We were lucky to catch up with Port Wilson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Port, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

I can’t say I began my career with a mission. Like many callow recent grads, I started in the television business because I thought it would be cool. I wanted to direct! In broadcast television terms, my mission was to keep moving upward, from a 90 market to a top 10.

My mission developed inside me over the years, and it was brought into specific focus by September 11th, 2001. Sometimes we need a push to realize where we need to be, and that nearly knocked me down, but more on that later.

The upshot? My mission is to tell worthwhile stories, be inclusive, share the love of production with others. I should clarify that worthwhile doesn’t mean the latest, most outrageous, visually and emotionally disturbing set of circumstances I can find. I’ll leave that to the networks and to just about everyone else on social media. Low-hanging fruit is always the easy way out.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

A footloose psych major at the University of Colorado, my focus was pretty much like anyone else’s – where’s the party? One day I literally stumbled on the television studio housed in the bowels of Folsom Field, the Buffaloes football stadium. I took a production class and was hooked. I ended up directing a 10am campus morning show that broadcast live around campus. It was so stressful, that by 11, I was in the student union drinking beer. But the energy was magnetic! After college, I made the requisite move to LA and worked as a PA for awhile.

But my introduction to broadcast happened in a 90+ market CBS affiliate in North Carolina. They asked if I could shoot commercial video and I lied and said yes. On my first shoot, I asked my partner, ‘how do you work this camera?”. I eventually moved from market to market, ending up at a top-10 NBC affiliate in Atlanta. Worked the ’96 Olympics and was present when the bomb went off in the park. Crazy time.

But I was still all about the excitement of broadcast TV. I left the station to work for a production company. While we did commercial work, we also did documentary work highlighting social needs for the Governor’s office. The tide was turning. But on a shoot in New Jersey for a golf show we were producing, the landscape changed. Speeding up the Jersey Turnpike, trying to make it to Newark for a late flight home, I could see the Twin Tower rising above the tree line. Got to Newark and my flight was cancelled. I was used to crashing in airports, so I hit the carpet and planned to catch the first flight out in the AM.

As I stood in line (the only one at whatever cheap carrier I was flying), I noticed a line of people in line at United, and casually thought, ‘wonder where they’re going?’. No surprise by this point, but it was United 93. Watched the Towers again as we took off, not knowing it was the last time.

The resulting economic fallout managed to end my company, and I set out on the journey of a freelance producer/director. It also cemented my desire to work on projects that had heart, that had the potential to make a difference. And I began teaching a college writing class. I’m not saying I didn’t accept shows of a strictly commercial nature – in fact I received a national daytime EMMY for a show I did for HGTV.

But my heart was in stories with a purpose. I began targeting non-profits and educational outlets who needed to spread the word. Not always the most profitable approach, money-wise, but rich in the knowledge that I was helping to make a difference. I still believe I am on the right path to this day.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

It’s no secret that recognition is one of the keys to success in almost any business. In television and film, it’s almost pathological. But over the years, as many of my peers, I have accrued a shelf-full of awards, from EMMYS to Tellys to awards you’ve likely never heard of.

But I think I have also built a reputation as someone who goes the extra mile – always provides his best effort and delivers above and beyond. I believe in that. In an industry when so many people are ‘mailing it in’ and not willing to give it a little extra, I pride myself on doing the opposite. Have I lost time and money by giving it away at times? That’s a price I’m more than willing to pay.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

I’m not sure this is endemic in the entertainment/news business – and I have a plethora of stories illustrating the opposite – but treating people with respect and making sure they feel valued. In the world of freelance production, everyone has a rate, and then ‘the rate they will work for’, and the beat down is real. On a project with a shoe-string budget, I would rather pay a full day rate to my team, and maybe take a little less for me. I may never own a beach house, but I’m ok with that. Respect. Who am I to argue with Aretha Franklin?

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