Different Video Format

Someone mentioned that he could not watch the Sunken Gardens video I posted in Windows Media Format. Flash video (FLV) seems to be the most universally viewable format. Unfortunately, my Adobe Premiere Pro refuses to create FLV files. I found a program that will convert AVI files into FLV files so I've tried that.

Dear Abby

My web site JohnMcQuiston.com draws emails from people wanting to know how to find jobs in TV news. I reply to all of them. Occasionally, I'll get a question that I've addressed thoroughly on my site and I give the direct link. Otherwise I'll take a stab at any query to which I might offer a reasonably educated guess. I traded several e-mails over last weekend with a college senior.

Gavin:

Thanks for visiting my site. I'm glad you found useful information. See my attempts to answer your questions below.

John McQuiston

----Original Message Follows----
From: Gavin
To: johnmcq@hotmail.com
Subject: Q&A
Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2007 09:40:51 -0700 (PDT)

To John McQuiston,

My name is Gavin, and I'm a senior at the State University of (a large northeastern state). I've been checking out your website for a long time. And I must say that it's very good information you give to propspective Broadcast Journalist like myself.

Anyway, as I mentioned, I'm a Broadcast Journalism major and I graduate in May of 2008, and I want to ask you a few questions:

1. How do you dub a resume tape?

This depends on how your create your master tape, the one from which you'll make your dubs, so it is difficult for me to answer. When I sent out tapes I had found a way to attach a VHS videotape player to my computer so I could dub straight from my computer. If I had to do it now, I would probably connect the VHS recorder through a Mini DV camcorder to the computer using a firewire cable.

2. How many should I be sending out to TV stations across the country?

As many as it takes to get your first job. I do not recommend sending them blindly. Send them either in response to job ads or to stations in markets you're specifically targeting -- say ones you would like to visit trying to show your tape to a news director in person.

3. What markets should I be searching for before I send the Resume tapes out?

Get a list of market size rankings. A Google search ought to lead you to something. Look at small markets likely to hire beginners. It's hard to give a specific market size for that since some stations in small markets require previous experience and some in top-100 size markets do not. Do some research to find the websites of the stations. Most list job openings on their sites and they'll indicate how much experience they seek. I would also look for small market stations within easy driving distance and try to arrange meetings with the news directors to show them your tape. That's how I landed my first TWO jobs.

Try in your remaining time in school to get an internship at a local station, if you have not already. Heck, do it even if you have had an internship already, if that's possible. You'll meet people who can help you both learn the craft and navigate the job search process.

John

He follows up later that day with another round of questions.

Hello again, Gavin. Answers below.

1. The Studio Manager here at (my school) told me that News Directors are looking for Resume Tapes in DVD's now. Is that true?

Some do. But my understanding is that VHS tape is still the standard. Most job ads specify what formats stations will accept for resume "tapes."

2. Is Charleston, South Carolina considered a small market? Not to mention, it ranks #100.

Any station ranked 100 or lower is considered a small market. However, not all small markets hire beginners. Even within a market the experience level required can vary among stations. A good way to check is to visit stations' web sites and look for the bios of the news team. If the people have worked at other stations before this one, it's likely not an entry-level station. If the bios indicate where people came from, that will yield clues to stations you can target.

3. Is it possible that I start out in my hometown which is Albany, New York or just go to a smaller market?

I don't know enough about Albany to answer for sure. Are you unusually talented? Is someone in Albany aware of your skills and interest who has the authority to hire you? If not, you'll probably have to start smaller and work your way up.

Good luck.

John McQuiston

The following day he writes back with more questions.

Gavin: Here you go:

1. Does a news reporter have to know Non-Linear editing?

Probably. I'm not sure how many small market stations have moved to non-linear editing. You will almost certainly need to know linear (or "tape-to-tape") editing.

2. If I decided to start in Radio news, which I'm still considering, but I still want to do TV, how do Radio News Reporters make a transition to TV news? Meaning where do they get their resume tape from if they want to work in TV, but started in radio?

