Since I heard the shocking news of Robin Williams' death yesterday, I haven't been able to shake the feeling of a huge loss in my life. I started thinking about how I've never met the man, and yet, mourn his death as I would a good friend. But then I started thinking of all of the memories I have of Robin, and I realized, he's been with me my whole life.
From the time I was a small child, Robin was my babysitter and entertainer as Mork from Ork and Popeye. As I grew up, Robin was the inspiring teacher and mentor I wished I could have in Dead Poet's Society and Good Will Hunting. He was the doctor I wanted, should I have a deathly disease, in Patch Adams. He was the embodiment of the soul mate I longed for in What Dreams May Come. He was the soul of Peter Pan and not wanting to grow up in Hook. He was the kooky father figure we all wanted in The Crazy Ones, Mrs. Doubtfire and RV.
He taught me how to care about my fellow citizens with Comic Relief. He made me laugh at some of my darkest times with his comedy. He made me cry through some of his most heartwarming moments in his movies.
My mentor, my father figure, my friend. Thank you for all you have done for me and so so many others. May you rest in peace, and may your family find comfort in that your battle with your demons is finally over.
So maybe you've already heard of Boomer the Dog....
His story was the number one most viral video on MSNBC last week. Long story very short - a man named Gary Matthews is a furry. And a long time fan of a little known show called 'Boomer the Dog'. Gary is SUCH a fan, that he not only dresses like the main character, but asks people to call him Boomer as well. He wanted to make it legal. A judge denied his request as Gary is "not a dog".
So why is this story SO popular? Personally I think it is due to people's fascination of what furries do in their non-anthrocon fest time. And now that we know.....are we better off? I'm thinking...no.
One man bands are now ruling news control rooms. Ignite. This is the future of news control rooms. Gold help us. In a traditional news control room, you would have an audio person, a director, and a technical director. If you were super spoiled you would also have a CG operator that advanced your lower third graphics.
With Ignite -- there is just one person doing it all. Some stations are even trying to do away with robotic camera operators and truly have one man bands controlling the newscasts.
But Ignite is a Windows based application....and while newer versions have worked a lot of the kinks out....the older versions were teeming with issues..In the video above is a newscast that was broadcast from the parking lot due to a virus....and don’t even get me started on the blue screen of death!
Learning Ignite is a challenge for people used to pushing buttons. Where once you routed all of the sources by choosing each specific source button, Now everything is programmed, and Ignite Directors have to learn literally thousands of codes. A one character typo can lead to infamous errors on air like the one in the video of the anchor being caught sleeping ..which I did while in training. Do you think that because this was broadcast on Dateline is why he won’t friend me on facebook?
So back to Ignite.....You now have a timeline (similar to ones you see in programs like Final Cut or Avid) where all of these TME’s - or Timed Macro Effects - reside. As you step though the timeline, the audio and picture change based on what has been programmed. But here’s where you STILL have to manually punch things -
You may need to manually adjust an audio fader. You need to insert and take out lower thirds. You need to manually advance the lower thirds if you have more than one per story...as you do in MOST packages.
So...are you really saving steps? Nope. And some stations, like mine, have so many shows that they have to keep several Ignite Directors staffed at a time (since it is STILL illegal to not give bathroom breaks....here’s hoping that rule sticks around!). So why move your news on to a system that seems to have more issues than not? You got me! Your thoughts?
In the changing face of digital technology comes a new enemy to the quality of your news: the audio condenser. What this evil little box does is open any mic that is routed into it every time it hears a sound. Why does that matter? Oh....yea of little inside news information!
Your news anchors have little side conversations during main weather (and commercial breaks and packages as well...but those won't make it to air). They also cough, sneeze, clear their throats incessantly, and type like mad on the computer responding to the latest Facebook post. All of that will be added to your soundtrack of what you hear during the local news. Why are news stations going this route? Well...about 40% of local stations decided to go with an automation system in the past few years. And computers do EXACTLY what they are told (and we just LOVE that about machines...here's a wonderful example of that LOVE...but I digress)! So...computers...doing exactly what they are told to do..clip mics. Because the mic has to "ramp up" - which means the little slider (like you see in the above pic) has to go from 0 to whatever level you need it at to hear the anchor clearly - and the anchors try to keep a newscast as tight as possible - you have a clip of their mic at the beginning of every story. In comes the audio condenser to save the day!
