Hardest shoot I’ve done so far…
I’ve swum past the ocean breakers before; but not with a large camera and underwater housing strapped to my ankle—this is a unique experience. Every time I’d duck a wave and crawl forward, the wave would catch the camera, pulling me backward—3 feet gained would be matched by 2 feet lost. I couldn’t cut the ball and chain at my ankle, because that ball and chain (my camera) was worth thousands of dollars. Once I inched out to where the surfers were, I’d have to predict where I should situate myself so I could get close enough to the surfer’s ride, yet be able to duck back into the wave so I wouldn’t get hit. At times, the surfer would be inches from my camera’s lens (watch the 2nd video clip for an example, look closely for the curly-haired camera man floating and ducking back into the wave).
In this story, we want to bring the audience as close as they can get to the surfer’s experience. We’d like the audience to feel the first peak of a wave, popping up on the board, and working with the wave’s energy as you complete the ride. The ocean landscape is one of unrelenting change and unpredictability. In short, it’s a challenge to film. But, by doing this production, we were able to meet a group of surfers who commit a lot to this sport and lifestyle. The first clip below is a quick teaser of the story.
Tune in to watch the complete story on OPB, November 19th 8:30PM and re-aired on Sunday at 6:30PM.
Also, after the air date, you can watch it on the Field Guide Web site.
Andy Letourneau 1963-2009
Avid diver Andy Letourneau of Portland was a tremendous help to Oregon Field Guide in the pursuit of our story on sixgill sharks. Andy died recently in a diving accident. He stayed mostly behind the scenes but you can play this video to see him in his two most natural elements: diving and in the kitchen. The story he helped us on airs this Thursday on Oregon Field Guide at 8:30pm.
Sounds of Nature
OFG has a nice reputation of having lots of pretty pictures, but another element of the show is the great sound you hear. Music is often used in TV and movies to establish a mood for the viewer. We use very little music on OFG, and so we depend on the natural sounds of the environment to carry the stories you see. For our needs, we don’t just want unspoiled silence, we like to have critters like birds, or crikets. Capturing the sounds is often more frustrating than getting great pictures. A running joke among the OFG crews is how often we get out in the most remote area, only to have a slow moving airplane spoil our chance for clean sound. It is amazing how far hi-way traffic noise can travel too. It does not help matters to have highly sensitive microphones that seem to love all of the noises of machines. If you spend time in remote areas, just try it. Sit down and focus on the sounds you hear. You might be amazed how hard it is to hear critter sounds that are not spoiled by the noise of mankind. We recently found one of these rare moments in the Mt Hood National Forest at the “Gate Creek Ex-closure”. We were shooting a scene for a story about students from Catlin Gable school doing forest restoration work. This was in an area the students had protected from illegal off road vehicle use nine years ago. We were able to capture a good clean track of bird sounds for an entire 1 minute and 38 seconds.
Listen to the movie of the moment we captured, along with the raw video we shot at the same time.
Light-up sheep and other Twitter bits
I’ve been twittering for OFG for about a month and a half now, and this much I’ve learned : video of electric light-up sheep being herded into hilarious moving “art” on a New Zealand hillside? It’s a killer way to get people to “follow your tweets”. (more on that in a bit) But what else can Twitter do?
I am one of those who believes that Twitter, despite the stupid name, is a really, really powerful tool of engagement with people who watch our show. This media business is a strange beast, and there is often a perception that those of us in the media, “because” we are in the media, are somehow inaccessible. We’re really not. I enjoy getting a story idea from a neighbor, or someone in the grocery store, or a parent in a kids playgroup, or a random email saying “did you know about this?”. We thrive on public contact, and that is where Twitter comes in.
Twitter serves several useful purposes for me as a producer. It’s become a great way to grab news about the environment, rural issues, gardening, funny stuff, media issues, technology and science. I can follow just about anything or anyone I am interested in just by clicking “follow”. And those who would like to hear what I’m interested in can follow me. And contact me. And drop me a lead on a story. Or comment on what they’ve seen on-air. It’s direct. Quick. Concise.
Twitter also offers me a chance to expand on what we’re doing in the field. When I’m on a shoot and something interesting happens? I’ll probably tweet about that. With Twitter you’ll have a more immediate idea of what we’re working on and, heck, you may even have some interesting tidbits you’d like us to know about on a topic before we actually get to writing our story. Who knows.
So where do the “light-up sheep” come in? Well, the light up sheep video was one of those YouTube hits that was forwarded to me from an executive at the station, and it’s hilarious. When I re-posted it on twitter, it was immediately picked up and forwarded along by others because it was, well, funny. And funny works on Twitter. That’s another side-benefit to twitter ; we can give you some sense of our personality. I’m not the type to spend time telling you that I’m drinking coffee, or waking up, or anything like that…but I will take the time to share interesting finds with you and have more of an exchange than is possible through the one-way medium of TV.
Twitter isn’t for everyone. Some people just don’t get it, don’t want it, don’t need it. But for me, it’s just another form of media communication, and an extremely useful one at that. Hope to see you in the twittersphere!
Twitter @ OFGProducerEd
Wind and Skeeters
Which would bother you more? Howling wind blasting ash dust in your eyes or standing in a cloud of mosquitoes leaving welts even under your long sleeves and long pants?
Sound the winner’s bell!
Ding Ding Ding!
You win both! Wind plus mosquitoes.
Lucky Nick Fisher, long time Field Guide videographer, got to battle both during stories airing this week on Field Guide.
Read More…
Twitter Me
I am now twitterable. Twitter me, with story ideas, suggestions, feedback, comments, whatever.
