The B-Roll

Here ' s Sunday ' s Log; In Case You ' re Bored.

1:56 pm - leave station to follow up on yesterday's story; it's in Waianae. 2:41 pm - arrive at location 1; look for people to interview; no luck. 2:49 pm - shoot footage of location 1. 3:06 pm - arrive in general area of location 2; find someone to pin-point exact spot where incident took place. 3:18 pm - shoot footage of location 2 where incident took place. 3:32 pm - phone conference with newsroom for possible contacts to interview. 3:40 pm - call first contact on list;set up interview; interview decides to come to me at location 2; wait. 3:49 pm - interview arrives; shoot interview; 4:01 pm - remain at location 2; insert video card from camera into laptop to upload video for 5pm show. 4:06 pm - log interview soundbytes on iPhone while laptop works to make network connection; email soundbyte text via iPhone to newsroom. 4:15 pm - edit video footage of locations 1 & 2 along with 1 selected interview soundbyte; laptop makes network connection. 4:29 pm - upload edited video to newsroom; 76 seconds of video will take roughly 12 minutes to upload; meanwhile, email more text about story to newsroom. 4:41 pm - upload successful; continue logging soundbytes. 4:48 pm - make 2nd contact call; no contact; make 3rd contact call; no dice either. 4:55 pm - open station website to watch live stream of newscast; looking to confirm if uploaded video was indeed used. 4:57 pm - website won't stream, advises to download new software; network signal still strong; I download new software. 4:59 pm - software installs without a hitch; booyah. 5:00 pm - watch 5pm broadcast streamed live on website; my soundbyte and footage airs; nice. 5:04 pm - newsroom phone conference; this story will now air as a fully packaged story at 10pm; must also shoot footage at a location 3 for unrelated story. 5:07 pm - self-record stand up to insert into 10pm story. 5:27 pm - drive back to location 1 again; make pit-stop at location 3 (unrelated footage); no visible signs of unrelated story subject matter; forego shooting location 3. 5:36 pm - arrive at location 1 once more; look for possible interviews again; no luck. 5:45 pm - newsroom phone conference; contact first interview again to check on status of other interview contact; nothing; newsroom phone conference. 5:51 pm - head back to station. 5:53 pm - spot group of people possible associated to story subject matter; pull over and approach; no luck; get back on road. 6:36 pm - arrive back in Honolulu; pull over and grab fast food dinner. 6:48 pm - pull into news station; ingest video into network server system. 6:54 pm - eat dinner. 7:24pm - find all previous story information already in house; read up. 7:37 pm - begin writing story. 8:47 pm - asked by producer how story is coming along; I tell him just fine; I lie; rework story. 9:03 pm - print story. 9:04 pm - track voiceover for story; terrible; re-track voiceover for story. 9:14 pm - begin editing soundbytes, voice and raw video together; (average editing time should usually have a 1:1 ratio - 1 minute for every 1 second of story); in script form this story timed out at 91 seconds; I don't have 91 minutes. I have 40 minutes... to edit this story for the top of the 10pm newscast; so much for the average ratio; [note* this is commonplace in most any newsroom.] 9:57 pm - last minute squeeze edit; hit the send button and upload to server. 9:58 pm - play back finished story to write down soundbyte times for the producer; notice unacceptable edit in my story!; curse. 9:59 pm - like a madman; re-edit bad edit; re-hit the send button; re-upload; 10:00 pm - producer not happy with last minute redo; it would've looked really bad; story uploads at last possible minute. 10:03 pm - story airs; shift is over.

So I hear it ' s your big debut...?

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""][/caption]

Born Again.

