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The story: Bruce Howard, head of Avista's dam relicensing effort, talks about his passion and hope for the Spokane River.
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This video takes my storytelling skills in a little different direction. Columnist Rebecca Nappi came to me late last week with an idea to do a monthly yearlong video series about people who are passionate about the Spokane River. Under stress from dischargers and an ever-growing population, the Spokane River has a dedicated group of people working to protect its interests.

Avista Utilities Bruce Howard is one man who has worked tirelessly to protect the Spokane River for future generations. He heads up Avista’s three-yearlong federal process to relicense Avista's dams on the river. Rebecca Nappi and I met Bruce below the Monroe St. Dam for a video interview. My challenge was to find and shoot enough B-roll footage so that I could layer it over the A-roll interview. On Thursday, I took a long drive and taped each of Avista’s six dams from the one at Post Falls to Little Falls Dam just below Long Lake. On future river videos, I plan to send more time with my subjects.

Rebecca Nappi wrote and recoreded the voice over narration which helped bridge the different edited segments. I added a light layer of music that I hope is not too distracting. Meeting someone like Howard is what I like most about my job. At the end of the day I go home humble but a little wiser from the experience.

Another great vid Colin... although this one looks "squished"... like maybe it was shot at 16:9 but it's being squished to 4:3 for display?

Ouch! You're right. It was shot in 16:9 and was converted to 4:3 ratio on export to QuickTime. Sorry Bruce. I fixed it and now everyting looks normal.