{"id":886,"date":"2021-08-31T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-31T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fieldandpost.ca\/newsletter\/?p=886"},"modified":"2021-10-21T22:50:05","modified_gmt":"2021-10-21T22:50:05","slug":"field-post-an-oral-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fieldandpost.ca\/newsletter\/fp-essential-posts\/field-post-an-oral-history\/","title":{"rendered":"FIELD & POST: AN ORAL HISTORY"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On a very warm evening during the “heat dome” days of this past summer, F&P Board Member David Schmidt sat down (virtually) with the founding members of Field & Post: Kate Green, Dana Johl and Robert Hardy. Up for discussion was how the organization we all know and love came into existence, as well as aspirations for its future.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where did the idea of Field & Post come from?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate Green<\/em>: To be fair, Ed Hatton and Scott Winlaw had tried to get some group drinks happening way before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rob Hardy<\/em>: And I remember Deb Wilton used to organize this group called EDS, the Event Drinking Society, that a bunch of us in post would go out to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate<\/em>: But then Rob and I went out for drinks and we were talking about it, and thought that we should get sponsors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rob<\/em>: And I remembered back before I lived in Vancouver, when I lived in Winnipeg, a bunch of us in the industry there realized that we wanted to have somebody else pay for our drinks, so we convinced one of the banks to sponsor our group. I think we called it First Fridays. And I was like, if we can convince them there to do that, I think we can get people to pay for drinks here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate<\/em>: There was definitely a need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rob<\/em>: And then, Dana, you and I were involved in crewing up some show, and we were just trying to find people, and we were like, \u201cWho\u2019s out there who does this?\u201d And we were like, \u201cMaybe we should get them all in a room together so we can all meet each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dana Johl<\/em>: And I don\u2019t know if this is true or if this is what you guys just told me, but after you guys went for drinks you told me that you\u2019d said, \u201cWho else can we get to be involved?\u201d And you were like, \u201cWell, Dana, because then things might actually happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rob<\/em>: That\u2019s totally true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dana<\/em>: And I think after that we started to find sponsors. And we had our first event at the Sin Bin. And I think it was 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rob<\/em>: That sounds right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate<\/em>: Fact check it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(The first Field & Post event was indeed in 2013<\/em>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did the first event go?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate<\/em>: We didn\u2019t have a mailing list or a website or anything \u2013 we just started a Facebook page and put invites out. At the beginning of that first event, I just remember it was kind of like when you have a party and you go, \u201cOh my God, are people gonna show up?\u201d And I thought, if we get 20 people, then it\u2019s a success. But we had like, 120 people show up that first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dana<\/em>: I remember I did the door. I was frantic, trying to take people\u2019s names and email addresses and give out drink tickets, and it was backed up \u2013 and obviously we changed that<\/em> system. We even gave prizes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate<\/em>: Michael Francis won all<\/em> the prizes, usually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was the journey from casual drinks to a member organization?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dana<\/em>: The evolution was, first we decided to make it an official not-for-profit. So we incorporated a company, because we thought if we were getting people to give us money we should make it legit. But we didn\u2019t have official members for quite a few years. And then we decided to change our bylaws to allow voting membership and started charging a membership fee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rob<\/em>: Really, this was about the community. We created it for all the people that work in the business, so we wanted them to get to be a part of it. To feel a sense of ownership. And the other part of it was, you know, it\u2019s a lot of work<\/em>. And we wanted to start sharing<\/em> that work with other people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Laughter<\/em>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate<\/em>: Right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how did you three sort out your roles as founders in those early years?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate<\/em>: It was rock, paper, scissors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Laughter<\/em>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dana<\/em>: I think it was natural. I gravitate towards certain things, like the finances. Kate\u2019s a great networker. Rob really, really shone as far as the sponsorship stuff went. I think we were just a good mix of people with different skills and interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rob<\/em>: I used to be a fundraiser \u2013 that\u2019s what I used to do for a living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dana<\/em>: I\u2019m the shy one, so I would start out doing the door, because then it was easier for me to say hi to everybody than to just walk around and small talk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate<\/em>: And I\u2019m very good at parties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Laughter<\/em>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did the organization grow as you expected it would?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dana<\/em>: More than we expected it would. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate<\/em>: Yeah. When we started Field & Post, it was about, \u201cWhat do we do to support the industry?\u201d After a few years we thought, let\u2019s try to bring in an educational component, so that we on the west coast become known for having really great talent, upgrading their skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dana<\/em>: When we decided to do it, remember the interviews we did with event planners?