In The Field

You can ask me, but I don't really know what we were doing in the rain on Friday night.  Reporter Rita Garcia and I were sent out to find a weather related story to tell.

Basically, go talk to people in the rain.  Sure.  I can do that.

Heck, there are probably worse ways to make a living.



The station wanted us out in the San Gabriel Valley area.  We left North Hollywood about 5:00pm, so we had to fight evening rush hour traffic (about fifty times worse in bad weather) to get there.



Oh, and we also had to be ready for a liveshot at the top of the 9:00pm newscast.

No pressure.

It wasn't difficult to find people who were going about their regular routines in spite of the downpour.  Heck, when you think about it, we could have just interviewed each other, since we were both hanging out and working in the rain as if it were just another day at the office.



That's just a quirk of working in broadcast news.  Standing in puddles and splashing around in the rain goes against the best motherly advice, but it's actually a part of the job.



I hope Irene Garcia gets a kick out of seeing a few photos of her daughter Rita at work (I also hope I remembered Rita's mother's name correctly).

Even though we are constantly at risk of getting sick from being out in the weather, we both had rain gear and Rita had new boots for protection.



It might not always make sense why we're standing in the rain, but just speaking for me, I really enjoy what we do.

I think Rita enjoys the job too, not so much for having to stand in the pouring rain, but she did seem quite fond of her boots.

That's probably a good thing, because honestly, I don't think the rainy season is going to be over any time soon.

I wish I could tell you that I've made incredible progress in the new year towards my ultimate goal of taking over the world.  Sorry.  The truth is just that carelessly I've stacked the deck against me.



Since the beginning of the year I've been filling all my available free time with odds and ends of different things that I apparently "need to get done."



Well, at least I've managed to take a few pictures since the beginning of the year.



Shucks, as a matter of fact. taking pictures is one of the few things I feel like I've still been able to do.

I've got a few small stories to tell from the past week or so, but it seems like I run out of time whenever I sit down at the keyboard.



I think I need to get back to basics.  Post a few pictures and talk about where I was that day.

Suzie Suh and I were in Tarzana and Santa Monica on Tuesday.  We interviewed a doctor and a handful of people out on the street about the study from Oxford that had just been released that day.



The study claimed that people with extra fat around their middle are less healthy than people with extra fat in their rear ends.

Yup, butt jokes were a dime a dozen that night.

I had to shoot (discreetly, of course) heavier people walking around.  I felt guilty about that.  Not because I had any problem recording their images.  I just felt like I could have been in some of the b-roll myself.

Of course, that didn't stop me from having a nice thick slice of lasgna pizza for lunch.

Good times.

Nighty-night.

It might come as a surprise, but "skid row" does exist.  I think for a lot of people, the thought of a section of this city (which has a certain image of excess associated with parts of its' geography) might just seem unbelievable.



It is one thing to see the high concentration of homeless in a news story from the warm and cozy comfort of your own home. . .



. . .but take it from me, it's another experience entirely to spend half a day out on the sidewalks in the shadow of downtown Los Angeles, working in the middle of a section of the population who didn't have the last liveshot of the day, the end of a shift and a drive home to family and Christmas dinner to look forward to.



I don't have a choice in what assignments I cover.  That decision is made back at the station.  I know we cover the Father Dollar story every year (sometimes more than once).  It's just been a few years since the last time I had the assignment.

Not much has changed.



The man known as "Father Dollar" is a regular fixture on the major holidays in downtown on skid row.

Through the generous donations of several benefactors, he gives out money (mostly one dollar at a time) to the homeless residents of the skid row section of town.



It's not much.  It most likely won't change anyone's life, but it is a dollar.  That's one dollar more than most of them would have had.



There's not much more to say than what was said in the package we put together for the newscast.  We talked to Father Dollar and also spoke with people who lined up to receive that small bit of charity.

The reporter and I made the story as interesting as we could, but I didn't learn anything new that I didn't already know from having covered this story in years past.  That's probably the same for anyone who might have seen the story on the news in previous years.

