswhere they pay you not to come and shoot.
(15:17):
And then obviously like sick personaldays and then all the benefits of
being an employee of Ford Motor Company.
So, as Jon mentioned, for some folkswho may not always fit the traditional
production mold, it's hard to be married.
It's hard to have a family whenyou're in production because you
work long hours, you work long days.
We often joke, we see ourproduction counterparts more than
we often see our own families.
(15:39):
And sometimes that's sad.
Our family should always be,number one, but we also have to pay
the bills and make life happen.
I would say for any student outthere who's thinking about this as
a career, be prepared for that.
Some gigs, you may end upfreelance and bouncing around.
You may enjoy that.
It may be the only way youcan make a living at first.
But also start lookinginto, corporate gigs.
(16:01):
Traditionally, corporations haveoutsourced this type of content
production, but as we've startedto get into this space more, we're
starting to find out there's afew other companies that are going
in this same path that Ford is.
I think Ford's probably one of the moreaggressive companies out there in this
in house content creation, but whenElon Musk can go on X every five minutes
(16:23):
and make false claims about his productsover ours and we have to go to an agency,
develop a treatment, schedule it , runit through legal, and then get it out.
Elon's already covered 20 othertopics in that amount of time, and we
missed our opportunity for rebuttal.
With an in house team, and I'm not sayingthey created an in house team to go talk
(16:44):
to Elon Musk, but it allows us to bequicker to market, to get information
out faster, to get information to ourcustomers and our dealers more quickly.
We couldn't do thatwithout an in house team,
Plus, consistency is another thingthat an in house team can bring.
Absolutely.
And people ask, Well, how are you modeled?
And I'm like, I've onlygot 40 people on my team.
Now, only 40.
(17:06):
Some people might think, wow,that's an army and others
may think, how do you do it?
If you were creating a feature filmfor a Steven Spielberg movie, 40
people that's the craft service team.
That's such a small crew.
But, we made sure that in additionto hiring passionate people, we
also made sure that the peoplewe hired had multiple skill sets.
We wanted them to be able towear multiple hats to work.
(17:28):
Jon yes, he's an editor,that's his main function.
But John can do so many other productionrelated things to us that it allows
us to work in a model that we callpods, where all 40 of us can come
together to form a single pod, wherewe could go create something that's
more feature like, like an independentfilm or a more long form story.
(17:50):
But then we can also break outour 40 individuals into smaller
pods of three, four, five people.
So we can cover multiple things at thesame time, and the versatility of the
individuals on the pod allows us to coverthe important things, sound, light, and
obviously recording the video portion.
And that allows us, with just 40 people,to be able to produce over 200 pieces
(18:13):
of video content in a single year.
Henry Ford inventedmass production of cars.
We like to say that Ford's also inventingthe mass production of video content.
And we couldn't do that if wedidn't have a versatile, passionate
team delivering that work.
So I guess for students out there,as you're thinking about, how
do you get your foot in the doorthink about the versatility, your
versatility (18:34):
what are your good skills?
What are your okay skills andwhat are your horrible skills?
Be cognizant of those.
We have these reviews of our videos.
And the goal is not to sayanything great about the video.
Instead, the goal is to talk aboutwhat we call continuous improvement.
How could we have made it better?
(18:54):
And it's not meant to be mean,like, oh, the sound guy's horrible,
he should be fired, right?
No, it's not that at all.
It's more along the lines of whatcould we have done differently
to have a better product.
And in that process, there's alot of wins that come out of it.
To me, the single most important win isthat individual is learning something.
They're being given informationthat they can then go act on to make
(19:17):
themselves better at what they do.
The second win is obviously for FordMotor Company and for its customers,
in that we're continuously drivingthe quality of the content that we
produce to give you the absolutebest product that we can give you.
And then I would even argue the thirdwin there going back to the individual
(19:37):
who you're giving the critiquing to,it allows them to start networking with
other members on the team who may beparticularly good at that skill set
and to almost peer share knowledgeand learn from one another and even
coach each other to better success.
