The thing I've learned is that the basics don't change...
Jeremy, you have stepped into a hornet's nest here. The truth of the matter is that your idea for an iPhone liveshot is solid for the story. However, people have a tough time applying the TRUTH of things to the rest of the world.
The truth is, quality. Period. You can't fake it. And quality on all cylinders. That means prep, story, photography, ideas, writing, and overall execution.
Anything less is failure town.
If you push the envelope, you hand it out there to them, they'll take it, make money off of you for it, and you endanger yourself into the land of STUPID MANAGEMENT MANDATES that destroy content in the name of SUPER-COOL-CAPABILITIES. I'll give examples in a sec.
I was one of the original VJs. I suffered through the painful changes, and learned a basic rule: when game changers arrive, they often don't actually change the game because management is too stupid to understand what to do with them, and they just cause failure. Most people are too shortsighted, and ultimately, too stupid to see that in free television, quality is the most important commodity. Reducing the quality of what you're doing, at any time, is a turn off. All of us old fogeys now realize that. We fear our managers in newsrooms (except my current one) and know that most are really not smart enough to see how a tool should be applied.
I learned this the hard way.
Sure, it was appropriate, and it worked for the story.
The problem is, that you give your managers enough rope to hang you with.
They're at a loss for ideas, and when you give them one, even a half-baked one, they'll run it into the ground until failure. And failure in television is literally weeks away.
Managers are, no matter what podium of higher thinking we put them on, just as stupid as the rest of us, and less connected.
Examples:
1. We had a Magid consultant tell us at one of my stations that we needed to 'use the live trucks more.'
Solution: Live shots on every story. Required. (Soon, the Magid consultant said, "Hey, really, um, you didn't have to do every story with a live shot. No. Seriously. Calm down.) It was too late to change. It was AUTO-MANDATED.
2. I was at a Fox station on Sept. 11th.
Solution: We love America more than you. Point casting for specific political parties. It was a political move instead of a tech one. Yeah, that worked out. STUPID-AUTO-MANDATED.
3. Newer cameras come out, the station group is bankrupt, and the web has just been discovered by an old fogey at the glass corner office at the top of the building... sooo...
Solution: Go VJ. Everyone gets a small camera. No more assignment desk (direct suicide with the public). Everyone shoots and edits. Don't worry about the details, just finish a story. STUPID-MANDATED.
Those are just my bonehead management mistakes that I was privy to. Many suffer on offices where, every night, regardless of how good a story is, the nightsiders must do a four, five, and six, and then start a new one for ten... MANDATED. Say, the governor was busted at four, five, and six for bribery.
This is a conversation those stupid shops get into:
"Why can't we do the governor?"
"The anchor is doing the governor as a VOSOT. It already ran as a package."
"But not everybody watches the 4 through 6! It's my story. Pack the governor!"
"Look, you have to change every night. You're the off-B lead. Cat show. It's a rule."
What I am saying is this:
Just do yourself a favor and when the next stupid twentysomething producer says, 'We don't have a live truck working, could you go live from your iPhone?", you lie to them and make some technical 'matchstick man' routine about quarks and such, so that they can't use it.
You're embracing being the guy at the bar with the parrot on his shoulder, if you keep it up.
(Hot chick comes over at the grocery store) "Hey! You're the parrot guy, right?"
In short, would you be proud enough to put an iPhone liveshot on your resume reel?
Think about it.
Technology doesn't change content.
Don't let desk sitters destroy your content, which they will, almost invariably, the moment they discover new, AMAZING-SUPER-COOL capabilities.
That being said, interesting, and appropriate live shot.
