THE BACKSTORY
The pathway from public radio to Firestarter Interactive
Willa Kammerer
You already learned about how I stumbled into storytelling through the research and writing of my college thesis on Tuscan olive-oil production. But why storytelling as a career path, and how the leap to Firestarter Interactive?
I never set out to be a “storyteller,” but as college graduation set in, the career path that appealed to me the most was public radio, bringing together my curiosity about the world around me, with the logic of an almost-college-graduate: “there are public radio stations all over the country, so it should be relatively easy to get a job at one of them somewhere” (if you’re thinking similar, I will save you some applications and tell you, this is not quite the case!) After some deeper research and conversations, I realized my best doorway in was an unpaid internship, so I spent six incredibly valuable and educational months from 2008 to 2009 learning the ropes at New Hampshire Public Radio. It was the peak of the economic crash, Obama’s first election to office, and a riveting time to be in a newsroom.
As my internship was drawing to a close, I knew I wanted to continue telling stories. Freelancing appealed to me, but I didn’t have enough chutzpah—or frankly, experience—to give it a real go.
Immediately following my internship in early 2009, I moved to Portland, Maine to attend the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, an intensive certificate program in Documentary Radio Storytelling.
From the very start of the program, we were forced to put aside any lingering inhibitions and venture into the field. Our assignment: to approach strangers and interview them about the intimate details of their lives (with consent, of course). While I had produced a few stories during my time at New Hampshire Public Radio, I had always felt like a poser with a microphone. But during my months at Salt, my comfort with interviewing and developing stories grew, and I began to feel much more at home and confident in the role of producer and storyteller. I reflected on my then blog, Twigs + String:
“Two days ago and three weeks into Salt, I had an ah-hah moment. As I was fleshing out scenes for my first story in a Steno notebook—idea, characters, setting, action—I thought, “I'm so glad I'm here.” Writing out scenes seems like a pretty elementary exercise, but...how invaluable it is to brainstorm a sequence and a framework for the narrative before getting much, if any, tape... Mapping out scenes introduces a degree of control into a process I've always felt to be uncontrollable.”
— 04 March 2009
During my time at Salt, I produced two very different radio stories. The first, Khadija’s Dream Routine, profiled a day in the life of a 14-year old Somali immigrant named Khadija Hussein, whose family lived in Lewiston, Maine. The second story, A Fresh Catch, explored a new take on the popular community supported agriculture model in Port Clyde, Maine—a community supported fishery. Below are a few scenes from my time in the field.
Upon completion of the program, I knew that the if I was going to give freelancing a shot, there was probably never going to be a better time than the present.
I got a job waitressing to take the pressure off making a living immediately from the creative work I was trying to evolve. For about a year, I worked every single Friday and Saturday night, picking up extra shifts whenever I could.
I remain a firm advocate for creating this kind of safety net for anyone looking to build a business or pursue an unconventional career path. Stress about where the next rent or grocery money will come from is a killer for confidence and creativity, both of which are needed in abundance when striking out on one’s own.
I printed out homemade business cards, invested in equipment, and one by one, little gigs and projects started coming my way.
After an increasingly busy sixteen months of waitressing-freelancing, my professional identity, relationships, and the size of my projects all began to coalesce. I worked my last shift waitressing sometime in 2010, and have continued along this pathway since. My phone number remains the same!
Audio storytelling very quickly developed into multimedia projects, and soon after, film and video storytelling.
From the early days, I knew that if I wanted others to take my work seriously, I needed to too, and part of that was presenting my portfolio in a polished and professional way. I hired a local web design agency in Portland to develop my first website. The most challenging part of the process was getting the logo right (I know many will relate). Finally, after many rounds of concepts that weren’t striking the right chord, an accomplished local designer stepped in and generously offered to see what she could come up with.
The original “Multimedia Storyteller” logo that she created for me felt just right, and has continued to evolve with me, shifting color, format, and even business name, but still rooted in the same principal design, still authentically representing my work and brand. While lacking the handmade touch, my next business card, above, was definitely an upgrade from my home-printed version.
Though my background was in pure journalism and documentary, the work that really clicked for me was partnering with my clients as collaborators, working together to accomplish a shared vision, rather than top-down reporting. That remains true to this day.
From 2009 to 2014, I did everything myself—working with clients developing projects; interviewing, shooting, and editing projects; running the day-to-day bookkeeping, and managing the process from first contact to final delivery.
It was a very busy time, with many all-nighters spent editing.
Projects took me around the country and around the world, from Chile to Australia, Colombia to Ethiopia.
I learned a lot, and during this time, I also realized that there was a ceiling for what I could accomplish myself. If I wanted to create with the level of polish and on the scale I envisioned, I couldn’t do it all myself.
In 2013 I moved from Maine to New York City, and in 2014 founded Firestarter Interactive, the business and team that supports every project today.
I am still deeply involved in the process every step of the way, but work collaboratively with a trusted circle of cinematographers, editors, designers, and story producers who are collectively much more technically talented than I will ever be alone. This enables me to focus on the big picture vision with our clients, creative direction, and the success of the projects we create together.
In 2016 I moved from Manhattan back to my home state of Rhode Island, bringing Firestarter Interactive along with me.
Our remote team is based around the country, from New York to Los Angeles to Chicago, and projects continue to take us around the country and around the world.
I could write another essay on how I never set out to be an entrepreneur. In retrospect, it’s a journey I’d never trade and now I can’t imagine my life another way—but I’ll save that for another day.