So the same can be donefor students in college.
How do we get into the industry?
Well, what do you want to be?
Oh, I want to be a writer.
(19:58):
We don't need to be employed.
Just start writing every single day.
Give yourself a topic, create yourown fake TV series, think about
character development, think aboutstory arcs, all those sorts of
things and just keep practicing.
And then find people who cantell you the things you don't
usually want to hear, right?
Don't give it to your mom.
Why?
(20:18):
Every time I give my mom something,all she tells me is that I'm the
most gifted guy on the planet, right?
She is not a good person for meto give my stuff to because she's
just going to tell me it's great.
My dad, on the other hand, he has noproblem telling me that something wasn't
good or this could have been better.
But that's always not good enough.
So I look to a friend of mine who notonly can tell me when things aren't
(20:39):
good, but he actually gives me theinformation on why he feels it's that way.
That's the recipe for success whenyou understand the why part, it
allows you to make adjustments inwhat you do, in your process, in your
development, to just get better at it.
Same thing with the camera operator.
Oh, I want to be behind a camera someday.
Grab a cheap camera.
Your phone is a camera, right?
And just practice shooting things.
(21:00):
Practice framing.
Go back home and edit it.
When you chop two different thingstogether, did the cut look funny?
Maybe it's because you had thepeople on the same side of the screen
when you needed them on oppositesides or whatever that might be.
So for those students listeningout there that want to get
into this industry, just start.
It's really that simple.
Jon, I don't know if you havea different perspective on it.
No, just go do it with your friends.
(21:21):
I know it's kind of cliche, but mywhole life has been making dumb videos
with my friends, and then I went toschool for it, and we made a little
bit better videos with my friends.
And then you get into this, andnow on this team, we're making
videos with our friends, basically.
So it never stops.
I'd say you just haveto get out and do it.
I had the privilege of seeingJoel Potrykus' film this last
(21:42):
weekend at the Grand Rapids FilmFestival, one of the things that
he said, was the exact same thing.
It's all about just makingstuff with your friends.
And it can be dumb, and no onewill ever see it, probably, but
you have that experience now, andyou can grow from that experience.
And you just keep doing that over andover again, and even if you never
make a feature film that people see,at least you'll make a feature film
(22:03):
that you and your friends have madetogether, so I think that's important.
So Jon speaking of learning the craft, arethere things that you learned at GVSU that
helped you in your career and in this job?
Yes, I mean, there's so manythings, but the best thing was
just the people that I met there.
The person that shot my shortfilm was one of my good friends,
(22:26):
Sean Mouton, from Grand Valley.
I met him at Grand Valley.
Half the crew was from Grand Valley.
You remember the people you hadin class, you remember those
interactions, those relationships.
When you get out in the realworld, you remember those people.
And I had the privilege of using alot of those people on my film set.
Meeting the people was oneof the most important things.
I didn't have a chance to dothe summer film, but that is an
(22:47):
amazing experience for people.
To actually be on a film set as a student,learning the different types of roles
that you wouldn't have learned otherwise.
I Think a lot of people go tocollege for film and they just know
director, writer, cinematographer.
They don't know the other aspectsthat come into making a film.
So to have the summer film and to bethose production designer, or maybe
(23:08):
a role that's less glorified is superimportant because maybe someone will
find a role that they didn't evenknow existed that they fit right into.
So I think that's super important.
Like I said, I didn't get a chanceto do that when I was there, but
a lot of people I know did andthey've found careers from that.
We're taking a short break totell you about the Dirk Koning
(23:28):
Memorial Film and Video scholarship.
Here's Gretchen Vinnedgeremembering Dirk Koning.
The Koning Scholarship enables studentsto get that kind of an education, to be
a good filmmaker, to be able to expresstheir voice and to continue Dirk's dream.
For more information, and todonate to the scholarship, visit
the link in the description.
Now, back to the show.
(23:49):
So Bill, I know that you want tobuild a relationship with GVSU.
