Travel opportunities for producers

[Slave to the Grind]

Morning all,

I'm relatively new to the business (whole 3 months out of college), and I was wondering if there is a job in the industry that allows producers to travel.

I started my first job 2 months ago in a middle sized station, producing the morning show. It's great experience and I'm learning with an anchor who's been at the station for eighteen years. I'm not going anywhere for a while, but I'm trying to do some research.

For network news, I would assume that they use field producers for remote shots? Sports obviously travels around, but I'm not sure who exactly is a part of that crew.

I hope to be involved with some of the upcoming sports this fall. We do a program called football friday, where we send all of the photogs out to various high school games. We also do college sports in Georgia and Carolina. I would be tagging along and probably helping to film.

I'm a youngster with no girl, family far away, and no agenda to follow. If I have an opportunity I would like to do something where I can move around a bit.

With my current job, is there a way to eventually move into something like this?

thanks,
Kevin

[The Mockingbird]

God, you're me ten years ago except for the crap about caring about sports.

You'll be doing quite a lot of moving around, as you hop from job to job trying to find one that pays enough to create a comfortable lifestyle.

Good luck with that.

[MichaelPS]

The job you're looking for is as a field producer.
But be warned, travel is a double edged sword. You get to "be" in a lot of places. You don't get to "see" much while you're there.

After a few years, you'll have a pretty long list of cities you've touched down in, and you won't know much about any of them. You will know the airports and hotels very well, as well as a few locations, but the life of a field producer leaves precious few opportunities for enjoying the ride. Yes, it will sound very exciting to outsiders, because you'll be peppering your conversations with phrases like, "No, I'll be in New York next week," or "let me call you when I get back from Miami."

However, read between the lines of that last paragraph. Your life will be put on hold while you're traveling from location to location, and not doing much sight seeing on the way. You do not have ties right now to friends or family... and you won't be establishing any, either. Be very aware that when you do eventually decide that those things matter and it might be time to step off the merry go round, you will be somewhat older, and there won't be as any people left to welcome you back in to the real world of freidn and family obligations. It's hard to make new friends and family later in life with people who alrady made those connections to other people while you weren't there.

That sounds bitter, so don't get the wrong idea. I'm not saying not to do it, but be warned - this is not a business where one gets to indulge a love of travel. It's a business where travel is an annoying by product of the job..

[ August 09, 2007, 08:57 AM: Message edited by: MichaelPS ]

[trunky]

but i've heard that field producers are a dying breed, that it used to be the job everyone wanted but now bosses don't spend money on them anymore and freelancers pretty much handle all the opportunities. Any truth to that?

[TVMattNYC]

Originally posted by trunky:
but i've heard that field producers are a dying breed, that it used to be the job everyone wanted but now bosses don't spend money on them anymore and freelancers pretty much handle all the opportunities. Any truth to that?Yes.

At my network we've been cutting back considerably on travel for field producers. In fact, it's becoming more common for the producer of a segment to do as much "coordinating" from New York as possible, send the correspondent to the location, and hire a freelance shooter-producer to do everything else. The elements are then uplinked back to NYC, and the "field" producer back in NYC puts it all together with an editor before the correspondent even gets back to the airport.

The network then cuts a check for $350 or so for the freelancer, having saved at least a couple thousand for the plane ticket, hotel room, meals, and transportation for the field producer.

Of course, when there's a longer, continuing story like the mine disaster, New York will send a producer. But be warned, from the moment you step out of the broadcast headquarters building en route to the airport, you are *on the clock* every SECOND until your return plane touches down in NYC. There is no time for anything outside of your job ... including sleep. Not only are you responsible for your daily package for the evening news (or whatever show you work on), you're now also responsible for servicing the network's other shows, as well. That means setting up for live shots for the morning show at 5AM ... working the story all day long ... putting your package together for the evening news ... and working all evening and into the night to "freshen" your story for a whole NEW package for the overnight show and early morning news.

Oh yes, and thanks to the Internet, the "dot-com" people at your respective network will also want a piece of you and your story, as well as "compelling video".

And of course, if there's a problem with your story, or a new development, you are responsible for it. You can expect to be fielding calls literally around the clock from your network's National Desk, as well as producers from all the other shows. Leave your cell phone by your pillow while you nap (you're not really "sleeping" the whole time you're on location).

Do this for 15 years, have a nervous breakdown (or a heart attack, whichever comes first), and then just TRY to transition your career into another industry. If you're lucky it'll be YOUR choice to eventually walk away. What's more likely, though, is that despite the award-winning packages you produce over the years ... the Emmys, the Peabodys, even the Murrow awards ... one day without notice the network will simply not renew your contract. And now you're out.

