An Interview With Edward Sylvan
Myriad Originals. The goal is to help every person at Myriad feed their souls through creative work within their own personal passions. We are paid well by our marketing clients, so we feel the best use of those resources is to pour ourselves into our communities. It has made a huge difference to each of us and has led to so many inspirations and creative developments.
As a part of our series about “Filmmakers Making A Social Impact” I had the pleasure of interviewing Tony Cope, co-founder and director at Myriad.
With more than 30 years of production experience, Tony Cope is a founding partner of Myriad, a Raleigh, NC-based video agency. Myriad makes videos make a difference. Adding an emphasis on technology and social impact, Myriad sees creativity as a force for good and video as the language it speaks in. When not filming, Tony volunteers with Moms Demand Action, Equality NC, NAACP and other advocacy organizations.
Thank you so much for doing this interview with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to get to know you a bit. Can you share your “backstory” that brought you to this career?
I started all this with a passion for photography. Originally, I followed my mother’s path & started in computer science, made it three years at App State and discovered I truly hated computers. I took time off from college, the typical finding-myself adventure, and started exploring photography with an old SLR a friend gave me. I found myself taking summer photography and radio classes at App State and was back full-time within a year. I met my wife in a color photography class. When I took a few film and documentary classes, I learned I had a preference for the documentary storytelling approach to media. After seven years, I finally graduated with a BS degree in Broadcast Communications from App State in 1990. I then started freelance work in Raleigh that fall, some as a gaffer but mostly as a camera op.
I grew up pretty damn poor in the mountains in NC. I was born absurdly liberal… being raised by two crazy hippies, dad was a gay theater professor, mom was a seamstress and computer programmer. My twin sister is probably one of the top bassoonists in the country. My family has always expressed ourselves thru some form of art, and I guess that’s why I felt so much more comfortable with media production.
I’ve been married to Susan for almost 30 years, and we have 2 daughters in college. We have a wonderful old dog named Annie. Myriad is almost 29 years old. Side note, we now have several employees younger than the company. That makes me feel old.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that occurred to you in the course of your filmmaking career?
Working on a promo for App State in 2000, just after I finished film school training, we had our aerial cinematographer unable to be there for a shoot, so my first film shoot was also my first helicopter shoot. I fell in love with both of those things. An extremely stressful day though.
While filming a documentary on sustainable farming, I developed a friendship with the farmer in Honduras who was hosting us, Don Cheyo. He spoke no English, and I think my ‘Spanish’ was even less helpful. He was very proud of his rabbits (very crucial is sustainable farming) and was showing me this via charades. He was fascinated by my Leatherman (multi-tool) which he conveyed was why America did so well… we had good tools. Of course, I gave him the Leatherman. It’s probably served far better uses on his farm than on set. He reminded me so much of my grandfather, who was also a farmer.
Who are some of the most interesting people you have interacted with? What was that like? Do you have any stories?
My favorite people aren’t the famous ones. I prefer the people doing amazing work every day. People like Beth, who is a truly inspiring human and the basis for a documentary we are in the process of making on climate change/being a part of nature/Indigenous culture. Her efforts to rebuild her tribe (Nottaway), work with Sierra Club, her Indigenous Seedkeeper Alliances, her connection to everything she interacts with is mesmerizing & inspiring.
Also, over the past 6 years being involved heavily with gun violence prevention, I have become very good friends with Reverend Sharon Risher, who lost her mother and 2 aunts in the Charleston church shooting many years ago. I’ve also become friends with Shannon Watts, the truly powerful founder of Moms Demand Action.
Which people in history inspire you the most? Why?
I’ve been working on an original project for 4 years, using augmented reality to bring the ghosts of slaves to life at historical monuments across North Carolina. Harriet Jacobs, Thomas Day, and so many others are such powerful figures of inspiration during overwhelming oppression. We have such a lack of exposure to our history, especially that of enslaved people. It has been such a painful and powerful learning experience for me.
Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview, how are you using your success to bring goodness to the world? Can you share with us the meaningful or exciting social impact causes you are working on right now?
I have 3 main focuses in my social activism: gun violence prevention, LGBTQIA equity & environmental / climate change.
As a survivor of 2 active shooter events with my family, gun violence prevention is top of that list. I have been volunteering with the largest grassroots gun violence prevention group in the country, Moms Demand Action which is part of the Everytown Network. In January 2021, I stepped into the role of Chapter Lead (state lead for North Carolina). We have 52 active leaders and over 10k volunteers. A few months ago, a friend stepped up to co-lead with me. I am also part of the Everytown Survivor Network. Myriad is currently producing a short story-based video aimed at preventing gun suicides in the military. Over 20 veterans die everyday via gun suicide. I was invited by the mayor of Raleigh to speak at the City Council retreat recently to discuss our coalition for citywide gun violence prevention. At this retreat, I presented to the president of our local NAACP and our new Raleigh Police Chief as well.
Additionally, I have been heavily involved in volunteering with Equality NC and The LGBT Center of Raleigh. My father is gay, my daughter is non-binary and so many of the most crucial people in my life are in this community. We have done many videos to assist both groups, as well as the ACLU, especially during our fight against HB2.
