Risk and the Good Idea

Photo by Richard Jensen

I went to a way too loud Imax movie  the other night called “Adrenaline Rush” in which the narrator quoted Leonardo da Vinci saying “The greatest risk is to not take a risk.” Of course I can’t find that quote anywhere so don’t quote me on that. But it got me thinking about what risk means. I do think that the independent freelance working artist life is one with a certain amount of financial risk. But it’s a calculated risk involving doing what you love to do.  And  if one plans up to a year ahead and works at saving money and being economical, it’s no more risky than assuming you’re safe as an employee of a company. It’s certainly safer than those thrillseekers in this Imax movie who like to jump off cliffs and actually enjoy freefalling. That’s nuts!

When I first graduated from college in the 80s, I was already filing stories for NPR but the pay was a pitiful $125 per story. So I started thinking about either getting a part-time job or getting a grant to fund my radio projects. I found that college term papers were perfect training for writing proposals. I just needed to attach a budget.  The first grant proposal I wrote was for a series called The Ashland Report. I traveled with a theatre critic for the Eugene Register-Guard to attend the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. I wrote a grant proposal to the Oregon Council for the Humanties to pay for our travel and a small stipend to produce a half hour report of reviews and interviews. I asked a hotel for lodging and got my first underwriting. It was successful for a while and I distributed via mail (then on old reel-to-reel tape) to about six public radio stations in the Northwest.

I produced The Ashland Report for a couple years while still producing stories and audio collage pieces for NPR. Though at one point, I talked Powells Books into funding it, I usually broke even on it but I was able to fund something I loved — going to Ashland and seeing plays.  And I was able to build a “track record” — remember that word. It’s so important to getting grant funding.

After that project, I then applied for two grants from the Satellite Program Development Fund, a fund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting offered for small projects. I was the first producer to actually receive two grants in the same round. Both projects carried some risk to them because I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I had never produced a series or full-fledged national documentary before.

The first project I really wanted to do. It was a series of 10 audio cartoons based on Nicole Hollander and Lynda Barry cartoons. The second project was a documentary  about the controversy of Rajneeshpuram. I really didn’t know much about the Baghwan and his cult other than what I read in the newpapers but I applied for that because I thought it was a good idea. 

Well, so did the panel and they funded both projects. But they didn’t want me to work on both at the same time so I chose the audio cartoon one. That was my passion project. It was fun. I loved doing radio theatre and I was able to do it quickly.  Some of the pieces aired on NPR and the series got good carriage by public radio stations.

By the time I got to the  drama of the Rajneeshees, all hell broke loose. Ma Anand Sheela was indicted on poisoning people with salmonella and the Guru ended up selling all his 35 rolls royces and geting the heck out of town. I completed the Rajneeshpuram project just as the town was being abandoned, and it made for good drama but it was so stressful that by the time I wrapped the documentary I couldn’t even listen to it.

That taught me an important lesson. Don’t propose a project just because it’s a good idea unless your heart is really in it. And certainly don’t apply for a grant solely for the money because there isn’t that much if you are funded. Propose an idea for funding because you get joy out of it, and it’s something you really want to do and better yet need to do.

After those two grant projects were sucessfully completed, I was able to get funding for the most important radio documentary in my life.  

 

(Coming up, the story of  how I funded “Mei Mei” as a radio project and as a stage play.)