Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Back from the Future!

I am back up and running and have sorted out some computer problems that have messed with me for a month.

Comflm Registry News, was at the Democratic Convention. I was able to get Chris Noonan Funnell to come again. She has her own blog and will be working on her posts. I am the videographer and so my efforts were to post video. Please visit http://comflmregistrynews.blip.tv/, for my updates.

I will say my observation was correct to wish I had been able to cover the Republican Convention as Press. I did learn the ropes of what goes on first hand, and to my conclusion I operate better as a Press Vehicle.

I can just ramble on the experience as my mind is on overload on the whole thing. I want to convey some things however as the delay from attending and reporting is excruciating wait time. People just want the facts and nothing but the facts. That is what I want to convey.

So if I start at the beginning I can talk about the wall of traffic on that Friday afternoon. We started at 4pm and hit the pike. At 5pm we were at the Waltham 128 exit. We still had time to get there before the Press doors closed at 7pm so we thought. We made one pit stop for a coffee and kept going. At 640pm we were finally, in front of the DCU Worcester. I went in and made the connect. Of course there was an emergency at that moment and so I had my friend Chris with me to enter the building. She had time to park and come while waiting for the phones to clear.

Chris went to the Press Box upstairs and I decided to sit on the platform. There were only two other reporters there. One the DCU Videographer, and one a Fox News Videographer. I was sitting on the platform on the step portion. I taped with my Sony DVD camcorder thinking the next day would be better on the JVC Harddrive camera in case it went long that one tapes 5 hours. The coloring was off however on the Sony. I need to get that corrected somehow. The JVC usually over colors and so the two are something to be reckoned with in the split second of capture. I had an over zealous person reminding me not to go up and down on the platform once the Convention began so I used the monopod and had some destabilizing to deal with. Overall, it was great on the platform.

Day two we both decided to go to the Press Box. I assumed the staff would not appreciate my cameras as they are not the big heavy cameras. I have disability issues and so that is not a good fix for me. I use the small cameras. I am not TV ready. I am just reporting for record.
I brought my dubbing machine and proceeded to set up an area in the seating area. We got two seats near the end. I had a plug under the chair, my own shock absorb plug, and we were set to go. I fastened my JVC to the chair in the cup hole on a monopod. That way I could use the small tripod to stabelize my wandering captures. It was great however, being on the end, allowed some to decide to stand and sit on the cords which can back fire the cameras and kill them. I caught them and spoke to them but they still wanted to do it. I could have hooked the camera on the next seat as well. Learning experiences are really tedious tense trouble. And of course some decided to use the camera as a hold on to exit the step and that moved my focus while I was out and off the object taping. I had taped some tape to the pole but needed some flexion to turn it at times. That flexion was the area they could mess with my shoot. Oh well, the sound was the best ever for one of my camcorders.

Sound was over loud in the DCU back of the camera podium. In front the people could not hear. I decided to only wander behind and up to the front of the podium to keep my sound accurate.

As for plugs there were plenty of outlets. As for internet ?? no plugs wifi.. was problematic and had to be assisted to get on. No sound box in the downstairs Press Room. Anyone like WGBH had to be near the Press first floor area to get a boom box.

When I encountered the above problems I decided to keep my wandering to a minimum. I lost my packet three times and so missed the entire Press Conferences all day. That was one of my biggest things. But my coverage was great. I wanted Candidate coverage. Will have to rely on big media for that one.

Overall, the experience was awesome. The DCU had awesome food for the Press. In spite of the comments from the speakers, we were wined and dined to not care. I took a shot of the table of food. I was impressed. No chips to be found. Just good wholesome food and of course soda.

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