I Care A Lot
I’ve always been a big fan of Mike Rowe’s television show Dirty Jobs, being inspired to work specifically with my hands, which is the best way for me to learn anything. Considering this, he also promotes others’ jobs, not just the notion of work, hints the title “Dirty Jobs”. What intrigued me most was the genius behind his passion of media, culture, and entertainment and how he managed to create a show of everyone else that makes up the world in which we all live.
He takes a kind of behind-the-scenes perspective incorporating even the viewer to get involved by camera angles, positioning, and placement. This produces an almost cinema vérité style of visual production, giving the audience sight into the job as it is accomplished accompanied by Mike’s humorous reactions and comments.
As a young kid in middle school, I got the opportunity to do similar productions at the school I attended. With appreciation to my theology teacher for the idea, I was inspired to go out and showcase students at my school and their talents and gifts. I would co-write, film, and produce short video segments each week for the students of our entire middle school to watch. These running segments built interest in the shows, calling for other individual’s participation. This provided the chance of fellow classmates to get involved through their activities and become part of an educational and entertaining experience.
During this time, my interest in video and entertainment became stronger as I learned and achieved more experience working with others, planning scenes, writing scripts, as well as editing these videos. It was an educational journey for everyone involved! I feel that Mike Rowe’s Dirty Jobs series is a large-scale, adult version, of what I did in middle school.
He encouraged his viewers to get involved by asking them to send ideas and requests for other jobs he could get dirty doing. This enticed nationwide participation along with advertising for himself and those he worked with. Mike Rowe is someone I would consider to be a role model!
Leading up to one of my last segments I did with my theology teacher, Chris Rogers, who inspired me to work hard towards my passion not just my hands. After I graduated from high school and begun college, Chris Rogers called on me for my help and experience in editing to do one more segment, this time, for Mercer University.
