By Brendan O’Meara
Hey! We’ve got Cole Heilborn, a documentary filmmaker and founder of Port Side Productions, a company focusing on outdoor storytelling. His latest film is Inches to Miles, a film made in collaboration with Athletic Brewing. I’m an ambassador! Use BRENDANO20 at checkout for a slick discount, friend! (I don’t get any dough, just points toward beer.)
It’s a wonderful film that chronicles three spectacular people on their journey to the Lake Placid Ironman starting line and, one hopes, the finish line. The film is available in full on YouTube.
In this conversation, Cole talks about how he got his start making films, the travails of nonfiction, collaboration with brands, how he structured this film, and how he selected the three central figures: Lynn Rogers, Timmy Howard, and Channon Greenfield.
At its core, the movie is about the journey, how success isn’t final and failures aren’t fatal, a famous Churchill quote Lynn references on more than one occasion in the film.
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Parting Shot from Episode 421: On Reviews
OK, so about that three-star written review … here’s what I love, love, love about it: It illustrates that I’m on the right path because you can’t appeal to everybody. If you’re appealing to everybody you’re more than likely a vanilla personality and something that AI could churn out.
I wholly disagree with this anonymous reviewer’s take. I cuss and talk like a bro at times, but that’s me also signaling that I’m not a pretentious academic dick wad. I hate those people in literature. I’m not seeking tenure. And when you can ruffle a few feathers, or cut against expectations, that’s a good thing. If people don’t like you, you can say, “That’s great. I’m not for you. And that’s OK.” I can recommend other podcasts.
Not everyone who samples you is going to like you. That’s hard. As soft people, we tend to internalize criticism, especially when we’re largely incapable of defending ourselves. This also is why you should never read your reviews, but I like to read them for the podcast as I believe it encourages more. More reviews helps validate the enterprise. And some unflattering ones signals that the show might not be for everyone. I’m offputting to some, but others kinda dig my POV when it comes to this shit.
On the rare times I’ve ever been asked for advice, one thing I always say is to double down on your weirdness. Interviews are a dime a dozen, but we already have a fill-in-the-blank. What we need is you having conversations filtered through your taste and your respect for the guest and the audience.
I’ll admit though, when I read that review, it deeply upset me for a few days. I respected it from the moment I read it, but clearly he (and trust me, only He’s say d bag) is new to the party. Otherwise it would not have come as such a shock to his system. You can always fast forward through the intros. I make a point of editing myself down in post, and I put these parting shots at the end of the show so they don’t trespass on the guest. This is your goodie bag, take it or leave it … many leave it.
So stay wild CNFers, and if you can’t do, interview, see ya!
