Meet the Author

Running a blog is a lot of work.

There's the sometimes-grueling task of generating ideas and managing the editorial calendar. There's the constant workload juggling that needs to occur to find time to write. And then there's the actual writing itself -- sometimes effortless, sometimes an absolute battle.

But I think, in an honest moment, we'd all admit that working on the Nebo blog is one of our favorite tasks. It's one of the few times we get to sit down and put our own thoughts to paper (or pixels) with little thought to ROI, CTAs, or SEO. We pride ourselves on our blog being a place to explore interesting, authentic topics and to generate discussion among our whip-smart industry peers.

Here are the posts that resonated most deeply this year, with us and you.

Thanks for reading.

For the longest time, I had no idea what the Director of a movie actually does.

Think about it. He doesn’t come up with the story (that’s the Screenwriter). He doesn’t operate the camera (that’s the Director of Photography or one of his crew). He doesn’t go into the raw footage and edit himself (that’s the Editor). He doesn’t hold the boom mic (that’s the guy that holds the boom mic). Sure, in some cases, the Director is the screenwriter, or the DP, or the editor, but typically, he delegates the majority of these tasks. 

So what DOES he do? And why does he get all the credit when the film wins awards? Why does he take the fall when it flops?

The answer, it turns out, is because he or she is actually the most important person on set.

We talk about “quality content” like it’s a destination.

Like all it takes to be a great content marketer is consistently clearing some imaginary hurdle, or reaching the top of a hill somewhere where you can exclaim to the world, “We’ve done our research! We’ve brainstormed topics! We’ve written “quality content”! Now give us all the audience!”

But what happens when you get to the top of that hill and, instead of a megaphone, you find every single one of your competitors clamoring for elbow room?

What happens when pretty much everyone in the world is writing “quality content”?

It was bound to happen eventually.

Earlier this summer, something called the Ice Bucket Challenge took social media by storm. For weeks now, videos have been popping up of our friends and favorite celebrities dousing themselves in ice water. Most of us have, at one point or another, been tagged on Facebook by friends urging us to do the same. 

It was all part of a viral campaign to raise awareness and funds for ALS research. And it worked. ALS has raised nearly $80 million in funds since the trend took off. 

But we all know that we can’t have nice things on the Internet! So it was only a matter of time before the criticism set in. 

Sometimes, writers will send us two-column A/V scripts as writing samples. If you’ve never seen one of these… they are hideous. They’re impossibly clunky and, honestly, they’re a chore to read.

Somehow, your eyes are forced to scan vertically and horizontally at the same time while skipping over thick, black lines that separate sound effects from visual cues. And, somehow, you’re supposed to digest the story during all of this and become emotionally engaged.

No doubt, an A/V script is an important tool for production. But it’s not a good medium for telling a story.