April Fools at work!

[marv3]

Played a jock on a producer today. Told her that the Feds caught me in a restricted area and they wanted the tape. Over my dead body I said. Well she flipped out tell she reallized what day it was. I'm know going to shot something in B.F.E. Anyone else do something special for today?

[TXPhotog]

They didn't believe me when I called in sick with a serious case of leprosy.

[Anton Saur]

Originally posted by TXPhotog:
They didn't believe me when I called in sick with a serious case of leprosy. I laughed my head off at that one.

[Filter_5]

My co worker and I got our hands on some small 2 way radios, put one behind the scanner and the other one in the hands of my co worker, proceeded to call in something about a double homicide 4 blocks from our station, at first it didnt work, until we did some clever photoshop work with an old News release from the local PD, faxed it to the station and the News Director took the bait.

We should do this on a more regular basis...

[<Silly Buggers>]

I considered turning all the mic' flags upside down and seeing if any one noticed before they shot some thing for air. People have been fired for less though.

[TXPhotog]

Originally posted by TXPhotog:
[qb] They didn't believe me when I called in sick with a serious case of leprosy. Originally posted by Anton Saur:I laughed my head off at that one. I'm sorry that I can't congratulate you more on that witty reply but I was on my shoot/lunch break.

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Woman discovers fingertip in salad


Austin, TX (AP) -- Talk about leaving a bad tip at the restaurant.

A 22-year-old woman found the severed tip of a thumb in her lunch salad at HandyMan Gourmet Burgers.

Gripright County Health Commissioner Bill Forefenger said a photographer doing a food review at the restaurant, in Austin, was using his Leatherman work tool Monday night. He was using the bonesaw on The Wave to cut through a piece of steak that he was eating on the side, when he cut off part of his left thumb, including part of the fingernail.

Employees searched for the fingertip, but could not find it. The area was cleaned and sanitized, but the lettuce was placed in a cooler and then used for salads on Tuesday.

"It wound up being served at lunch time Tuesday to a 22-year-old woman," Forefenger said.

She had eaten most of her salad when she put the fingertip in her mouth, Forefenger said.

She first thought it was a piece of gristle, a health department report said.

HandyMan spokesman Dwayne Tipisgone said employees, in their haste to get the injured man to a doctor, failed to follow the chain's procedures and throw out all food in the area.

"We clearly had a breakdown," he said. "We are incredibly sorry about what happened."

Tipisgone said he spoke with the woman. "She obviously was pretty upset," he said.

The photographer meanwhile, can no longer focus or macro correctly, "You try and iris up half a stop with half your thumb."

[flipflops]

I am going to Europe in a week for work and I told my ND that I can't fund my passport, he turned and looked at me and said "Keep Looking!"

[MOShooter]

Got a couple of our reporters with these:

Took a 12 min. DVCPRO tape (no one shoots on those) and pulled the tape out of it. Then, in full view of reporter #1, acted like the camera was having problems with the tape that we just got finished shooting on. His reaction was good, but too early in the day to worry too much about it.

Pretty much the same thing with reporter #2, except one of the edit decks "ate" it, with only a couple of hours to deadline. His antics of trying to salvage the tape are second only to the look on his face as he was handed the real tape. We were able to set this one up early enough to roll on it up close and personally without the reporter catching on.

[btsatman]

I had to take our sat truck to a military base. After I was gone a while, I called the desk and told them that as the dogs were sniffing it for the security sweep, they hit on something. I'm afraid it is only my bar-b-q grill (yes I carry everything in my truck), but they have evacuated the entire area, They are bringing in the bomb squad, and are getting ready to implode the sat truck.
No body in management thought that it was funny.

[SigLife]

About three minutes out from a live shot I told the producer I had to change batteries so she'd be seeing black for a few seconds. This producer is fairly new and hasn't done the booth for many shows, so I figured this would be a good way to break her in. Simply didn't turn the camera back on and asked if she saw picture.

