Saturday, May 24, 2008

CCTV


Hello fellow bloggers! Noel Pederson here. Sorry this post is coming a little later than it should, but I'm on Oregon time now. I began my internship at CCTV in Salem, OR this week. CCTV runs three public access channels in Salem. After a forty-five minute commute, I arrived in Salem ready to show off my production skills. My boss put me right to work. After giving me a tour of the facilities, I was given an editing project.
The footage I was given is of an inter-faith religious celebration in Salem. It is about an hour long after taking out the boring transitions. I have been working on this project intermittently throughout the week. The footage comes from two cameras, but I only had to log one tape because one of the cameras was working off of a firestore drive. Instead of going to a tape, the firestore drive plugs right into the camera and converts all footage into a digital format instantly. They came off of the drive as QuickTime movies, and made doing my job a lot faster.
Later that day, my boss Alan asked if I wanted to head out on a shooting assignment. I went with another employee to film the school board budget committee meeting. While the subject matter was less than enthralling, their equipment is fascinating. CCTV owns several portable editing studios called "Tricasters." These machines look and run like computers, are easy to set up, and allow a crew to do on-site directing. The program screen looks just like our newsroom’s board, complete with digital fader bar. I look forward to learning how to use and run this equipment.
The week went on with much more of the same. I've gotten to do a lot of shooting and editing now. Everyone here has been impressed with my camera skills and FinalCut experience. Soon they'll have me start directing. I got a tour around their production truck. It can support 7 cameras, has several replay machines, and will be fun to work with in the coming weeks. I think I'm heading out in the truck next week to film some softball tournaments. TV production and a tan. What could be better? (No comments from those of you in California – let me believe I have it good.)

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