Birth pangs: Difficulty or turmoil associated with a development or transition. What a week! You wouldn't believe the hoops that were jumped through to get us on air. It really is unbelievable what has just happened. We became a brand new face in the local news market, overnight! It took months of hard work with tons of talented people involved to make the move happen. Last Sunday I walked out of our old station ( a building with so many memories attached to it, it was heartbreaking), and showed up Monday morning to a whole new place, job and show. Of course there were bugs as was to be expected and it had our newsroom teetering on the edge of insanity. At one climatic moment last week we were cutting and recording stuff that would usually be done hours before, with 8 minutes to go before the show! Folks were running and screaming through the newsroom like madmen. Stressful? Yeah, just a little bit. Fun? Depends on who you ask but I thrive on that stuff. Yeah it was fun save for a few brand new gray hairs. Overall I gotta say once the kinks are out, we have a lot of promise in our new venture here. We've taken a lot of what we are respected for in this town and thrown in a lot of great new ideas. If we are given the chance to spread our wings the only way we know how to, we're gonna come out of this bigger and better than ever! So stick with us, we're just getting started.

There And Back, In 30 Hours

On September 29th, Tuesday before last. A tsunami hits the islands of Samoa. Within 24 hours Hawaiian Airlines schedules a relief jump from Oahu to American Samoa. With the help of local companies they carry over 40,000 lbs of donated water, food and bedding supplies to help with the disaster relief. President and CEO Mark Dunkerley invites the Media aboard the special flight. In the photo Dunkerley is briefing the media as to the plans and logistics upon arrival to Pago Pago International Airport. No matter how prepared the staff, crew and veteran journalists were, we still knew nothing of what to expect once we arrived. The devastation was heartbreaking. Homes had been completely wiped off of their foundations. As a photographer, you find yourself struggling to find shots most of the time. In this case the issue was not the lack of subject matter but  the overwhelming amount of damage and tragic stories to shoot. All too much and yet you can't help but want to tell everyone's story. In the end we had to pick and choose and hope our story would encompass what it is we saw and experienced. As we went along we had run into an issue. We couldn't feed any of our video. The station back in Hawaii was desperately looking for video from us but because we had so many other things going on and had to pack at the last minute, we were screwed. In the end we used my flip camera to shoot seperate video clips that we could FTP back. I also began snapping off as many photos on my iPhone as I could, which I would email back anytime I found myself within WiFi reach. All of this while shooting my flip Cam video and still composing my Panasonic news camera shots which would eventually be used for our stories back in Hawaii. Shooting for 3 seperate mediums can be taxing on your brain. We were in American Samoa for a total of 30 hours. In that time we covered as much ground as we could. We met up with so many residents who had experienced loss of family and homes. When we left we couldn't help but think that places like this are seldom thought of or seen by most. Beautiful places with beautiful people with generous hearts. Places where you think you might have visited had you looked into it prior. But here we were, journalists, again showing up when times are at their worst. And finding over and over, anywhere they send us, people's resiliency and faith keeps them going no matter the challenges. A special heart-felt thanks goes out to so many people. Mark Dunkerley and his Hawaiian Air staff are an amazing group of people. The volunteers here and on American Samoa were all amazing. And to the folks that took us in while there, thank you all very much. Hopefully we did justice to the events and aftermath with our stories.

My day, simply.

The day started out in a hurry as I rushed out to do court duty. Court duty means you will either be sitting in the hallways of your local courthouse waiting for lawyers, witnesses, etc. Or you will actually be inside videotaping whatever newsworthy case happens to be ongoing. Today I did neither. Today there weren't any folks to interview in the hallways or lobbies and it wasn't my turn to do the shooting (the courtroom cameraman's gig is rotated between television stations). Which means I got to sit inside and watch a couple of witnesses take the stand on a local murder trial. However, that did make me responsible jotting down the soundbyte highlights. I was then off to a Hazardous Material call at the Honolulu Police station. I never did find out what that was all about as I had to quickly run off to cover a house fire. The flames had been extinguished by the time I arrived (unfortunately the homeowner has over $300k in damages!) so I got the clean up,  interviews with fire officials and neighbors and some pics from some onlookers who had caught the billowing smoke on their cell phones. Almost pau I raced back to the station, ingested all of my video, and as we were crunching for time I also helped to log write and edit all of the above.  Kailua House Fire

Free Books!

