Sometimes the best experiences that you have in the news business are the ones that you can’t prepare for.
When you first come to the Washington newsroom and experience orientation week, Director of Medill News Service in Washington Ellen Shearer and Co-Director Matt Mansfield will tell you how to find stories in Washington, how to keep informed in Washington, what not to wear on the Hill and other logistical must-knows. While all those tools are incredibly useful and important to have in your arsenal when reporting on the Hill, the one thing you can’t teach a young journalist is how to not only expect, but embrace the unexpected.
The unexpected happened to me when I was assigned to be videographer on a very rainy day. The job of the videographer is to help a student who’s out shooting a story, like if he or she is covering a rally or needs help with a stand-up. The videographer is not supposed to have a story for the day because she is out helping others.
As videographer on that wet day, the plan was for me to assist a student on a 9/11 story on the Hill. Because there is a dress code at the Capitol, I was in nice slacks, but otherwise, I was dressed more casually as befits the photographer for the day. I was running late to the day’s 9:15 a.m. news meeting, so I tried to sneak in to catch the tail end of it and, when it was my turn to list my plans for the day, announced, “I am the broadcast photographer for the day and I am planning on helping Lauren with her 9/11 story.”
“Austin, I actually have another story for you,” said Barbara Pulling, a Medill broadcast instructor.
After the meeting, Pulling told me that the Fox station in Honolulu wanted a story that day on Rep.-elect Colleen Hanabusa as she went through orientation for freshman congressmen. The assignment editor already had set up a time for me to interview Hanabusa at the Cannon Rotunda — between 11:30 a.m. and noon. I then would have to turn around a package from that limited window of access to Hanabusa to send to the station before 5 p.m. Could I do it?
Well of course, I could. I was excited, anxious and flushed at the same time. How could I do this when I knew nothing about the congresswoman-elect? I couldn’t even pronounce her name. But I didn’t have time for trepidation, it was already 10:30 a.m. and I had to check out camera equipment, contact Hanabusa’s press aide and read up on her.
With the help of another broadcast student who volunteered to be my videographer, we rushed to the Cannon House Office Building rotunda to meet Hanabusa. After getting through the security and setting up our equipment, we were 20 minutes early. Yes!
But then my nerves caught up with me.
How would I interview and get b-roll of her in less than 30 minutes? No idea, but just work quickly.
What does the assignment editor and producer want from the piece? No idea, just have to guess because right now it is only 5 in the morning in Hawaii.
What am I going to do about this lighting? Oh well, just try to use the natural light from the window. Oh, shoot, it’s 11:35, where is she?
At 11:40 a.m., I see the congresswoman-elect in tailored suit walking toward me. The interview went well but it was very short, about 10 minutes, so I knew in my head that I would probably use every sound bite for my story. Then the challenge of b-roll and a couple of walking-and-talking shots before it was time for her to go to her next interview with the ABC affiliate for Hawaii.
The 20 minutes came and went. After a moment I realized that despite all of my anxiety and fear, I really enjoyed the frenetic nature of the story. This was the first time that I have gotten to lead coverage of breaking news in my life and not only could I do it, but I enjoyed it.
The story ended up being featured as a VO-SOT for the 5 p.m. newscast in Honolulu and a VO for the show at 6 p.m. Do you want to see the results? Click the video below.
Hawaiian Rep.-elect Hanabusa goes to Washington Austin Lewis/MNS