It's not as easy as you'd think...

Me producing Sunday Sports Special--circa 2005/Courtesy: jon nelson

There are some things that you just know how to do. And because of that, you just assume that everything associated with it will be easy.

It's not that simple.

For anyone who's known me since I've been working in TV, you probably are aware that I produced Sports shows and Sportscasts on and off pretty much since I started in the business.

Sure, there were periods of time where I didn't do it. After all, I was always a Photojournalist too. I shot a lot of video in that time and had more than a few bosses who just assumed that was all I did.

It isn't.

Today (5/4/11), I got to do something I've never done in all my years in TV, I produced a Newscast. You might ask: "Why is that a big deal?" "Didn't you say you've produced Sports shows?".

I did say that and I did produce Sports shows. Heck, I've won awards while doing it. I created or helped create a couple of Sports shows in Atlanta, so, yeah, I know how it's done.

Me and Mark Harmon interviewing Michael Boley/Courtesy: atlfalcons

News is different.

Sports isn't easy to produce, but it's different. I never really believed that until today. Sure, I worked in News off and on throughout my career and have a pretty good grasp of it. But I can safely say...producing a newscast is entirely different than doing Sports.

Why is that?

Sports is fairly straightforward and simple. There is a lot of ad-libbing involved, but you know the content. And you can be a little looser and more flexible with it. That means you don't have to be exact in your timing. For instance, when I did my Sunday Sports Special at WGCL in Atlanta, I always knew that I could go into the show about a minute light. I knew that my anchor, Mark Harmon would make the time up and if we were tight at the end of the show with time...I could tell him to pick up the pace and he would.

News is nothing like that.

When you are producing 30-minutes of a 90-minute news hole, you have to be pretty close to exact in your shows. You have to make sure things are timed to the second. You have to hit your breaks at certain times and you have to put as much content in the show as you possibly can.

Me working at Atlanta Motor Speedway/Courtesy:Me

With a sports show, you can put in a rough time for stories knowing that you don't have to be precise getting in and out of it. News, is completely different. And if you aren't exact, the whole show gets out of whack. If the whole show gets out of whack, then you have to start cutting things.

In a sports show, you can just say, kill a particular story and it isn't that big a deal. As long as the show times out in the end, everyone is happy. News is nothing like that. If you are really heavy it not only impacts the stories in the show, it impacts Weather and Sports. And neither the weather folks nor the sports folks like it when you cut their time. And depending on the people and situation, they may let you know about it.

Having been on the Sports end of it, I don't like cutting their segments. Really, I don't. Though the on-air folks need to know it isn't personal.

Let me give you an example. In Atlanta, when I first started, Sports came after Weather...right after weather. If the weather guys went long, which they on occasion do, it meant condensing the Sports. When it started happening 3-4 times a week, we (me and my anchor) finally had to say something to the News Director (the boss) about it.

The compromise was putting a break between weather and sports. It didn't always mean Sports got all of their time, but it did most of the time.

It was a good feeling today to get back in the chair. It's funny, I was a video photographer for 20-years and only produced for roughly 9 or 10 of those years. I like producing, it's something I took to pretty well and it's something most everyone who knew how I worked figured I'd be decent at. I don't miss the shooting part, heck, I actually have feeling in my shoulder for the first time in the past 5-years. Yeah, it hurts once and awhile, but its mostly depending on the weather or how much I use it.

I do, at times, miss going out on stories and the adventure of being in the field. I always enjoyed that part. But I'm older now. I've done an awful lot. I've been all over the country covering stories and been to most of the biggest events in my generation's lives. I'll always have that, it can't be taken away and the people, places and things I've experienced, most people can only dream of.

And even though I've moved back into News, my heart is and will always be in Sports. It's what I know best and the looseness and spontaneity of it I always enjoyed. Sports people and the people they cover don't generally take themselves quite as seriously as News people do.

But...lift a glass. Enjoy your beer. Me, I've done something not everybody can do, I crossed the streams. I changed flight. If it wasn't official before, it is now, I've become an honest-to-goodness news guy.

It's a little weird, but then again, it's early David Bowie. But it is somewhat appropriate:

Writing is such sweet sorrow....