I walked away feeling like I want to do something more, but I don't know what more could be done.  I gave out the change from my pockets and the five dollars I had in my wallet.  It didn't solve anything, but I kind of got it in mind that I understand the importance of small gestures.

We talked to people who donate their time and some folks who run the shelters, kitchens and missions on skid row.  Many of them said the same things.  In a year when the economy has choked off much of the large donations, the homeless and the organizations that help them are helped more by small donations that come from individuals.

A donation in any amount, even one simple dollar, means something.

If everyone gave a dollar, we might not have as many people going hungry and sleeping on the streets.

That would be something.

It was supposed to rain yesterday and I knew that when I left for work, but the streets were dry and they stayed dry all afternoon.  I shoot news, so if the big news of the day is all about the rain, then I know I'm probably going to get wet.

It's usually only a matter of time.



The storm was moving down the coast from the North, so I was sent out to meet up with Reporter Serene Branson.

Cool.

We were sent towards Ventura with the goal of getting on TV as soon as the storm hit.  The only problem with that plan was that nobody could really predict what time exactly the storm was going to roll through.

There's a lot of pressure to be in the lead on the weather stories.  After the build-up and tease that rain is coming, I can understand that it might be difficult to keep it all in perspective. 

Particularly when you're inside back at the station.

We spent the early part of the evening fielding a persistent string of calls for status updates.



"Is it raining yet?"

"No."

"Not at all?"

"Well, there's some misting."

"Did you shoot it?"

(pause) "The ground is dry.  There's really nothing to shoot."

"Call us as soon as it starts to rain."

"Okay."

(A few minutes later)

"Is it raining yet?"



The rain hit a little after 8:00pm.  Serene and I managed to find a good spot for the live shot on Main Street in Ventura.

I'd never been live from that area, so it was a gamble.  Okay, I've been live from nearby, so it was a calculated gamble, but still a gamble.

It paid off.

We locked in the microwave signal, I quickly connected the cables and Serene stepped in front of the camera and the rain came down hard.

After the first hit, Serene and I talked about the weather getting back at us.  Earlier we'd been joking about the distinct lack of rain.

We did the first liveshot in a downpour and even though it let up later, it rained through the rest of the evening.  It could have easily been a totally miserable night and I'm not sure I would have survived it at all if not for a couple of things.



Serene's mom (whom I'm told reads my blog, "Hiiiii, Mrs. Branson!") sent Serene out with a tin of homemade Krumkake.  That's a Norweigen pastry that absolutely warmed my cookie monster heart.

Mmmmm, Krumkake.



The other thing that kind of made it easier to make it through the evening?

Serene and I were both up on the Grapevine earlier this week.  It was bitterly cold and windy in the snow.  We were doing liveshots over the closed I-5 and had to stay overnight at the Flying "J" Truck Stop.

Talk about putting things in perspective.

Shucks, a little rain wasn't going to bother us.

Happy Turkey Day +2 to everyone. I'm still feeling a bit stuffed, but not so stuffed that I'm not planning out my lunchtime attack on the remnants of Thanksgiving '09.

I believe I'm trying to make up for the fact that I missed the sit down family meal because I had to work on the holiday.



It wasn't bad, a little holiday pay and I get a comp day to named at later time (my pick) and I only covered one story.

Every year, The Laugh Factory comedy club hosts a free turkey dinner for the homeless, jobless and struggling citizens of the Hollywood area. That was my one story and I got to hang out for a bit since there wasn't a pressing need to be anywhere else.



A couple of bizzaro things happened while I was there.



Not the least of which was getting to interview Frazer Smith. I can remember listening to him on the radio back in my early college days. You know, that's a cool part of this job. Sometimes I get to meet interesting folks.



"Interesting" might not be the best description and somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that Sylvester Stallone's mom? She actually qualifies as a third bizzaro occurrence from this assignment.



I also want to be kind, because I think it's an admirable thing to donate your time for an event like this. There's no shortage of people in need and never enough people willing to give of their time.



