“New Font Tells a Story”: Profile by KMSP-TV

I received a phone call on Wednesday, Nov. 29. On the other end of the phone was KMSP-TV reporter Rob Olson, wondering if I would be willing to film a segment later that day. He had just seen a press release from UW-Stout, and wanted to learn more about my font and the book. I had a client call scheduled for mid-afternoon, so I wasn’t able to film that day. But, we agreed to film the next morning. Good news for me: That gave me an extra day to fret about being on camera!

Rob, his photojournalist Scott, and I met Thursday morning at Subtext Books in downtown St. Paul. We filmed for more than an hour. Most of the time, Rob and I were simply having a conversation. A few times we repeated parts of our conversation after Scott changed a camera lens or changed camera angles. Is it odd I found the process of filming utterly fascinating?!

One thing I didn’t know was how in the heck Rob was going to trim down an hour-long conversation — and admittedly a complicated story — into a three minute segment. But, I had a gut feeling I could trust him, and indeed he did a great job.

That evening, I watched the story, in real-time, along with anyone else who was turned in to KMSP-TV. The story was originally scheduled to run at 5:15 and 6:10, but I learned it also ran on the 9:00 and 10:00 news shows, along with the next morning’s show. I had a public-facing book event that Friday, and it was amusing to hear several people look at me, point, and proclaim, “I just saw you this morning on TV!”

The 5:00 clip and 6:00 clip are slightly different. Which “cut” do you prefer?

A big thanks to Rob Olson, Scott Keller, and the fine folks at Subtext Books!