Screwing Up: Two Stories From When I Worked at a TV Station

2019-02-08 · story · Hank · 3:59 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Everyday life (also: Personal life) · mode: Personal essay

Hank tells two stories from his college summer job at Orange TV, a community access station in Orlando: a botched audio shoot that taught him to speak up when something seems wrong, and an ex-Air Force producer's 'Green, you outrank me' at his thrifted master sergeant jacket, which showed him he wore symbols of other people's identity he knew nothing about.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Hank's college summer jobs: Walmart, then Orange TV in Orlando; coiling cables

• ★ Hank says his first college summer he worked at Walmart, a weird experience where he made a lot of friends and cleaned up a lot of poop, a story for another day. (playful) — 00:00:00
• ★★ Hank says his second college summer he worked at Orange TV, a community access station in Orlando, doing graphic design, camera and sound, and learned a ton still relevant to his life. — 00:00:00
• ★ Hank says one lesson was that whatever you know about lighting or screenwriting, you are dirt if you can't properly coil a cable. (playful) — 00:00:00

00:00:31 — First screw-up: the bad audio on his first shoot and 'if something seems wrong, tell someone'

• ★★ Hank says on his first assignment he was on sound and sensed the audio wasn't right but said nothing; the camera operator later found it on the onboard mic, so the early footage was useless. — 00:00:31
• ★★ Hank says the camera operator didn't blow up but told him that if something seems wrong, he should tell someone, which Hank calls good advice. — 00:00:31

00:01:00 — The thrifted military jacket and the producer's 'Green, you outrank me'

• ★ Hank says it was 2000, he was 19 or 20, had poor fashion sense (still does) and wore a lot of thrift store clothes. (playful) — 00:01:00
• ★★★ Hank says before a shoot his producer, a solid man with a perfect silver mustache who had been in the Air Force, poked the patch on his thrifted military jacket and said 'Green, you outrank me.' — 00:01:00
• ★★ Hank says the remark was 90% joke and 10% frustration, with him or with society, and he was horrified. — 00:01:41
• ★★ Hank says it wasn't about stolen valor: nobody would mistake a 19-year-old in baggy jean shorts for an Air Force master sergeant, and the producer didn't think he was fooling anyone. — 00:02:15

00:02:45 — Symbols of other people's identity worn because they looked cool; 'what I know is that I don't know'; other jackets

• ★★★ Hank says the producer opened his eyes to symbols on his body that he knew nothing about, part of other people's identity, work and pride, when all he knew was that they looked cool. — 00:02:45
• ★★ Hank admits he didn't know what a master sergeant was or even which branch the jacket came from, and as a young lefty a little looked down on that career while wearing the jacket because it looked cool. — 00:02:45
• ★★★ Hank says he kept the jacket a while but never wore it again; every time he looked at it he thought that what he knows is that he doesn't know. — 00:03:14
• ★★★ Hank links the stories: the producer's frustration told him something didn't seem right, less simple than a mic setting; it didn't make him a bad person, it was complicated, and there are other jackets. — 00:03:14

In the description and comments

• ★★ The description says the story relates to society's conversation about cultural appropriation and may be a frame for people resistant to the idea that it is disrespectful. — video description
• ★ The description says the TV station job was fun, taught him lasting lessons, and that he is grateful to the people he worked with at OTV. — video description
• ★★ Hank says the jacket story may help people resistant to the idea that cultural appropriation is disrespectful or harmful understand it, but he doesn't think it is the same thing, for a bunch of different reasons. — video description

Threads in this video

• told · Hank's first Orange TV shoot: bad audio he noticed but didn't report (2000) — Hank says on his first assignment he was on sound and sensed the audio wasn't right but said nothing; the camera operator later found it on the onboard mic, so the early footage was useless. (00:00:31)
• told · Hank's thrifted Air Force jacket and his producer's 'Green, you outrank me' (2000) — Hank says before a shoot his producer, a solid man with a perfect silver mustache who had been in the Air Force, poked the patch on his thrifted military jacket and said 'Green, you outrank me.' (00:01:00)
• restate · Is it harmful when the mainstream adopts the words and styles of marginalized cultures? — Hank says the producer opened his eyes to symbols on his body that he knew nothing about, part of other people's identity, work and pride, when all he knew was that they looked cool. (00:02:45)
• mentioned · Hank's summer job at Walmart (told 2017) — Hank says his first college summer he worked at Walmart, a weird experience where he made a lot of friends and cleaned up a lot of poop, a story for another day. (00:00:00)
• restate · Is failure valuable? — Hank links the stories: the producer's frustration told him something didn't seem right, less simple than a mic setting; it didn't make him a bad person, it was complicated, and there are other jackets. (00:03:14)

Mentioned

Central: cultural appropriation · Orange TV

Also: Intellectual humility · Orlando, Florida · stolen valor · United States Air Force · Walmart

Also centred on cultural appropriation: Is This Video Cool?

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