"We don't see your picture...you're three minutes out, I need picture..."

"Weird, looks fine on my end...sure they've got me in master control?"

"Yes! I still see no picture!! I need the picture, we're almost two minutes out now!"

"Odd. Everything is fine here."

"I seriously don't see anything, I need to see your shot now."

Everytime she'd talk you could hear the fear in her voice. And really this conversation was better in person, because I could barely talk at all in it. Finally I turned the camera back on and said welcome to the show and April Fool's! She didn't like my joke...oh well. :)

[TXPhotog]

Originally posted by SigLife:
About three minutes out from a live shot I told the producer I had to change batteries so she'd be seeing black for a few seconds. This producer is fairly new and hasn't done the booth for many shows, so I figured this would be a good way to break her in. Simply didn't turn the camera back on and asked if she saw picture.

"We don't see your picture...you're three minutes out, I need picture..."

"Weird, looks fine on my end...sure they've got me in master control?"

"Yes! I still see no picture!! I need the picture, we're almost two minutes out now!"

"Odd. Everything is fine here."

"I seriously don't see anything, I need to see your shot now."

Everytime she'd talk you could hear the fear in her voice. And really this conversation was better in person, because I could barely talk at all in it. Finally I turned the camera back on and said welcome to the show and April Fool's! She didn't like my joke...oh well. :) That's one that's always fun to do to those panicky producers and directors. You punch up black, static, or bars and then wait about 30 seconds when you think they have noticed and are at the paging system ready to send you that "WHERE'S YOUR PICTURE??!! WE NEED IT ASAP!!" then punch the picture back up.

[livedownunder]

This makes a good April Fool's prank. I had our main newsreader worried just minutes before going to air, when I switched the inversion switch on the prompter's monitor ... all the words were in "mirror mode". I had him convinced that there was nothing that could be done, and that he would have to do his best by reading the mirrored words.

[<hmmmm>]

Odd.. I swore I posted a reply to this.. and now it's gone?

[Icarus112277]

Well... it didn't happen but our MC guy was going to mess with our AD. Our AD counts the MC to break during our 2 hour live show. When the AD started to count to our last break the MC guy was going to tell him that we were out of breaks. It would have been hilarious...but he definitel;y would have gotten fired.

An April Fools from another joob where I was MC:
We were an independent production house which produced and distributed our own programming to the nets. Our second most important show would be shot from a various location Tuesday night, the tapes flown back to base over night, and the show edited all day Wednesday and fed to CBS Wednesday night. The producers always went late, as trhe show was very nerve racking. The second they were wdone we would start feeding the tape out.

So one week we got a blank digibeta and undid all the screws. When he came in and gave us the first reel (it was a 2 reel show) we slid the 'worked' tape into the case. We went into the edit room to tell him thwere was a problem with the tape. As my coworker was handing the producer the tape, he let it drop- as it hit the floor, the case spilled out and ape went everywhere. The editors and APs **** their pants, but the producer (who waas cool as hell) somehow just knew it was a prank and started laughing.

[D.St.]

When I used to work weekends at my NBC station in the late 1990's (when NBC still had NFL and NBA), we often had no weekend 6pm news-just an 11pm. Often, the sports anchor would come in around 6 or so, put together his show, and would take a nap in the sports office.

Once, when he was asleep (about 10:15pm), I went and cued up an aircheck from the week before to the weather segment, which comes right before sports. When the sporto was asleep in his T-shirt and shorts, I stuck the tape in the VTR and pressed play. I also changed the clocks in the office to reflect the time upon which weather would air.

I promptly woke the sporto and said, "Dude, you better get a move-on. They're wrapping up weather." His eyes bugged up for a second, but he looked at his watch and noticed I was cracking-up. He also noticed the tape rolling in the VTR. He completmented me on the nice try, but I could tell that at least for 3 seconds, his heart wasn't beating.

I'll try again next sporto.