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Sunday, November 2nd, 2008
Yellow Flag on the Camera man
It's 1AM....and I am back from a looooong day of high school football.
High School football seems to be the bread and butter of local news casts. Our station runs a program on Friday nights....called the Friday night blitz.
Basically you go out and cover as many local teams as possible. This weekend marked the first round of the playoffs. Most of the games were today so the Friday night Blitz became the Saturday night blitz....highlight of today my coworker Mike got flagged.
A Channel 20 camera man.....for real....got called for a penalty....details to come. But more about me (this is my blog).
Being the back up sports dude our main sports guy Bryan anchored tonight. I got to shoot games. I started the day at the station in Springfield.
Drove 45 minutes to a town called Maroa.
Drove 15 minutes to Decatur.
Drove 45 mins back to Springfield.
Edited highlights of my two games for 6 and 10.
Drove 45 mins back to Decatur.
Drove 45 mins back to Springfield.
Edited that game for 10.
Had flat tire...
Waited for help...
And here I sit right now.
I'm tired
The Blitz
The goal....get three good highlights and get the hell out of there to your next game. You obviously want to tell the story as well...cause it would suck to get three touchdowns from one team....and you leave....and the other team scores the next 45 points (it has happened). Most nights a photog covers two games...the show really is about quantity. Try and get as many kids on TV as possible.
What the public does not see.....is the UNBELIEVABLE CHAOS in the newsroom before the show. Sometimes people are sent as far away as small African nations and are required to somehow by an act of god make it back in time with good highlights.
From 9:50 to 10:15 the newsroom looks like a war room. People screaming and swearing at their computers. Sweat dripping off people's faces. Shouting going back and forth. Our producer usually yelling to keep everyone focused.
When the news starts....the producer will come over the intercom in the newsroom....
""AUBURN-PAWNEE....YOU HAVE THREE MINUTES....""
One minute passes...
""WHERE THE HELL IS AUBURN?!!!!!!!!"
Screaming from an edit bay....
""IT'S COMING...IT'S TRANSFERING.""
A mad dash to the studio to hand Bryan a shot sheet....5 seconds before the video airs.
It really is nutty.
The Flag
Today obviously was not a normal day. The games were scattered throughout the whole day. Made the Blitz stress free. My coworker Mike covered a game in the small town of Meridian.
I guess before Mike got there (he showed up for the second half I believe) a referee had warned a camera man from our competition WAND to not stand so close to the field...
Just as Mike pulled up....the WAND guy was leaving. Mike goes to the sidelines...steps up to the side line...begins filming...and the ref walks over and throws his yellow flag in Mike's direction.
""5 YARD PENALTY...UNSPORTSMAN LIKE CONDUCT.""
I'm sure the ref thought Mike was the WAND guy...who was refusing to listen....Mike had no idea what was going on...and the real loser...was Meridian...the team who TOOK THE PENATLY since Mike was standing on their sidelines and they did not "control him".
Is that not the most rediculous thing you've ever heard?
The fans of course errupted...more at the ref than at Mike...
But Mike was asked to shoot his video from the other side of the field by the Meridian coach.
Meridian went on to win the game...Mike somehow lived to tell about it (I was sure an angry fan was going to stab him in the parking lot)...and the coach ven apologized for asking Mike to leave realizing the call....was unusual.
So Channel 20's stats don't look good for the year...
-5 yards gained
Tomorrow is my last night as a back up sports anchor. A blog to follow I'm sure that relives my experience.
Yellow Flag on the Camera man
It's 1AM....and I am back from a looooong day of high school football. High School football seems to be the bread and butter of local news casts. Our station runs a program on Friday nights....called the Friday night blitz.
Basically you go out and cover as many local teams as possible. This weekend marked the first round of the playoffs. Most of the games were today so the Friday night Blitz became the Saturday night blitz....highlight of today my coworker Mike got flagged.
A Channel 20 camera man.....for real....got called for a penalty....details to come. But more about me (this is my blog).
Being the back up sports dude our main sports guy Bryan anchored tonight. I got to shoot games. I started the day at the station in Springfield.
Drove 45 minutes to a town called Maroa.
Drove 15 minutes to Decatur.
Drove 45 mins back to Springfield.
Edited highlights of my two games for 6 and 10.
Drove 45 mins back to Decatur.
Drove 45 mins back to Springfield.
Edited that game for 10.
Had flat tire...
Waited for help...
And here I sit right now.
I'm tired
The Blitz
The goal....get three good highlights and get the hell out of there to your next game. You obviously want to tell the story as well...cause it would suck to get three touchdowns from one team....and you leave....and the other team scores the next 45 points (it has happened). Most nights a photog covers two games...the show really is about quantity. Try and get as many kids on TV as possible.
What the public does not see.....is the UNBELIEVABLE CHAOS in the newsroom before the show. Sometimes people are sent as far away as small African nations and are required to somehow by an act of god make it back in time with good highlights.
From 9:50 to 10:15 the newsroom looks like a war room. People screaming and swearing at their computers. Sweat dripping off people's faces. Shouting going back and forth. Our producer usually yelling to keep everyone focused.
When the news starts....the producer will come over the intercom in the newsroom....
""AUBURN-PAWNEE....YOU HAVE THREE MINUTES....""
One minute passes...
""WHERE THE HELL IS AUBURN?!!!!!!!!"
Screaming from an edit bay....
""IT'S COMING...IT'S TRANSFERING.""
A mad dash to the studio to hand Bryan a shot sheet....5 seconds before the video airs.
It really is nutty.
The Flag
Today obviously was not a normal day. The games were scattered throughout the whole day. Made the Blitz stress free. My coworker Mike covered a game in the small town of Meridian.
I guess before Mike got there (he showed up for the second half I believe) a referee had warned a camera man from our competition WAND to not stand so close to the field...
Just as Mike pulled up....the WAND guy was leaving. Mike goes to the sidelines...steps up to the side line...begins filming...and the ref walks over and throws his yellow flag in Mike's direction.
""5 YARD PENALTY...UNSPORTSMAN LIKE CONDUCT.""
I'm sure the ref thought Mike was the WAND guy...who was refusing to listen....Mike had no idea what was going on...and the real loser...was Meridian...the team who TOOK THE PENATLY since Mike was standing on their sidelines and they did not "control him".
Is that not the most rediculous thing you've ever heard?
The fans of course errupted...more at the ref than at Mike...
But Mike was asked to shoot his video from the other side of the field by the Meridian coach.
Meridian went on to win the game...Mike somehow lived to tell about it (I was sure an angry fan was going to stab him in the parking lot)...and the coach ven apologized for asking Mike to leave realizing the call....was unusual.
So Channel 20's stats don't look good for the year...
-5 yards gained
Tomorrow is my last night as a back up sports anchor. A blog to follow I'm sure that relives my experience.
Thanks for the card, I really got a kick out of receiving it.
I agree...what's the toilet? Does someone wear that as a mascot? What is the name of the team? The Porcelain Plumbers?