Okay here it goes. For the first time in my legendary cute blogging history, I am going to use this medium, this venue of mine, this potentially massive-audience-culler (28 hits on my last post alone, Bam!) to shamelessly plug an interest of mine. Books, Books, Books. Where would we be without books? Where would fascination and wonder be archived without books. In movies and shows? Ha! Even that library of "visually recorded" stories pales in size compared to the volumes of written work available to us world round. Which means millions and millions of ideas, tales and facts about anything and everything is right there for us, begging to be read. you and I and all of the growing children around us can simply open a book and be taken away. You simply open a book and the greatest possible journey begins. Books about adventures in far away places. Or about the history of simple folk like you and me. Figures who have taken the world to task and physically changed the make up of right and wrong fueled simply by the basic human necessity to make a thing right. Fiction or non-fiction, it's all there in print to be read, for anyone with the freedom to do so and enjoy. Yet.... yes sadly... there it is. The big YET. We see the big YET everytime a writer first charms you with a promising and uplifting hook (see above) then swiftly cuts the rug from under ya! baiting you for the big reveal: Most "after-school programs serving low-income populations have no age-appropriate books for the children they serve". -First Book. An organization called First Book found this out years ago and has taken the task of trying to fulfill a much needed resource for children throughout communities across the nation. It is a simple online contest which you go to, write about the first book that got you hooked, then you cast a vote for your State. If your State wins the contest they will donate 50,000 books to the kids of that State! 50,000 books! Please help out with this if you can, pass this link on to everyone and anyone. Let's win this one for Hawaii:           http://booksforkids.firstbook.org/whatbook/about.php

Heroes

If there's one thing I love about this job is getting to run into the heroes that save the day. First and foremost, of course are the firefighters, police, military etc. It goes without saying that these folks are an amazing bunch and nothing they do on a daily basis is ever diminished for it's heroism in my eyes.  However, every now and then you get the folks who don't do this on a daily basis and yet still take a risk to do a part in their community. In my business I have the good fortune to meet a lot of these people.  Sometimes we get to profile them. Other times, for whatever reason, we don't always get the chance to tell their story on air. So here's a quickpost about this guy. (photo removed) Just after 2am early this morning the I Love Country Cafe caught fire. Officials are saying it started in the restaurant's kitchen. As the flames began to become visible through the roof, an Ala Moana security guard quickly jumped into action. He managed to pull one of the emergecy fire hoses from the Ala Moana parking lot out towards the quickly growing fire next door. The photo shows him several minutes before the Fire department arrived already dousing the flames which at one point I witnessd myself were reaching up about 10 feet over the structure's wall. Once fire arrived he continued to pour water onto the structure until fire had it all under control. My hat's off to yet another brave person going above and beyond duty to maintain what could have been even more devastating for several businesses nearby. Update: In respecting his wishes I have removed the photo of the security guard at his request. But you know who you are my friend, :) great job out there!

The OMB.

