Anchorwoman Cancelled!

After mucho hype, marketing blitz mania and a ton of $$ spent promoting "Anchorwoman", it was cancelled after it's first two episodes that both aired back to back Wednesday.



The shows that will play in the timeslot for the next 3 Wednesdays are RE-RUNS of "Til Death". (!)(Re-runs, really, why?)



I liked "Anchorwoman". It was silly and slightly perverse, but like I wrote before, it is a malgomation of all things 'newsy'.



I guess the public just isn't ready for a behind the scenes look at Local TV News.



Hopefully they will be by the time Lenslinger writes that book. ;-)

Anchorwoman Real Reality

I watched, I laughed, I liked.



No, it may not the best idea to portray the inside baseball of a serious newsroom to your TV Audience, but I didn't see a single part of that show that hasn't happened to me in real life at some point, somewhere.



Several years ago here, a new weekend anchor/reporter was brought in, almost fresh off another reality show and other than the boobs, the blonde hair and mini-skirts, he wasn't much different than "Anchorwoman". Just like Lauren Jones, Jeff Varner had to learn news gathering from the ground up.



His first few times in front of the prompter were rough, his news gathering and writing in the field were raw, but his ambition and willingness to learn the craft outshined other reporters who came and went while he was still here. There were certainly some awkward moments just like in this show.



But by the time he left back in April, Jeff was a polished pro, reading his weekend news like a machine, and chasing other offers that were bound to come with his matured style. But on day one, we were all rolling our eyes at the 'Survivor' just like the the CBS19 employees in the first episode of "Anchorwoman".



Another colleague of mine came to mind watching "Anchorwoman". When Caron Myers started here in 2002 she had been out of TV for a while and her TV experience was mostly NASCAR related. She had to learn news gathering 101 from yours truely and when I saw Wilton take Lauren out for her first solo story I had to chuckle. The very first story that I took Caron out on when she started was to High Rock lake.



Caron was in high heels, we had to walk crazy distances to get the shots, and Caron got a taste of what real news gathering was all about.



It was tough at first for Caron but she did exactly what the Photog in "Anchorwoman" said. She listened and watched and learned, though I can remember Caron doing some of the same silly, "newsy" things that Lauren did on here first two stories.



But Caron learned quickly and today not too many reporters in the piedmont can hold a candle to her news gathering prowess.



I think it's fair that the one Anchor in the show is all worried about integrity, but in real reality this is how most young reporter/anchors get in the business. It's usually just behind the scenes in really small markets, there aren't ordinarly cameras following your every move and they aren't usually supermodels.



That usually trumps being a news anchor.

Signs - Hot Days

It's freakin' hot.

I wonder if the guy who made this sign made it on a day like this.



I'm not sure there is such a thing as a "GUAGE". I do know that it's supposed to be "Narrow Guage Road". (Edit -Damn, the heat must be getting to me...The correct road name is "Narrow GAUGE Road") It's wrong on both sides of this sign. The one on the next intersection is correct!



That was Wednesday. Thursday I shot one that read 107!

The official reading at the airport was 102.



It got really hot when sitting in one place too long. But even rolling down the road the temp only dropped to 100.

Essential Duties that Interrupt Sleep

Journalism is by no means a 9 to 5 job. Television Photojournalism is a step further from the daily bank hour grind. So I am awfully grateful that I've been lucky enough to have been a dayside photographer for 9 or so years now.

But I still get pleny of nightime and early morning assignments. You see, that's when the action is. The typical daytime, middle of the day stories are not as riveting on the surface. It generally takes a little more work to make daytime stories pop.

A lot of times I get my nightime action throught the on call system. It can be a blessing and a curse. It's an easy way to acrue a bit of O-T but it also can lead to sleep deprivation.

Just yesterday I got called out to yet another Greensboro shooting (2 in a week for me alone) at 4AM. The problem was in the fact that I was already planning a short sleep session having hit the sack at 2, only 2 hours prior to my callout.



The shooting was a robbery where the victim chased down the suspects, the suspects shot the victim and THEN when they fled they crashed into a brick wall.



It was easy stuff, I was done by 5 and I probably could have went back home and slept some more but I needed to finish some editing so I spent the next 3 hours editing. Finishing that around 8 I walked into my next assignment by visiting our assignment desk. They were about to call the other on-call guy when I spoke up to head that way.



A man fell asleep at the wheel and his pickup truck crashed head on into a church group headed to a beach retreat.



A woman from the church group was killed and 2 teens were seriously injured.



I wrapped up that shoot in about 45 minutes and handed off the video to another crew and headed towared home.

With only 2 hours sleep I was done and headed home. Unfortunatley I had a bunch of things to do around the house and I didn't get to bed until midnight. It was something like 36 hours with 2 hours of sleep.

Ojects Closer Than They Appear OUCH!!! Cameraman HIt at X Games

That right hand mirror on your car says it and the same can sometimes be applied to working through a viewfinder.

"Objects are closer than they appear."

Not that the cameraman in the following Clip from ESPNs XGames had much of a chance of dodging this one.

Someone once said, "If your pictures aren't good you aren't close enough."

He was doing his job for sure.

Like I said OUCH!

Vacation 2007 Done

I spent 2 weeks on vacation, returning to work just yesterday (Monday) and during the course of my time off I spent relatively little time watching TV, let alone seeing any news.



I didn't even have my laptop computer due to technical difficulties. (My kids broke it)



But I was in my hotel room Friday night and my heart sank when I saw the news from Phoenix and the helicopter crash.



I got caught up on all the details when I got home, watching and rewatching all the clips and analysis.



My heart certainly goes out to the families of those four.





I saw an interview today with the 14 year old son of Rick Krolak. That kid is holding up well. He loved his father and said he'd rather have 14 years with his father than 70 with anyone else. Wow!