Below is an attempt at a brutally honest cover letter.  I hate writing these things, I never know how to convey my qualities without sounding like a dick.

Benjamin Rupp
206 788-6871
2438 SW Kenyon St.
Seattle WA 91806
206 788-6871
[email protected]
www.BenjaminRupp.com
 
I’ve never been adept at writing a cover letter, mainly because I am not comfortable selling myself.  Don’t get me wrong, I do not lack confidence in my skills, I just feel weird telling you about them, I would prefer to show you. Humility was strongly ingrained in me growing up.  Bragging was tacky, embellishment was unacceptable, lying was inexcusable. The idea that you would spend an entire letter singing your own praises is not an easy thing for me to grasp. I also took some advice given by a college professor to heart; “Never make yourself the story”.  I would much rather tell you someone else’s story. That said, here we are, I am about to tell you some reasons why you should hire me.  

Fairly recently, following an employee review by the head of my department, I had a supervisor half-joking mock me for being a “team player”.  I think he might have been concerned that I was setting too high a bar. I am the guy who will answer the phone in the middle of the night or on a holiday, who will take work home with him, or stay late to finish something.  I will get out of bed in the middle of the night if something in a video is bothering me. I will lose sleep to polish an edit, or to grade a shot. I’m not claiming perfection, but I will try my hardest to get as close to that unreachable standard as possible. I take extreme pride in my work and I want it to stand up to any inspection and will put the time in to get it there.

I’ve often been underqualified on paper for jobs I’ve held. I had no experience with any NLE before being hired to edit audio content at DiscoverMusic.com. I had no master control experience before taking a position at NWCN. Within months of both hire dates I was training and supervising others in these roles. I am an extremely quick study. What I don’t know I learn easily. No one knows all there is to know about editing, or lighting, or graphic design or videography and I am no different in this regard. What I do have is a very strong foundation in all of these areas and I am confident that anything I lack I will gain quickly, I will find the answers on my own if need be.

I also believe very strongly in being inclusive as part of a team. Everyone should have input and the more eyes that are on a project the better. Leading by example is more important than being a “boss” than flexing authority. If team members have respect for their leaders, they will go above and beyond to accomplish the task at hand, and this all starts with how much work you personally put in. I am comfortable working on my own as well, nearly all of the work on my web page was done entirely by myself.

I have such a strong creative drive that I have often looked outside of my employment to fill it, whether it was doing graphic design for a record label I launched with some friends or providing the sound track to the then minor league Seattle Sounders. I am driven to create. I long to tell stories and capture sound and images, both for a salary and in my spare time. I see the world in shots and edits. 

There, apparently that wasn’t so hard.  I just wrote a cover letter, without misleading you in any way. If you would like to talk more about what I can bring to your company, please don’t hesitate in contacting me.

Sincerely
Benjamin Rupp

All I have ever wanted to do was make television.  I started by pointing a VHS camera at football games in high school (thanks Mr Warnstadt), I worked my way through college working for the local PBS station and freelancing sports. I have spent the last 20 years working for KING TV in Seattle.  It's all I have ever wanted to do.  Come Feb 2021 I will be looking for a new job for the first time in decades.   It's not really a huge surprise as I have survived multiple rounds of lay offs as my friends have been sent packing.  Now I am watching the rack containing my replacement being assembled. Parts are being added to the "mechanical broadcaster" every day. I will likely play a part in making sure that it is up and running before my final day. KING has been great and I wish them no ill will.  It's just over. In a way this may be a blessing.  Broadcast television has been in a slow decline for ages. When I started I got to do a lot of studio production work, it has all been automated away. I haven't really loved my job in a very long time, it was just comfortable and I love my co-workers, the hours have never been that great as anyone working in broadcast television can attest. I will miss all of the friends I have made here.

I have been slowly preparing for this inevitability for years.  It is the reason I have spent so much of my spare time shooting and editing video, and have devoted so much of my disposable income to purchasing gear.  I knew I would need to find another way to make a living eventually, and it simply made sense to make it video production, to make it something I love doing.  Having a full time job has been both a blessing and a curse in this regard. It allowed me the freedom to shoot whatever I wanted since I wasn't relying on it for my sole income, but it also made it exceeding difficult to take on projects due to time limitations.  Now I am free to do whatever I want... but I am also unsure what that will be.   Luckily I have some time to figure it out, but it doesn't take the sting away.  Uncertainty is not something that I enjoy.  So anyway... enough with the sad bastard talk... I will find something closer to my true calling, something more creative, something exciting... I am open to ideas if you have them.  Cheers all.  

