Writings

Originally written in July 2010 for a graduate class at Quinnipiac University.

IT SELLS

Content is no longer king.  The computer is.  Special effects dominate.  Special effects lure.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon raked in hundreds of millions of dollars over the fourth of July holiday weekend.  Special effects movies are worth far more than straight cut films.

Tom Hanks’ Larry Crowne took in a mere $15.6 million during the same weekend (Latimes.com).  Special effects sell.

There are many purposes behind the use of special effects.  In a 1998 article featured in The New York Times, Jason Schamus summed it up best: “There are special effects that are used to enhance the image or the story line, to fix things or underscore some emotional aspect of the film, and there is the other side, when special effects are in fact the stars of the movie” (Nytimes.com).

In Transformers 3, the star of the flick is definitely the 3-D effects.  As Garrett Estrada writes in The Rebel Yell, “Those faithful to the series will definitely find lots to like here.  For those that are not so easily lured by always sweaty Shia LeBeouf and new hottie Rosie Hunnington-Whiteley, I’d recommend the film for the fabulous action at the end” (Unlvrebelyell.com).  Special effects is the star.

I would rather have watched Larry Crowne than Transformers based upon their respective trailers and reviews.  I am not a person easily persuaded by awesome effects to pull me into the box office.  I’d rather a good story line with an amazing cast of characters.

I have seen the occasional special effects movies.  I am guilty of watching the Harry Potter flicks as well as the Twilight saga.  I have read all of the books.  Since I knew how they ended, I would not have watched any of them in the theatre or on DVD if there were not special effects to captivate my attention.  You just don’t get the same elements and emotions from reading a book as you do an animated tale – a snake jumping at the camera; wands throwing magic spells with a bang and a flash of light.  Special effects give life to a movie.  They take you away from reality and into a world where impossible doesn’t exist and your imagination goes to places unfounded.  Special effects are fun; they are entertaining.

Our senses have adapted to this computer-generated excitement that is anticipated with each hyped-up flick featuring special effects as the star.  Special effects drive people to the theaters in droves.  The only movie I can remember watching as a kid that combined special effects with human characters is Mary Poppins.  Nowadays things are different.  Today’s generation is surrounded by three-dimensional images on-screen, in video games, in music videos – animation is everywhere and a lot have come to expect it.

It is no surprise that out of the top 10 movies in the U.S. and Canada during the fourth of July weekend that 5 of these movies featured special effects or animation (Latimes.com).  Special effects have become the norm.  The attention span of kids isn’t what it used to be.  You need to dazzle in order to keep their attention.  But being surrounded by it incessantly has created an in-demand attitude for those animation fireworks.  Special effects can be overused.

ANIMATION IN NEWS

I don’t use computer-generated effects or graphics in my news stories unless it adds to the piece.  All the good editors say, the only photojournalists who use special effects are the ones that don’t know how to edit.  I would rather have my edited piece be straight cut edits, because I want to show the pictures.  When I shoot video, I shoot transitionally.  I use the video that I shot to act as a dissolve or a wipe or an effect.  There is no need for a corny, star wipe or a floating soundbite on top of another image.  I want viewers to pay as much attention to my editing as they do to the video I shoot.

But I must say, there are times when you need the effects.  Recently, I did a sweeps piece on bath salts (a drug that acts like cocaine and is currently legal in CT).  If I didn’t use special effects, the piece would not have been as strong.  Special effects stand out.

I have received more praise for the work I did that featured effects than I do on pieces that are edited just as well, but lack that extra spark.  The effects give these pieces something more.  They show viewers that this story was produced in a way that was different from our everyday news product.  Without the effects, the message and its impact could be lost or not as prominent.  More effort and time are put into these pieces and it shows.

But that’s the thing.  Adding special effects takes time – a lot of time.  On a regular day, I can edit a news story in 20 minutes.  Not because I want to, but because that is all the time I have.  Deadlines win.  Special effects lose.

