The last part of Wednesday was one of those times when nothing goes right. Everyone has a day like this occasionally. Here is how mine went down. I finished a story about the Walking Horse Celebration earlier in the day which ran in our 4:30 news cast. I was asked to drive a live van and set up a shot for a fellow vj from the horse event. No big deal because that is nothing out of the ordinary.
My first problem started in Shelbyville, about an hour drive from Nashville, when I couldn't establish a live picture. Still nothing to worry about, I just went to plan B, move the live van to the Courthouse Square where I have set up before. The only problem, we couldn't get the shot tuned in from there either. Now, it is getting pretty close to the dead line so time to switch to plan C which is not a very good option at 4:05pm. Plan C was to physically drive the story back to the station. I set off, hoping to not run into any police along the way, and decide in Murfreesboro, still thirty minutes away to set up the live truck from an exit on I-24. Fifteen minutes to spare. No problem, mast is up, got a strong signal, shot looks good. I wish I could tell you the story made air but it would not be that easy.
In the field we edit on lap top computers which I love but our live trucks are not equipped to play audio from the computer and it sounds crappy. It is now five o'clock and the story hits in less than fifteen minutes so I call Keith, an engineer, who attempts to instruct me how to connect cables to the back of the equipment rack. Not an easy task under normal situations and it's even harder in 90 degree temperatures, under a fast approaching deadline, hunched over in the back of a television truck trying to figure out which one of a hundred cables is the right connection. Even with Keith's expert help, I was not able to pull it off in time. At this point, I am drenched in sweat and mad because I have cracked my watch face and was not able to get the story in. I hate ending a day with such a big disappointment.
There is good news though. My boss has asked that all of the live vans be equipped with match-boxes so the audio will sound good. No one else should have to go through the mess I described.
The high for me came on Thursday. I did my first live shots about an alligator who escaped his captors and is loose in KY. For the complete story go to WKRN's web site and click on top stories to watch the video. I was very nervous about going live but I did not have any time to worry about it because I was trying to finish my story on time. For the first time, I think it came out pretty good. I do have a few things to work on. I am curious to hear your opinion on how I did so let me know what you think.
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10 comments:
Were you Nervous because you were "going live" or were you nervous because you were looking staight at a camera while a 4 1/2 ft gator was crawling around on the ground somewhere?
Yeah, the nerves really showed. But as you said, for the first time, it wasn't bad at all.
Very good job on the live shot. I wish you'd use that more relaxed, more conversational voice in your voice tracks. There is a difference between the two. I didn't think you sounded that nervous.
You weren't that stiff. If this really was the very first live shot you've ever done in your life you have every reason to be proud.
You had the obligatory hand-prop and got in and out of that pretty smoothly. A newspaper is kind of trite but...that's an unfair criticism at this point. You used it well and didn't dwell on it.
I'm asking this just for fun...did a reporter shoot your live shot? It doesn't look like it but I thought I'd ask anyway.
In an effort to offer areas in need of improvement...you have an accent. No offense...but you should do your best to lose it if possible.
Nice confident smile too. Don't lose that!
Good job with a story which had very limited visual possibilities.
Good job with the live shot overall. There's no short cut to getting better at doing live other than more experience.
Keep up the good work.
Let us know when they get that new picture of you posted on the station web site ;)
Tell Rosenblum to march into Sechrists office and demand you get a raise! It's time!
John, thanks for your postive feedback and tips. I am trying to sound more conversational in my tracking. And accent?! I'll have to pay more attention to that as well.
Boyd, satellite truck operator extraordinaire, set the shot and locked the tripod. I think it went well even when we ran into technical difficulties - during the 4pm live shot, we had no video to run so I had to wing it.
For your first time, it was a commendable effort. You did look uncomfortable but you looked natural. Keep being yourself.
The "visual aid" probably helped with that. If a newspaper is a commonly used prop, it was still good that you had it. You will find that if you can "show-and-tell" in your live shots it will help you remember what you want to say because you have visual cues to remind you.
Whether you did it on purpose or not, you were wise to keep the intro and tag of the live shot brief. It's not only easier on you; it's better for the pace of the newscast. Even when you begin to feel at home on "that" side of the camera, you don't want to talk any longer than necessary to toss to your package and then to toss back to your anchor.
You will want to make more of an effort to hide your IFB cable. It distracted me some. If yours doesn't have a clip, I would run it down the back of your shirt to conceal it better.
The package showed improvement from the first one of yours I saw. I might have centered more on the fact that the guys seemed to want to capture images of the alligator as much as they wanted to capture the creature itself.
As part of that, I would have explained where you got the one picture of the gator in the puddle. Work that in with the guy who took pictures on his cell phone.
The reason for that is that it subtly underlines the rarity of finding an alligator in Kentucky. An animal control officer speculating where it came from would have added another voice as well as a useful perspective to the story.
(I'm guessing it was an escaped or unwanted pet. That could be a follow up story -- how people who want exotic pets don't want to keep them when they become too much trouble to continue caring for.)
As you might know the VJ concept is all the rage on the message board at b-roll.net. We're all curious how it's going and what it will mean for the industry.
Good luck.
To all "VJS" --just wondering when WKRN will train "vjs" on grammar and writing a fair and balanced story? there are many english teachers at home cringing while listening to the slaughter of the english language on your news. being a journalist is more than working technical equipment and being able to go live. nothing personal.
Do you have any specifics or examples to back up that claim? I watch WKRN pretty regularly and am an amateur linguist and I haven't heard one thing that was grammatically incorrect. I'd be interested to hear details.
She asked a reasonable question. The VJ pieces don't go to air without being vetted by producers and management. Something may get by but that's the exception not the rule. You might think of photographers as uneducated hulks but that just isn't true and ours are like most in the business, inquisitve, educated and motivated.
This is an intelligent Blog by Todd Dunn. Let's stick to an
intelligent, respectful interaction.
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