SELECTING THE STORIES

When we first started telling people we know about our Tricentennial video project, we were startled to discover that there were a few folks who thought that there couldn’t actually be as many as 100 stories to tell. So that’s when we put together a long list of 600+ potential stories we could choose from. Just to prove to them (and ourselves) that it was possible.

Sadly, we’ve had to accept the fact that there’s just not enough time and budget to tell them all. So we’re picking and choosing very carefully. First, we begin by asking ourselves which stories most appeal to us. That’s because individual enthusiasm for a certain time period or topic helps fuel action in getting a script fully researched, written, and revised multiple times. The second selection criteria involves finding enough historical images that match and enhance the specific facts that are in a story. After all, it’s television—emphasis on the vision. We know—it sounds like it would be easy to find old photos of San Antonio, right? Well, that’s true in one sense. There are a lot of images out there. However, tracking down where specific visual documentation is archived, then searching through thousands upon thousands of images to find them can be a time-sucking black hole. Contrary to what many people believe, not everything is on the Internet. Then you have to consider being able to tell stories from the periods of San Antonio’s history prior to the invention of photography. Which means looking for paintings, drawings, illustrations, old handwritten documents, and artifacts. We also knew that we were going to have to deal with copyrights, clearances, credits, and permissions on many of the images before we could use them.

PS: We’ve decided to tell some of the stories (that we can’t find enough images or budget for) in this blog. Just because we think it would be a shame if they were left untold.

So check back periodically and see what old stories are brand new.

#SanAntonio #SanAntonioStories