What I Hate About Small Markets

[Corporate Management]

I decided to keep up the trend, this time with a negative spin. Let's start with:

Spending three hours at an annual art fair with an intern, only to have her hack it to death with a machete in the edit bay.

[AZphotogr]

The gear.

[Curves Ahead]

Shooting 30+ takes on a stand-up that is wayyyyyyy too damn long and BEFORE any other part of the story has been shot and interviewed!!!! ... :confused: wait! That happened today! j/k

[exassignedphotog]

Having to be Weekend Assignment Editor/cheif photographer/webmaster/production tech/morning editor/shooter/whatever the hell at the current time.

Sharing gear

Do small markets ever buy more than 3 batteries?

telling a photog to shoot a VO of a county fair, there goes a shooter for the whole day, 4 hours later he checks in...

Shooting on DVCPRO-Editing down to hi-8 or 3/4 for playback

[ewink]

The money... Bleah.

Also the lack of resources and the fact you can go a whole week without any decent news.

[SoMissTV]

Um, how about watching crappy small-market newscasts?

[Crimson]

Originally posted by SoMissTV:
Um, how about watching crappy small-market newscasts? Ouch!!

[SeattleShooter]

What do you consider a small market??? Just curious?

As far as watching crappy small market newscasts...I have seen some big market newscast just suck as well!

But I agree. I would watch just for the comedy of it.

[Latin Lens]

Making like $7 an hour really blew.....

[HEY NOW]

spokane is a small market

[Mr. Boomstick]

....Boop Beep Beep Boooo.....

Oh my God! that was more than just one tone that gots to mean something really good just happened. Hurry!!! Go out and shoot it!

[Natural Born Stringer]

The mayor of your town is a donkey.

http://cozine.com/archive/cc2004/01270071.html

[JTFCM]

-The guy thats been kicked out of big market tv and thinks he knows it all now that he's working in market 353.

-The producer that used to be a news director and had a nervous breakdown now she won't take ANY chances.

-The 22 year old chief photographer.

-The 250 pass tapes.

-The dumb-blond assignment editor that thinks I need mapquest for every assignment, because the only thing she seems to be able to locate in town is the candy machine.

[SeattleShooter]

Originally posted by HEY NOW:
spokane is a small market That is what I thought. :D

[eyeshoot]

Police dept. that think they are hot $#@t, pay, old equipment, green reporters who use tape like it was a notepad. so called breaking news, a house fire. nope, don't miss it.

[Icarus112277]

I was fortunate enough to break in at #1, but at some point I am sure I will move to less populated place. Hopefulley by that point I'll be able to laugh the small town BS away and enjoy the small town pleasantries.

[Hank Scorpio]

$300 paychecks

the guy below the chief who tried to make everyone think he was important too

no CD players in the cars

no rain gear for the camera

only having 10 raw tapes a year

Having to shoot everything and edit everything on the weekend

not being able to afford good dope

not being able to afford good booze

not being able to pay rent

awful reporters

no 4WD in a snowy winter

the phrase: "Sorry guys no raises this year, that money has been re-purposed for the yearly oil change"

Having to show up at 9am Sat and Sun after drinking until 5am the previous night

no light kits

only one working Frezzi that would be fought over

only two lectrosonics wireless lav sets that are fought over too

frat boy sports guys who think they are still in college

jerks from Mizzou who think they know it all when they're olny 22

one hour of OT and your CP gets b!tched out by the bean counters.

**drumroll**

and the worst thing ever about small markets...

WHEN CORPORATE SHUTS DOWN YOUR NEWS DEPARTMENT.

[Icarus112277]

"not being able to afford good dope

not being able to afford good booze"

F the news dep't

If I don't have a way to forcefully take my mind out of work for wahile I will go crazy...sad part is I am serious

[micaelb]

I'll try to spin the negative spin of this thread...
Here in Market 73 we have 10 full time photoj's who have:
Take home gear.
All but one has a 4WD SUV to drive home.
All have light kits. Even sports.
All have Lectro 200 series wirelesses except one who has a 195.
6 Newscutters and playback is an Airspace server.
A helicopter.
Sat truck and live trucks.
Travel? I've been to 10 countries and about 40 states on assignment. The lastest was covering Katrina in Louisiana and when NBC (Lester Holt, Kerry Sanders and crew)needed some tape and a feed machine for aerials from St. Gabriel it was the crew from market 73 who helped them out.

