Sometimes I just shake my head....

Okay, so I was running thru some footage on DTV at work yesterday for a VO I was putting together and I had another one of those moments. You know the ones. The ones where I just get angry and then come in here to TundraTalk and take it out on you. I just sit back and shake my head at how insane the business that I chose as a profession is. Now some of you out there still do not consider me a 'pro' at anything other than being an idiot. I do sometimes call my self a pro camera jockey and pretend to be and adult. Believe it or not. As pro as I can be wearing jeans and t-shirts (free ones I get from press conferences) to work every day.

On certain days I am proud of what I do. Most days I am proud of where I work. The CBC is a great place to work and compared to most of the other circuses I worked in my career, the CBC is sane. We rarely chase ambulances, participate in shock journalism, and so far the consultant has failed to completely infiltrate the building. They have recently made inroads, but not to the extent of completely running the newsroom.

So the picture above is exhibit A of the reason why I sometimes get really angry with television news rooms and more specifically they way they are managed. I know, the picture is not graphic in any way. It just is a picture of a college student participating in a experiment on being homeless for a week. The kid slept on the street with four others for 5 days. Trust me on the 5th day those kids STUNK.

Anyway, that is not the problem I have with this picture. Look deeper, to the right, the chick with the STRIPPER BOOTS holding the camera. That is the problem I have. I believe she works for Global TV here in Regina. Global here in Regina has in the last year become a shell of what it once was. Don't misunderstand me, it has never been great, it just now has around 10 employees. So, the management (I can only guess) in their quest to save money and fill the black holes at 6 o'clock will put anyone on a camera. Not concerned with how the video will look like most ND's will put a young chick (who ultimately wants to be a reporter) on ENG camera. That, to me, is like the head of a Hospital, in their attempt to scrimp and save, putting a janitor into surgery because the janitor has always had inspiration to become a doctor. Well, kinda just like that.

Side note: The news director in Edmonton once told me he did his reporter recruiting at the bar by sidling up next to bimbos and handed out his card. I wonder what else he was trying to recruit in those bars. True story.

Makes me furious. I take my job serious, on most days. I have put many years behind a lens, working shitty 14 hour days, slagging tripod up and down hills for that 'shot', sat in many a news van listening to some diva reporter talk about her haircut, worked too many holidays to count, and busted my proverbial ASS to get where I am. Then some lame ass ND thinks it is okay to put the first diva wannabe who walks through his door on a camera and devalue my position. She sees it as a way to get what she wants meanwhile there are a lot of guys that slinging a lens is ALL HE WANTS.

Not to mention look at what she is wearing. Okay, if I was an assignment editor and some chick came through the door dressed in stripper boots and a WHITE FRICKING JACKET, the first thing I would do is send her to some farm to get footage of crops and cows. I mean really, she got up in the morning, looked in the closet (I am sure after she looked at herself in the mirror 35 times), and said, "I am running a camera today I think I will wear my 5 inch heel stripper boots and my white jacket. Yeah, that will be completely practical." Hey dip-shit, you are going to work, not the club.

Oh and to to things off the chick in the tan boots is her trainer. She was teaching her how to run the camera. Nice, double diva whammy. It is like Britney Spears trying to teach Sarah Palin what important books to read. I wonder if they called each other in the morning and coordinated their club hopping uniform?

I have one last thing to mention about the pictures above. Look at what the diva with the camera has on her face. SUNGLASSES. Perfect. Very important to wear the sunglasses when your are shooting. That viewfinder gets sooooo bright. There is no way that she got video that was usable and the right level by shooting with sunglasses on. Incredible. I am just in awe at how clueless this chick is. (allegedly)

So this is what it has come to. My profession, has turned into a spot where you can plug ANY jag off in and it will work. Wait, am I the jag off? Have I just been the proverbial jag off my whole career? Don't answer that.

It is rumoured that the CRTC is going to make a decision on Monday on the Local Cable TV funding issue. In a nutshell the local Canadian Broadcasters have been raising a stink over the last year or so about how cable companies get to carry their signal without paying for it. The Local TV, Global TV, CTV, and CBC, believe that they should be compensated for their signal.

