Earning My Keep

(Greensboro, NC) - Nobody needs to be thinking I'm freeloading up here. A sad but true circumstance of local media these days is a new emphasis on "videojournalism," or what we traditionally called "one man bands." This means stations send reporters to locations alone and they are expected to shoot their own video and edit their own stories. It's not easy.
The presence of someone with an abundance of experience who is basically a freelancer or "independent media professional" has been welcome news to a few solo artists here in Carolina. I have happily picked up TV cameras for stations from Louisiana, Minnesota and Indiana over the last few days. In exchange, grateful broadcast professionals have happily picked up a dinner bill or two.
Yes, I'm working for food. Hey, it works out. I'm seeing the games for free in premium seating, and there's great value in that.
I've been been out of the business since 2005, but most of these tasks have still come naturally to me.
Oh, there was this one incident. Not a big thing, really. I mean, there are a lot of knobs and switches on this TV equipment and I have been away from it for a while. I shot two stories for a reporter working on deadline. The interviews went well. But later, we walked several blocks and up some pretty serious inclines to record his stand-ups and his audio track. When we got back to the media compound, we discovered that I had not turned on the receiver for his microphone. No sound. Oops.
Hey, you get what you pay for. We did it all over again and to be honest, they were much better the second time around. Can't you say that about many things in life?

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