There are so many elements in how the greatest storytellers rearrange the furniture in any narrative to make us more engaged and interested in tales, fictional and nonfictional, that we think we know well, but one of the best elements is context.
I was reminded of the value of context in visual storytelling not once but twice in the past few weeks, first when watching and assisting with “Extra Innings from 9/11: 20 Years Later” and then again when watching the ESPN four part series , “Once Upon A Time In Queens,” on the New York Mets. It will also be key in Ken Burns new look at the impact of Muhammad Ali which is going to be on PBS.
Now these were both stories I thought I knew well, given my affinity for the storylines and the timing of both. However when the production team took a step back and looked at what else could be done, specially in the larger context of history, the stories both rekindled and reminded the viewer, in this case me, of things long forgotten. They made us think by not rehashing what we knew or could easily remember, but retelling through a much different lens, each across a swath of time with characters both new…and the original subjects who now have the benefit of time to look back.
The retelling with context is not easy to do…its much easier, and sometimes less stressful, to just retell the same tale to a nostalgic audience or one that may not have heard the story, all with a bit of creative license.
However to win over those who “thought they knew” so that they learn new information and also remember things they had forgotten, is really master craftsmanship, and something that should be admired and emulated at every level.
For the record…watching the “30 For 30” brought back a host of memories of 1986 that were long buried, including..
-sitting in a restaurant (Morrison’s) on Long Beach Island in New Jersey late on a July Saturday as Lee Mazzilli hit his return home run to the Mets to win a game against the St. Louis Cardinals.
-being in the studio at )then) WNBC in new York at the start of Game 3 of the World Series when Lenny Dykstra hit his first inning home run. Colleague Mike Breen was hosting a talk show and his guest that night…in studio, was Monmouth college men’s basketball coach Ron Kornegay (I was the sports information director at Monmouth in 1986).
-watching an old friend named Mike Sergio (not named in the doc) parachute into Shea Stadium during Game 7. I almost worked with Mike on two film projects in later years.
-Lastly was my own story of how we received tickets to Game 3 of the NLCS, and was witness to another Dykstra home run to win that game. My father Vinnie was a lawyer at JC Penney, and Penny’s owned a TV studio on the top floor of the offices on Broadway across from the Winter Garden Theater. That Friday my father was up there doing some paperwork when a Japanese TV station using the studio had a special guest…future Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt. My dad met Mike, he told him about his son who worked in sports, and Mike Schmidt gave my dad two tickets…his two tickets…to game 3. That’s how myself and my young brother Chris ended up on a fall Saturday afternoon to witness history.
Those were just a few of the moments that rose up in the unique retelling, and how the emotions, the passion, and the storytelling can be rekindled for an audience by those at the helm of the camera.
Fun to see, fun to be a part of, and a pleasure to remember, all with a new context.