Man, just when I thought that I had become a good writer, I discover that I am struggling to write news.

Granted, news is an entirely different beast. It's a prepositionally challenged, detail oriented, shortened version of storytelling. But it's something that I've dabbled in before with no real problems.

You would think that if I could write entire Sports shows, 30-minutes and hour versions, that I wouldn't have any problems. You would think even more so if I told you about the book (which is about to go to print)...but then again, it was a sports book. You would definitely think so if I told you that I've written tons of reporter packages for News....so it is not like I've never done it.

((Writing on the computer//Courtesy: clipartguide.com))

But I'm struggling for some reason. Stylistically, I've adjusted. I get the format. A sentence to set up and then write your voice-over. Yeah, I can do that. I can summarize just about anything in 30 seconds or less. But I've been sloppy.

It's my own fault, I know better. And as someone with a ton of experience, I'm the only one who can make it stop. Still, it's a struggle.

I've never had a problem expressing myself through writing. Never. Even as a kid when I was painfully shy and didn't talk much, I wrote. Wrote about everything and expressed myself well.

All through school and even in college, I was a good writer. Loved essay tests because even if I didn't know the subject that I had to write about well, I could fake my way through it.

Maybe it's the OSG Sports blog. I don't know. The rules don't totally apply there and I can add dashes and doses of humor and opinion.

We will see. It's time for me to make the adjustment and make it soon. I'm expected to write 5-7 stories a day along with doing all of the research for them. The research has been a challenge and very time consuming, but it isn't an excuse. Sure, I had a similar issue when I was learning to shoot, I was wildly inconsistent and I know that. There were days where my stuff was "Holy Crap" good and other days when it was just "Crap". I grew out of it. It took awhile, but I did.

I don't have the luxury of time with it now. No, I didn't get chewed out at work, but I did get a subtle reminder that I need to pick it up. Nothing else I guess, really needs to be said.

So, in the spirit of this being Friday, enjoy some Todd Rundgren. Thanks You Tube:

Craziness!

Whew! You know I really never thought that it would be "Big City" crazy living in Cincinnati, but I'll be damned if the city isn't trying to prove me wrong.

Last night (Saturday) at work was one of the strangest shifts that I've worked in my going on 22 years in the News business.

Starting at 2pm yesterday we had: 4-people shot, 2 of whom are dead, a murder-suicide, a 2-alarm house fire and another homicide.

Now I realized that we live in troubled times and all of that and yes, I know that I've been working mostly in Sports over the past 10 years. But geez, the only thing missing was a plane crash (Maybe I shouldn't say that out loud).

((Me at a Reds game//Courtesy: TLB))

I'm hoping that it won't be like that all of the time. Heck, even in Atlanta we didn't have many days like that.

Somehow, even with very limited weekend staffing, we got it all covered. Even with only one reporter and one nightside photographer. The dayside guy was able to keep us going with the stuff in the afternoon, that freed up the night shooter to do the other stuff.

Whatever unsure-ness that I had about being back at at a TV station and not in the field pretty much has now gone away. Between running the dayside desk by myself on Friday and dealing with yesterday, I feel much better.

Now it is on to learning the producing systems. I'm beginning to post stories and video to the website, which is now a very big deal and I'm getting more comfortable writing for news. It is a little more difficult than I thought. Writing my own Sports stories and an occasion News package isn't too difficult, its the breaking news voice overs and the re-writes of poorly written wire stories where it becomes a challenge.

But, as they say...challenges are good. It is a lot more fun to be on the upside of a learning curve than the down side. At least for me...it keeps me involved and pushing forward. Learning is always a challenge and that folks...ain't such a bad thing.

Enjoy your accompanyment music...Ozzie does the "Crazy Train":

Back in....

Well...if you haven't seen my Facebook post yet, I'm back in...albeit a little reluctantly...to the TV News wars. Most of you who read this are friends and family and you know my situation. Left the business back in September, very willingly, to move to Cincinnati with my wife for her job. It was something, I never hesitated to do and would more than willingly do again (she has a really cool job).

Unfortunately, my timing in regards to the national employment situation wasn't good. There were precious few jobs available when I got here. None in TV. I also found out the hard way, that my work didn't really prepare me for work in the Production sector and really didn't qualify me to do much of anything else.

