The slippery slope steepens (BPJ)

[Omega Man]

WKYC has a job listing for a "Sports Backpack Journalist".

Do you get a compass and a granola bar when you head to the stadium?

[ May 25, 2007, 12:55 PM: Message edited by: Omega Man ]

[Sir Dropham Pants]

The next step in the progression: a Schwinn and a tent. Y'know, in case you don't get back from your assignment. Can't have the station paying for gas and hotels.

[John M.]

Paging No Talent Hack.

Eager to get to Cleveland. Loves to shoot his own work. Sounds like a match to me.

[Fake Post]

Hey Sports,

Here's your chance to break into sports journalism!

http://eas.muohio.edu/hive/Images/backpack.jpg

[SpxGrunt]

And just down the road:

High School VJ! (http://www.wlwt.com/news/13322101/detail.html)
Yeah, I know it says its for the internet, but tell me none of this will end up on the air on Friday nights.

[Roy Hobbs]

In Iraq BPJ's duck RPG's!

http://www.komar.org/faq/images/alek-rpg.jpg

[Another side]

Originally posted by SpxGrunt:
And just down the road:

High School VJ! (http://www.wlwt.com/news/13322101/detail.html)
Yeah, I know it says its for the internet, but tell me none of this will end up on the air on Friday nights.Wow. The more I think about this ... there may be no more perfect fit for VJs (maybe free-lance VJs?) than covering prep sports.

I've long thought sports coverage on local newscasts is a loser, but the argument has been "Not if you concentrate on local."

OK ... if a station were to ramp it up, put a dozen or so VJs out to different games to strenthen the coverage of the two or three 2-man crews sent out by a typical station ... THERE'S the argument for an hour-long prep sports highlight show, that might even sell to advertisers.

[cameragod]

A sports show tried it over here. One real crew and 6 handycam heroes out in the crowd getting “close up and personal.” Their brief was to get color in the crowd or more specifically “Blood and boobs” it was a quality show, the problem is that when something did happen they were never physically near to it and the sad excuse for a lens on the handycams meant that of the 11 hours of tape they came back with less than 2min made it to air, not mention the bad unusable audio… the rest of the 30min slot came from me. So the production ditched the handycams after two shows and saved money by just hiring one crew that knew what they were doing.

[Another side]

Oh. Well ... it was just a thought.

[Consider This]

Originally posted by cameragod:
A sports show tried it over here. Different situation. From your description, your show dealt with one game. The example here is for a show which is gathering highlights from many different games.

A station I worked for did this years ago. Probably still does, for all I know and I'm sure it's not the only one. We recruited people who were already shooting the games for their schools to share the video with us.

Was it professional grade? No. But all we needed were a couple of plays and even incompetent shooters get lucky a few times a game.

Back then people had to drive to the station to deliver video to use. If not possible already, contributors will soon be able to edit highlights on site and e-mail them to stations.

[SpxGrunt]

Was it professional grade? No. But all we needed were a couple of plays and even incompetent shooters get lucky a few times a game.Jesus, no wonder there's no value to TV sports in some markets. Would any ND even consider this for the regular newscast? I doubt it.

[Rosenblum]

Originally posted by cameragod:
A sports show tried it over here. One real crew and 6 handycam heroes out in the crowd getting “close up and personal.” Their brief was to get color in the crowd or more specifically “Blood and boobs” it was a quality show, the problem is that when something did happen they were never physically near to it and the sad excuse for a lens on the handycams meant that of the 11 hours of tape they came back with less than 2min made it to air, not mention the bad unusable audio… the rest of the 30min slot came from me. So the production ditched the handycams after two shows and saved money by just hiring one crew that knew what they were doing.They just need a little training on what to shoot and how to do it.

[cameragod]

Couldn’t agree more. They need training. Who will pay for it? When will it happen? How many games can the show write off to training? The reality is I get out there, am introduced to the handycam posse and off they go.

Having a few handycamers around actually increases my workload. They make bad decisions, can’t operate the cameras properly, get in my way and roll on EVERYTHING they see. I don’t have time to be training them on how to work the camera and what to shoot it’s not what I’m there for. I end up having to make time to explain why we can’t have some them shooting on some bizarre indi film effect, direct some of them to get stuff we might need and then I have to cover it anyway because I just can’t trust them to get it.

Honestly Michael you have no idea what a f***ing nightmare it is to have a bunch of untrained kids with handycams trooping around with you… actually its probably normal for you.

So why not train them? Well for a start none of them actually care about camera work they are all planning on being the next Peter Jackson not a cameramonkey so using the camera is just a step on their way to film greatness, why bother learning how to use it?
Next nobody will pay them to learn. So again why bother?
Also if they do actually learn how to shoot they will want more money than the tight assed production will pay for a handy cam operator so they don’t get the job.

[Rosenblum]

I appreciate the sentiment. There is nothing like slogging through 30 bad tapes to find 4 worthwhile shots. A complete waste of time. And money. That's where the whole notion of training came from. I know. My sympathies. There is no benefit in handing out cameras to everyone in sight doing a spray and pray.

[ May 28, 2007, 06:06 PM: Message edited by: Rosenblum ]