So although a movie projection screen is filled with three-dimensional figures coming to life and charging a movie audience, local news stories for the most part aren’t, and the reason why – time.  There just isn’t enough.

These special assignments I have produced take up to 8 hours to edit.  You have to render, undo, re-render.  It is very time consuming.  And unless time is granted by a slew of managers and assignment editors, the workday just isn’t long enough for special effects to be included in our everyday projects even though the product would be ten times better with them.  Granted, animation isn’t always needed to get your point across, and sometimes editors do overuse them.

HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?

You can’t really explain when you have the perfect amount of special effects.  You just know.  I had to edit a special assignment story on terrorism funding being cut in Bridgeport, CT.  I started the piece off with a cop car flying by the camera.  I thought it was enough to open the story – natural sound being podded up with music in the background.  My reporter, however, wanted more.  He wanted a dazzle effect.  I thought it was too much.  I normally will go with a reporter’s request, because for the most part they give me complete control over the piece.  But in this case, I did not meet the request.  It just would have looked cheesy and fake.  Why?  I hate to sound like a parent to an over questioning child, but…because.  There is no other way to explain it.  The reporter let me get my way without putting up much fuss.  And the piece ended up being better, because it wasn’t bogged down by unnecessary effects that had no point or meaning behind them.  You have to use animations sparingly.  And knowing that comes with time and experience.

AND NOW STARRING

Enter technology, where experience is irrelevant.  Technology opened the door with the advent of inexpensive equipment and smartphones.  With mobile phones, you can shoot video and edit all in one place.  One person even created a video clip solely shot and edited on an iPhone (B-roll.net).  The quality of it is quite impressive.

But technological advancements introduced those that have no clue about animation to a magnitude of options and presented it to them at their very own finger tips.  That, however, doesn’t mean that the users know how to use animation techniques properly.  They have access, but still not the means to understand the power of special effects.

Technology has made us all producers and given us the capability and affordability to be animators, but we still need to know how to use it and when.  Most YouTube videos make us laugh.  We don’t watch them with our mouths open, drooling over how awe-inspiring the effects are in these home-produced videos.

As noted in The New York Times, “if there is one mantra in the houses that create the effects, it is this: If you can think it, we can make it” (Nytimes.com).  But let’s do just that.  Let’s leave the work up to the professionals with years and even decades worth of experience.  Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should.  And I include myself among that category.

To be quite honest, special effects will continue to dominate and grow as the star in movies, video games, television, commercials, and everything smartphone, but I will more than likely have no part in it.  I do enjoy learning about how to use programs like After Effects and Flash, but I will probably never switch my career from video to strictly animation.  I’ll use it as an additive to my video productions, and for that I am grateful to have learned the basics.  But I think that is how most users should be.  Learn the software and use it for your own purposes or to strengthen your skill set.

…THE END

Special effects are more than a commodity.  They boost a piece. They give it life – pizazz.  Special effects are necessary, but you still need to use them appropriately, even gingerly if you want their true impact to be felt.  And when you have used them in all the right spots, you have created art.  Transformers 3 may not be a masterpiece, but you cannot deny that its popularity comes from the star of flick – special effects.

WORKS CITED

Estrada, Garrett.  “Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon Movie Review.”  Unlvrebelyell.com.  The Rebel Yell, 4 July 2011.

“First iPhone Film Shot and Edited on a Phone.”  B-roll.net, 28 June 2010.

Kaufman, Amy.  “Box Office: ‘Transformers,’ a U.S. hit, soars even higher abroad [Updated].”  Latimes.com. Los Angeles Times, 4 July 2011.

McDonald, William.  “Summer Movies; Dazzled or Dazed? The Wide Impact of Special Effects.”  Nytimes.com.  The New York Times, 3 May 1998.

Originally written in July 2010 for a graduate class at Quinnipiac University.

“The Internet has made it possible for anyone with a video camera to become a filmmaker,” (Wall Street Journal).  With the advent of the web, came the advent of the successful, amateur filmmaker.  Anyone can use a camera.  Anyone can upload video to the web.  Anyone can be an online producer.

