Days 10-14

With midterms on my doorstep, I really didn’t have time to blog after each day at Fox. Here’s what happened the past 5 days (2+ weeks) I’ve been at Fox.

Day 10 - Monday October 4, 2010

Today we did a few live shots on the street level with Mike Tobin. We set up a light, ran the cable to a patch on the first floor of the building which runs back upstairs to feed out, and checked the audio levels.

Doing a live shot on the street is very different from in the studio because there is no chair to sit in, and nothing is pre-setup. We had to make sure to not cross the power cable for the light with the audio cable, otherwise there’s some nasty interference that can be heard.

Day 11 - Friday October 8, 2010

Today I finally made it into a documentary piece. I was a hand model. I picked up a Newsweek magazine a few times for Bob, one of the camera guys. He used a wide angle lens to get really close in on the action.

Day 12 - Monday October 11, 2010

Today Adam brought a new challenge for me - creating an iPad app. I can’t talk too much about it, but I basically designed a photo app for Fox. We’ll see how far it goes, but I saved my original drawings just for fun.

Day 13 - Friday October 15, 2010

Today was kind of slow, but I went to a bridge dedication. It started at 10:30am and lasted until 12:30pm. Marilyn also interviewed Dick Durbin after the event. I did a few live shots in studio and called it a day.

Day 14 - Monday October 18, 2010

Today I was told to shoot some footage of transportation. I went out around the loop and got footage of cars, taxis, buses, the CTA trains, people walking, and some bikers riding. I did head-on shots, compression shots, wide angle shots, and everything I could think of. My footage looked great, and Adam agreed that it was good footage, but there was no story told with the footage. I need to work on sequencing my shots.

For example, I shot a bus driving stopping, then driving, then starting. It should be the bus starting, the bus driving, then stopping. The sequence of the shots needs to make sense, even before you start editing. Also, the subject matter should be closely related. I mixed all of my shots up, which may confuse myself or another editor once they import the footage. My goal is to improve my sequencing. I think I just need to think about what I’m shooting while I’m shooting it.