I was also impressed that even a few bigger stars showed up. I almost missed the chance to get a sound bite from actor/comedian Paul Rodriguez. He showed up just as I was heading back to the news van.

The big bizzaro moment of the evening actually happened while I was just walking up to the club and I'm sorry I didn't get a still shot.

You remember the movie, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"



The voice of Roger Rabbit was done by Charles Fleischer (I was going to snap a picture of him, but he wasn't around when I had the chance, you'll have to google him).

So, I had just locked the van, I was carrying the gear and heading towards the entrance. Charles Fleischer walks up along next to me. Naturally he's heading for the same place.



There's a line out the door and around the corner. A second side door opens and we both turn towards it. An older guy at the door puts his hand out and tells Charles Fleischer he's got to line up.

The older guy doesn't recognize Fleischer.

They go at it for a minute, nothing out of control or loud, but the door guy is being firm that Charlie Fleischer has to line up if he wants a meal. He still doesn't understand that Fleischer is a celebrity coming to help out.

I speak up.

"Dude, this guy's a celebrity. He's here to help. You probably should let him in."

Maybe because I'm carrying the big news camera, but the older guy apologizes and let's us both into the club.

I thought that was pretty cool. It's really rare that I have that kind of clout. I'm surprised Charles Fleischer and I weren't stuck out on the street waiting for a real celebrity to come by and vouch for the both of us.
George Clooney: Dude, that's beFrank, you should let him in. . .and let the Roger Rabbit guy in too.

It was like I worked two completely different shifts yesterday.  Plenty of good and bad to go along with them both.

Let's talk about the bad.  I started off on the wrong foot by getting my shift time wrong.  Okay, so I'm not the 4:30pm guy, I'm the 2:00pm guy.  I like to own up to my blunders, so I don't mind sharing that.  With it being a long holiday weekend, I might just be able to keep my head down or maybe do something amazing and the powers that be will forget about it by the time I see them on Monday.

Naturally , the wrong thing to do would be to post about it on my blog.

(Doh.)



Still, a good part about the day was that I got to help out a little with the Amelia Earhart and Jackie Johnson Thanksgiving Cooking Webcast.

Running late, I had to hustle over to the Ralph's at the corners of Coldwater and Ventura and set up for a liveshot.  Technical difficulties sent the first hit down in flames, but we were able to track down the problems and fix them.



The next hit went off as planned.  It was good that the show was moving on to the next part.  Ralph's needed their loading dock where we had set up.  By the time we actually left, they were two big rigs parked in the tiny parking lot waiting for a chance to unload.



All during this, even though I had gotten to the loacation in enough time to set up, I was feeling that somewhat unfamiliar twinge of personal responsibility for everything that was wrong in the world.

I swear, I'm smart.  Really.  Other people have said it.

Anyway, I headed back to the station after that and picked up a reporter, Kristine Lazar.  We were being sent out to an accident on the 710 freeway that had been caused by a fatal accident.



I'm still not entirely clear on the circumstances, but the victim had been on the Northbound side of the freeway in an accident.  He climbed over the center divider, was hit and killed by the oncoming Southbound traffic.

We managed to fight our way through 710 traffic snarl and were able to slip into a spot past the flares, CHP cars and earlier arriving live trucks.



We quickly got a statement from the CHP about the fatality and I was a ble to shoot a couple of minutes worth of ground level footage.



Then it was a polite, "Grab you gear and get off the freeway!" order from the CHP.  They were opening up the lanes.  Good for the traffic.

Bad for--  well, really, I had gotten enough to put the package together.



I tossed the tripod in the back of my news van, hopped into the drivers seat and drive forward through the now clear lane of traffic.



I may have just imagined it, but I think I sped off, I drove through a large stain of blood that would have been from the accident victim.

Sure, my day was kind of a downer, but that moment really kind of put it all into perspective.

I'm working today and yesterday gets put behind me.  I can't help but spend a moment or two wondering about the circumstances that led to the deathon the freeway.  Chances are I'll never know anything more about the guy.  It just makes me all the more thankful that I have another day to enjoy.