On YouTube you can find the hit “David after Dentist.”  More than 63 million people viewed this clip, which consists of one camera, one wide shot, and no editing.  According to The Huffington Post, 32.1 million Americans tuned in to see President Obama’s Oil Spill Speech.

YouTube is a success.  You want video; you got it: Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream,” speech – on YouTube; Gilbert O’Sullivan’s “Alone Again (Naturally)” – on YouTube.  Viewers can delve into the past, reminisce about growing up, recollect on where they were when JFK was assassinated.  But YouTube’s primary use is to record the present.

YouTube is a segment on The View  dealing in Hot Topics.  It keeps you up to speed with the latest water cooler conversation.  If it’s not David After Dentist then it’s Chris Crocker’s “LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE.”  I’ve seen both, so have you.  Crocker’s upload received just as many hits as President Obama’s Oil speech.  The speech I didn’t see.  Did you?

Successful YouTube videos make their way onto local television stations daily.  Local Fox affiliates around the nation produce a segment called Viral Video where they showcase the “it” YouTube video of the day.  If you visit Fox43tv, their site has a vault’s worth of archived YouTube clips.  I know of “Dancing boy in the red shirt” and “Chubby cuppy cake boy,” because the station I work for aired them on our daily newscast during the Viral Video segment.

Video produced from nontraditional formats is making its way on the airwaves.  Television stations are not only relying on YouTube for their content, but cell phone footage as well.  WTNH packaged a news story using multimedia footage: “Ambulance explodes in Hartford.”  In the piece, a man witnessed an ambulance explosion on the streets of Hartford.  He captured video of the accident on his cell phone.  The man and his dramatic footage became the story intertwined with the station’s high quality footage of the aftermath which was shot on a professional Betacam SX.  Without the man, the story isn’t as compelling.  Without his cell phone video, you don’t see the smoke or hear the explosion, you are left with just the aftermath.

“As a network-connected device, megapixel camera phones are playing significant roles in crime prevention, journalism, and business applications as well as individual uses” (Wikipedia.com).  Video from the web is on demand, its uses unknown.  As it continues to develop so does the technology.

Cost and Effect

Not only is it possible to shoot video with your cell phone, you can edit your video on it.  B-roll.net featured a video entitled, “First iPhone Film Shot and Edited on a Phone” in a recent article.  The iPhone 4′s capabilities are impressive.  The video is crisp, the lighting amazing.  The iPhone 4 shoots in HD.  It captures video that a regular sized professional camera never could.  For $199 you are capable of producing professional quality video and editing with a moderate software (Apple.com).

Producing video for distribution on the web is easy.  It’s also cheap.  On Best Buy’s website, there are seven camcorders that cost under $50 (Bestbuy.com). Look at the required equipment we need as graduate students to produce content for the web: The Flip Ultra.  For $149, “The Flip Ultra camcorder makes it easier than ever to shoot and share video…And because of Ultras pocket-sized portability, you’ll truly be able to capture video anytime, anywhere” (Theflip.com).

The downside of this portable, immediate, inexpensive world of web video?  One word, three syllables: quality.  I recently wrote a blog post on where the quality of news is headed.  Kathy Reynolds is one of the reporters I interviewed to get her take on the emergence of nontraditional media in TV news.  She has over twelve years of experience in television news.  She said, “Video is shot on cell phones and without tripods.  Pictures are not taken by trained photographers but by regular folks with point and shoot cameras.  The “art” of television news is disappearing.  The prevailing attitude again, is that viewers will tolerate the unprofessional video placed on YouTube, so they aren’t expected to balk at it when it’s on our news reports.”

To professionals in the world of video, web videos are dangerous.  Video is grainy and shaky.  Audio pops and is inaudible.  As inexperienced filmmakers pick up cameras, quality suffers and the art of photography fades like an old photograph exposed to the sun.  With practice, video can be shot better, one can learn how to pod audio up or down.  But photography is an art.  Greatness will be hard to find on the majority of vlogs.