Can you talk about why andwhat your hopes are for that?
Yeah so my niece is a Laker.
She went to Grand Valley,graduated last year.
She was studying lower education.
She wants to become a teacher.
And while she was at Grand Valley shehad told me over the holidays one year
(24:12):
about a video class that she took there.
Obviously she knows the work that I do.
When I lived in New York City andshe was just a little kid, one summer
she got to come out and spend a weekwith Uncle Bill in New York and I
sent her to a film camp in New Yorkfor young kids, and she loved it.
So she was just telling me aboutGrand Valley's program and how
her friend Hannah was in it.
(24:35):
And I just started thinking like,oh, we're going to have turnover
on our team as our team memberswant to graduate and maybe go on
to Hollywood or do other things.
And we're going to need amechanism for discovering talent.
I'm not an alum of GVSU, but I am analum of another Michigan college, and
I thought, Michigan's got severalreally great universities and colleges,
(24:58):
and I just started thinking, like,there's a wealth of talent that just
needs to be harvested , and developed.
I literally asked my niece, hey,can you give me your friend's number
and let her know I'm going to texther so it doesn't sound creepy.
She introduced me to one of herprofessors, Suzanne, and we just started
chatting about what could we do withGrand Valley and have a mutually
(25:20):
beneficial relationship where Ford canbenefit from having young, talented
folks who've got thoughts and ideason how we can do things differently.
And how can we help them perfect theirskill sets and develop them further so
that they can get the best opportunitythey can give themselves to go out into
the real world and secure some work.
So, we've been talking about everythingfrom using our team to help mentor some of
(25:45):
the students on some of their projects.
We've talked about actually comingout to Allendale or somewhere in
the Grand Rapids area and actuallyshooting one of our productions
there and inviting folks to come andshadow us during one of those shoots.
And then we're even talking aboutnext summer hosting some interns from
Grand Valley, and how we would pickthose interns would be based on merit.
What have they done through the universityto showcase their work and earn their
(26:10):
way into an opportunity to come andbe part of our team for a summer.
And see what we can do to helpthem get their career going.
Nice.
When I did my internship, I have to say,I learned so much in the first week even.
It was the most beneficial thing I didduring my career was have an internship.
Yeah, I agree with that.
Especially in this industry where, alot of times you have to be discovered.
(26:34):
In order to be discovered, you just got tobe in the right place at the right time.
That old saying is it'svery true in this industry.
My whole career started with me beingin the right place at the right time.
I wish we could say it was because ofall this money I spent on my education,
or all the stuff that I knew when, infact, it really did not go that way.
But obviously, my success sincethat opportunity was based on
(26:57):
what I knew and what I couldbring creatively to the table.
So when you think about that,yeah, you need to be in the right
place at the right time, but mostimportantly, you need to be prepared.
this is where I would say to thestudents, it really appears like
all you need to do is have a phoneand you can start to create content.
And you can . but I promise youit's not going to be good content.
(27:21):
Stories have a beginning, they havea middle, and they have an end.
You're spending your money, ormaybe your parents' hard earned
money, or maybe you're borrowinglots of money to get your education.
Study the craft.
Learn the science of lighting, learnhow images are affected by lenses and
all these other things, understand howsound can help enhance a production.
(27:43):
We will watch a production thatwe do without any audio on, so
that we just focus on the visuals.
And we'll turn around and watch thatsame production with the monitor off,
and all we're doing is listening to it.
And they are very differentexperiences when you watch
them in those different ways.
So would you tell us a littlebit about your career path?
You've touched on this a little bit,but where did you go since college?
(28:06):
How did you end up here at Ford?
Yeah.
So real quick, I just want to circle backbecause I forgot to mention the one thing
I did at Grand Valley because I didn'tdo the summer film, I had an internship
and that did change the course of my lifebecause having that internship, I met
a gentleman who I ended up working for,
for the rest of my life and now we'relifelong friends too because of that.
