What a Week...So Far

Thursday reminded me about why I love this job! My Green Report was about 400 kids who hung out at Forsythe Park to learn about water conservation. The kids and story was so much fun! I love having kids in my stories. They go crazy when a camera is around and get so excited about being on tv. Plus I got lots hugs from them. The kids were awesome! Not to mention the weather was amazing. Overall Thursday was a good day, but first I had to get through Wednesday…

I’m not sure how I feel about digital recording. At this point I’d be happy with old school betas!! We are in transition from shooting on tapes to shooting on video cards. Which means we’re are still working out all of the kinks. Well, a big kink happened on Wednesday.

Insert “moment of silence” here:

We lost a valuable member of our news team this week. My photographer Fletch really loved his camera and took such good care of it. He was able to quickly and correctly shoot with his trusty P2. He shot two stories Wednesday. He shot a sweeps piece in Ruston earlier that morning, but he also shot my Green Report too.

My story Wednesday was about the oil spill; however my angle on the story was the Louisiana pelican. I went to the zoo to meet with the zoo director. I’ve shot several stories with him, and he is always a great interview as well as very welcoming to our crews. He took us on a boat ride to get footage of their pelicans and gave his best interview yet! I was feeling good about this story on the way back to the station. Then we got back to the station…

Fletch’s camera won’t turn on (and it will never do so again)! The camera is the only P2 we had which means we have to hook his camera to the computer. That’s because the card solo isn’t compatible with any of our computers. This means everything is G-O-N-E. I hate not finishing a story, it is not something you like telling your producer.

This digital switch isn’t all bad, it’s has its good points. It makes logging so much easier! Logging is when you have to sit and write down a time code and word-for-word what was said in your interviews. I hate this part more than anything!