But web videos aren’t going anywhere: NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, Hulu, YouTube – online videos are everywhere and will continue to be the trend at least for the next decade or two.

There’s an upside in all of this: success of amateur filmmakers.  In The Wall Street Journal, Sab Kanaujia provides an example, “Rocketboom– Amanda Congdon established herself online.  She leveraged her online popularity to get an offer from ABC, which she accepted.  Now, she’s using that opportunity to marry the digital and traditional worlds by anchoring in addition to doing video blogs on ABC.com.”  Coongdon is one example, there are many success stories that came from YouTube or personal websites, but there is also a lot of productions that lack quality.

NOW

The key words with web video are: anytime, anywhere.  We as a society want to share our lives with our friends, families, and anyone who will listen and view.  The other day I was sent to Vernon, CT to cover a story.  I texted my fellow photographer about the amazing view we had.  He replied, “I want to see a picture.”  I had already taken some, but in order to show him, I pulled out my cell phone, snapped a new picture, and sent it to his phone.  “As mobile phones are constantly carried, camera phones allow for capturing moments at any time.  Mobile communication also allows for immediate transmission of content” (Wikipedia.com).  The Black Eyed Peas sing it best in “Now Generation”:

“And I can’t wait

I want it immediately

And I just can’t wait

I want it immediately

Cause time can’t wait and

I sure can’t wait

I ain’t got no patience

I sure can’t wait”

 (Metrolyrics.com)

Mobile technology breeds immediacy.  With the advent of the Internet, society made its demands.  We want videos right here and now – riding the bus to work, on our road trip to Florida, outside at the park.  The phone is replacing the computer just as the computer replaced the TV.

TV stations are scrambling to become more web based.  In The Wall Street Journal, Steven Starr states, “I’m absolutely convinced online video is where the creative center of the next decade, and possibly the next quarter century, will reside.”  I would agree.  I work in the field of television news.  I see the demand for web content more than TV.  We go live at press conferences that stream only for the web, not TV.  We shoot breaking news, and have to send back still photographs for the web.  Our new procedure is to send a 45 second edited video clip for the web not via a live truck, but through email.  Local TV news is becoming more web and less TV.

Video on the web is the future.  TV stations are jumping ship.  In 2007 Starr predicted, “Web video as a nascent art form, one that promises significant and sustainable revenue as it develops, is close at hand” (Wall Street Journal).  It’s 2010, video for the web is still in its development stages, but the knocking on the door has turned into pounding.

Future

Interviewer: Where do you see yourself in ten years?

Web Video: Dominating the world.

Definition of supply and demand: “…an economic model of price determination in a market.  It concludes that in a competitive market, price will function to equalize the quantity demanded by consumers, and the quantity supplied by producers, resulting in an economic equilibrium of price and quantity,” (Wikipedia.com).  Costs for camcorders will continue to decrease as the quality increases.  More people will become producers of media online.  There will be a lesser need for television.  The computer will be replaced.  We will all carry around cell phones to access the Internet and watch TV programs and movies.  We will continue to share our experiences instantaneously with our circle of Facebook friends by going to McDonald’s, ordering a Big Mac and sending video through their free Wi-Fi service.

Videos on the web are still in their beginning stages.  Once the professionals find a way for advertisers to invest in their online product, the demand will stabilize.  Until then amateur filmmakers are on the raise praying for success.  When the wave subsides, video will have killed more than the radio star.  But the emergence of its creation will overshadow the darkness and all will be good in the world again.

Because the use of web based video is still developing, I am uncertain of my role.  But I do know my career in television news is numbered along with many other jobs.  I will adapt just as the traditional media industries are doing.  If you can’t beat them, join them.

Works Cited

“Ambulance explodes in Hartford.” Wtnh.com, July 8, 2010.

“Apple Store: iPhone 4.” Apple.com.

“Black Eyed Peas: Now Generation Lyrics.” Metrolyrics.com.

“Camera Phone: Social Impact.” Wikipedia.com.

“David after dentist.” YouTube.com, January 30, 2009.

