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Director's Take - "Better to Light a Candle Than to Curse the Darkness"
As the above Chinese proverb suggests, Monday was interesting. The lighting grid was down on our stage owing to a faulty breaker, the consequence of working with aging equipment. We didn’t discover this until shortly before we were to shoot the daily show, so it was a bit of a scramble making air, especially since this was our Grammy show. We have a terrific lighting crew, and they were able to light a couple of areas for us, despite the fact that we didn’t have our full lighting complement. Stand lights were a big help. And, preparing for every eventuality, we dug into our handbags for extra flashlights and cyalume sticks in the event that extra illumination was required. Thankfully, it wasn’t.
In production there are often technical glitches which interfere with making air – a piece of equipment goes down, a tape machine doesn’t roll or record properly, an aprisa doesn’t fire. I remember one of my first TV jobs in Nashville, Tennessee, a live shoot where 7 out of 10 cameras were down owing mostly to bad weather. There was a lot of hollering in the control room at the time as I recall, but everything turned out fine. It was a country music show and simpler coverage was ideal, actually, more homey.
Directors learn early on that the reality of production is never what is planned. It is instead a constant juggling of ever changing TV tectonics. You make do with whatever people and equipment you have at the time and constantly flex with the ever-changing situation that tight schedules and equipment malfunction present. Nothing in production is ever the same for more than an instant, so a go-with-the-flow attitude is key. I forget that regularly tho’, and “lose it” from time to time over simple, ridiculous things, like a graphic that doesn’t work, or a light that burns out just as we’re ready to roll tape. One never knows what the last straw will be in a day filled with challenge and change. In general, we all try to roll with whatever comes.
Which brings me to the Penguins. We did this shoot a while back when the film “Happy Feet” was being released. I found this photo in the archives and had to post it as the Penguins are so cute! It’s always interesting working with animals as we all learn something about another species that inevitably reflects upon us in some way. This was so with the rambunctious Penguins who had very little patience for multiple takes and too much staging. They behaved like the Penguins that they are.
These are not Emperor Penguins with whom we have become so familiar in the west. These are the Magellanic Penguins who were named by the crew of Ferdinand Magellan who saw them when they first sailed to South America in 1519. They are feisty little fellows and rather took over the control room, as you can see from this picture. They assumed the Director and Technical Director’s positions with ease, and also did standups with one of our hosts, Tony Potts.
I’ve been finding some wonderful shots in our archives and will post them from blog to blog. Hope you enjoy them!
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