So I struggled. A lot. I had never really had to look very hard for work and it showed. I bitched. I moaned. I compromised. I took a job for something to do, thinking that it would be fun, it was miserable.

I learned. Learned a lot. I learned that the job search these days is totally different than it was the last time I was looking. I learned that it is all about networking, with a little luck thrown in.

Finally after a false alarm in November, when I interviewed for a producer job that I didn't get, something showed up. It was disappointing not to get it...but I made a contact and that contact insisted that I stay in touch for when something else opened up. I did.

Forward to the end of January and I see a story in the local newspaper that my contact is leaving at the end of February. That same day, I look at the station job site and low and behold, there is a job there. At the time it said "Assignment Editor/Associate Producer. Okay, I can do that, it isn't ideal, but I most definitely can do it. Before I applied, I got in touch with my contact who said "Oh, yes, apply" "We've already brought your name up".

Cue the frustrating part. The original listing went from Full-Time Assignment Editor/Associate Producer to Part Time Assignment Editor and then a separate Associate Producer job. I didn't understand or know what to make of it. I wanted to work and nobody else in town had anything.

So I sat. And waited. They asked me to come visit in early February. It was a quick and informal visit. Nothing happened. About a month later "Can you come in for an interview?". So I did. Finally, it was mid-March and I thought something might happen. We spent an hour and they asked me about all kinds of things, stuff that made me think..."OK, maybe we are serious and going to do this".

Finally, after 8+ weeks, I got the call and it was for the Assignment Desk position. It's part-time, not full, but it pays fairly well and there will be opportunities to fill in and pick up extra hours. It isn't perfect. The hours are going to be a sacrifice. I don't like the thought of not being able to see TLB (The Lovely Bride) as much. She travels a lot and isn't home much during the week and I'm not going to be around on Saturday nights to wine and dine her. It bothers me, a lot that I can't, but I don't think that I have a choice. I couldn't continue on the path that I was on and I have to hope that some more options will appear as we go.

It's going to be strange walking back in. When I left TV in September of '09, I was kind of over the job and the business. I didn't want anything to do with it. I think some of that had to do with my frustration with the employer rather than the work. I think that everything changed in mid 2005, when I had to work a 42 out of 44 day stretch (the 2 off-days were when my grandfather passed away). I think it changed when I got to live my dream and run a Sports Department for almost a year and then had to hand it off to someone else and then watch that person destroy everything that I did and try and destroy me. It soured me but I held on. Held on and didn't do anything about it and that was my mistake.

I learned from that experience and will never forget it. Yes, I'm also putting down the camera, but I quite honestly won't miss it. I did so much as a photographer. I went to, shot and documented so many cool things, so many big events, so many great stories; I'm ready for something different. The one thing I did over my career that is paying off is a variety of things. I learned how to produce. I learned how to write. I spent some time on the desk. I edited. I planned and coordinated. I know how to and have done almost every job in the newsroom.

Will I stay with this forever? I don't know. What I do know is that I will be prepared for something else. I will not get caught like I did this time. I was in no way prepared to look for other work when I got here. I know that now. I will be prepared. I will be ready. Most of all I will enjoy the opportunity. Make the most of it. Be ready. Be a sponge and soak up as much new information as I can. Most importantly...I can start moving forward again professionally...because I'm back in.

Enjoy one of my all-time favs...Back in Black! Thanks AC/DC-You Tube:

Learning is sometimes a Slow Process

Funny thing about being my age (44 as of the time I write this), the technology involved to do things that just say, oh, 10 years ago has morphed like you'd never believe. There isn't anyone both in the Video business or at home who ever thought that things would change like this.

Those who have known me for the past oh...22 years or so know that my chosen profession is the TV-Video business. I have over the years shot, edited, written and produced stories and full TV shows both by myself and with help and it amazes me as I sit here, just how technically involved it has all become.

