We recently connected with Andrew Riley and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Andrew, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
I began my journey in multimedia at the age of seven recording family vacations on my parent’s tape camcorder and was so excited to share the stories of the various people I met. Little did I know at that time I had found my passion: sharing people’s stories. I didn’t seek out people who were notable, but the stories of the people who I happened to meet. That newfound joy carried me into adolescence and into adulthood. The bedrock principle of a multimedia producer is to tell stories of normal people: their experiences, their struggles, what they enjoy, and what they dislike. Thus, my purpose was realized. The stories that make up the life experience are sacred and has spiritual components, as life itself is spiritual. The storyteller has a responsibility to faithfully tell those stories so that others may experience, with their own eyes and ears via audio/visual multimedia, the lives of others.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
My endeavor Doghouse Networks is the grand product of my journey in video production, spanning over a decade of experience, from places I had never imaged I’d venture to tell stories and share experiences with the public. My journeys includes the world of PBS, where environmental and human interest television programs I produced earned six Southeast Emmy awards over five years in a variety of categories, onward to live music entertainment producing live audio/visual recordings of in-venue performances and working closely with bands on tour and music video production, with a dash of investigative journalism during the pandemic era producing federal whistleblower stories. While the media in my professional career is extremely varied and diverse, the core principle of telling the stories that need to be told resonates throughout.
The mission of Doghouse Networks is to provide the public with multimedia stories from diverse walks of life with the goal of helping achieve understanding and compassion among different people. Our world will survive the tribulations of today if the public has an opportunity to understand perspectives and life stories vastly different from their own, as well as those told by predominant mainstream media with an ever more restrictive worldview tailor-made for individual frustration and outrage. Doghouse Networks aims to bridge the gaps left behind in the wake of such destructive forces, to achieve compassion, and to unite diverse people in the celebration of life itself.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1) Trust
A motto I use is “love is trust.” Trust does not start or end with individuals, but is expanded to include trust in yourself and also trust in the divine plan that unites all living things. To have trust in yourself means to love and nourish your mind, body, and spirit. These are the vehicles of expression. If the storyteller is not of sound spirit, the media product cannot be of integrity.
2) Luck is Not Chance
The famous Paramount producer Robert Evans once said, “luck is when opportunity meets preparation.” Those who get “lucky” are not bound by the fate of chance, but were able to rise to the occasion when life prompted them to do so. Months or even years can go by without the so-called “success” most hope to achieve, but success in and of itself is folly as a term. There is no success and there is no failure. There is no “getting lucky.” Storytellers are bound by the fate of life’s course and the Universe chooses individuals to be in positions where they are truly the only person with the ability to tell a particular story. Use the downtime to prepare for that fateful day when you are called upon by the divine to tell another’s story. You are the custodian of consciousness and it is your duty, if you choose the responsibility, to be the messenger for another’s soul and spirit.
3) Take Chances (have no fear)
Bravery is an understated quality in today’s world, as people are oftentimes rewarded for safety and security. I say, throw it all to the wayside! The best stories are found in the great unknown. Meet people you disagree with and understand their perspective. Make the difficult story understood. Throw out the list of questions and have curiosity for the world. Produce a music video in a place you’ve never been before. Forget the shot lists. Depart your mental safety net. Free your mind of preconception and reinvent the way the camera can be used to convey a thought or emotion. I often say “the greatest teacher is necessity.” Use the gift of your own mind’s ability to discover and create what you didn’t think was possible, which takes an insurmountable amount of courage. The unknown is scary, yes, but a visual storyteller revels in the act of discovery, not just about the topic at hand, but also about themselves. The camera and editing program are extensions of the storyteller’s consciousness, thus the story is not first told by the camera or the edit, but by the way the storyteller’s mind can view and rationalize the world in its entirety, and the place of every living being in it.
Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?
The stress associated with my past work yielded an extremely unhealthy and dangerous lifestyle of drug and alcohol abuse in an effort to escape and forget difficult life experiences, including my time working with federal whistleblowers. I am excited to continue my sobriety and encourage all people to take a step back and allow their mind and bodies to exist without the influence. Life is difficult to understand and cope with on a deep level. The story of human existence is how people confront the challenges of their lives and that of society to create a better future for all and for me, that starts with a sound mind, body, and spirit. I cannot be entrusted to be the custodian of other’s experiences otherwise.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.doghousenetworks.tv
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecatinthedoghouse/
Image Credits
Headshot: Steph Heath Cousino, @smilingeyesmedia_
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