Soldier’s Wish in Tulsa provides help for veterans and active duty military service men and women. This video profiles Tom Beck a veteran of the Marine Corps where he served as a machine gunner and was deployed four times. Beck lost his teeth at a young age and has faced a number of challenges to have them replaced. Soldier’s Wish is providing him free dental surgery to get his teeth fixed.

When I start a new project I’m always thinking of different ways to tell the story. Sometimes we have a lot of time to plan and map things out but sometimes we’re not so fortunate and have to shoot the story and then determine the best way to tell it. This is where my 25 years in TV news comes in handy. As a TV journalist I didn’t have the luxury of planning a story a lot of the time, we gathered the information and then just put it all together.

This video is an example of that. It was a quick turnaround that didn’t afford the luxury of a lot of preplanning. I knew the basics of Tom’s story but I didn’t know the fine details or what kind of pictures or video we’d get for the project. Plus, he lives outside of Pittsburgh, PA so that added an additional layer to navigate. It was only after I flew out to meet Tom and his family that I was able to get a full understanding of what his life has been like without teeth.

Let me just add that Tom, Ashley, and their two children are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. I thoroughly enjoyed my short time with them.

I interviewed Tom and Ashley and then shot video of them outside with their son and daughter. (Fun fact, it was raining when we shot the video outside but thankfully it wasn’t raining very hard.) We talked about him sending me pictures of his time in the Marines but I didn’t know what the pictures would show. When I saw the pictures, Tom’s lack of a smile jumped out at me. That’s when I knew how I was going to tell the story…start with the pictures, explain how life has been for him without teeth, and finish with him looking forward to a new life with teeth. It was also important for me to show Tom’s sense of humor. For someone who was dealt a bad hand he has such a positive attitude and was constantly laughing and joking about his situation. So there was no doubt we had to include that in the video.

I’m very proud of how this turned out. I think it tells Tom’s story in a clear, concise, and entertaining way. Thank you to the Beck family for letting me spend an afternoon with them.