On the inaugural episode of the Reeder Reel, Sarah and Drea speak to alumni Sam Gruber '24 about his video project supported by the Reeder Media Center. Sam explores his creative process, and discusses how the media center's resources and staff helped him bring it to life.
Episode Transcript
Sarah Thompson:
Hello, welcome to the Reeder Reel. I'm Sarah Thompson. I'm the Content and social media coordinator at William & Mary Libraries. I'm here with Drea George. She's the media specialist at Reeder Media Center.
Drea George:
Hey everyone.
Sarah Thompson:
So Drea and I are going to be talking to a few students and alum who are working on projects that have been supported by Reeder Media Center’s equipment and expertise. Today we're talking to Sam Gruber. He graduated from William & Mary in August, 2024, and he now works for AidData at William & Mary. He's going to be talking to us about an explainer video he's working on. Hi, Sam. Welcome.
Sam Gruber:
Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Drea George:
So tell us about your project. What is it about?
Sam Gruber:
AidData does a lot of different foreign aid research. The specific project that I've been working on is a report studying how China spent more than 57 billion on acquiring mines that extract transition minerals. And my job has basically been to create a video explainer about the research itself, their findings, how they completed the research.
Drea George:
How did you arrive to this project? Do you have some level of experience with making videos? Tell us about that.
Sam Gruber:
I think my experience making explainer videos actually started in a theories of cinema class, but it was a really addictive process because I sort of got the joy of writing an essay combined with the fun of editing.
Sarah Thompson:
Have you noticed anything different from being in a classroom setting and making a media project versus being in a work setting?
Sam Gruber:
Yeah, I mean, I'd say the key difference is that I'm dealing with other people's work, so I have to be really careful about how I represent the research. So with this video Explainer project, it's not my essay. I'm writing an essay about a report, but it's not my interpretation of a book or my interpretation of a movie. It's like these people have been working on this for years in some cases. So I just have to be careful with how I represent it.
Sarah Thompson:
And is this explainer video, is it a project you are still working on? Is it finished? What are the next steps at this?
Sam Gruber:
No. Yeah, it's still in production. What I realized early is that a lot of it had to be hammered out in the script because once you do get into the video editing process proper, it gets really complicated. So I put a lot of effort upfront into writing it, making sure a lot of different people had eyeballs on it so that it was all approved. So now I'm just getting started, honestly, on the actual production process.
Sarah Thompson:
When you're trying to make these scripts digestible and explanatory and make sense to people that might know nothing about it, are you coming at it from a mindset that you also know nothing about this topic? Or do you also have a background in the things that these researchers are discussing?
Sam Gruber:
That's a good question. I don't really have a strong background in foreign aid research directly. So for the video itself, I think the idea is that it's not a total novice audience. It's people who are sort of maybe half familiar. I'd say it's not my goal to bring people from zero to a hundred though it's more like 50 to a hundred.
Sarah Thompson:
I guess if you have that eye of what the story or what the key point is, then it makes it easier to be able to pinpoint even if you aren't at a hundred in comparison to the researchers.
Sam Gruber:
But I'll say what found interesting, reading the report was not necessarily what the researchers wanted to have in the final draft. So I had to pivot a little bit just in terms of what I was going to spend my time explaining.
Sarah Thompson:
When someone asks you to change something, do you ever push back?
Sam Gruber:
Yeah, that's the interesting thing about the probably central conflict of my job is it's like these researchers who work really hard to produce these really lengthy documents. So I just do social media stuff too, and I'll be like, Hey, does this look good? And they're like, yeah, but you're really missing this. And then they'll send me four paragraphs for a Twitter post. So I have to kind of push back just because the name of the game is sort of like brevity. And I think it's tough. I mean, it would make sense if I spent literally years on this one report. It's hard to cut, cut, cut.
Sarah Thompson:
And you've kind of touched on how your experience has evolved. Your skills have evolved technically, but what about your storytelling skills? How would you say those have evolved over time?
Sam Gruber:
That's a good question. This is kind of a generic answer, but I think I've just become more audience focused as I've made more stuff. And key to that is getting feedback from really any outsider, but certainly the people at Reeder. And then also actually some different William & Mary alums I've just shown stuff too. And the flip side to the encouragement that Troy gives is sometimes it's nice to have someone look at something you made and you feel very proud of and say, this doesn't make any sense.
Drea George:
So throughout your time producing this and your time, maybe as a student also, can you tell us what does having the Media Center available as a resource mean to you?
Sam Gruber:
Yeah, I don't know. It's like a creative safety net kind of. I just wouldn't be able to do a lot of stuff I've done as I've tried. I don't know. As I've worked on a bunch of different projects, I always have confidence that if I walk in, they'll do their best to give me the equipment I need and to give me the feedback I need. And you can look up anything on YouTube and you can learn any aspect of any editing software, for example. But it's harder to holistically learn a platform.
Sarah Thompson:
I feel like in filmmaking you can get so in the weeds with all of the details that it can feel really overwhelming and something that a YouTube video just can't satisfy. So there's something about talking to someone that's been there, has been in the depths and has felt the imposter syndrome and doesn't know what they're doing, and is learning as they go that can kind of help and guide you and tell you the mistakes they made and how you can be better
Sam Gruber:
And it's never too late because a lot of this, yeah, that's the last piece of advice. A lot of my projects really only started end of junior year, senior year, and I feel like it's grown really quickly and I've been surprised by the opportunities I've been given. So it's really never too late.
Drea George:
Yeah. So it's reassuring, I think, to hear that it's still possible to learn and do these things.
Sam Gruber:
Yeah. Cool.
Sarah Thompson:
Awesome. Well, thank you for chatting with us.
Sam Gruber:
Thank you guys.
Drea George:
Thanks.
Sarah Thompson:
And that wraps up our first episode.
Drea George:
Thanks for joining us. Stay tuned for future episodes, which will be posted on the library's website.
Sarah Thompson:
And be sure to check out the Reeder Media Center for yourself.
Sarah Thompson and Drea George:
Bye.
Sarah Thompson:
The harmonizing. laughing
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