Ever messed up at work?We all have. Innocent, tiny mistakes that make you want to kick yourself when you realize what occured. It happens to us, too.My co-host, Kevin, reminded me of the time we joined Jo Dee Messina on her bus for an interview, and I noticed his eyes as big as saucers about half-way through. After a complete tour of where Jo Dee sleeps and the movies she watches, I stepped off her bus only to hear Kevin say 'I don't think we got that on tape. I looked down and noticed the recorder wasn't rolling.'Oops.We later fessed up to Jo Dee and she laughed it off. Hey, it happens.An interview with Reba McEntire backstage at the Indiana State Fair went south as well. It was our first time to talk with Reba in person, and possibly our last. The microphone came unplugged. We've also had an occasional bout with dead batteries, but only on very rare occurences.On the flip side of the coin, things have gone wrong for the artists as well.Joe Nichols never made it to our annual station event because he was being treated for a spider bite to the face. Ouch.Clint Black DID make it to that event, but was sick with laryngitis, so he could be seen walking backstage with a sign around his neck that read, 'Can't talk. Voice rest.'Josh Gracin didn't make it to an interview with our show last month because he overslept. Been there...done that.And then there was the big mistake. An artist we interviewed by satellite thought the microphones were off after it ended, and said a few choice words that certainly left a lasting impression in our book.And there you have it.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Oops...Take two
Ever messed up at work?We all have. Innocent, tiny mistakes that make you want to kick yourself when you realize what occured. It happens to us, too.My co-host, Kevin, reminded me of the time we joined Jo Dee Messina on her bus for an interview, and I noticed his eyes as big as saucers about half-way through. After a complete tour of where Jo Dee sleeps and the movies she watches, I stepped off her bus only to hear Kevin say 'I don't think we got that on tape. I looked down and noticed the recorder wasn't rolling.'Oops.We later fessed up to Jo Dee and she laughed it off. Hey, it happens.An interview with Reba McEntire backstage at the Indiana State Fair went south as well. It was our first time to talk with Reba in person, and possibly our last. The microphone came unplugged. We've also had an occasional bout with dead batteries, but only on very rare occurences.On the flip side of the coin, things have gone wrong for the artists as well.Joe Nichols never made it to our annual station event because he was being treated for a spider bite to the face. Ouch.Clint Black DID make it to that event, but was sick with laryngitis, so he could be seen walking backstage with a sign around his neck that read, 'Can't talk. Voice rest.'Josh Gracin didn't make it to an interview with our show last month because he overslept. Been there...done that.And then there was the big mistake. An artist we interviewed by satellite thought the microphones were off after it ended, and said a few choice words that certainly left a lasting impression in our book.And there you have it.
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The microphone stories reminded me of one that happened to me. I felt so dumb. I was a news photographer for a local TV station, and we were doing a story that involved riding along with a police officer. I set him up with a wireless mic so we could get a decent recording of his voice while he was driving, and also when he was out of the car talking to people he'd pulled over. Had him put it on, tested it out, looked good, so off we went.
The camera had a small speaker near where your ear goes when the camera is on your shoulder, so you can monitor the audio that way. However, it's a big camera and a small space (inside the car), so I was doing most of the shooting with the camera in my lap. I should have put in an earphone, but I was being lazy (and stupid). We got back to the station, and it turned out the wireless mic didn't work at all when he was in the car. It worked when he was outside of the car, so when he'd get out and I put the camera on my shoulder, I could hear him through the speaker and everything seemed ok. But everything in the car (the vast majority of the shoot) had no audio at all from the wireless. There was VERY marginally usable audio from the on-camera mic, but it had a ton of background noise. We had to use it anyway because we were on deadline and there was no time to re-shoot. I sure wasn't proud of the way that story turned out, though.
I still am not sure what went wrong. Maybe there was something in the car that was causing interference, but it wasn't that I was getting a bad signal -- I had no signal at all, as if the mic were off. Maybe the way he was sitting was making the battery temporarily disconnect or something. Anyway, that was the last time I ever shot video (professionally) without a speaker, earphone or headphones to hear the audio all the way through the shoot.
I won't even get into the time we drove 30 miles to a story and realized we'd left the camera at the station....
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