I detail some of the possible ways to create a tape on my web site JohnMcQuiston.com. Here is the specific page.

3. Do you think I have to start out as a one-man band when I do my job search?

Yes. Not all entry-level reporting jobs require you to shoot your own stories but many of them do. It will make you more marketable if you can list on your resume an ability to shoot and edit your own stories.

John

High School Football

First thing: I figured out why all the videos were automatically playing once they loaded. Even better, I figured out how to make it stop. It annoyed me too.

Friday night I went to a high school football game a few miles away from me. Armwood vs. Plant. It's the first football game I've shot with my not-so-new-anymore camera. I shot it in standard definition since the high school show for which I do stories is in standard def. I didn't have a story assignment going into this one but one of the schools is a perennial state powerhouse and the other was a defending state champion. The video could prove useful later but a couple of shots will make me regret not shooting in HD to use as future stock footage. You'll see what I mean. Lesson learned.

As always, click the play button (you might have to do it twice) then be patient.

Whew!

I hadn't written about Monday's day doing traffic at WTSP and you might have construed the silence to mean disaster had happened. Fortunately, no. It went a little more smoothly than Friday, though the rust still shows.

More explanation and a couple of clips in the video file below. It's in Windows Media format and it's going to take a while to load after you click on the play button.


Portions courtesy WTSP-TV

Later today, I go to WEDU, Tampa's PBS affiliate, where we're scheduled to edit my first story for A Gulf Coast Journal. Considering I made my first arrangements to shoot this story in May, I'm especially eager to finally finish. I'm also curious to see how such a disconnected procedure comes together. I shot it with a photographer I met for the first time when he arrived at the shoot. The station mailed me DVDs of the tapes and I logged them and wrote the script at home by myself. The script approval process with the show producer happened by e-mail. E-mails with WEDU's production coordinator set our edit dates. Then I sent the script to the program's host Jack Perkins for him to record the narration. A brief e-mail exchange is the only interaction we had. He e-mailed an mp3 file of the recording to the station. Separately, I e-mailed a copy of the script to the editor, whom I had not met until yesterday. We were supposed to edit then but the editor got sidetracked by other projects. I was glad to learn that he had received the script and Jack's narration and it all made sense.

The story should be largely finished by the time I can get to the station after work today. I hope that the show producer correctly assessed the editor's ability to work unsupervised. If so, and the story turns out well, I'll want to produce more of them. Let's get this one finished first.

TV Traffic Anxiety

I survived traffic again. I realize that's what I always say when I fill-in doing the traffic reports on WTSP-TV but that's the truth of it. After a few fitful hours of sleep, my alarm clock jars me awake 3:10 a.m. and I bolt out of bed before I give myself the chance to fall back asleep. That's the single biggest source of anxiety surrounding the job: Failing to show up.

I worry about whether the computer will work. I worry about whether I'll remember how to work the computer. I worry about remembering the anchor's names. I worry about saying something stupid enough to land me on YouTube. But mostly I worry that I'll wake up 20 minutes before I'm supposed to go on the air at a TV station that's a 25 minute drive away.

This morning was my fourth day this year. I joked off camera that Meredyth Censullo, the regular (and very good) traffic anchor, gets separation anxiety when she's away from work for too long. I was only half kidding. Before I landed the job as her backup, she had happily worked more than a year without a day off. Since I started, her longest absense has been four days. And that was for a family emergency.

So I'm rarely there. Adding to the strangeness is the fact that I do not watch the program on which I occasionally appear. I don't have cable or satellite TV at home and WTSP's signal comes in very poorly. Plus, if I'm awake before 7 a.m., I'm at the gym or on the way there. It adds up to an almost surreal experience. I get up at an ungodly hour and drive to a foreign place to do a job I've done only a handful of times. At least I'm familiar with the roads I'm talking about or it would be Twilight Zone weird.