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate<\/em>: Oh, yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rob<\/em>: God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dana<\/em>: And then we just absolutely fell in love with Amber (Orchard).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rob<\/em>: In the scripted side of the business, you\u2019ve got the unions, you\u2019ve got the schools, everybody\u2019s really focused on training there \u2013 nobody\u2019s focused on training in unscripted and lifestyle and documentary and reality. So we were it. That, I think, became the thing that made us really stand out. It wasn\u2019t just another drinking event, it was like, hey, we\u2019re trying to help people advance their skills and career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate<\/em>: Now, there\u2019s opportunities for people to learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rob<\/em>: For me the highlights were to see how interested all the partners and sponsors were to be a part of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dana<\/em>: I\u2019m blown away that were basically a go-to for Creative BC and Telus and the CMPA \u2013 sometimes they come to us with ideas and look to us to be leader in B.C. We\u2019re all super proud of that. Didn\u2019t expect that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate<\/em>: What I really liked is that a lot of the executives of the production companies around town really saw the value of it. They\u2019d promote it within their companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rob<\/em>: They went from being scared that we were starting a union to realizing that this was really beneficial for them too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Laughter<\/em>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where did the idea of FactualWEST come from?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate<\/em>: I think it was just a natural evolution of what we were doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dana<\/em>: Rob was pretty vocal about it, and I remember thinking, \u201cOh, that\u2019s a little intimidating.\u201d Not to execute it, but how are we going to raise enough money to do that? Rob really led the way on the sponsorship, and we started to see that there was interest. That\u2019s when Amber helped us turn it into a venue-based event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rob<\/em>: Events are great because they bring people together. There\u2019s all these fantastic events in our industry where people get together to talk about scripted or digital, or go to Banff to sell their TV show \u2013 but there was nothing for people who work in factual television. So it was like, \u201cWell, let\u2019s create a day where people can come together and feel a sense of community.\u201d At the same time, John Ritchie and Mark Miller and a couple of other people were going, \u201cIt\u2019s really hard to find showrunners, it\u2019s really hard to find fantastic, top-level talent. How do we train people up?\u201d And we were like, maybe this could help. So they got behind the idea, and they helped us get a little more credibility, and then we just started talking to all the different sponsors and partners who could see the potential. It was the right idea at the right time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What were the challenges of organizing that first FactualWEST?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rob<\/em>: Money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate<\/em>: Money, yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rob<\/em>: Time. Faith. Fear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the highlights?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate<\/em>: The first couple of years Cheryl Binning was heavily instrumental in the programming with me, and it was good to have that balance between myself and my producer mind, and Cheryl and her story perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Field & Post is now in the planning stages for its sixth FactualWEST. Has the conference grown as you expected?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate<\/em>: Absolutely. We\u2019ve gone from one day (of events) to two. We\u2019ve gone from having people from the United States and Canada as our speakers to international speakers from Australia and the U.K. I think this might be our last year in the venues that we\u2019re in \u2013 I think we\u2019re starting to outgrow those venues. We\u2019ve just got to keep building, and hopefully we\u2019ll have more participants come from out of town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What made you decide to expand the Board from the three of you to a much larger group? (The F&P Board currently has 11 members.<\/em>)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dana<\/em>: It\u2019s because we always wanted to kind of give it away. Like Rob said, we wanted to give it back to the community, so what better way to do that than to open it up for anybody to support?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rob<\/em>: That\u2019s part of why I left the Board. Not because I don\u2019t love the organization, and didn\u2019t love being a part of it, but I have a big, loud voice and lots of opinions, and I needed to make some room for other people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you see in the future for Field & Post and FactualWEST?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate<\/em>: I think FactualWEST will just continue to get bigger and bigger. My dream would be to see it become the go-to networking and skills development conference in Canada for factual TV workers. Field & Post expanded to Victoria \u2013 one day it would be great to see membership across Canada.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On a very warm evening during the “heat dome” days of this past summer, F&P Board Member David Schmidt sat down (virtually) with the founding members of Field & Post: Kate Green, Dana Johl and Robert Hardy. Up for discussion was how the organization we all know and love came into existence, as well as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fieldandpost.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fieldandpost.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fieldandpost.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fieldandpost.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fieldandpost.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=886"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.fieldandpost.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":891,"href":"http:\/\/www.fieldandpost.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886\/revisions\/891"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fieldandpost.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fieldandpost.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fieldandpost.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fieldandpost.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}