Twitter name: OFGProducerEd
The funny thing about this whole Twitter phenomenon is that I’m a tech geek as much as I’m a luddite. That makes no sense, I know, but in a nutshell I work like this: Put me in an office, I dream of a tent in the wilderness. Put me in the wilderness and it’s not long before I’m wondering if I’m missing any important emails, FB updates, RSS feeds, etc.
In the office–where I am today– the tech geek is winning out.
I believe Twitter can be a great new way to solicit feedback from our audience, and I hope you’ll feel free to connect. I’ll be watching, and tweeting, and we’ll see what comes of it.
So….follow my tweets at twitter.com/OFGProducerEd.
The office wilderness
It’s autumn, and my ODD is kicking in. Outdoor deficit disorder. It’s no secret that i’m not a desk creature by nature. I get cranky if i don’t have blisters on my feet and bee stings between the knuckles to give proof to the kind of work we do here at Field Guide. And summer is when most of it happens. My desk at OPB during the summer is disorganized and messy, papers everywhere, coffee cups piling up. My excuse (other than I’m just not much of a neatnick), is that i’m not here enough to tend to office things.
But this time of year is not like that. Things slow down, scientists and biologists retreat to publish their papers and survey results, recreationalists are winding down summer activities and gearing up for winter, and everyone is adjusting to the onset of the rainy season. So like a squirrel gathering nuts for winter, I’m down to business at my desk, focused on gathering leads for new stories that will take me through spring.
What I do get to do now is pop in videotapes we shot over the summer and take stock of what did, and didn’t, go so well during the busy season. I laugh while looking at our comical, nothing-went-quite-right pursuit of a story on vultures. I feel lucky to see what came of our meeting with a family who became the focus of our story on a bike trip around mount hood. I gritted my teeth thinking about how much time we spent searching for feral pigs(if there are so many of them out there, how come nobody could ever show us where they were?)
Now I get to write all those stories and try to look comfortable sitting behind my desk. But really I’m scheming to get out again. So I’m happy to hear from folks this time of year, especially those who say ‘did you know about these folks down in x that are doing xyz? Because usually I didn’t, and quite often good stories come from a random phone call or email from a stranger or an old contact who helped us on some story or another over the last 20 years.
So bug us. At least until winter when we leave office life behind once again and strap on our skis/snowboards and snowshoes in pursuit of another adventure.
Breaking the camera jinx
If it comes down to skill or luck, I’ll take luck most any day.
In this case, I think we were with the luckiest fossil hunter in the state.
Mike Full, a retired McMinnville cop, doesn’t just find little clam shell fossils or imprints of leaves. He finds big stuff. Mammoth tusks, molars, shoulder blades and ribs. Parts of prehistoric bison and camel. He has the most amazing personal collection of fossils I’ve ever seen.
Most times when we do these stories, we come along only after the fossils have been found and we get the fortunate digger to bring us to the site of the find.
But Mike doesn’t dig for fossils. He swims for them. Actually, he scuba dives in search for the prehistoric past.
He agreed to let us tag along on a hunt. Mike donned his scuba gear, as did Oregon Field Guide videographer Michael Bendixen who also owns an underwater camera.
Mike’s neighbor, Amanda, bet him that he wouldn’t find anything significant while an Oregon Field Guide camera hovered over his shoulder. But only about 20 seconds into the dive Mike came up with a piece of bone. It was about a foot long and looked like quite a find to me. Mike said he was sure it was fossilized bone but he surprised me when he said he did not think it was that significant. 20 minutes later he popped back up out of the water spluttering and cheering. “This is the find of a lifetime!” he cried. “Look! It’s a giant sloth claw.”
Sure enough, his fingers had found something amazing hiding in the silt of the river.
Amanda lost the bet - and had to wash Mike’s car & his wife’s truck. Mike sent us a photo which shows she made good on the wager.
Mike’s got the fossil bug big time. He has studied how to handle and preserve them properly. Plus he’s taken geology classes to know more about what he’s finding. Most impressive of all, he’s not hoarding the fossil finds for himself. When they’re ready he’s donating much of it to the Condon Museum at the University of Oregon so far more people can benefit from his discoveries.
20 years and Going Strong
It seems like eons ago. OPB had a total of two desk top computers in the entire building and I heard that the pilot for an outdoor show we recently aired had rave reviews. The rumor was that we were to start up production on a full series and the working title would be called “Oregon Field Guide”. The show seemed to be right up my alley and I made it known to management that I wanted to have the assignment as a shooter on this new show.
This was back when the camera and video tape recorder were two separate units and had to be attached by a cable. Even with that bulky gear, it seemed like great fun to travel to the nooks and crannies of Oregon to bring stories back to the viewers. Since then the gear has become a little more compact, but it still weighs a lot. We’ve been using our current cameras for ten years and each weighs about 22 pounds. These are soon to be retired, and the replacement “hi definition” camera is only a pound lighter!
So as we head into Field Guide’s 20th year I can’t help but reflect. I still remember in staff meeting that first year, we all thought the show would last about four years before we ran out of story ideas. Oh, were we ever wrong! Here it is twenty years later and we are going strong! By the time retirement comes twenty five years or so from now, I will have spent a big percentage of my career working on this incredibly rewarding show. I have had the great fortune to work with some extremely talented photographers, writers and editors. They all give me inspiration every day do keep doing my part. As a team, we have created one of the most successful, locally produced productions in the entire PBS system. I could list a lot of numbers about the “Nielsen” ratings, but by judging from comments I hear everywhere in my personal and professional travels, the viewers can’t get enough of this show. Thanks to all of you for your outstanding support over the years!