Why do a job that apparenlty causes me so much anxiety? A few reasons. It's another way to stay in touch with the business. It looks good on a resume. The people at WTSP have treated me wonderfully. And if I can't relax enough to enjoy doing the job, I do feel good once I've finished and can say I survived. That's accomplishment enough.

A Scam Indeed?

I got an interesting piece of mail yesterday that immediately screamed "SCAM!" at me.

An outfit calling itself "FL Certified Deed Services" sent me a letter offering me a "Certified Copy of your Deed." "If you don't already have this important document," the letter states, "you should obtain one NOW." Conveniently enough, FL Certified Deed Services will do it for me for a mere $65.00, plus $4.95 for shipping and handling.

Let's forget for a moment that I can call the Hillsborough County Clerk of Circuit Court's office myself (Phone: 813-276-8100, ext. 3461 for the Official Records Department) and get a certified copy of my deed for less than $10. It costs $2.50 per page. The woman I spoke to said that deeds generally run 1-3 pages.

If I don't need a certified copy, I can get one for free from the Clerk's web site. In fact, I did.

I logged on to hillsclerk.com, and clicked "Online Services" on the left-hand side of the page. That offers a drop-down menu. I clicked "Online Searches" then "Search Official Records." I agreed to the disclaimer and it took me to the search page. I typed my name in, specified a date range, hit "Search" and up came the matching record. I clicked on that and the site generated a PDF file of my deed. Done.

Even before I took the time to discover that, some things about the letter smelled fishy. It explained that the deed to my property was recorded by the "Hillsborough County Register's office." No such office exists. The letter cited the "U.S. Government Federal Citizen Information Center" as recommending that property owners have a certified copy of their deed. But Google "U.S. Government Federal Citizen Information Center" and you learn that there is no office by that name. In fact most of the results point to articles and even government sites warning people away from these "deed services" offering the same overpriced deal.

It doesn't help its case that FL Deed Services says it's located in Miami but the phone number to which you fax your order (609-360-0416) has the area code of Trenton, New Jersey. Google that and you find that NY Deed Services also uses the same number.

And the final giveaway is at the bottom of the page:

FL Certified Deed Services is not affiliated
with the "State of Florida."
MANY GOVERNMENT RECORDS ARE AVAILABLE FREE OR  AT A NOMINAL COST FROM GOVERNMENT AGENCIES
These aren't technically scams. But if I sent you a letter offering to order a pizza for you for 80 bucks, you'd know that you can call Papa John's yourself and have one delivered for a fraction of that price. When I asked the woman at the Clerk's office about the letter I had received from FL Certified Deed Services, she replied with a question of her own: "Do you have a garbage can?"

Sunken Gardens 2

As mentioned, I toted my HD camera with me to Sunken Gardens in St. Pete Sunday. I remembered to shoot shots specifically for me to use with the green screen. Unfortunately, I did not remember my bug spray. Don't worry. No shots of my mosquito-ravaged legs appear.

I did script this one, which is why I speak so much faster in this one than I did in the Big Cat Rescue story. Again, I wasn't too concerned about the performance. I mostly wanted to work with editing HDV and using the green screen. One cool thing about the green screen is that I can shoot myself centered in front of it, then move myself to different positions in the frame in editing.

It takes the video some time to load so don't panic when you press the play button and nothing happens. It will. That's when you panic.

Sunken Gardens 1

The next green screen test I will create entirely from video. I took my camera to Sunken Gardens in St. Petersburg Sunday. Nobody looked at me funny when I ambled up to the ticket counter with my big lens camera. They probably don't care what kind of camera you have as long as you’re willing to pony up the $8 admission fee.

The images in the slide show below are still frames from the video I shot. I haven’t shot my part in front of the green screen yet. I might script this one to see if the time that saves in editing is more than the time it takes to write it.

More HD Green Screen Test

Windows Media Version of the HD Green Screen Test below. Again this was ad-libbed and its purpose was to try out my HD camera in front of the green screen and to practice editing using the chroma key feature.



The video above may take a moment to
load depending on your connection speed.