RIP Chris Burden, the creator of Urban Light, Shoot and – my favorite – Metropolis II (2012).
I produced this first-person in a day without a light or an editor, as you can tell. I habitually overshoot. But this was one of the few times I remember wishing I had more tape, especially reaction shots. Every time I visit LACMA to see this art in action, I watch people’s faces and reshoot the package in my head.
I pitched, shot and edited this Valentine’s day package on deadline a few years ago.
Don’t remember why I did this as a “First Person,” because it would’ve been easier to explain the global economics and agricultural threat with a track. In retrospect, I’d tweak the audio a bit, and edit a little tighter with more shots of buds, blooms and bouquets. But it’s still a great angle on the flower frenzy at this time of year.
To prove that love doesn’t need words, just in time for Valentine’s Day… Three-year-old Angelica and her parents won my heart and got good play on stations across the country and USA Today’s website.
Don’t you love it when the news shifts right under your feet? That’s what happened when the ports followed through on their lockout threats this weekend. I had already moved on to my second shoot of the day, but had to re-do my first package. Oh well, at least we have a ton of great port archive now. Mad credit to my colleagues in Seattle and in San Francisco for the paper warehouse and union spokesman.
In other news, I love shooting video of babies. Even when they’re snotty and sick, even when they scream, even when they might have measles. I set these shoots up that the morning, turned the package in the afternoon.
I had the pleasure of working with our SF-based environmental reporter Ellen Knickmeyer on this investigation of dumping into protected aquifers in the Central Valley.
Packaging such a technical, document-based investigative piece for video was a challenge. But it’s not the first time I’ve made a farmer cry on tape (scroll to 7:40).
The package got great play. My old friend Rudabeh Shahbazi re-tracked it for KABC, and it led their 6pm newscast.
It played in Fresno, San Diego and on The Weather Channel. But the real victory was seeing it on KTVU-Ch. 2 in Oakland, because way back when, I was an intern there. Can’t find the video yet, still trying to track down a link…
Also, this was one of those enterprise packages that had to get done while I also covered Suge Knight’s arraignment, the measles outbreak and the usual glut of breaking news. Because around here, the grind doesn’t stop just because you’re working on a big investigation.
Soon after Suge Knight was involved in a fatal hit-and-run, I found myself hanging on a corner in Compton.
I did double duty for both wire and video and earned the byline. This despite the fact that my hip-hop generation membership card expired soon after the release of Missy Elliot’s second album.
Way back when I walked uphill both ways to my first reporter job at a local public radio station… I liked to experiment with narrator-less first-person style packages. This was one of my first efforts: Office/Gallery, a profile of an artist/insurance salesman who curated art exhibits in his office on the down low.
Studio 360 re-ran it three times. Then I posted it on PRX, a sort of online distribution site for public radio style audio content. I believe PRX’s original plan was to pay producers for their material when the content aired. But now they’re advertising “free” content.
Fast-forward a few years. Watch podcasts bloom and flourish, public radio programs be born and die. Until yesterday, when my ancient story ran again, more than a decade later, on New Hampshire Public Radio’s Word of Mouth.
There’s nothing like an evergreen package that can run over and over again — a producer’s dream! But I probably got paid no more than $500 for that story. Too bad there’s no residuals for underpaid public radio reporters!
I shot this over the course of three days, in between real news assignments. So of course, when I drove up to get up close and personal with the sign and do a standup, the whole city was socked in by fog. But I’m pleased with the stand-up anyway.
Wildlife Camera Trapping 12/23/14 (original enterprise)
Homeless Kids 11/17/14 (day turn)
Camarillo Slide 12/12/14 (raw video, breaking news)