​This post is long overdue, especially considering that the video has been live for a couple of weeks.  That said, I finally finished the second installment of the "Wood + Wires" series.  This time I profiled Bottlehead Corp, a company that makes tube amp kits.  This posed a unique challenge; how do I successfully profile a company whose product is a box of parts?  The only thing that seemed to make sense was to show a kit being assembled, starting with Bottlehead packing a box then transitioning to "someone" putting the kit together.  The more I thought about it the more it became apparent that I would have to build a kit myself.  I am not especially fond of being on camera, that was never the point of MKHmfg.  I have long criticized how YouTube has become "me roll”, people producing content simply to be on camera.  I was reluctant, both because I am not fond of being on camera and because I have very limited experience doing any sort of electrical work.  I chose the Reduction phono pre-amp for the build, simply because I wanted to upgrade my personal solid-state amp to a tube amp (the finished product sounds amazing... but I am getting ahead of myself).  I wasn't excited by the idea of having to spend hours editing video of myself. 

Luckily working with Dan and Eileen Schmalle of Bottlehead was remarkably easy. I spent two days at their facility on Bainbridge Island.  They were very accommodating, and Dan was a very easy interview.  I ended up with over an hour of usable interview footage.  I shot with both my Panasonic GH4 and GH5.  I also moved both cameras a little bit mid interview and then proceeded to revisit a couple of questions.  This way I had 4 angles on some of Dan's key answers.   For B roll I shot Eileen compiling and boxing my kit.  Dan was a little more difficult, I didn't get a whole lot of video of him working.  I had to be creative to fill in the gaps

Using a slower, more deliberate process made for better shots, but took a very long time.  A kit that would typically take a builder a few days to a week to complete took me three or four weeks, with me shooting an hour or two every night or two after work.  Eventually I rented a Rhino Evo slider for a weekend and knocked out a ton of the kit.  This worked extremely well, as the added movement made for much more interesting shots.  Finally, I spent a Saturday lighting my living room for the final set up video. Bonnie (dog) made an unexpected cameo.  She is the ultimate "beer hound" she can be seen trying to steal my celebratory beer near the end of the final video.  Darlene was also kind enough to help with the camera move of me coming up the stairs.

In the end I made some mistakes with the build.  I couldn't get the correct impedance readings on my amp.  I turned at first the to the Bottlehead forum, then to Bottlehead tech Paul Birkeland.  Paul sorted out all my many mistakes in shockingly little time.  Without his help I would have been working on this for much longer.  

An old friend then stepped in to provide the last missing piece of the puzzle for this project.  I've known Aaron "Coleslaw" Taylor for a very long time.  He played guitar and sang as Darlene and I walked down the aisle at our wedding (the Nada Surf song "Blonde on Blonde"), he's a dear friend and an all-around stand up dude.  He volunteered to provide music for this project.  In total he recorded over 15 unique pieces of music for me to choose from.  Without his help this project would not have worked.  Music is a huge part of this series, it would make no sense otherwise, and Aaron made it so easy.  I can't thank him enough.

After I finished the project Dan approached me for a teaser video to be featured on the Bottlehead web site (below).  I was able to cut a 30 second spot for him and now my mug is featured on the front page of www.bottlehead.com.  I went from a very reluctant subject of my own video, to the face of kit building somehow.  Don't count on this to happen in the future.  I plan to plant myself firmly behind the camera from here on.

​Very strange side note.  So far, I have produced two episodes of "Wood + Wires" and both times the subject of my video moved their operations around the time that I finished the video.  Clark Blumenstein moved from Tacoma to Seattle... and now Bottlehead has relocated to Poulsbo.  Is this a coincidence or some sort of curse?  I guess time will tell

Until next time... oh and by the way...I have no clue what "next time" will entail.  If you have an idea for part 3 of this series, please let me know... Anyone making unique audio gear of any kind is welcome.  Let me know if you have an idea.  Cheers - Ben

I have spent years working towards improving my abilities to create video content.  It seems like it's been ages, and at times it seems like I have made little to no progress. Am I treading water as others swim?  I still work the crazy TV hours, and I still am not getting paid for most of what I do on the side. It's hard to keep self doubt at bay.  It's also a challenge to work a side hustle while working a full time job and having a life.  Finding that balance is not easy.  Spending 8 hours at work making TV, then finding the motivation to shoot and edit after is a bit much at times.  Some times you just have to sleep.  Ha.