Too many Mizzou grads at times, we try to keep it under 3.

We have days when the stories aren't exciting but I've watched big market shows that have the same stuff in them. Oh, the Iowa Caucuses are here, is that a big story?

Good dope and good booze are expensive everywhere.

My commute is 20 minutes.
I saw all my son's soccer games last year.
My boss thinks the world of the photoj's here.
OT concerns come and go but if it's a big story we do what we need to do.
Life ain't perfect but it's not bad either.

[Branden.]

Why would anyone try to spin a thread positive?

You must be an NPPA member.

[Hank Scorpio]

Originally posted by micaelb:
I'll try to spin the negative spin of this thread...
Here in Market 73 we have 10 full time photoj's who have:
Take home gear.
All but one has a 4WD SUV to drive home.
All have light kits. Even sports.
All have Lectro 200 series wirelesses except one who has a 195.
6 Newscutters and playback is an Airspace server.
A helicopter.
Sat truck and live trucks.
Travel? I've been to 10 countries and about 40 states on assignment. The lastest was covering Katrina in Louisiana and when NBC (Lester Holt, Kerry Sanders and crew)needed some tape and a feed machine for aerials from St. Gabriel it was the crew from market 73 who helped them out.

Too many Mizzou grads at times, we try to keep it under 3.

We have days when the stories aren't exciting but I've watched big market shows that have the same stuff in them. Oh, the Iowa Caucuses are here, is that a big story?

Good dope and good booze are expensive everywhere.

My commute is 20 minutes.
I saw all my son's soccer games last year.
My boss thinks the world of the photoj's here.
OT concerns come and go but if it's a big story we do what we need to do.
Life ain't perfect but it's not bad either. Good spin, micaelb. Indeeed there are positive things about small markets. But in contrast market 73 is mich bigger than most. When I posted my list that was representative of a 130ish market. It was rough there, man.

I'll bet things are much more different in Mason City than in Des Moines.

[SmlMktChief]

OK, y'all have hacked, and hacked very well, by the way. But here is how it is in market 158...

All Photogs have take home gear AND cars.
All Photogs have Lectrosonic wireless.
All Photogs have cars LESS than 3 yrs. old.
(1 with 4WD)
10 Raw tapes a month, not a year.
All the OT you can handle.
Our newest Reporter, got here 3 yrs. ago.
The ability to turn a crappy Rporter into an award winner in a few months.
Etc, Etc...
Pretty much, if I want it, I get it.
Yea, the money still sux, but not for me.
(Cost of lving is real low)

If you can't afford to pay rent...QUIT buying dope and booze.
Oh wait...booze is a requirement.

[SmlMktChief]

I almost forgot...
Brand new, state-of-the-art Studio and Master Control AND a virtual set!

[Tim78]

What's a virtual set? Is that inside a virtual station???

[Tom Servo]

Originally posted by Hank Scorpio:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by micaelb:
[qb]
I'll bet things are much more different in Mason City than in Des Moines. It's not TOO bad. Cars are all relatively new, except the live truck. Yes, there's only one live truck, no sat, no chopper, and yes that sucks but for the market size we've got decent stuff. Couple'a '04 Grand Cherokees, the rest are Escapes, all 4wd. Yeah, they all have CD players.

Not enough gear, and the cameras and glass are CHEAP beyond belief, but each set of gear has a wireless and a shotgun which is more than I can say for some of the other stations in this market. And since the other stations shoot on the same cameras/glass that we do, that puts us a notch ahead.

We even have a non-linear bay when it's working ;)

And the people at my station are great - good attitudes, and everyone really tries to make a good product.

But yeah, a sat truck might be nice ;)

[Lensmith]

Originally posted by Tim78:
What's a virtual set? Is that inside a virtual station??? http://www.csudh.edu/televisionarts/images/BlueScreenVirtualSet.jpg

[SmlMktChief]

Good explanation, Lensmith.

We have the capability to put ANY background behind the Anchors that we need. Pretty cool!

[Branden.]

http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/IMAGES/SMALL/GPN-2000-001131.jpg

Don't mess with TX.