Can you briefly define your job?
“My main job is I acquire media. I go into the field and shoot video, or I record audio known as ENG, Electronic News Gathering.”
How did you get started in this business?
“I joined the army. I was an army broadcast journalist. I did a pitch in the army and worked for Armed Forces Network and then when I got out of the service, I started working as a freelancer and I’ve had a couple of staff jobs as well at a local television station here. I do a lot of remote special broadcasts… stuff where a network doesn’t want to hire a full-time employee like its just one job on the road. For example a football game, a basketball game, or a live shot going on the news.”
How do you tell someone over you that you couldn’t accomplish an assigned task?
“Generally, you just have to be honest about what happened. A lot of times, I’ve had this happen before, where I would get an order to go interview someone and I would show up on-site at a camp and the interviewee does not want to be interviewed. Or the interviewee has left the location or something like that, and sometimes, you know, you just have to be honest and say what happened. I’ll tell you what, with television and motion picture production in general, here’s the best thing you can know: It’s a team sport. You cannot do it by yourself, it takes a concerted team effort. There are many jobs to be filled on any set, whether it is a news set or a movie set. No one person gets it done, it’s a team sport. A lot of things can happen to cause failure.”
Do you have any advice for a media student that is just starting out?
“Pick a specialty, and learn it well. Like I said before, it’s a team sport and you need to learn to become a member of a team. Once you get on a freelance crew, then sometimes you can learn different skills, but generally you want to find one skill and be the best at it.”
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