Over the past 15 or 20 years you've been doing nothing but working your a$$ off. Weekends. Holidays. Around the clock. You see your parents and siblings once or twice a year. You see your current wife and kids maybe once or twice a week. I say current since your previous marriages failed because your wife says you were neglecting her (which of course you were, because you've either been on the road or working 18 hour days even when you WERE "home").

This industry chews you up and spits you out, and you'll be lucky to emerge with your life. Think I'm exaggerating? I've buried SIX colleagues over the past two years. No one was over 50.

[MichaelPS]

Well described. I had not felt the need to go into the demise of the field producer in my own post, and this is a far more descriptive account than I could provide from my end.

Bottom line, you can't dissuade a kid from wanting "the life." They all think they'll be the first ones to make it work, or that it won't really be that bad, or whatever.

[Produce man]

LOL, well, I guess Matt answered your question, :eek:

[Another side]

Matt, A question: If everything you say is true, and I have no reason to doubt it ... do the Nets pay a field producer enough to RETIRE after 15-18 years?

I only ask because as a young man, I might've chosen that life, even aware of your job description.

I'm way past that now, of course, but I'm just curious.

[TVMattNYC]

Originally posted by Another side:
Matt, A question: If everything you say is true, and I have no reason to doubt it ... do the Nets pay a field producer enough to RETIRE after 15-18 years?

I only ask because as a young man, I might've chosen that life, even aware of your job description.

I'm way past that now, of course, but I'm just curious.That depends on what kind of "retirement" you'd like.

Most of the "field producers" I know are barely making ends meet. Most are only in the $70-120K range ... non-union of course ... and in this new corporate culture, no "pension" either. And let's face it, 401(k)s are a joke -- expecting to live off of them during your "retirement" is like expecting to make a meal out of cake frosting.

Most field producers use the position only as a stepping sone on their way to show producing. It's not a lifestyle that most survive for very long.

[trunky]

man...you guys've crushed my hopes and dreams all to hell.

[Oh Snap]

Wow. Worst helpful thread ever. Every post made me want to curl up in a corner and cry.

[TVMattNYC]

Trust me.

I wish someone had told me this stuff 19 years ago.

I could have been working on Wall Street all this time.

[Purplehaze]

Would you rather people not tell the truth?

Same goes for network and affiliate service correspondents. Sure, they live on expense accounts and travel a lot, but it comes at a steep cost.

I know someone who worked for an affiliate service for three years. We met a few friends out for dinner in the city where she was based. More than a month later, I ran into her at a conference. She said to me, "Remember that time we went to dinner? That was the last time I was home." She's now back in local news.

Last week, two network correspondents were on a panel discussion that I attended. Someone asked about their social lives. One replied, "Well, I have a cat and a cleaning lady." The other described how he always has two suitcases packed. He's often sent to the airport with no idea where he's going on assignment. So he has to call his wife to FedEx either suitcase, the one for warm weather or the one for cold weather.

[Tripe Face]

Like virtually every OTHER part of journalism these days, it's stupid to specialize in one kind of job. Bosses want people who are multi-talented and can multi-task. As Matt said, they want to cut costs. So if you can field produce AND shoot... you are more likely to go on the story than the guy who can just field produce.

Many of our field producers carry small DV cams and act as a second camera getting cutaways, 2 shots or extra b-roll while the videographer is doing live shots or editing, what have you. They also need to know the satellite phones, how to link into the internet to feed raw video then finished pieces, all while being there for that latest piece of news that you will HAVE to phone in to the network ASAP.

And yes, the internet folks WILL want content from you; pics, video, copy... ALL OF IT.

Producers who travel overseas have even more stuff on their plate on top of that: Making security arrangements, dealing with passport and visa issues, finding local phone communication that works, currency exchange (I know one guy who was sent to Moscow from NYC with a case full of enough cash to buy a Mercedes Benz... all so they could keep their operation running during a big story).

And it ain't always safe, another guy I work with was a field producer with a broadcast network after the Marine barracks were blown up in Beirut in the early 80s. He tells me stories of shooting the last of the Marines as they left Lebanon. One of the Marines said "you coming with us?" He said, "no, going back to the hotel for a beer." Before he finishes the story he's decribing that sound a bullet makes as it passes about a foot over your head.