((The crew at a UGA Football game (me, Scott Christenberry, Eric Hager, Dwayne Harden and Tony Light in back))

22 years ago, I started working in TV in Lynchburg, Virginia. I shot, edited and produced the Sports at WSET-TV. As a Photographer, I carried in no particular order; a 35lb Ikegami 730 TV Camera which had 3 Tubes in it, a Sony 110 Tape Deck (which felt like a cinder block), a light belt that weighed about 10lbs, cables, mics, tapes and accessories. We shot on Video Tape, 3/4 inch video tape to be exact. A rather large cassette format and tape was scarce enough that we were each given 4 tapes a day for 5 days to shoot on. We edited with 2 rather large editing machines that were linked together by a huge mass of cables.

By the year 2000, I was in Atlanta working for the CBS station, where I was originally given a Sony 300A Camcorder that shot on Beta tapes (yes, similar to THAT Betamax thing from the late 70's). We had rather large Anton Bauer "Brick" batteries that weighed as much as the camera did. However the total weight was down under 20lbs. And we still edited on rather large tape decks.

Forward 5 years. Same station, different equipment. Panasonic DVC-Pro camera (910), the tapes were the size of a small cellphone. The accesories, much smaller, most could be carried in a small equipment pouch. At this point, we are loading the videotapes into a computer, an AVID and airing it out of a server.

Last year...2009, right before I left Atlanta. Carrying a Panasonic P2 Camera with no tape rather 5 memory cards. However, it is about 10lbs heavier. We take the cards and pop them into a reader and they show up on the computer.

What I am getting to is this. I'm now sitting at my desktop computer at home where I just loaded a story that I had on a DVD to You Tube. I popped it into my computer and with some software that I had purchased, loaded the story to a hard drive. I then uploaded it to my YouTube channel (OSGPhil) and there it sits for whoever wants to see it.

If I sound like I am amazed at the process...and progress of the technology, I am. It just never dawned on me when I started this back in 1988 that it would be where it is now. Nothing is done the "Old" way. Everything is on the computer. I basically, could program my channel on YouTube from home...in essence my own TV Channel. I'd have to figure out a way for it to be found, but it's there...much like this blog, for whomever stumbles across it. And oh...it's linked to my Facebook page and Twitter page too.

Maybe I'm just sounding old, but it amazes me that this can be done. I had to learn how to do it, because if I want to stay in my chosen profession, I need to know how to do these things. Sure it makes my head spin sometimes and I am not always doing it the right way. But eventually, I figure it out...sometimes quickly...but most of the time slowly...Yes...Learning can be a VERY slow process.

In the meantime...enjoy this video from the You Tube...it doesn't relate to any of this...I just thought it was funny...and yes, it amazes me that you can find this and take it and post it to a story on the computer.

As a bonus video...enjoy some clips from one of the Greatest Movies Ever...the top 10 quotes from Airplane:

Torn...What to do next?

I am officially torn. And before any of you start cheesing out about that Natalie Imbruglia song from a couple of years ago, this is a little different.

It has been a little over a week now since my last job interview. I was told that they would let me know what they would do one way or another. So far...nothing. Is it unusual for a TV station to take their time on a hire or not follow through on what they said? No, it happens all of the time.

Normally, I probably wouldn't be incredibly concerned about it, but this time is a little different. I want to contact them and find out what is up...but TLB (The Lovely Bride who is an HR person) says that it is a bad idea, I'll sound desperate...even though that is exactly what I am.

In fact, the reason for my worry is this: Two days after the interview, the job posting disappeared. Two days later, 2 part-time and 1 full-time job showed up. I interviewed for an Associate Producer/Assignment Desk job. They suddenly now have a full-time Associate Producer and part-time Desk job plus another part-time AP job available.

Should this worry me, I think so. I thought after the interview things were good and they would take care of me, now I'm not so sure. It sounds an awful lot like they took the original job and made it two positions. I worry because that has actually happened to me before. In 2004, I became the Sports Photographer in Atlanta. By the end of 2004, I was Sports Photographer/Producer and by early 2005, I was Producer/Photographer and running the day-to day Sports operations. New management came and in 2007, it was back to Photographer only and they hired a Producer. I got half of my old job, he got the other.

