DAY 6

Since most of my life consists of me doing stupid things and other people making fun of me, I might as well throw myself to the wolves...

I got glasses today. Stop. Don't laugh. Ok fine, laugh it up. I admit it, there is something funny about a photographer who can't see. Afterall, it is my job to shoot good LOOKING video. I've already been called Granny-J so unless you've got something better then that, don't even bother! I'm not completely blind. Just far sighted. As my new saying goes, far sighted is better then no sighted...


Ok, that was lame. I'm done. Back to how I feel about the glasses... I really don't have anything against glasses. Seriously, I don't. On some people glasses can be sexy. Glasses can make dumb people at least look smart. And four eyes are always better then two. But I'm not a glasses person. To me, they are like the reporter who has to send just one more email, when you really should have been out the door five minutes ago heading to breaking news. They slow me down. It has been less then a day since I've gotten them, and I've already lost them twice. I'll sit down to do something, realize I don't have my glasses, and take fifteen minutes to locate them. I might have to work on that.


Today is just another day at the shop. After our exhausting day yesterday, I'm glad there is no big news going on today. GM announced it is closing 42% of its' dealerships nationwide, but isn't releasing a list to the media. What exactly does that mean? Well, in a nutshell, we are at the mercy of the owners to tell us whether or not they've been nixed. Lucky for us, we only have 4 GM dealers in the city. My reporter starts making phone calls, and almost immediately realizes that the information we need might be difficult to come by. The first dealer says he is definitely not on the list, but names someone, who in his opion should be. The next dealer says he hasn't gotten news yet, and so on.


For a photog, this lack of concrete information so early in the game is both good and bad. It's good, because I have time to finish my coffee for the first time in a week, check my emails, write up broken equipment, and archive my stories from the past few days. Don't get too excited, here comes the bad! Sitting around all mornings almost definitely means a rushed, and exhausting afternoon. Here is why...


Five pm, is five pm, whether you've had forty-five minutes to work on your story, or six hours. Five pm doesn't care that you've worked as fast as you can and didn't have time to finish. Five pm doesn't slow down because the information we released too late in the afternoon for you to put together a good package. Nope, five pm comes anyways. And you know who else doesn't care, your boss!


So while I'm enjoying my relaxing morning, in the back of my head I know that I'm going to pay for it with a hectic afternoon. And that's exactly what happened. At three we get word that a dealer will talk. My reporter and I jump in the truck and head all the way accross town for the interview. On our way she puts in another round of calls to the ones who hadn't heard yet. Four questions later, we are done with the interview and shooting back to the station to try and get all this together before the five pm show. If it takes us twenty minutes to get back, I'll have forty minutes to edit a vsv for the five, and another for the six, and still make our liveshot. I know that sounds like a lot, but it's not!


My reporter now has confirmation that three of the four definitely are not closing, but the last one doesn't seem to want to return our phone call. Anybody will a brain in their head can probably guess why. But our story has to stand without that information because it hasn't been confirmed. It is one of those instances where I know the truth, and you know the truth, but we can't actually say the truth. Dumb.

Luckily I'm a pretty fast worker... especially when the only video I have to work with is static shots of parked cars. Not exactly my best work, but heck, I'm still tired from yesterday. We get our live shot up with time to spare, and I take a second to glance out over the city that we are situated above. Somehow, almost as if the view is a calming magic, the day is put in perspective. The bore, the rush, the frustration. I realize I don't have it so bad. Afterall, I'm getting paid to enjoy the view.