Those were the first words I heard when I came in to work today. So I B-lined towards "the board" and sure enough, it was time.
Time for what? Time to feel just a little ill. I've blogged about it, talked about it and have been working at it from behind the scenes.
Reporting (If that's what I dare call what I did today!). The powers that be finally gave me the go ahead and I put on the best One-Man-Band face I could and went for it.
Now I have to first admit this was not a run and gun day-of story. I was given this assignment last week and it's been in the system waiting to be produced. I have had a week's time to look it over, log it and finally today write it, voice it and edit it.
I won't lie, it was a bit overwhelming but I'm chalking it up to the rookie jitters. Which is surprisingly nice to re-experience after 21 years of straight news videography work.
So for your entertainment ( meaning: enjoy a good laugh) here's the run-down of my first "Solo-Journalist" venture.
- Drive out to the East side of the island for a couple of hours of sit down interview time with the Tabag family. First I interviewed mom. I then decided to hang out with her kids until they felt comfortable enough to start joking around and playing. Once we got to know each other these guys were so much fun. I knew it would be those images I captured that would be the story.
- After jotting down all of the interviews I had a pretty good idea of where I wanted to take the story. The little one, Breezee, was so funny, she kept us all cracking up. I decided to feature her random appearances throughout the story. I also found out they sang, told great jokes and played a mean game of Pat-a-cake!
- As I was given the go ahead today, I had it all worked out. This was gonna be simple. Easy. Piece of Cake!
- First draft duration: 2 minutes 45 seconds! All of you who are in the business of course know what that means. It means, "Are you outta you're mind?! two forty five!" ....... um, no.
- Now the hard part, wittling down all of those great moments until you capture the "essence" of the piece, better known as "cutting the fat".
- So there I was, trimming, slicing, crying (on the inside of course) until I was given the go. As in, go track your voice now you have less than an hour to edit your story... ouch.
- I dove into our amazing audio suite run by the audio master... Ron. I put my headphones on, cleared my throat, spoke a few words.... ouch. You know? It would've been nice had someone told me earlier that my voice... well, isn't very pretty... at all.
- Whatever. Time was running out and now came the edit. I cut, sliced, copy, pasted... and wa-la! finished. then I looked at the time. With all of the slicing and dicing I'd done while writing, it was still timing out at about 2 minutes 20 seconds. Not good. I was supposed to have it down to about 1:45... that's a lot more cutting.
- More chopping, minutes to go, but alas, I didn't make my slot. That means it didn't make it into the slated time in the newscast and got pushed back a little. Not fun for the producer. Sorry Nicole :(
- And that was it. It aired. My first all encompassing story from A to B. Did I enjoy it?... I had a blast.
- If you haven't watched it
here it is. (you'll notice my big ideas for this story didn't quite play out the way i intended.)
All in all I think it was good piece. And most importantly, for the Tabag family I really hope it touches someone out there and they find it in their hearts to give a helping hand to a great family in a time of need.
[caption id="attachment_422" align="alignleft" width="224" caption=""The Board""]

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