My point, I guess is this. I don't know what to do. I feel like I should at least make contact with the TV station and see what is up or if they have moved on from me. It would be disappointing...terribly so in fact. But at least I would know. It just is difficult for me, the News Director seemed to like me and was floored at my qualifications for just about any job in the newsroom, but was somewhat concerned about paying me. As much as told him not to worry, it isn't that simple and maybe that is the issue...I don't know.

Unfortunately I don't have a lot of options here where I am. The TV marketplace is almost non-existent. Aside from a couple of jobs at one station, nobody else is hiring...for anything. As for production work...same problem. They use a regular stable of freelancers all whom they'd pull from before they'll talk to me. There are a few odd freelance jobs that fly through town on occasion, but they require gear that I don't have.

I'm at a point where though I appreciate my friends saying "Keep Your Head Up", I am having a really hard time doing it. I never thought that I'd be stuck working part-time at a Panera Bread shop right now. Yeah, I know I was seriously burnt out on the TV thing when I came up here, but I'm well over it. I need to find full-time work....somewhere...anywhere....I've been on the beach 5+ months now...and need some work. If this opportunity doesn't work, I'm not really sure that there is a plan B. Yeah, I'll keep skimming the job ads and starting tomorrow I'm sending out some DVD's even though they will be blind sends. That may or may not work, but I've gotta try something...I'm slowly going crazy and need to do something about it.

Enjoy the Working Man from Rush...perhaps I'll be the Working Man again someday. Thanks You Tube:

A World Without Snow Coverage

Well it's time to act like the Southerner that I am this weekend. Why you ask? Because some significant snow is expected up here in the hinterlands of Ohio. Yes, I know, the Southwest corner of Ohio is really Northern Kentucky, but still 2-3 inches of snow are expected this weekend. No, I'm not freaked out about it...my wife is...I'm just laughing.

((Me shooting Football in Chicago//Courtesy: Eric Hager(does that work Eric?))

I'm laughing because this may actually be the first "Big Snow Event"

that I have ever sat out. Even when I was working in the Sports department, I got sucked into the Vortex...everyone did. For the past 22 years, I worked in TV and for TV...it's like a porn addiction. I hate to make fun of a business that I worked in for so long but geez...you would think that it's never snowed anywhere before...ever...if you watch your local news.

The weather people hunker down and try and pinpoint the exact time of the 1st snowflake and just generally try to look busy, telling people to "Be Prepared" and make it sound like the potential end of the world as we know it. The Assignment Desk is calling all of their crews and putting on a big dry erase board all the stories that will need to be done. The News Director will walk around and look important and make sure that there is Pizza for all of the people in the Newsroom...but forget his frozen field crews. The reporters and photographers just groan...and dig out all of their cold weather gear because they are going to spend the next 48 hours of their lives standing out in it.

My favorite is the "Generic" live shot of downtown or the cityscape where the reporter says "Yes, it's snowing out here right now, you can see it coming down". Thanks moron...I was wondering what that was falling from the sky around my house. Really, I shouldn't mock the reporters, they are doing what they are told to do. Weather coverage becomes "Multiple Team Coverage" and someone always does the "Big Picture" story that states and restates the blatantly obvious...multiple times throughout the day. I had to do this one time in Nashville, standing on a bridge with a reporter in a -10 degree morning, every 30 minutes, walking out to the camera and him saying "It's bitterly cold and the roads are covered with snow, not a lot of people out on the road. Most people are staying home and so should you". Duh...

The other thing that I always found laughable is the "Grocery Store" story. News crews all over the path of the storm will descend on the local Kroger or other Grocery store du jour and show video of people buying milk and bread. I never could figure out why that, but I think that is because I grew up in Hurricane alley...Florida. Milk and bread didn't do you much good down there. If the power goes out, the milk goes bad. Fast.

So here I sit, I do have to work in the morning at my part-time job. But, I can walk there if I needed to, it's a half-mile away. I sit and I laugh. Sure, I'll watch the Local News...if for no other reason than to see what I could be doing and take comfort in knowing that I don't have to do it anymore. I guess there is always that chance that I get back into the TV business, then I would have to do it and you will all be sitting back and laughing at me, but right now I'm not. I don't miss it. I just get to write stories like this looking back at it all and thinking "Damn, I'm glad that's not me".

Enjoy some other goofballs in the snow...Courtesy: The You Tube