Lauren Cohen
WLTX News 19
1. In your job, what are some challenges you have to deal with in relating to “production” people?
1. The main challenges I have dealing with production is just making sure we're all on the same page...Let’s say I’m cutting a bite from Spurrier’s post game conference. I need to tell production how long the sot is and what the outcue is. If the outcue is mentioned earlier in the bite I need to make sure that I tell them wait for the second time he says whatever the outcue is. Also if we need a graphic and we're pulling it from something file video...I want to make sure they use the best image so I'll pretty much look back at the archives and find the shot that best works for the situation...It's easier for me to look for that stuff because I shot it and I know where it is. Communication is the most important trait needed for dealing with production because a lot of times, if you’re scrambling just before a show you may forget to check in with the director and/or the audio op but you have to remember because if you don’t you can easily have a major disaster on your hands. So, check-in with the director if there is a late addition to the script or if there’s a quick out or if the audio is hot or low, etc…
2. Can you tell me a war story, or a story of when something went badly wrong, or seemed like it was going to fall apart, but then ended up working out [or didn’t work out].
2. You could tell a different war story every day...almost always something will go wrong and you have to improvise mostly on the fly.
For example, I’ll go with last Saturday following the SC-Clemson game. We get back to the station and laid the highlights down on the timeline, however the sequence wouldn’t transfer! I gave it multiple video id’s hoping that would clear up the issue. We get into the show and the reel still hasn’t been sent and I had cussed the stupid system out at least a dozen times…finally I decided that the timeline itself was the issue, so I dubbed the video in the timeline to a tape, then re-ingested it into the system and created a new timeline and video id and thankfully that resolved the issue. I sent it about 30 seconds before we went into sports and you know what? Nobody at home would have known that. If the viewers don’t know a problem is happening or has happened then your okay. It’s only bad when they know something is going on. Another time was back on September 12th in Athens, GA. The game started at 7:45 and was moving very slowly and we (Bob Shields and I) knew that getting anything on was going to be dicey at best. We did our usual post-game interviews on the field and then Bob hustled to the sat truck, which was parked on top of the bridge on the opposite end of the stadium. We didn’t know if anything would get on but we were hoping we could feed the material because we had great sound and video following the game, as well as, some of the video I shot during the game, which included Eric Norwood’s touchdown. Thankfully we were able to get all that stuff on because Serena Williams went bonkers during her match at the US Open. I chose this as an example because you see the importance of always hustling and doing your job to the all of the way through, despite the low odds that everything will work out. I could give you 7-10 more examples but I figure two will suffice. The bottom line is this: Always stay calm and do your job, unless it’s absolutely necessary to cut bait.
3. Do you have any advice for a person starting out in the
business, someone who is about to graduate?
3. The biggest advice I can give you is: don’t take anything personal. Things will go wrong, it’s not a matter of if but when. People are going to get pissed off at you sooner than later, so just understand it’s all heat of the moment. If you screw up (which will happen early and often) learn from it and try to reduce the likelihood of the problem arising it the future. Also, always be willing to work hard. There’s nothing that pisses me off more than lazy people. The work is hard and stressful enough and it’s even worse when you have to put somebody else on your back because you have to do your job, as well as, theirs. Another bit of advice (I know this doesn’t get talked about much but I think it’s important) is don’t worry about being liked. If you do your job and you do it well people will like you; if you’re lazy and you make errors constantly and don’t try to learn from them, people will not like you. I would rather work with the biggest asshole on the planet, who works hard and gets the job done, rather than work with the nicest guy on the planet, who is lazy and has no idea what’s going on and doesn’t seem to care. The bottom line is: just do your job and everything else will take care of itself. Worry about being respected first because if you work hard, learn on the fly, and have a strong work ethic, people will love you, respect you, and most importantly they’ll love to work with you.
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