“First iPhone Film Shot and Edited on a Phone.” B-roll.net, June 28, 2010.

“Flip Ultra.” Theflip.com.

“Is Web Video a Threat to TV?” The Wall Street Journal, August 7, 2007.

“LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE.”  YouTube.com, September 10, 2007.

“Less than $50: Camcorders.”  Bestbuy.com.

“Obama Oil Spill Speech Ratings: 32 Million Watch, Down From Previous Speeches.”  The Huffington Post, June 6, 2010.

Reynolds, Kathy. Email INTERVIEW. July 2010.

“Supply and demand.” Wikipedia.com.

“Viral Video Vault.”  Fox43tv.com.

Originally written in August 2010 for a graduate class at Quinnipiac University.

Professor Kalm’s latest critique of my work inspired me to ask myself, “What makes a photograph good?”  I begin with my initial response, “I don’t know.”  That answer does not satisfy me, my argument ensues.

I have been listening to classic songs from the 70s and 80s: Jackson Browne’s “Somebody’s Baby,” Gilbert O’Sullivan’s “Alone Again (Naturally),” and Bruce Hornsby’s “Mandolin Rain.”  I am a generation that is rediscovering these classics.  These hits live on because they are great songs.  What makes them great is the same reason a photograph is great.  They speak to me.  They inspire me.

When I take a still photograph, it is after the picture has been captured that I find greatness in it.  On my last trek into the field, out of the 100 pictures I took, 2 were great.  One of them was unintentional.  I’ll even call it an accident.  From this same outing I shared 30 photographs with my friends who thought the majority of my pictures were great.

It’s said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  Defining great photographs is in the eye of the viewer.  Not all my photographs are shot great.  I don’t find all photographs that are well known to be beautiful or worthy of attention.  Having a majority agree upon greatness does not qualify greatness.

A feeling within me is where I find beauty in photographs.  This feeling is awe-inspiring.  It forms from the belief that the picture that lay before my eyes is a shot that I am not capable of capturing or one that I never thought to capture.  That is how greatness is defined.  Each eye that glances over a photograph and gives the viewer a feeling of awe is where greatness is formed.

Not everyone likes “Mandolin Rain.”  Not everyone thinks Ansel Adams photographs are any different than the local photographer in their town.  Photographs that inspire are great.  There will be some pictures that inspire me that won’t inspire you.  Inspiration comes from life experiences and journeys that only your shoes have walked.

If I am to answer again what makes a photograph good I would say, “You just know when it is.”  It is a creation that you could never think of until seeing.  Believing is seeing.  Great photographs are taken by those who believe without seeing.

VIDEO

I shoot video differently than I do still photographs.

It’s not one frame that makes video great.  It’s a collection of clips in a piece that makes the visual story great.  In news, we call that piece a package.  Each shot in the package does not have to be beautiful or mind blowing in order for the piece to be great.  It’s the whole that matters most: the variation of angles, the switching of wide to medium to tight, the transitional shots, tracking, point of view.  Video is more than framing a shot.  It’s guesswork.

When I shoot video, I try to predict how the reporter is going to write the story.  My shots are based upon someone else’s creation.  It’s not about my concept of beauty or shooting, it’s about working with someone else and creating multiple great shots that can fit into a story written by another.

I do my best to compose shots as I would photographs, capturing them in a way that another photographer would not think to do.  But my shots are reactionary.  They have to be this way or they may not have a place in the package.  I have tried to force great shots in my stories.  Seven years in, I know better.  Editing means throwing away clips that don’t fit into the package.  That includes shots that I define as great.

Shooting video is instinctual.  It’s predicting what another sees and how she will write it.  Each shot may not be beautiful.  But when the reporter writes “a reflection of the economic times” and I have a shot of a lease sign reflected off a glass window, that is greatness.

Originally written in August 2010 for a graduate class at Quinnipiac University.

