See a photo of Bill, his bio, and Part 1 of this Q&A.
Q&A with Bill Gibeault, Question 2
Q: How did you initially become involved with story/storytelling/ narrative? What attracted you to this field? What do you love about it?
A: My first involvement in storytelling, beyond some real amateur acting gigs in high school and college, was a corporate video I produced for a divisional sales meeting, during my tenure in The Food Industry. The meeting kicked off the company’s (Hunt-Wesson Foods) major annual sales contest and consumer promotion. The video was part of a group of presentations by all the sales districts, the presentations themselves being a highly competitive contest. It was a big hit with the audience as it included high-energy music videos, mixed with on-camera interviews of our sales team. The video presentation also starred a huge German shepherd police dog named King, and had a high-energy theme called “Keep Pushing.”
I don’t want to date myself, but in 1986, video production was not the mainstream communication tool it is today. Back then PowerPoint software was still four years away! To witness the audience engagement and enthusiasm was personally satisfying and gratifying. It was really a rush emotionally. This first corporate video also planted the seeds for starting a video-production company one year later.
As I look back on our 25 years of video storytelling, what I love most is the challenge to touch a heart and reach a mind with our work, and the privilege to explore our customer’s life experiences-both their trials and triumphs. I also love the opportunity to learn about many different people, places, and things that I might not have been exposed to, because of our profession. One day we might be on a bridge in Boston, video-taping the installation of a new engineering innovation, and the same week interviewing the mother of a young boy who’s sight was saved by The Lions Eye Institute. It keeps me fresh being exposed to a variety of people, industries and not for profits.
We’ve been fortunate through the years to witness first hand the impact of our stories on audiences. It really is extremely satisfying to engage people, connect people and even inspire people with storytelling. Making a difference with my work, however small, matters to me.