Where do I stand on the issue? Well, I stand with Cable TV on this one. Even though I work in the Local TV side of things. Mainly because I see that the TV industry here in Canada has relied too much on the US for their programming. They spend billions of dollars on buying the rights to 'simulcast' bad US TV. Simulcast for my American friends, means that when Lost is on here in Canada, CTV has the right to cover up ABC's broadcast on cable with their signal which means that we see their advertisers. Which means that they often end up cutting off the ends of the shows or coming back late to the show. DRIVES ME CRAZY. But that is not the main reason why I am in favor of Cable TV. Besides the fact that my cable bill will go up is the fact that if Local TV is given this bailout, they will just spend the money on buying more really bad programming from the US. There is no way they will spend that money wisely.



Canwest Global is the company that spent billions on buying all the newspapers across the country and is now bankrupt. They are not smart enough to push that money in to Canadian original programming. That is how you get out of this spot you are in. INVEST IN CANADA. The CBC is the most Canada centric network in Canada and that is why I feel I can take this stance because their mandate will not change. Not to mention it is funded in part by the government.

If the CRTC mandates that the TV TAX is going to happen there should be some stipulations that they spend that money on LOCAL TV. There also should be stipulations that they cannot simulcast. I buy cable so I can watch US TV, not so I can watch local TV. They should not be allowed to wreck the shows that I watch with their lousy switching and shitty commercials. The Super Bowl is the perfect example.

So I hope that they do not give them a red cent because they will just continue to take chicks off the pole to run cameras and the product will ultimately suck. Oh and most importantly just make me angry again. We all do not want that.

Sorry I got off on a bit of a rant here, but I needed to get that off my chest.

NEXT: Listen to the video below. It is a bit of Ferrel's broadcast from Game 7 of last years Stanley Cup final. Ferrel is a sports guy on Howard 101 on Sirius. He is a huge Penguins fan and this is quite possibly one of the funniest things I have ever heard on Sirius. Warning, there is a lot of swearing in this clip so if you are at work turn the computer down now.





Have a great weekend and a good new week...
Now GET BACK TO WORK...

Impromptu flight, NHL Playoffs, and Marty on Leno...

Okay, yesterday I had the, ahem, priviledge, to go for a flight to get some video of a train crash. Now, I don't generally like to fly but I won't usually try to get out of it. It is just that these flights, unless you are in a helicopter are not fun. In fact, back in Green Bay once, I was sent over to Austin Straubel to jump on a plane to get vid of a plane crash (usually two every year around the EAA) and before I could even get out of the NBC mobile commisary the pilot was telling me to go back and get someone smaller because, and I quote, "There ain't no way in hell you are gettin' in my plane."

So you can imagine my caution when I get the call to head over to Regina Flying Club to jump on a plane. I asked him how big the plane was and the assignment editor told me that a guy from Global TV is also going so it will be plenty big. Okay, no prob. Well I get over to the airport and I scan the runway and I don't see anything bigger than a Cessna. Not pleased.

I ask the guy inside which plane we are going on and he points me to this three seater job right in front of the window. Great, this is going to suck. Now if you have ever been in one of these planes you know that the wind pushes them around like an anorexic in a wind storm. So you need to have a bit of a strong stomach. Not only do I have that to contend with but I have to shoot video also. Not conducive to the lunch I just finished eating.

So I am running all kinds of scenarios through my head on how I can get out of this. So I ask him how much the assignment editor told him I weighed. The pilot said that David told him that I weighed 220. Well, yes I did weigh 220, BACK IN HIGH SCHOOL. That's right 1986 was the last time I weighed 220. Needless to say I informed him that I weighed considerably more than that and he then assured me that we were still okay for the flight. Damn.


He tells me to get in the front, which I do and I promtly break the seat. It now reclines a bit more than it should. The pilot also tells me not to bump the controls, which are conviently about an inch from my feet and my knees. Nice. Every time he tried to turn right he hit my knee. I am sooo dead.