So while news stations try to fix a computer with another computer (because humans cost too much...although they do the job correctly)...you get to hear all of the background noise that was previously reserved for just the studio crew. Lucky you! *cough*
Several years ago news viewers started hearing about their local stations newspaper exchange partners. Some people wondered why certain stations chose certain newspapers to align themselves, and why ALL local stations now seem to have one partner or several. Newspapers are hurting terribly in recent years. Weekly circulation is down almost 5 %. While the number or web viewers is on the rise, making money off of those viewers is proving difficult for newspapers and news stations alike. So why join forces in what seems to be a more competitive market for your viewership? The reason is quite simple: money.
The majority of news is originated and gathered by newspaper reporters. That fact hasn't changed much over the years. Add to that fact that newspapers and news stations alike are cutting staff to save money.....and partnerships (where a tv station pays a local paper for their information) makes sense.
Every market has a dominating tv station and a dominating newspaper. When the two align forces to bring you your news, it can be devastating to the other competitors. Don't be surprised in the next decade or two if you see these types of partnerships pushing the rest of competition out of the market completely, leaving just one set of news gatherers to bring you the news. Do you run the risk of news bias that way? ABSOLUTELY! But when the bottom line is staring them in the face do you really think the bosses care about something as small as fairness in news? Come on....be honest now!
In the center of every newsroom across the country lies a large desk, riddled with scanner chatter from the many speakers the lie on it. This is the assignment desk, where the majority of news gathering takes place. The assignment desk can make or break a station. If you have a successful one, where the workers, or assignment editors, are smooth at getting details out of local police stations, are adept in getting all of the details down from a viewers tip, or they catch every important thing that comes across the scanners, your local news station will be top notch at bringing you all of the breaking news of the day.
If the assignment editors are slow, or distracted -even for a moment- your newscast suffers. Take , for example, a recent story where someone jumped from a tall office building in Pittsburgh. While it came across the scanners, it was not an assignment editor who heard it, but rather a reporter sitting next to the assignment desk. Had he not been sitting there to bring that blip to someones attention, the station would have been scooped, and while they would have had the story later, later is the kiss of death in local news.
So the next time you call in a news tip and wonder why the person on the other end of the line sounds like they have a touch of ADD...just understand that that means they are good at running the assignment desk!
When I hear young people say they want to work in news.....my reaction is typically...shall we say...less than enthusiastic. It's not that the job market is lacking for them. On the contrary, for fresh young people right out of college willing to work long hours for little pay and no benefits the sky is the limit. It's just that - where do you go from there? The trend I see is these young people (replacing people with decades of experience due to retirements or the company pushing people out to save money) end up burning out on jobs that offer little job security. A few lucky ones do end up getting full time positions, but the majority of them change careers.
And why should any of this matter to you - the news viewer? Because as stations across the country lose experience to make way for these low paid workers, the quality of your newscast goes down as well. In the past 12 months I have literally had 5 people train on a newscast....and I say train figuratively. There is little actual training. It's more of a 'let's push you out of this boat and see if you can swim' approach. So the next time you are watching the news and see a typo, or hear a story that just doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense....you now know the reason why. And get used to youtube quality video. With the invention of the portable live shot , where quality takes a back seat to convenience, and the influx of viewer shot video, it seems this trend is here to stay.
In the changing face of digital technology comes a new enemy to the quality of your news: the audio condenser. What this evil little box does is open any mic that is routed into it every time it hears a sound. Why does that matter? Oh....yea of little inside news information!
Several years ago news viewers started hearing about their local stations newspaper exchange partners. Some people wondered why certain stations chose certain newspapers to align themselves, and why ALL local stations now seem to have one partner or several. Newspapers are hurting terribly in recent years. Weekly circulation is down almost 5 %. While the number or web viewers is on the rise, making money off of those viewers is proving difficult for newspapers and news stations alike. So why join forces in what seems to be a more competitive market for your viewership? The reason is quite simple: money.
