"They" didn't like it...

[Rad]

Here's the background:

Monday I'm called early to come in to the morning meeting. They "need" me to turn a day-of OMB anchor pkg. Their pitch; Fort Brag Soldiers will be part of a country music video being shot on post today, they want the pkg for 5pm.

I call Bragg, in true Army fashion, here's the deal: (one hour travel time to Bragg) Be at the Gate at 11:30am... all media will be escorted in and out as a group. Video shoot starts around 2:30pm, depending on weather. Be prepared to stay on post 4 to 5 hours. Obviously, this would not make air today.

So it's a no-go.

Then the GM comes in the meeting... says there is a Tesla Sports car coming by the station, might make a good video op. I jump at it. I get outside, I have 45 minutes to shoot (and can't get the car out on the highway). But I've watched a few episodes of Top Gear in my life and think to myself "I can pull this off."

Return to the station and tell them I can pkg this! Thay say No, we need you to take a sat truck south.

With a pkg already in the camera, I write and edit between other assignments. Crank out a pkg and offer it up as a hold piece.

It sits on the shelf all week, then finally airs today buried in the second half-hour of the noon news. I'm told "It's too different from the rest of our product".

That's the point.

So with apologies to Top Gear... Here it is: http://www.wral.com/business/video/7645558/

Your thoughts?

 

[editor_dude]

Very nice, the only thing missing is the STIG.

 

[Baltimore Shooter]

Yeah very nice, except for the guy at the fruit stand on weather he'd buy one or not. But very nicely shot & edited.

Warren

 

[Rad]

except for the guy at the fruit stand on....

Warren

Well I had to find a way to shoe-horn a "real" person in there... But thanks, I thought it was different. It was at least, outside my usual style.

 

[elvez]

I liked it. Shoulda saved it for today with the Toyota announcement.

 

[shootist]

I love the piece, Richard. Any fan of Top Gear would see the very well executed homage. I would have preferred a "Jeremy Clarkson" reporter as opposed to the "James May" you had...but I know I'm just being picky.

Honestly, I'm impressed how you can have that vision and execute it in that time frame with the other stuff happening. I'm not impressed with all the decision-makers at your shop.

We also stick quite firm to our brand (hard, breaking news, severe weather etc...) but we're also lucky to have enough venues to accommodate whatever style the piece might be.

A long sports feature won't work on our primary show where the whole sportscast is 2:00 but the 10:00 news we produce for the local Fox station has a 15:00 nightly sportscast.

A piece might have :10 or :20 edited out to fit a formula and hit "clicks" to maximize ratings...but the longer version can play just fine on our weekend morning newscasts. In fact, I prefer the weekend morning newscasts because a piece I liked might air 3-4 times. It's amazing how many people see my stories on weekends that aren't home in time Monday-Friday.

Sorry to ramble...point being at our shop second half of the noon is what I call the "Jimmy Hoffa" slot (No one will EVER find it there). What a shame.

Great Piece, though!

 

[dhart]

The new Tesla sports car has 6,800 lithium ion battery cells and goes 0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds.

So what happens if one the 6,800 lithium ion cells goes bad Your mileage may vary...

 

[cameragod]

Its nice and well shot but it feels more like an ad than a news story... not that I can think of a station that wouldn't run it because of that.

Kinda reminds me of the time I was sent out with the weather girl to shoot monster trucks and when we showed the ND what we had done his comment was "But where is the hard news angle?"
No he was not joking.

Sometimes I think we should show stuff that is just pretty to look at and that's no bad thing... good work I liked it.

 

[Rad]

Thanks.... I gotta get over it. I start a new project for the sumer next week and wanted to to break the mold... but now I guess I'll just stick to the format.... or not.

 

[cameragod]

Just been out on a shoot and you story inspired me to go all 'Top Gear' on it's ass. Handed it to the editor and received a blank look of incomprehension... I tried to explain how I shot it and how I would like it cut and he shrugged "I might be able to do something if one of the other story's falls over."
At that point I would have cut it myself but I don't know their system... also they were only paying for a half day and I had family stuff to do... sigh.
Fingers crossed.

And thanks Rad, no matter how they cut it I had fun shooting it, so that's a win in my book.

 

[cameragod]

Well here is how they cut it

No time-laps, no panels, no pull focus, wrong building file footage... all so very not Top Gear ... but the head Sports Guy phoned me up today at home to say how much they liked it... which was very much!
So you lose some you win some but its how you shoot the game that matters.

 

[Lensmith]

Really nice job...too bad it was such a cloudy day!

 

[Sore Shoulder]

I thought you did a good job. I love Top Gear and could see the influence.
My only problem was the lack of nat sound. I know it's a quite car, but let me hear it.

 

[zac love]

I thought you did a good job. I love Top Gear and could see the influence.
My only problem was the lack of nat sound. I know it's a quite car, but let me hear it.

I agree that even a "silent" car will make some noise. I wasn't too much a fan of the masking around the entire package. It felt like when people make an image B&W just "because" they want it to look different.

While it looked like a commercial for the car, I also think you missed a point that while it is a $100k+, it performs as well as cars that cost 2-3x as much.

 

[Tv Shooter]

It was just fine the way it is....did you at least get to take the wheel for a few minutes?

 

[Frank McBride]

I guess I'm just conditioned to expect a story, and I didn't get one here. The bed of music, lack of nat sound, liberal use of edit effects and the lack of a news angle have me agreeing with your managers as far this not belonging in a newscast.

Aside from that, it was shot very creatively, you used some impressive techniques cutting it and you obviously had a clear vision going in which you saw through. Lots of skill is on display here. I'm just not convinced it's news.

FMc

 

[SimonW]

I agree that even a "silent" car will make some noise.

The Tesla is anything but quiet when you mash the pedal to the floor! It sounds quite unlike anything else and would have made for great sound if it could have been recorded.

Overall I liked the piece and I applaud trying something different. Personally I would have toned down the vignette effect and used different music. But I appreciate this was made in a really quick turnover. Utterly amazing how some stations don't like anything outside the 'normal' way of shooting. I'm surprised nobody there picked up on the fact it was done as a sort of homage to TG.

 

[wtv]

Loved it, well done.

 

[couryhouse]

can not see video for some reason... direct link to video it self?

see the rest of the page... and I want to watch it!

 

[Rad]

Great feedback here... I had some wireless mic issues during the shoot, and I'm wondering if the cars electrical system could have caused some interference.

Ed, The video is still there, so you may want to try the link again.