I didn't intend for this post to be any sort of cautionary tale, but it's easy to get lost in thought over the stories I cover.

Hey, I got to get ready for work.  I'm going in early.

You know, just to be on the safe side.

I'm still getting used to the new camera.  I imagine it's like riding a horse and the horse is rolling its' eyes, because the horse knows the difference between someone who knows what they're doing.  Ne-heh-heh-heh-heh.

Fire in Anahiem hills and the whole story about how I got to that point could be a few posts in itself.  I made it almost to the scene in record time just before the 11:00pm newscast.

The clock was ticking.  I was by myself and the station wanted to get a ground level camera shot to back up the chopper.



You can't see him in the underexposed shot above (sorry), but there's a CHP officer laying out flares to block the South bound entrance to the 241 Toll Road.

I sat there for five minutes while he got the okay to let me through and tick-tock the clock was ticking.



I'll be honest, I didn't think I'd make it in time and once I got to the scene, I didn't think I'd be able to establish a signal with the hills surrounding me.

Boo-yaa!



I passed two other stations set up along the road and drove right up close to where the fire fighters were working to get this fire quickly under control.

It just seemed like they meant business and hot spots were getting shut down quickly with surgical precision.



Of course, that meant my prime location became just a slight bit lame after about ten minutes. 

The wind was blowing and I made the mistake of connecting my camera and letting the station see my picture while I was still setting up the rest of the gear.



I learned that my camera was "hot" (live on the air) almost as soon as I had plugged in the video cable.

The wind was whipping right around the truck and would have blown over the camera if I hadn't been standing right next to it.

That made setting up the audio and IFB lines a little tricky.  I'm just lucky the road had been shut down.  It's even more difficult to set up when cars and trucks are zipping past.



If you watched the newscast at 11:00pm, then you know Glen Walker made it to my my position.  Photographer Mark Dunn and he were on another story and had gotten pulled to try to make it on TV with a live hit of the fire.

Remember that time, the reporter got stuck in traffic and they had me talk on mic about what I was seeing?

You can bet that possibility was on my mind.

Since I'm on vacation, let's flash back to last week when I was doing some cool stuff with Orange County law enforcement.



Reporter Juan Fernandez and I were assigned an HFR (hold for release) story about a big inter-agency operation targeting teenagers violating curfew.  Cities like Orange, Anahiem, Santa Ana and Tustin all have 10pm or 11pm curfews for 17 year olds and younger.

We got to ride along with a Tustin unit participating in the operation and came across a pretty good amount of criminal activity.



I don't mind telling you, I've been in police cars before (I don't mind because it's always been in the course of shooting video).  Never been arrested (in this country) and never been hooked up and thrown into the back of a squad car.

It's sad to see so many young people casually doing the wrong things and running into trouble with the law.



Being out past curfew might seem like a pretty small violation of the law.  You might think the police have better things to do.

That was my thought during the early part of the evening, but I changed my mind after seeing how many minors were just along for the ride with felons and addicts who probably weren't going to be the most positive of role models.



The officers told us some pretty outrageous stories about the type of things they see in the run of a day.

I don't know if people like to believe the world is safe or if they just ignore the dangerous stuff going on around them so they can make it through life.



It's like we're sick and ignore the symptoms.  The level of drug and gang activity, even for a city like Tustin, is pretty surprising.  I hate to think what it must be like for a larger city like Los Angeles.

We were only riding along for one night, but we ran into a pretty good cross section of the bad guys that the Tustin Police know well enough to be on a first name basis.



I don't expect the world to be perfect and in fact, I know it's a pretty dangerous place.

It's just frustrating to see so many young people throwing their lives away completely or making bad decisions (just for kicks) that can easily send them down the wrong path.



I don't have any answers for the problems that other people face in their lives.  I know we live in a difficult world.  I just hope that by covering the story, we reach other people beyond the relative few who were directly involved.

Maybe I've used it before and I still don't know who originally said it, but one of my favorite quotes heard this year was simple, "It doesn't matter how far down the wrong path you've gone, turn around."