I watched a video this morning that made me feel slightly better about everything.  it's from a travel photographer named Taylor Jackson.  It's nice to know that I am not alone in my self doubt, and that others who have already turned their side gig into their main gig still occasionally feel this struggle as well.  Ironically this is from a v-log.  I usually don't like them.  For one, Dr Neil Robison taught me that you should never make yourself the story.  It seems like that is all there is anymore, creators who make themselves the story.... I guess it goes with territory.  To me it always comes off as shallow and conceited.  I really don't care about you when I watch a travel video.. I want to see the place and people not the host.  I hate putting myself in my videos, and only do so when there is no other choice.  Is film making a lost art?  Is it all me me me?  I guess that is a question better addressed in another blog post.

Taylor's video was refreshing... I can appreciate his self doubt, I share it.  I hope he doesn't mind that I post his work here.

It has been a very long time since I have bothered to write anything here.  Let's chalk it up to life shall we?  It's been a busy few years, both good and bad.  First of all I feel I need to explain why there is no "My Knees Hurt" movie yet.  Well to be honest I sort of feel like I was being crushed under the weight of the thing.  I am not sure how all the pieces fit together, and the glue I was hoping to use to piece the entire thing together left us, Mark Hubbard.  So I need to step back and think it through.  Skateboarding is so huge, and even the subject of "older skaters" is a bit much to chew on.  I have a ton of great video and interviews and will eventually come back to this....but for now I need to concentrate on some other things... things that I can easily accomplish.  Which brings me to "Wood and Wires".

It started when I was looking for something interesting to shoot outside of skateboarding.  One day while flipping through the new arrivals bin at Easy Street Records I noticed the speakers mounted in the corners.  They were tiny, and pretty, and sounded really nice.  Next to them was a sign explaining that they were made in Tacoma by a guy named Clark Blumenstein.  Which got me thinking that he might make an interesting story .... so I contacted Clark, we talked it over and decided to shoot a video.  I thought that the Arizona band Forest Fallows would be a great compliment to Clark's artistry so I contacted them though my friends at Joyful Noise Recordings and they were gracious enough to agree to let me use a few songs.  Now it has over 800 views on Vimeo.  Part two is in the works, more on that after the video.  If you haven't seen it please click below, I have been told by people who have zero interest in hi-fi and/or speakers that it was still an interesting watch.

I really liked how this video turned out, so I decided to make it a series.  Loosely based on the idea of profiling independent audio manufacturers.  I see this as a pretty general term, I am not planning on limiting it to just stereo or hi-fi producers, but anyone making interesting audio gear.  I am thinking of maybe profiling a guitar amp company in the future after I finish part two, which will be about Bottlehead Corp.
  
Bottlehead makes really gorgeous tube amp kits.  There was a time when the audio kit was a huge industry.  Audiophiles and budding electricians everywhere would order their Heathkit and put it together in their garage or at their kitchen tables.  Today we seem to be too busy to undertake this sort of project.  That said, companies like Bottlehead are keeping the dream alive.  You get the satisfaction of putting something together yourself in addition to a fantastic amp.  They seemed like a perfect compliment to Blumenstein Audio.  I shot an interview with Dan Schmalle (their CEO for life) at their headquarters on Bainbridge Island recently, the same day he returned from setting a land speed record on his motorcycle at Bonneville.  Now I am about to begin the process of shooting the construction of an amp.  This is going to be an interesting shoot, since I will be undertaking the build myself.  I bought a soldering station and will first build a practice kit I ordered off the internet (a digital clock)....hopefully all will go well.  I am not a fan of being in my own videos, but I really couldn't think of a better or more honest way to portray what Bottlehead does than by showing a novice going through the process, and I am very much a novice when it comes to electronics.

In addition to "Wood and Wires" I have also shot some video for a future piece on Gigs4U and the Seattle City of Music Program.  These are the people responsible for the musicians you see playing at SeaTac when you are waiting for your flight.  I have shot some video at the airport as well as a couple of interviews.  I also recently went on a birding adventure with my lovely wife and pops.... of course I took a camera...so I have a few other irons in the fire....more video will come as soon as I get enough spare time to whip things into shape.  I seem to have more ideas lately than spare time.

So that's it.  I am still here, still shooting and editing when I get the time.  I will churn out videos as fast as possible considering I have a day job and a wife and a dog.  I hope you enjoy them.

