Zach Shields and I first met as high school baseball teammates, but have crossed paths in Indianapolis several times in the past couple years. I have become quite interested in his video storytelling work. He's employed by Canteloupe TV and will also do some teaching this spring at the Indianapolis Art Center. He also works on a variety of independent solo projects, which you can find on the web. He and I recently sat down at the Indianapolis Winter Farmers' Market to discuss some of his work.
Chris: Zach, several years ago, I noticed some attention you got for a documentary you shot in Indonesia. What prompted that trip and looking back what did it mean to you?
Zach: It's funny because we won a Webby award for that thing, so we ended up at an awards ceremony, and there we were along with Arianna Huffington, Thomas Friedman, and Prince. That's funny because of the way it all happened. A few of my buddies were volunteering over there after the tsunami, and they wanted me to take a semester off to come help. Well, I couldn't do that, but I had a capstone project I had to do for school, so I decided to go extreme by going over and shooting stuff for six weeks to see if I could find a story. I had no idea how to create something like that. Most of my work to that point had actually been messing around with animation. I didn't even know what YouTube was. The timing worked out, though, and it became a real life crash course. The project culminated in a fund-raising effort to pay for two girls who over there who needed a surgery. It really motivated me to take on something like that again.
Chris: After browsing some of your work, it's apparent your work has taken you to some pretty neat places: Indonesia, Bolivia, Haiti, Alaska even. If you could go back to any of those places, where would it be.
Zach: Definitely Indonesia. I'd love to see what it looks like now. I went six months after the tsunami, so it wasn't complete chaos. It was my first project, and I'm not sure I'll ever have another trip like it. I basically went by myself without knowing what I was doing, and I was surrounded by the affects of one of the worst natural disasters in recorded history. I learned a lot about life, about understanding situations, about working with people, and about realizing when someone is just trying to rip you off. So many memorable moments. Right before I flew back, I almost got stranded on an island. The guy who brought me over ditched me to hang out with his girlfriend. It was the kind of place where a boat comes and goes every three days. I had to get pretty forceful to get people to listen to me.
Chris: Your work seems to broach all sorts of topics from disaster relief to Martin Luther King's death to fly fishing. Can you walk me through the creative process a little bit? How do you come up with an idea and how do you move forward from there?
Zach: It's pretty opportunistic, although I do like to work on community-based stuff. The stuff I do on the side just comes to me; threre's rarely much time to plan it all out. I love that aspect. Figuring in out as you go. It's the most exciting part. Sometimes it doesn't seem to be going anywhere at first, but it's great to see it all come together at the end.
Chris: You're a pretty talented person and surely there have been or will leave Indianapolis. Why stay here?
Zach: It's funny you ask that question because I almost left last August for a job in D.C. The money was better, and I love D.C. But I just couldn't do it. For a while, all I wanted to do was leave. But it can be pretty draining to live like that, being in a place but wanting to be elsewhere. So at some point I just decided that if I were ever going to be happy, I just needed to get involved, get to know the people here. Indy is a good place to do that, whether it's the coolest place on earth or not. I've seen people make this happen for themselves, and I've tried to be a part of it. I don't think as much any more about making more money or living somewhere else. And Indy has changed for the better in the eight years I've lived here. Fountain Square, the market, neighborhoods being revitalized, public art, concerts, even the Super Bowl. I enjoy hosting visiting friends a lot more now when they come.
Chris: Let's talk vision for a moment. If we sit back down at this table as retired grandpas in fifty years, what would would you hope to have accomplished in between?
Zach: I hope we do that. I think about the future a lot, and it stresses me out. But don't have a set career path in mind. Career paths can almost be a barrier because you begin to think in terms of what am I going to get out of every situation. I used to be like that. But when I stopped, I started doing better work, and what do you know, people will often pay you when you do better work. Although, I know I'm lucky to have a consistent job, and that gives me more freedom than some people have. I want to do this stuff that we're talking about: be involved, know the people around me, tell good stories. I'm fortunate to be surrounded by a core group of friends who care about this stuff, too. I hope the career takes care of itself.
Chris: What are you working on currently?
Zach: I'm about to kick off a project called Play Indy. It's going to be a crowd-sourced documentary in Central Indiana. I'm going to have people submit clips of how they play, whatever that looks like. Doing stuff for the sake of doing it. It could be anything. The idea came to me out of the Spirit-Place Festival in November. It's really interesting topic to me; there are scientific and economic arguments for this sort of thing. We need to create, we need to make; we need to explore. I want it to be super local grassroots solicitation and with investment from a variety of people. I don't want many barriers. The website, www.playindyfilm.com, be up in a few weeks.
Chris: Sounds like a neat project. Thanks a lot, Zach. Before you go, I gotta ask: Patriots or Giants?
Zach: I'm hoping the Giants win because I get a really bad vibe from Bill Belichick. I just don't like the guy. Plus, a Manning's in town, so I hope he wins.
Chris: I hope so, too.
0 comments:
Post a Comment