The fliers aren’t being passed out.  The posters aren’t being taped to the lamp posts.  Nope.  It’s just Old Spice spicing up their social media campaign that has everyone talking.  They have rebranded their logo, redesigned their website, and used Twitter, Facebook, Digg, and YouTube to their advantage.  According to a Fresh Egg post on July 22, 2010, the campaign is being dubbed a success.

Three months prior in an article on Logo Guru entitled, “The saga of forgotten brands and their logo designs,” Sam Anderson lists Old Spice in the top five of forgotten brands.  He says, “Old spice is one brand that is fast vanishing out of site.”  It appears the company did something about it.

Their new logo is simple, clean and as Fresh Egg notes appeals to younger consumers.  With a rebrand comes a redesign of their website.

I visited the vamped up Old Spice homepage.  Social media is everywhere.  Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube buttons appear in the menu bar.  There are also dominant “Follow On” buttons near the center of the page for Twitter and YouTube.  The words “I’M ON AN INTERNET” appear front and center.

Further showing the transition from old to new are pictures displaying the Old Look versus the New Look.  Product appearances have changed.  Old Spice as a product may not have changed, but who the company wants to sell its products to has.

What can you do on Oldspice.com?  There is a Video tab.  On this page are multiple videos that are entertaining and funny.  They make you remember Old Spice.  There is a Downloads tab for wallpaper and ringtones including the Whistle Ringtone, which is the theme music for Old Spice.  Lastly, there is a Blogtab or as the pop out menu calls it “Man Thoughts.”

Outside of Oldspice.com you can find Old Spice on Twitter.  Here they leave funny tweets that lead to YouTube videos.  As Fresh Egg claims, these YouTube videos are responses to questions that consumers, the public, and celebrities have asked.  Reply tweets are made @Alyssa_Milano and @GStephanopoulous.  Old Spice is seeking that younger audience by using Twitter and Facebook.

On Facebook, each Old Spice status update again features a YouTube clip answering questions asked by consumers.  There are hundreds of people who utilize the “Like” button on Facebook or who have left comments under each status update.  Old Spice is applying social media links from one social media site to another.

On YouTube, Old Spice has their own channel.  Again featuring these fun, witty responses to consumer questions.  There have been over 100,000,000 upload views.  On YouTube, they have buttons to follow Old Spice on Facebook and Twitter.  Again linking one social media site to another.

Old Spice’s social media campaign is a success.  I never watch TV and I am familiar with it.  It’s making headlines because of its ingenuity.  Old Spice has become an inventor for those that need to reinvent.  Many companies are bound to follow suit.  Reproduction is the mark of a successful social media campaign.

It helps to have social media pages on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube which link from one social media site to another to another.  Old Spice is everywhere.  The most important of all this news, people are talking.

Originally written in August 2010 for a graduate class at Quinnipiac University.

Photography has been in the headlines.  It’s being talked about at the water cooler.  Can police deny citizens the right to record officers with a video camera?

In a photojournalism class in college, I was taught my rights.  State laws vary.  In Massachusetts and Connecticut you have the right to record someone without their knowledge as long as you do not record audio.  If there are signs posted that prohibit videotaping on a premise then you cannot videotape on the property.  If I am on a public sidewalk I can photograph anyone.  If you are changing clothes in front of your window with the shades up, I have a right to videotape you.  I don’t need your permission.

I know what I can and cannot shoot.  I know where I can and cannot shoot.  That doesn’t mean the police know.  If they did I would be allowed to exercise my rights.

Police have prevented me from walking up to crime scene tape though the general public was allowed in the restricted area.  I shouldn’t have to question why passersby are granted access in order to be given access.  Crime scene tape is the cutoff, not the area before unless everyone is denied passage.

Police have prevented me from going onto private property that I was given permission to enter.  A body was found floating along the shore in Westbrook, CT.  A land owner adjacent to the crime scene permitted me to shoot from his property.  State police said I couldn’t go there.

I know my rights.  If an owner of a property gives me permission, I have a right to go on his property.  I called a lieutenant in the state police public relations department in Middletown who called the lead investigator on the scene to tell him I had a right to be on the property.  I was then granted access.