Marginal Way is beautiful.  It is dirty and gritty, it is surrounded by dust and noise.  Train tracks flank it on both sides, as traffic roars above it spewing smoke and sound.  Re-bar pokes through, concrete forms stand quietly waiting.  Giant trucks pass constantly, industry squeezes in on all sides.  Yes Marginal Way is beautiful.  Not just because the concrete is smooth and the coping is placed perfectly, Marginal Way is beautiful because of what it IS and how it was born as much as where it is, under a bridge in an industrial wasteland.  Marginal Way wasn't built by some giant construction company racing to make a profit, it was not built because some city official finally cracked to the pressure of parents demanding a place to drop off their scooter kids.  Marginal Way was built by skaters for skaters, their blood and sweat is in every yard of concrete.  MW was built by a community, and in the process they created something beautiful, something much more than the sum of it's parts.  Once a year this community gathers to crown a king, they drink beer, eat burgers and hold a contest.  All the proceeds go right back into the park, this year they raised over $5000, which will go directly back into building.  I can't help but wonder what will happen when they run out of space under that bridge.  

My work schedule doesn't afford me the opportunity to attend many skate events, working weekend nights, I usually have to bail mid way through.  As luck would have it I was off on Sept 13th. This year I was finally able to be there from start to finish.

If you have been to Marginal Way you know all too well that this place isn't designed for spectators, it's all skateable.  This made the huge turn out a little problematic.  Even with the addition this year of scaffolding, it was still nut to butt.  I spent most of the day stranded on a ledge.  So the video above is missing pretty much anything that happened in the shallow end.  Lucky for me tons of serious ripping happened around me. 

The day started with the groms.  The future is bright my friends, as all these kids killed it. Josh Dulac, Quintin LaVille, and Christian Navarro rose to the top to earn spots on the podium, in that order. 

Next the ladies got their turn.  Flow was the name of the game.  With Kristin Ebeling, Jessica Bassett, Colette Peterson and Sally Roepke hitting everything and anything in the park.  Krtistin took home the top honor, proving once again that there is nothing at all wrong with "Skating like a Girl".

Proving that you can teach an old dog new tricks, or at least have them do the tricks they learned 20 years ago, the lifers were up next.  John Aguilar came down from Bellingham to lay down some serious lines, Brian Malkemes blasted airs off of nearly everything in sight, Kimo Cole killed it all day...but it was Metal Mark who has lines for days at MW (not surprising since you can find him under the bridge nearly every day of the week), who took top prize.

The pros were up next, or at least anyone who was willing to pony up the entry fee in hopes of grabbing a wad of cash.... There were way too many rippers to go into too much detail.  Just watch the video.... some stand outs?  Nathan Navarro's high speed stand up 5-0 was drenched in style, he made Yakima proud for sure. Ellis killed it per usual, Andy Hopgood flipped his ass off, Phil Hanson came straight from the airport to show why his 2014 title was no fluke and Jonny Weir threw some of the most stylish airs of the day...

Brice Niebuhr rode the place like he built it...probably because he did, since he put in so many hours pouring and shaping the place. If his skating wasn't enough, Brice immediately donated his $500 3rd place prize back to the cause and stuck around until 9 pm helping clean up.  

Danny Tumia was stylish as ever as he went huge, (including making giant blunts look way too easy)... but the day belonged to Sky Siljeg.  Sky is simply one of the most original and bad ass skaters that the NW has ever produced.  His lines don't make sense until you see them done in person.  So much style, so much power, and for his efforts he took the top prize and got his name painted on the pillar. 

Overall, good times were had by all, beers, burgers and some very serious ripping.  Until next year, when we crown another Lord of Seatown. 


Grom winners: 

1 - Josh Dulac 

2- Quintin LaVille 

3 - Christian Navarro

Guuurls winners 

1- Kristin Ebeling 

2 - Sally Roepke 

3 - Colette Peterson

Gramps winners

1- Metal Mark 

2- Kimo Cole

3 - Brian Malkemes

Ams Winners

1 – Chris Tarrosa

2 – Levi Starkweather

3 – Mike Desiano


Pros winner

1 – Sky Siljeg ($1500 + Seattle Rattle)

2 – Danny Tumia ($1000)

3 – Brice Niebuhr ($500 donated back to the park)

4 – Chad Fenlon ($400)

5 – Adam Hopkins ($300)

6 – Phil Hansen ($200)


Thanks to these fine sponsors for making it all possible...Snowboy Productions, Lib Tech Skate, Die Cut Stickers, Volcom, Evo, Black Market Skateboards, 35th Ave Skate Shop, Sausage Skateboards, Dirty Bearings, Grindline Skateparks, NW Snowboards, Alive and Well and BC.  

*apologies...an early version of this post had Kimo winning the Gramps division, Metal Mark might kick my ass now...so there is that....

We got home from this road trip just in time for me to blow out my MCL.  Shooting will be a challenge for a bit, at least until I am cleared to walk without the use of crutches.  Luckily my wife is an angel and will occasionally carry my gear for me.