Shimmer Like Stars

I got a little cocky at the station today, and the director told me to put my money where my mouth is.

See, i started a new job last week. I'm working at a local TV station on their morning news shows. Before the program, i edit the packages. During, i run camera(s). Unfortunately for me, this involves being at work at 2:30 in the morning, which means that i'm actually kind of pushing it for still being awake right now at 7pm. I just wanted to rifle off this quick post before i hit the sack.

So, since i've only been there a short time, i'm still in training. Mostly they've had me watching other people work, but i've been breaking in and doing stuff as often as i'm comfortable, which seems to be a lot more often than they have expected thus far.

One of the things that we do is that sometimes, when we come back from commercials, they like to get a big move out of the camera. So we'll pull a camera 5-10 feet back from the set, and when the show starts up again, slowly push it back in for a nice trucking effect.

As we were coming in, the director came over our headsets and said, "Whoever's on Camera 3, why don't you back it up and get a big move, let's show the new guy how it's done."

I happened to be on Camera 3 when he said this, so i got on the mic and said, "How about the new guy shows you how it's done?"

The other two operators on the floor turned to stare at me, with those oh no you didn't looks about them. And they laughed. One of them said something about throwing down the gauntlet.

"Oh yeah?" said the director. "How about you pull it back and tilt that camera up so we get a nice shot of all the lights hanging from the ceiling, and make 'em sparkle like the stars in the sky? Then as you're pushing it in, tilt down to get the anchors in frame. Think you can handle that?"

Son of a bitch, i may or may not have actually muttered. "Yep. I got this."

I'll admit it was a little choppy, but anyone who happened to be watching the news at about 5:30 this morning got a little treat.

One of my coworkers at the lab (where i still work in addition to the station) said to me, as i relayed this story, that sometimes the viewers kind of enjoy seeing it when we fuck up. Not that she had seen my move; 5:30 is apparently way too early for her.

Good to know, because shortly after my big move, i very, very nearly made my first big fuck up. It involved some frantic scrambling by the whole floor crew in the last 15 seconds before the commercial break ended, but we got it covered. I ain't fired yet!