I know for some people it might not seem like a choice, but I think it is.

It just might not be easy.

First, let me just say, Owwww!

I'm sitting in the cafeteria at work.  Had a dental appointment this morning and it seemed easier to just roll into work rather than drive back home.  I needed a loose filling replaced, so I'm kind of grumpy because going to the dentist, getting numbed up and not eating tends to do that to me.

Still, things are pretty smooth right now.  Had an easy day yesterday.  Tried very hard to grab a bit of news to put on TV, but it just didn't happen.

For the most part I'm glad and I'll tell you why.



I was sent out about 6:30pm to meet another crew in Whittier.  Hollywood to Whittier at 6:30pm isn't completely traffic free, but it could have been worse.  Shucks, it could have been 5:30pm.

Rita Garcia and her photographer Nick Mercado were heading to Whittier because of an Amber Alert.  Children were missing and threats had been made.  Sorry, but I never got the full story.  I just knew we had a little over an hour to meet up in Whittier and put Rita on TV.



We arrived at nearly the same time.  Rita and Nick from the South and I was coming up on the location from the North.  They waved at me as we passed each other at an intersection.

The story was over.



The suspect had turned himself in and the children were safe.  Yay, but the station still wanted a liveshot from us.  It was about 7:50pm and they still wanted us for the top of the 8:00pm show.  Nick and I started throwing the gear out and I ran up the mast.

We hit one bump in the road because I wanted to set up the liveshot for HD.  We're still having some issues in our system and sometimes it just takes a little more time to get the signal locked in.

We didn't have the time.

I bailed on the HD signal, went back to standard definition and changed the cabling to match.

Rita was in front of the camera, the IFB was dialed up and Nick had her framed up.

I think there was less than twenty seconds to spare when the anchors tossed to Rita and she was live.  No HD, but we made slot.

Sometimes that's as good as it gets.

After the live hit, we dropped the mast and packed away the gear.  Rita and I went cruising for news in the Long Beach area and Nick went to help on another liveshot.  It was just a slow news night and we never made it back on TV.

My dentist, who lives in Long Beach, saw us driving around the downtown area.  That's what I was saying, small world.

It's not all wildfires and car chases that make up my day at work.  Okay, sure, the people who bean count might wish those stories filled the time, but the reality is that we cover other stories.

If you were watching our newscast earlier this week and happened to see a Stacey Butler story about the woman on whom Dan Brown based a character featured in his latest magnum opus, there were a few shots of the book itself that you might find interesting.



Yes, it was a slow day.  i was working a day side shift, but the reporter (Stacey) I was assigned to work with wasn't going out into the field.

No HD liveshots for me that day, but there were a couple of elements for her story she was going to need.  Nice shots of the book itself.



Having been shiuffling from van to van over the last couple of months, I've left a good deal of my "specialty" gear at home.  One of the basics that I use all the time is a large piece of dark black material used to create impromptu product stages.  The material I use is called duvatine (or duvetyne) and you buy it from photo and video supply stores.



Nope.  I had none with me that day, so being the MacGruber kind of guy that I am, I used a black fleece hoodie jacket that I happened to have with me that day.



I set up my camera in the garage area of the station and shot into the side of the van.  I also narrowed the light on the book by using a piece of black wrap.  That's a thick aluminum foil material sold also at photo and video supply stores.

Good for shaping light, but not so good for storing leftovers.



Like I said, it wasn't a particularly busy day, but even the little odds and ends need to be shot and that's what I do.  I shoot things.  Sometimes the backstory is more interesting than the actual story, but the cool thing is that every day is something different.

Plus they pay me.



What I do isn't as complicated as a Dan Brown plot, but I could throw in a couple of car chases and maybe a fire and heck, maybe we could get Tom Hanks interested in playing a role in the movie version of my life at work.

Tom would have to be content with the sidekick or comic relief role.  If there's a movie to be made, darned if I'm not playing the part of beFrank.

Helloooo?  Hollywood?