I have fourteen minutes to tell you how VJ training is going. Class begins at 9 o’ clock.
Yesterday I cried. That’s right, broke down in tears right there in front of the trainers and my other three classmates. How about that shit? I later asked the trainer who made me cry if that had ever happened before. It never had.
You see, my first day of shooting was sort of abysmal. I went out thinking I had my head wrapped around what I was supposed to do, but I was all wrong. I came back with seven minutes of footage when they asked for twenty. Except I don’t remember that part. I think I must have been in the bathroom. I made the best of that footage with the editing software (which is easy to use and fun) and was kind of proud of the crappy one minute piece I produced. Especially since I had never done any of that before. After the trainer watched the finished product I looked at his face and it was pitiful. He was shocked by the badness of what he’d seen and was trying to come up with anything constructive to say.
"Pitiful, isn’t it?," I said. "Yes, it’s pitiful," he replied.
But I went home excited. I had learned so much. I went home and thought up great people for my profile the next day. All of whom turned out to be off, indisposed or in Atlanta.
So at the last minute I thought I’d shoot a barista. Making coffee can make pretty pictures, so I barged into Portland Brew and asked this girl if I could basically get in her way and piss her off.
See, I don’t like bothering people. I certainly don’t like making them feel uncomfortable. And our trainers say DNZTFC (Do Not Zoom The Fucking Camera), because it makes shakey hands more evident. So they want you to get all right up in people’s grill and shit. And I just can’t do that.
When I write it can involve as little as a pencil and a piece of paper. I’ve never had to worry about whether the microphone is on or if I have a tape in the camera (had to drive back to the station once). I can barely hook up a DVD player, so you can imagine how I look with this camera in my hand. I hold it like it is covered in poo. Which is to say very carefully. Anyway, my mind is on a hundred different elements or technical glitches and all those rules from class and trying to get any sort of story goes right out the window. It is so overwhelming.
So I get back with my barista footage and I’m pretty pleased. At least I got the requisite 20 minutes this time. I pruned it to what I thought was a much improved 1 minute 20 second piece. I went to pee while I let the trainer look it over.
I came back to hear, "Well, it is almost exclusively jump cuts." What?! No way! I know what a jump cut is and those ain’t it! I mean, sure the first day I had jump cuts because I didn’t have enough material, but those are not jump cuts! I thought all of that in my head.
But apparently you can have a medium shot of someone in Canada then a medium shot of someone in Mexico and that is considered a jump cut. Who knew?! So I didn’t have good closeups or POV shots (point-of-view) because a) I hate being pushy and b) I’m not tall enough to get over someone’s shoulder. I am afraid I am going to drop that many thousand dollar camera.
The trainer suggested I go out and shoot new footage and start over. At 6 pm. That is when the tears came. I couldn’t help it. My eyes just got hot and wet all the sudden and eventually I had to blink and so the tears came. I just couldn’t take the thought of all that hard work wasted. I’m not used to busting my ass on something and STILL it sucks.
Lights are on in the classroom. Gotta go. Oh God.
17 comments ↓
Hang in there, you can do it! Come shoot me if you need to, I’ll behave and you can stand over my shoulder.
Sorry to hear about your first day at school. Chin up though, Young Brittney. I would venture to say that you have more intelligence and imagination than most in that newsroom.
Once you get the hang of the technical side, your stories will be the bomb. They can teach anyone to use a camera — eventually. But most of them still won’t really know what to do with that knowledge. You will and then — BOOM! — best little V-J in the bidness.
What they said. It’s like learning to ride a bike. You don’t quit just becuase you’re banged up and your knees look like ground beef. You squirt some Bactine in there; Band-aid what you can; and get back on the bike.
You could come shoot me, but I’d be embarrassed for Nashville to see how much of my job involves sitting around fretting.
Keep at it, girl. You’ll do fine– filming has a steep learning curve, but once you’re at the top, you’ll be a-okay.
We got faith in ya.
You can do this! It will get better and easier to do. Be patient. (If only I had a Jewish-mother accent *grin*)
Girl, I’ve been at my job for almost a year, and I still catch myself making mistakes that would have seemed stupid my first week. The joy and agony of learning something new is that you’re bound to fail several (many!) times before you master your new skill. That’s why so many people decide to stop learning: it’s hard and humiliating to admit you don’t know what you’re doing. But the payoff is HUGE — keep reminding yourself of that.
That said: there is NOTHING worse than crying at work. It sucks.
You’ll do great. Don’t let it get you down. Keep in mind that these people are experts in working a camera and may just resent having to teach writers how to do their job. Some of that territorialism is probably making them tyrannical.
Next time they give you grief, picture making them write 1000 words about anything.
Sorry. Indefinite antecedent.
“teaching writers how to do the cameraperson’s job”
I had to take a broadcasting class in school. It wasn’t for me. A camera is about the equivalent of 1,000-person audience. I freak right out.
Anyway one of my first interviews was the college men’s basketball coach. I did the whole thing without sound.
Did I ever feel like an idiot when we had to reshoot the whole thing. The same questions and all.
All I had to do was flip on a switch and everything would have been good. What a waste of time.
Anyway, as long as you’re having fun. That’s all that matters.
RAWR
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RAWR
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RAWR
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your a GILBERT you can do anything.
I was a broadcasting major in college. It sounds like you are learning what it took us 4 years to master, in a week or two. It’s not easy, but you should be able to pick it up.
Watching a show like 60 Minutes might help. Focus on the framing of the shots, and they match two shots together. Recorded if you can and watch it a couple of times. Don’t be afraid to copy it. Originality in videography doesn’t pay off.
You know the funny thing is that when you do finish your traning you are still going to suck ass. It’s pointless and you are a pussy for crying about it, you little bitch. If It’s really that hard then go in a hole and die.
Ok. If you’d never had any film training before, it’s hard to figure out in a matter of weeks how and what constitutes a jump cut.
Your instructor had better have explained it to you! It’s not fair of him/them to expect flawless work from you right now.
It gets better with practice. It really does. Trust me. (Particularly with more practice than you’ve had — it can take a little while.)
Best guides to this are published by Focal Press and are titled The Grammar of the Shot and The Grammar of the Edit. I think they’re by Roy Thompson.
What editing software are you using?
It gets better with practice. It really does. Trust me. (Particularly with more practice than you’ve had — it can take a little while.)
Best guides to this are published by Focal Press and are titled The Grammar of the Shot and The Grammar of the Edit. I think they’re by Roy Thompson.
What editing software are you using?
Doh!
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