So, definitely go out and do one of thosetwo things . I know you have to, I think,
(28:30):
at Grand Valley, but if it's an internshipor the summer film, those things are so
important to do as a young filmmaker.
Make sure you do those thingsbecause you have no idea how they're
gonna affect the rest of your life.
So after I graduated Grand Valley, Ikind of fell into a lot of positions.
I applied for a job at ahumor blog in Austin, Texas,
(28:50):
and they somehow accepted me.
So I moved to Austin, Texas for two yearsand worked as a video editor for them.
Then the gentleman I had interned forwas starting up his own production
company in Detroit, and he offeredme a position there, so I moved back
to Michigan to be a part of that.
We did a lot of work for the autoindustry doing mostly PR videos.
While there started my own productioncompany where I did just independent works
(29:14):
on my own and then had a bunch of oddjobs as, as a freelancer during this part
of my life where I bounced around a lotworked on a couple of commercial sets,
did a lot of independent stuff myself, andthen I was looking to have that corporate
experience again because I didn't like thenot knowing when I was going to work next,
when my next paycheck was going to come.
(29:36):
So, I just happened to find a jobthrough an agency for Ford Motor Company.
For an organization thatbasically made videos to promote
a new working style within IT.
It's a long drawn out thing.
I won't bore you with that.
But I got this positionfrom applying there.
And then through that position,networking with other people at Ford,
(29:58):
I ended up moving into the executivetechnology office where I worked
with the executives, making videosfor them, running conferences for
them, doing their live broadcasts andthen from there found this position.
It was a lot of going out and lookingfor it, but because of that, I
was able to find where I am now.
So I was born and raisedin Southeast Michigan.
(30:19):
I was always aware of Ford.
Loved Ford as a kid growing up.
Never thought I'd actually work forthe company, but really liked it.
I grew up in a householdwith divorced parents.
So my grandparents helpedmy mom out at times.
And on the weekends would spendtime with my grandparents.
And on Fridays, my grandpa would letme stay up late past my bedtime as
grandfathers are supposed to do, andhe would be watching Johnny Carson.
(30:43):
And, I was little, so I never alwaysgot the jokes or understood the
political humor or whatever it wasthat Johnny Carson was making fun of.
But I did understand laughter.
And I always remember as a littleboy just watching my grandpa
laugh, and I found joy in that.
The fact that he was happy.
And it made me say, I want to do that.
(31:04):
Be Johnny Carson.
Well, that didn't work out for me.
But, I went to college in Michiganstudied film, video, couple of other
things, did the internship circuit.
I worked at a radio station in Detroit,WJR, it was an AM radio station.
I had the 4 AM to 7 AM internship slot.
So I would wake up in Ann Arbor at 2.
30 in the morning, leave my dorm at3 o'clock in the morning, drive all
(31:27):
the way to Detroit to do my radiointernship, and then drive back to
Ann Arbor for a full day of classes.
And I did it because it was anopportunity that someone gave me.
And I wanted to try tomake the most of it.
When I graduated school, I applied to filmschool at UCLA, was going to go out there.
And in the summer, betweenundergrad and grad school, I decided
(31:49):
I'd just go do an internship.
I applied for a bunch of internships.
Probably 12, 15 different internships.
And I ended up gettingone for David Letterman.
So I went out to do the internship,worked there for the summer, and was
pretty much thinking about packingup to head home so I could pack
up to move west for film school.
And I got a call that they wanted tohire me into a full time position.
(32:12):
So I got in at the bottom atLetterman, literally working as an
Assistant to the Executive Producer.
Have you ever seen themovie Devil Wears Prada?
That is working inside of a HollywoodProducer's life right there.
I also learned the industry from theground up and every element of production.
I am not an expert in camera, light,or sound, but in terms of running a
(32:34):
production operation, I really learned howto do that while working for Letterman.
I worked for his productioncompany, Worldwide Pants.