OMG! it's the OMB! What's the OMB you ask? You mean you don't know?! Well, the OMB's been coming our way for a long time, and guess what? It's finally here. Dear reader,       If only you knew what dread the OMB has cast upon so many of my peers in the television business. You'd think the OMB was directly tied to the Swine Flu, sitting here waiting for it's imminant arrival but hoping it never actually affected anyone of us in particular.      But alas, that "hope and a prayer" approach has proven fruitless. The OMB is here and will only grow. Of course, it won't affect me one bit. Yup that's right, immunity baby! Why? Because I think the OMB should've been a part of local TV news since the start. You see this job begs for the OMB. Chasing stories, with light portable gear, Do It Yourselfer's that can get in and get out and put a good story on the air.       Okay! Okay, I know what you're thinking.  Are you sure Oscar? Do you really want to embrace this, this thing that so many have feared for so long. Perhaps they're right? Maybe they know exactly what OMB means and you just haven't thought it out well enough? What if in the end OMB completely wipes out the industry as you know it? I mean look, OMB sounds like, "the promise of a better future" but realize, with every promise of "a new era" comes new unseen obstacles. Do the negatives outweigh the positives? Perhaps. Maybe it isn't a good thing to go 100% OMB. I do think the folks in the biz who are masters of there craft already probably shouldn't be expected to be OMB. But I've said it before this job is catered for OMBing.      But most importantly (as it's been pointed  to me while confronted out in the streets for doing OMB work), squeezing two jobs into one and promoting loss of jobs?           Well let's review: The economy took the big flush, businesses and homeowners lost their shorts, and desperation set in. Those who are surviving are doing so by taking creative (drastic?) but necessary measures. Our company in particular is joining forces with another local television station in the same town. The drop: big time lay-offs.       Guess what? No matter how you spin it, The OMB had nothing to do with it. People are losing their jobs regardless. The very thing that the OMB naysayers predicted would happen if  TV stations went the way of OMBs.      Why don't I blame the OMB? It's just like when tape took over film, memory cards took over tape and non-linear computer editing took over manual-tape editing. All of these changes and countless others had all of us, in turn, lamenting the end of an era(s). Yet through simple climatization periods we all adjusted and rather easily I might add (even the old timers). OMB is just another "change" in my book. With a little time, routine and dust-settling, we'll look back and laugh at when OMB was a bad word (acronym). Then we'll light our cigars and speed off to breaking news, by ourselves, in our OMB mobiles.       In the end, Wall Street not the OMB, did us in. Soon I'll know whether I'll have a job or not, at which point I'll either be an OMB or I'll just be S.O.L.                                                  The original OMB

I ' m Gonna Need A New Hat.

As a U.S. Marine you are taught to be the very symbol of the Corps itself. Pride in your Corps and country above all else. It was this very mantra that was drilled into us from day one, "always back your team 110 %". Never fail them, in the slightest, no matter the toughest of circumstances. As a reminder that times will inevitably get tough I'm reminded of an old Marine Corps recruiting poster that stated, "We don't promise you a rose garden." Today, times got tough. At 9:00 am this morning we were informed that we would, as a whole, be layed off in one fell swoop. We will now be subject to individual interviews wherein then we will be notified if we get to be a part of the new station or whether we'll be let go. You can't help but to instinctively want to take every precautionary measure to protect yoursef against being left out in the cold. Today's news gave me a chance to consider my career as a photojournalist. Beginning in 1987 I proudly wore the USMC emblem for 6 years as a Combat Cameraman. My first TV gig was right here where it all began for me back in 1993 at KGMB. I began moving up the news market ladder to Fresno at a CBS affiliate, KJEO. (They too went through an ownership change and are now called KGPE). In 1997 I became a part of the Fisher communications family in Seattle at KOMO. I had accomplished my personal goals in this business and was excited to come back full circle to Hawaii where I began. I worked at KHON upon first returning here then finally made my way back home to KGMB 9 once more. I was amazed at the energy level and enthusiasm that ran through this news station upon my return. Even while subject to a slow economy, a quickly deteriorating building and fierce competition from the other guys, the folks at this station gave me new inspiration again. KGMB 9, as I saw it, would become Hawaii's number one station again. I'm proud to say it reached that goal while I was here, and feel lucky enough to have witnessed it. Were all dismayed when we learned that we would have to hang up our channel 9 hats for now, put away our local brand name we all love cherish and, if lucky, begin again as a brand new entity in this market. We don't know how exactly this will all play out but I do know this. If I stay, no matter the changes,  I'll learn to embrace our new mission and keep going no matter what. They never promised us a rose garden.

Of course, I am gonna need a new hat.

Skype: Coming Soon!

If you've read our latest TECH post  you may have been redirected here. 

Yes, Lisa Kubota and I recently partook in a historic moment not only for local television news but industry wide as well.

Skype was the buzzword of the day and through trial by fire we (all 4 local stations) made it work..... by any means necessary.

I am uploading all of my shots at this moment and will have the full details very soon.. so standby! 

 VS.

[caption id="attachment_329" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="It fits in your pocket!"][/caption]