I can videotape police officers.  I was sent to cover a story of a woman who takes photographs and develops them on sidewalks.  I spotted the woman in a tent made of black trash bags.  The woman withdrew from her homemade darkroom and I interviewed her.  During the process, a bicycle cop stopped by and told the woman she couldn’t run a generator after 5 p.m.  He told her it was a violation.  She needed to stop.  I videotaped the officer as he addressed the woman.  I saw another angle to the story developing.  Then the officer directed his words towards me.  He told me I didn’t have his permission to videotape him.  I told him I didn’t need it.  He tried to tell me I did.  He was irritated.  I stood my ground.

I relayed to the officer that if he asked me to stop recording him, I would.  I insisted that I didn’t have to.  He asked me to stop recording.  I did, but told him only because he asked.  I know my rights.  I don’t need permission to videotape anyone in a public domain.

Originally written in August 2010 for a graduate class at Quinnipiac University.

Every time I press the button, my blood pressure rises.  Deadlines don’t stress me out.  Breaking news I can handle.  Not having control – that’s my issue.

In the world of TV, it’s all about money.  I get it.  Why pay more when you can pay less? There are reasons for variations in prices.  One word makes the difference between cheap and expensive: reliability.

I am a satellite truck operator.  I don’t need a spectrum analyzer like the expensive satellite trucks to find my assigned satellite.  Polarization, azimuth, and elevation are minor words.  All I need to know is deploy and stow.

In order to make it easier for the one-man-bands of the world, television stations began to purchase satellite live trucks that involved a push of a button.  You literally start up the generator, turn on the breakers, look up and live, and push the deploy button.

Easy, right?  Only if the satellite dish chooses to find the satellite.  Buildings –  they get in the way.  Trees – they get in the way.

Every time I am sent out in the lesser of the satellite trucks, the tension starts to build as I get close to my destination.  Just as I scope the nearby area for bathrooms to run to after live shots, I also canvas the area for an open location.  Why?  Because if the dish chooses not to find the satellite, I need to thrust the truck into drive and haul it to that designated safety zone.

Splash is her name.  Yes the satellite truck is a female.  I talk to her.  I cheer her on when I know she can make the shot.  It does help.  She has been good to me.  She does have her moments.

A couple of weeks ago, I was sent to Hartford, CT in Splash.  I was suppose to go live for our midday show.  Hartford can be a tricky shot with its tall buildings.  I was told the shot would be on Broad St.  Here I knew buildings would not be a factor in finding the satellite.  Splash could easily handle this location.

I wait until 10 a.m. to start the live truck for our midday show.  I like to give the generator a break in between shows.  I figure if I take care of her, she’ll take care of me.  On this day, I decided to start the generator a half hour early.  I had never been live here. Why chance a last minute effort?  Good thing.

I pulled my compass out and looked southwest (this is where the TV satellites of the world live).  The skies were blue.  The white cumuli were minimal.  It was the clearest shot I could ask for.

There are 4 green lights that need to light up in order for Splash to acquire the satellite.   These 4 greens make me happy.  They mean I can go live.  Once it is determined I can go live, I have no worries.  On her good days, Splash finds 3 of 4 green lights without hesitation.

Perched on top of a hill above downtown Hartford, I waited for those three greens to give me the go.  Number one – yes.  Number two – alright.  Number 3…oh no.  ”Don’t do this to me.  There are clear skies all around you.  The satellite’s…right…there.”

Sometimes moving the truck 5 feet will solve the problem.  On that 80 degree Thursday, it didn’t.  I had to call the assignment desk.  They arranged for a microwave truck to be swapped out for the satellite truck.  If we were in Norwich, we would have missed our live shot.

I don’t get stressed when I have to edit a package in 20 minutes.  I remain calm when I am told to drive to a home explosion in New Milford ASAP.  Whenever I push that deploy button, my pulse becomes rapid.  My heart beats accelerate.  I have lost control.   I must rely on technology – the inexpensive and unreliable type.