The field producers I work with DO travel a lot (I'm at a 24 hours news network, so it's different than Matt's experience at the Broadcast network). I'm not even considered a field producer and I travel frequently, (but not as often as I did two years ago, so Matt's got a point in that respect).

If you are sent to a place like Virginia Tech or the Utah mine, you can expect to work your ass off. However, in our shop, if the next big story doesn't break for a week, you might find yourself with a lot of down time in the office.

Good field producers can probably slip into most jobs in a big newsroom; desk, package producer, show producer... because skills like thinking on your feet, multi-tasking, crative problem solving, getting facts about a story quickly are valued in all newsroom jobs.

[The Mockingbird]

This isn't about skills, or multitasking.

It's about an industry that increasingly DOES NOT CARE about product quality.

It's very simple: every year, thousands of bright, young, and naive college graduates flood into the news market. Generally, there are ten times as many graduates as job openings.

Because of this, there has been a creeping trend in the acceptability of the "paying your dues to the industry" mentality. That's where you start out at the station that pays like crap, in return for eventually making it to a better station.

Here's the catch: the better stations? There's less and less of them every year. The upside is that a fresh-faced college student can find jobs in bigger and bigger markets.

The downside is that's as far as it gets. A mediocre job paying sub-par wages. So you either go into debt, get another job, or have your parents pay for you to afford your "Tevee job".

The payoff, the leverage coming from experience and skill can still happen, it just becomes increasingly more rare.

And with certain asshats promoting ideas such as "citizen journalists", it's going to become more likely you find a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow then find a high-paying job in the news industry.

The result of this is the ongoing brain-drain from the industry itself. Which puts more and more clueless gasbags on the air. Which makes viewers trust "the product" less.

And on... and on... ad infinitium, ad nauseum, ads all over the newsroom.

[Signature on File]

I work with a few that I'd like to send on a "one-way" trip!! graemlins/eusa_doh.gif

[TVMattNYC]

Thank you, Mockingbird.

You said it perfectly.

[trunky]

For what it's worth when I say my hopes and dreams are crushed, it's partially true but largely in jest.

I'm but 8 months into my illustrious career in this noble business, and I honestly understand that these commentaries are naught but reality voiced by experience.

People like myself are lucky to come across these sage reflections before we're too disillusioned.

The only positive thing I ever see career wise is that people don't have such negative things to say about tv news careers focused on the web.

Maybe in this field of tv journalism, this the only tunnel left with a light at the end of it.

[News Is Broken]

Mockingbird is right. I've honestly never seen an industry so hell-bent on it's own destruction as local television is. But there is a bright side: You could always be a consultant and make truckloads of money by hastening the demise of local news. There's plenty of travel, and unlike being a field producer, you don't have to actually know anything about the news biz to make a fortune. All you have to know how to do is spout meaningless numbers and back that up with "research shows this is what viewers want, regardless of what they actually say".

It's a great gig, you'll love it.

[workin for the man]

This thread has it all ... Best of Medialine anyone??

[carpetsnake]

Here's what I would suggest. Try some smaller markets that specialize in big events that you could take part in, but are also good places to work.
For example, I loved working in Louisville for the Kentucky Derby. It's also a very good news market.
Augusta, Georgia is a much smaller market, but the stations do a great job of covering the Masters.
Some of those events do include "travel" (like field producing at Churchill Downs or Augusta National).
I say forget the networks and hook on to a good local station.

[ZuZu's Petals]

I got out of the news biz for a job like kkinkhead is describing.

But I needed my news experience to get it.

The companies that produce most of those shows on cable networks want people who can field produce part of the time... and write at home most of the time. The work is contractual if you're not good enough, you're weeded out in between contracts.

I spent a year freelance field producing for one show. I was the lowest annual income I've had since I was in my 20s. Typically I'd travel for a week, be home for anywhere from one day to a week. Sometimes there were three weeks between gigs.

I looked for additional freelance work, but most prod cos want their own people.

Hope that helps.

[ August 14, 2007, 09:41 AM: Message edited by: ZuZu's Petals ]

[The Mockingbird]

You can live off of your 401k, assuming you put enough into it.

I've contributed more to mine in the last year than I had in a decade of working in journalism, though.

[TVMattNYC]

Live off your 401k?

How?

Most people can't come anywhere NEAR to contributing enough that will provide a comfortable living post-retirement.

Someone making $100,000/year, to be able to retire at HALF that salary, would need to have a $1,000,000 in his IRA to generate that kind of interest income.

The average IRA balance in the U.S. at retirement is only $42,000!