Then he turned the thing on. That is when I started to think that this was my last assignment. This thing rattled and shook like Lindsay Lohan looking for her next fix. I was thinking that I needed to call and tell Donna goodbye and to make sure that she gives my signed Brett Favre football to the right person. I kept thinking about that old Canadian show called ENG where they were traveling on a plane up in the bush and the plane crashed and a reporter died along with a producer. All I knew was that I did not want to go out like this.

He got the bad boy off the ground and I immediately got into take a nap mode. When in doubt, sleep. I just did not want to be that guy who pukes on a plane. I could only imagine what that would be like in such a small shitty plane. It took about 40 minutes to get to the train derailment. After we got there the pilot was told that we had to stay up wind of the toxic chemicals and at about 5500 feet. Great, nice way to make pictures. So as you can see in the picture I was sitting on the right side of the plane. The crash was on the to the left of the pilot. We swung around so it was out the right sid of the plane and that left me with a huge ass camera and no way to see what I am shooting as the viewfinder is on the left of the camera.

We fly by a couple of times and as I am holding the camera in my lap and shooting the pilot is looking through the viewfinder of my camera to make sure I have the crash in frame all the while still flying the damb deathtrap plane. Great. He flew by three times and I knew I had all I needed and I was also getting a bit queasy from the hair pin turns. So I said lets go back to Regina. The Global guy in the back asked if we could go by a couple more times, ass. For some reason they decided to send up a guy who had never run a camera before. Brilliant. For all of you who don't know, including the Global camera guy, you don't zoom in when you are shooting from a plane. If you zoom in you will not have steady video. Well he did a lot of zooming and had no usable video.

We got back in one piece and my video was fine. No puking for me, but man did I go straight for the junk food when we hit the ground. I needed something to make me feel good. Moral of the story, don't fly in a plane that you are bigger than and don't zoom in whilst you are in the air shooting something on the ground.

Okay, now on to my predictions for the NHL Playoffs. Whooooooo, I love this time of the year. I know Robby DuPuis of the Minneapple DuPuis used to just buy cable once a year during the playoffs. I am going to make this short and sweet because I need to get a call into Mike Chaussee so I can put him on TundraTalk the Podcast.

EASTERN CONFERENCE

(1)Montreal vs Boston(8) - Okay not fond of either of these teams so I will just pick by the ranking and go with the Canadiens.

(2)Pittsburgh vs Ottowa(7) - Now we all know that I always pick the team with a former Gambler on it. Ty Conklin plays for the Penguins so thus I pick the Penguins. I want to see a former Gamblers name on the Stanley Cup. Sorry Mitch.

(3)Washington vs Philly(6) - Again, not to concerned with this series but I do know that Washington has been hot lately and Philly has not. But I am going to go with Philly just because.

(4)New Jersey vs NY Rangers(5) - In the battle of New York I will take Hauser's team. Not fond of the Devils, they are evil.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

(1)Detroit Red Wings vs NashVegas(8) - Okay, we all know that I hate the Dead Wings and their crappy red jerseys, but I am thinking that they will deal Nashville a loss in the first round.

(2)San Jose vs the Godless Flames(7) - Screw the Flames. Sharks in 4.

(3) Minnesota vs the Colorado Avalanche (6) - We all know that the Avs will give the Wild the Finger. Jeff Fingers name on the Cup would be AWESOME. Avs in 6.

(4)Anaheim vs DallASS Stars(8) - Here is another series that I wish both teams would lose. I will go with DallASS because I do not like the Ducks. Pronger is an ass.

Okay there you have my first round predictions. Call your bookie and put all you have on Colorado.

Last but not least I will leave you with this video. I have been wanting to put this up for a while but have not had time. Here is Marty Frey on Leno being questioned by Arsenio's freakishly large hands.

Enjoy.


Marty Frey and A Hall from hamiltongbp on Vimeo.

Now, I got stuff to do so GET BACK TO WORK!!!!