Just Another Day

To illustrate just how hectic the television industry can be for a shooter, let me describe a typical Saturday I worked this summer. I arrived to work on a mid July Saturday morning and packed up my gear, making sure I had everything I may require. Then I went to check out what I had to shoot that day. It turned out I had four separate stories to cover and I still had to allow enough time to edit before the news was broadcast.

I felt a little overwhelmed, but mostly exhilarated as I left the parking lot on my way to my first event. There were Special Olympics events being held throughout the city and I needed to get a VO. I went to the Tower at Saint Mary’s University, but I just missed the weightlifting competition. So I raced to Dalplex at Dalhousie University and got some nice footage of the swimming competition.

Subsequently, I needed to get to Lake Banook posthaste. There was a sponsored canoe celebration in preparation for the upcoming World Canoe Championships. For this story I needed to get clips, so I found a coordinator and a participant. In addition to the b-roll, this was a quick and easy story.

Then, I had to rush back to Halifax to shoot a story on a cat show at the Forum. Being a cat lover, this was an interesting and fun shoot. There were more than enough cats to get a visually stimulating story and I managed to find the organizer for a comment.
Finally, I had to make it to Point Pleasant Park in time to shoot a young man who had biked across Canada for charity. It began to rain as I left the Forum and I had no time to waste. Ideally, I would have beaten him there and shot him entering the park; I didn’t make it. Fortunately, he was cooperative and agreed to re-enter the park a few times so I could reproduce his grand arrival. Combined with some emotional shots of his family, who soon arrived to greet him, I was quite proud of that story.

Having shot all four stories, I then had to hustle back to the station and edit them all. I was especially relieved when they were all ready for air. Everyone was pleased with my work and I had just enough time to eat before I had to jump on studio camera for the 6 o’clock news. Just an average day for an ENG shooter.