Within one week at work and I’m already on television.
Now I know that it’s not just because I’m devastatingly handsome or charming, although that obviously helps, but it’s mostly due to the fact that I work in the center of NBC operations and it’s just inevitable that I’d end up on the star-making side of the cameras. So do you want to hear a story? A story about how I’m back on TV after a nearly 20 year absence???? Well, then, you’ve come to the right place, my friends!
But wait, you ask, what’s this business about 20-year-absences?? Well, when Bob Saget was still hosting America’s Funniest Home Videos in one of its beginning seasons, I was a member of the studio audience there because my junior high school was doing a fundraising event and one of them was being a studio audience member. Anyways, long story short, I ended up being one of the people they had a closeup of laughing their asses off to a stupid home video. And I wasn’t just in a crowd shot – this one was all me. So now flash-forward from 1990 to 2007…..zipzizpzizpzpzpzizpzipzizpzzip (that’s the sound of flash forwarding).
I head in to work and to finish up my first week at NBC. It was Friday, and things were already going well, as I had noticed that crowds seemed lighter on the commute to work – the ferry wasn’t AS crowded, and the NY Transit bus into town wasn’t blocked by ridiculous traffic (the UN thing must be over). So I got to work in a very respectable 45 minutes or so and headed on up to the 2nd floor where I can go all by myself now since I have an NBC badge. I head up there to my boss’ office and one of the guys from yesterday at Englewood Cliffs was there and he asked if I had seen Bruce Springsteen performing outside. I suddenly remembered that on Friday’s the Today show puts on concerts during the warmer months – and I then also remembered that this had been discussed a few days ago too. Just totally forgot. Mike tells me that there was going to be an encore performance though around 9:30 and no sooner had he said that did the crowd start cheering again and the music started blasting. Now get this: while the second floor doesn’t have much of a skyscraper view, it does have one ridiculously cool advantage: we can climb out a window onto a balcony-esque area that overlooks the Rockefeller Center plaza area, including the Today show external set, and this is where the Bruce Springsteen concert was set up. So sweet – a free show and amazing seats overlooking the crowd and the band. Even better – while we really couldn’t see clearly the band, the Today show had put up a giant jumbotron screen projecting the Today show feed so more people could see it. Anyways, it was awesome to get to see and hear it all, and while this was all going, we noticed a camera crane below us that was filming crowd shots. We were above it, so we could just see that it was pointed down at crowds, who were all too cognizant of where it was pointing and kept screaming everytime it aimed at them, whether it was on or not. Anyways, after the end of his last song, there was just lots of cheering and crowd reaction shots. Then Mike noticed that the crane camera had angled up and pointed at us! Now…this was interesting. Were we going to be on camera? And broadcast? I then started thinking that perhaps the camera angles that way when it’s done so I paid not much more attention. Finally, the concert was truly over and then people started clapping like crazy. So did I as well as another person up there of the 5 of us who were still up on the balcony.
All of a sudden, Mike tells me – “Look, we’re on screen!” and I look over to the jumbotron and NO SHIT, we were on screen!!!! I start waving like a madman. It was a rush, and then we were cut back to Bruce Springsteen. I then thought, well, this probably wasn’t aired but then commercials started airing on the jumbotron and it got me to thinking, perhaps this IS airing. Knowing it was too late for me to do anything in my time zone, I quickly thought, my friends in Colorado Springs! But then I couldn’t remember any body but the MSG’s front office #, so I call Heather and tell her she has to record the Third hour of TODAY. I guess she then passed that news on to others throughout the Mountain, and then the rest of the day happened. Finally tonight, I found out that Jeff Crepeau had recorded it and was just now reviewing it – and sure enough, me and the Balcony crew were on it!!! So he’s going to try to figure out how to get it off his DVR and then if the file is decently sized, I’ll post it here. So Pete Locke, you told me to be on the TODAY show, and by golly, in my first week here, I did it!!!
What a week this has been!
In almost boring news (compared to my movie and TV experiences this week), I’m starting to get a better picture of what I’ll be doing, or specifically, some of the projects I’m going to be starting out on. It looks like I’ll be working on the affiliate relations aspect of things for one…meaning that I am going to be working on making sure that that office (which manages NBC’s relations with its over 200 affiliates throughout the country) gets the data it actually wants and needs in a format that is helpful, so I’ll be working on databases and systems to make sure that stuff gets done according to their wishes. My second project is then working on helping streamline and improve the Media Library system (Barbara Green, I know you’re smiling somewhere in Cheyenne Mountain). Basically, every piece of media, whether it’s the commercials, promo spots, graphics/overlays, and the shows themselves, are identified and catalogued. Unfortunately it’s not the best organization right now and we’re looking into making it a completely digital process (as opposed to getting tapes of the items and then digitizing them). So these are two pretty good projects that I’ll be working on while I’m also getting spun up on everything else that goes into putting the feed together and out. One day I WILL be an awesome OnAir Systems guy!!!!
Overall, a good week but I’m glad it’s over though – it was tiring!!!
Okay, before I leave, here are some pics I took on Wednesday from my ferry ride home and then some pictures taken tonight of Manhattan from my shoreline. There really is nothing like seeing Manhattan at night. I can’t wait to actually be there soon at night.
26 Sept 2007 – Ferry Ride Home
And then the pictures from tonight. The first three were taken with my Night Scene mode, and while it’s a clearer picture without the use of a tripod, it really doesn’t allow much light at you, so the effect is definitely more subdued than what I remember seeing. So i like taking pictures in manual mode but with a high ISO setting and no flash. Unfortunately, I never bring a tripod so my results usually aren’t quite the best. But some of the remainder after the first three aren’t too bad and they better represent what Manhattan looks and feels like at night from Jersey!
28 Sept 2007 – Manhattan at Night, From Jersey