Worldwide Pants made videos, notclothing, but Dave probably, while I
was there for the 15 years, probablydid five, six different TV pilots,
a couple different movies, and so Ireally got to learn production in the
(32:54):
big leagues, working for who I alwaysthought was a legendary figure.
But they also taught me the right way.
As an intern, I helped writethank you notes to the guests on
behalf of the executive producer.
And I can't tell you the number of timesthat he would walk out of his office
and I would get the stack of lettershanded back to me, and 95 percent of
(33:15):
them just had a big red X through it.
No direction at all.
Which just meant youneed to rewrite this.
And at the time I thought, this guy isa jerk, tell me what you want it to say.
Why don't you write this thing yourself?
And what I didn't realize was that hewas actually grooming me to be a writer.
And taking me through the writingprocess of, yeah, you think
this story's done, it's not.
Tear it up and start over.
(33:36):
Rethink it.
Writers just continuously tweakand update and try to perfect it.
And that's what he taught me,was everything you're gonna go
produce starts with a script.
If that script is flawed orthere's something wrong with
it, then your production'snot going to go all that well.
So, nurture that thing and get it ready.
And then from there, itwas being thrown on set.
(33:57):
I was even doing castingsessions at times.
So I learned a lot.
How all those things worked.
All this started from an internship.
So, any of the students at Grand Valleywho are thinking, how do we get started,
even as Jon mentioned, there's internshipseverywhere and whether they're with
David Letterman or Jimmy Fallon orKimmel or whomever you should also look
at opportunities at corporations andlook for corporations that, you like
(34:22):
what they stand for and what they do.
If you don't like cars, you mighthave a hard time getting passionate
about creating content around carsif you're working for Ford or GM.
But if you are passionate, consider it.
Look for internships.
And again, Grand Valley students,I think you guys are lucky because
right now you're the only universitywe're forming a partnership with.
And that's mostly because we really likethe ideas that Suzanne came up with.
(34:46):
We don't want to have an internshipprogram because we think the interns are
going to create something great for us.
Maybe they will, that'd be awesome.
But we want the internship programbecause we want to help develop talent.
We want to help people getto where they want to go.
We have a saying within Ford where allthe roads in America are paved for all of
us and all these roads will help us getto achieving our dreams and our goals.
(35:09):
And at Ford, we take it very seriouslyas we develop our vehicles, knowing
that our products are gettingpeople to their goals, to their
dreams and where they need to be.
So that's in our DNA as Fordemployees to want to help to want
to make the community better.
And we want to do that with youngkids today, because 10 years from
now, I'm going to be working for them.
And they're going to be creatingthe messaging and marketing and
(35:31):
content materials of the future.
So if we can have any hand in helpingdevelop good quality, smart storytellers,
not the sloppy influencers who don'tthink and just think they can turn
on a camera and their sillinessis going to get them attention.
We don't want to cultivatethat kind of talent.
We want true talent, smart peoplewho really think about storytelling
(35:52):
and can help us deliver on that.
This seems like a match madein heaven, GVSU film and video
and the Ford Motor Company.
So, I want to thank you so muchfor interviewing with me today.
It's been a pleasure and I think thisis really exciting what you're doing.
We're excited about it for sure,and we're really excited about
partnering with Grand Valley.
I just think that the program you guyshave over there for film and video
(36:14):
studies, it's amazing as we've learnedmore about it, we're excited to get the
opportunity to really watch what yourstudents do this year with their projects.
We're looking forward to selectinga few of them to come and join our
team this spring and summer.
I think it'll be a win win for all of us.
So, I appreciate you having us.
Thank you so much.
(36:34):
Thank you for joining us for thisepisode of Alumni Live: The Podcast.
Subscribe to our podcast, to hear morefrom our alumni across the industry.
Check out Alumni Live on Facebook,Instagram, and YouTube, for more
conversations and networking.
Let us know what topics you wantto hear our alumni talk about the
Grand Valley State University FilmVideo Alumni Network is here for
(36:54):
you, and we're glad that you're here.
Thank you for listening.
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