When I moved to Raleigh and started freelancing, I also worked with Greenpeace as a canvasser. I totally sucked at that but I have maintained a connection and volunteer engagement with the organization. I’ve been happily obsessed with reducing my footprint on this earth, including driving an electric car that charges off of my home’s rooftop solar. This was my midlife crisis purchase. We are now engaged in a long-form climate change documentary at Myriad. We also produced a documentary of sustainable farming in Honduras 10 years ago. I volunteer with Greenpeace within their social media hive. We also donate video services to Carolina Tiger Rescue, which may be my favorite place on earth.
Many of us have ideas, dreams, and passions, but never manifest them. But you did. Was there an “Aha Moment” that made you decide that you were actually going to step up and take action for this cause? What was that final trigger?
It really took hold when we took our employees to go see ‘Inconvenient Truth’ in the theaters in 2001. The singular message that grabbed us was: “Do Something.” The documentary ‘Planting Hope’, focused on sustainable farming in Honduras was the first project that came from that. Over time we realized that these passions were integral to who Myriad was, and will always be. From that, we created Myriad Originals. The goal is to help every person at Myriad feed their souls through creative work within their own personal passions. We are paid well by our marketing clients, so we feel the best use of those resources is to pour ourselves into our communities. It has made a huge difference to each of us and has led to so many inspirations and creative developments.
Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
For me, there are so many. A friend of mine who is a gun violence survivor but never had been introduced to the concept of being a survivor or part of a group of survivors. It has been a painful and long, but also very healing process for both of us. She is now active in our survivor network and has found her own voice.
My friend who is a transgender man, came out to us all during our fight against HB2. I think having a strong & active support family has been crucial to him, but the main benefactor from this was me. The learning and growth has been profound.
Are there three things that individuals, society or the government can do to support you in this effort?
Everyone can do something good. None of these problems can be or should be solved by one person or one action. All of these issues are very complex, and deeply ingrained in our culture, so each of us have a place to add benefits. With the environment, each tiny step an individual takes adds to a very strong change. Gun violence prevention has a lot to do with society and government, however I am very enthralled with cultural intervention: breaking the cycles of violence that lead to gun deaths & injuries. The best work we can do is to engage with our communities years ahead of the violence to help lead people out of troubled lives and into healthy and positive outcomes. This works for inner city crime, domestic violence, suicide & unintentional shootings.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
Find a way to love what you do for a living. This isn’t the same as doing what you love for a living. That’s not really possible for so many people. Search for what you like in your job and learn to look forward to those things. We all have part of our jobs that totally suck, but if that’s all we ever consider or focus on, that makes for very tough lives.
Work hard, but keep it to no more than 40 hours a week. You will learn to hate anything if you don’t maintain a good balance in your life. I am privileged to do what I love to do for a living. Wouldn’t it totally suck to come to hate that all? I know this is a very privileged statement, and so many people must work far more hours to make ends meet. I do get that, but this is more for people who do what they love to do and don’t know when to stop. This learned lesson has become an obsession at Myriad. I don’t like anyone working long weeks. They do of course happen occasionally, but it should never become routine.
If you are lucky enough to hire people, expect, respect and love that they will be better than you. Will, my business partner, had a wonderful way of putting this for each of our roles at Myriad: we need to continually hire & put ourselves out of a job. I love shooting video, and I think I’m pretty good at it, but so many of the people we have hired are downright geniuses at it. Or editing, or music or design, or fonts, etc. OK, let’s be honest, my ears suck and I totally suck at fonts.
If you want people to understand where you are, you have to let them know some of where you have been. This has as much to do with my social activism as work. I started from a place of obsessively focused on a cause and was continually disappointed that others did not see my perspectives. How could they? You don’t become obsessed with something without an awful lot of input from the world. People who have not traveled the same journey have not experienced that input, so how could they be where I was? Also, when you tell someone your personal journey, your cause becomes a personal experience. Obviously, not everyone will agree with you regardless, but a personal story is far more motivating and engaging, and it gives a person permission to take that journey without the requirement of agreeing with you. I learned this many times over when engaging with NRA/gun rights advocates.
Build people up, always. Just do it, dammit.
If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
Do Something. Every major change has started small. Do a thing. Once you do one thing, you’ll find the next few things are ready for you. Find others who do things. It’ll become a wonderful and healthy community.
We are very blessed that many other Social Impact Heroes read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, whom you would like to collaborate with, and why? He or she might see this. 🙂
Cory Booker. I video-taped for a client while he was mayor of Newark. A truly sincere and honest person. Every time I run across him within a news story or social media, I am reminded that some people just totally rock.
Shannon Watts. She started Moms Demand Action 8 years ago, and that gave my family a safe place to land after each active shooter incident we survived.. I have met countless incredible people thru this group. Everything I do in this effort pales in comparison to what my family has gained thru them. Also, #MomsGetShitDone
Gerald Givens Jr, President of Raleigh NAACP. Dude has his invisible hero cape on daily..
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Before you decide to tell people about your frustrating day, make sure they are in a good place to hear that.” — Dad
Don’t forget, we’re all living difficult lives. Don’t unload your problems on someone who needs a hug.
How can our readers follow you online?
Twitter @tony_myriad, Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-cope-29751810/. You can check out Myriad and our work at — https://myriad.video/
This was great, thank you so much for sharing your story and doing this with us. We wish you continued success!
Filmmakers Making A Social Impact: Why & How Tony Cope of Myriad Is Helping To Change Our World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.