Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Fan of the System

Since I began blogging about the transition of becoming a Video Journalist I have given several reasons why I like our system at News 2. I have another reason to add to the list.

Yesterday, I had two events going on that I wanted to cover so I spent the first part of my day shooting the stories. Since the station already had plenty of stories to chose from I was not under pressure to get a story on the air. Instead of hustling back to the office I took my time and visited some contacts of mine. I dropped in just to say hello but I left with a list of three potential stories which I would not have found had I been in a big hurry to get back to the office.

For me, that is just another reason why I think News 2 will be successful with Video Journalists.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

And isn't that exactly what a beat reporter does every day? I don't get ehy this is such a revelation.

Anonymous said...

The President came to town! I'll bet it wasn't a VJ solo covering him! Did the VJ(s) get close enough with their little cameras to get anything or did WKRN have to resort to "traditional" crews to get the job done when it counts?

Anonymous said...

Don't be a jackass Steve - not even being in the tv business I know one person would not cover the President being in town.

Anonymous said...

That's why you're not in the tv business. You don't know squat.

I'll leave the details for Todd to share with you.

Enjoy the crow!

Anonymous said...

Come on Steve, you know a tv station wouldn't send one vj to cover the president. That's not what the vj concept is all about: only using one-man bands.

There's obvioiusly some stories that need two crews. There's obviously some stories that don't.

I'm with Todd. I've been part of a two-man crew for 18 years and took the job at WKRN because I like the idea behind vjs. I didn't know how I would like it after a few weeks, but it's all good. I have freedom to spend time on a story that doesn't air the same day it's shot. I also have the freedom to shoot stories I want to do when they happen, not just between the hours of 9-3.

I shot a story tonight, not when I was scheduled to work. Because I'm a vj, the station didn't have to schedule a photographer to work with me.

Not a bad gig at all.

Todd Dunn said...

The beat system is designed to do excatly as I described but during the twelve years I've been in tv this is the first time I've been able to work it this way. In the past, I would have to hurry back and to meet my daily deadline.

President Bush's visit was covered by several of us. My role was to help shoot cutaway shots of crowd during speech. I also was available to help out with set up and tearing down. Not my normal day but I helped out were I was needed.

Todd Dunn said...
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