NBC Left Field pushes style and creative boundaries through visual storytelling
About NBC Left Field
Just steps away from Union Square Park in Manhattan, NBC Left Field is tucked away in a modern WeWork shared office space, some distance from 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the traditional home of NBC.
NBC Left Field is an international experimental multimedia team that aims to “understand human beings through film, technology and heaps of creativity.”
With a team of 12 international video journalists, social media experts and producers, the company focuses on making short films aimed at young adults and publishes its videos on social platforms such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.
Left Field a subdivision of NBC News, but the parent company allows nearly complete creative freedom for the different content Left Field produces.
However, that doesn’t mean they are left totally to their own devices. According the Nieman Journalism Lab, “various NBC departments make almost daily visits to the Left Field offices to discuss projects, share best practices, and figure out how they can work with the Left Field team.”
Behind the scenes
Sixteen University of Oregon journalism students and four journalism faculty members visited Left Field’s headquarters, where we met with video-journalist Sutton Raphael and Matt Danzico, the head of NBC Left Field.
After explaining his vision for the unit — to raise the bar of storytelling by pushing style and creative boundaries — Danzico revealed what he looks for in potential job prospects. He looks for someone passionate and dedicated to the industry, and also someone who has a wide range of skills including producing, shooting and editing.
Danzico encouraged aspiring journalists to “pick a job where it allows you to make the biggest splash.”
Sutton Raphael, University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication alumni ‘16, has been a video journalist for Left Field for almost one year, but not before splashing in a few puddles of his own.
While at the University of Oregon, Raphael co-founded Combined Culture, a social impact collective that creates campaigns to address racial, educational and economical inequalities. After graduation, he freelanced in New York for nearly two years creating content for companies like Mashable, Adidas and Pepsi before landing his current position at Left Field.
Pushing boundaries
While visiting, Raphael gave us a sneak peak of his video Heroine of Heroin Mails Antidote to Reduce Opioid Overdoses before it was released! The short video features a woman named Tracey Mitchell who has saved hundreds of lives with an antidote.
Some of my favorite work from NBC Left Field comes from its Tag video series.
The series starts with a video asking viewers to tag their friends in the comments who has a story that speaks to present social issues. Tag is an example of great journalism since it incorporates engagement techniques, like crowdsourcing, which in turn allows for transparency and in increase in trust from media consumers.
Here’s the introduction video to Tag!:
Four key takeaways
- The subject is always the voice.
- Come with originality and style.
- Find mentors that are doing what you want to do.
- (Personal favorite) Find your identity outside of the classroom.
Though Sutton gave us a few pieces of advice during our visit, it’s even more compelling to see him lead by example.
As he was developing as a journalist, Sutton made an effort to follow and be inspired by people that were doing work that he hoped to be doing in the future.
By co-founding Combined Culture, Sutton was able to discover his identity and style for his work. And through it all, just simply being kind (and true to himself) has propelled him professionally and personally.
