The Concordian interviews Pamela Pagano about filming Kind Time season two
Kind Time, a YouTube channel founded and hosted by third-year Concordia Journalism Student Pamela Pagano, features inspirational Montreal community stories. The initiative started bringing positive stories to light at the beginning of the pandemic, and the channel even managed to catch John Krasinski’s attention.
Pagano spoke to The Concordian’s News Editor Hadassah Alencar about Kind Time, John Krasinski, and how she managed to film her shows’ entire second season in one day.
Hadassah Alencar: How did you come up with Kind Time?
Pamela Pagano: My entire life, my parents and I have always preached be kind to others, and they’ll be kind to you, so when I discovered that I wanted to go into journalism I ended up figuring out that I love reporting, but I [felt] like there weren’t enough good news stories. I’m a very positive peppy person, and I wanted stories like [Kind Time] to be showcased in the news. Just like how there’s entertainment news, business news, there are so many different niches in journalism, and I was like, why can’t there be good news too?
In the beginning of the year, Kind Time came about in a conversation exactly like this with my mother and I, and we decided to just follow through with it, and then the pandemic happened.
So I started planning that, and started finding people in Montreal who are doing good for our community, and then after the pandemic happened I decided to continue with the initiative through Zoom — thank god for technology — and that was the first season, and now season two was just filmed on Saturday!
HA: So you filmed all in one day?
PP: Yes I did — season two was filmed all in one day. But season one was throughout the week because there was quarantine, and that was easier to manage because I would have the week to edit, and I’d have time to post it.
But [in] season two since we had an actual crew and it was in person and it was done at my home, being very very very COVID careful, we followed all the precautions to [a] T. We can’t do that every week [with a filming crew] at my home, so we decided to do a whole day of filming with the camera crew and volunteers, and yeah, that’s how season two is going to be!
HA: How did you plan that — are the interviews going to be done through Zoom like the first season?
PP: For season one, it’s exactly like you said it: I would research them and reach out to them and see if they were comfortable to talk about their stories, and when they would be, I would set up the Zoom call and we would talk and do our interview. For season two I also did research, and I found all local people who are sharing kindness in our community and they came in person.
You really appreciate television once you do everything yourself! It was a wonderful team, but it was a lot of work; from booking, to marketing, to sponsors, to food, to safety precautions, it was a very crazy experience, and I would do it again and again and again.
Once things started to be safer, where we could meet wearing masks and social distancing, [at a] maximum of ten people — which has now changed — the camera crew said, Pamela if you feel comfortable and your guests feel comfortable, we can do this in a very safe way next month. And so I was like alright, let’s do this!
HA: I learned that you were the international correspondent for John Krasinski’s Some Good News! How did that work, how did you get that?
PP: Oh my, that’s another story! So I had posted my first season of Kind Time [on] March 16, and then all of sudden, a few weeks later my friend sent me a DM on Instagram and she’s like, Pamela, check this out: it’s as if John Krasinski is following you! And I was like, what do you mean? He wasn’t following me. I looked [on his social media] and he had started this beautiful YouTube series called Some Good News with John Krasinski, and I was so proud to see a celebrity using his platform for good.
And then after the series was over, he was like, “by the way, we’re looking for global correspondents!” And I was like, this ties in so well with what I want to do in my life, I would love to be a global correspondent for Some Good News! So I made a video, and they saw it, and they contacted me and they were like Pamela, could you please make more videos like this and we’ll post it on Some Good News. And so I continued to do that along with Kind Time.
HA: How do you manage this — you’re a third year student, how do you manage Kind Time and university?
PP: Passion. It is truly passion. I believe that we all have [a] purpose in life and when you do, it’s such a magical thing, so I believe that I have found my purpose. My purpose is to share kindness. I feel like I have so many smiles to share with the world, and I want everyone to have a place where they can feel safe to share their stories. My passion is journalism, and my purpose is to share kindness — so I put those two things together, and this is where Kind Time came about.
The quote that I always say at the end of my videos was created by my mom, and it’s “remember to think happy and be kind.” So I just hope that everyone can remember to think happy and be kind. It’s a difficult time, but we’re all in this together.
Photograph courtesy of Pamela Pagano, Video by Lola Cardona.
