CNN
was a good experience. The pictures of me working
there are few and not in good condition, as you can
see above.
I got
the job through Jersey City State College. It was a
"for college credit only" internship.
It cost me money in food, bus and train tickets to go
to CNN to work. I had to get up 3:30/4:00am every day
to eat and get ready for work, catch the bus from 440
Kennedy Blvd into Journal Square and catch the Path
train which took me straight into World Trade Center
Building 1. Up flights of steps and across the lobby
to the CNN studio where a security guard let me in.
Apart
from the security guard, the director and Stewart
Varney, I was the only other one there that early. But
we had to do the "live" financial updates with
Stewart and Atlanta only gave us a three minute
warning phone call to signal me to quickly turn
on all the lights, find a sony lapel mike for
Stewart that actually worked out of a box of
them and start operating the studio camera.
Stewart did his own TV makeup (required so you don't
look oily) and the director coordinated with Atlanta
and gave us the countdown signal.
Stewart
was a very charming and highly professional man who
apparently loved his work. He was so good that when we
were forced to change "copy" on him on the
teleprompter last minute he seamlessly made the
changes.
My
working hours had me at the studio from before 6am
until about 1pm and the studio came alive with people
around 9:30am as they came in working different
daytime shifts.
Bela
Abzog came in one Wednesday each month to record her
segments and she pre-recorded a months worth - 4
at a time. Frequently I had to do the camera for these
spots. I remember once we got the 3 minute warning
from Atlanta that we were going live for an update and
I grabbed up all of Bela Abzog's clothes that were all
over poor Stewart's set and heaved them on a business
desk. Bela cursed me out as I ignored her and did my
job and got the live spot completed successfully. I
wasn't fired or anything and I saw lots of people
trying to surpress laughter at the situation.
I can't
tell you all the things that happened at CNN but
some things were very funny.
I
remember once we were doing an interview with the
heads of several major companies and it was live and I
was doing all the camera work live. (The program's
director didn't trust anybody but me operating the
camera). Anyhow, the camera was big and heavy. (None
of the pictures above include a shot of the BIG studio
camera). To counter-balance the camera someone had
used gaffer's tape to tie lead weights on the tripod
handle. Right in the middle of this half hour show the
tape gave out and the weights came off and panic
erupted beyond the camera's view. Quickly I used my
full body weight to counter-balance the weight of the
camera so it wouldn't nose dive. As I hung from the
tripod handle, over my head sets I got a pep talk from
the show's director: "Keep cool...hang on...we're
almost finished...just a few more minutes...".
When the show ended people rushed foward to help me
and others clapped.
One day
one of the First Ladies came in to do an interview and
she had FBI protection. I had to laugh. Nobody was
going to hurt her. And the FBI guys were Sssooo funny
dressed in suits, no smiles and dark glasses like
robots.
The two
guests who I was pushing for CNN to get in to
interview were Vincent Price and John Russo. John
Russo had co-wrote NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD with
George Romero. But no such luck.
A more
boring job I got to do occasionally was bulk
degausing 3/4 inch tapes for re-use by the program
editors. A mindless job. And you better remove your
watch or it gets magnetized and you can throw it away.
Some
mornings I'd have coffee with this very nice lady and,
odd as it sounds, we never introduced ourselves and I
went to see the movie ALL THAT JAZZ and there she was
up on the big screen giving a negative TV review of
the lead character's movie that brings on his heart
attack!!!
One
funny early morning thing I remember was the time a
new achor woman locked horns with the director. I had
all the lights, the camera and mike ready and the 3
minute warning from Atlanta came and the director
turned towards me and asked, "Hungry? Hard roll
and coffee on me?" "Sure" I said. The
director took off his headset and dashed out of the
studio to the lobby and got on line at the food cart.
The anchor woman freaked. She left the set and went to
the director's station and grabbed the "Atlanta
Only" phone and yelled "That asshole just
left for coffee!!!" The director returned within
seconds and handed me the food and had 20 seconds to
spare before going live. The live spot went fine, but
because of what the anchor woman had reported to
headquarters in Atlanta the director got yelled at. So
all day long the director got his revenge by talking
into this woman's earphone while she was doing live
shows and spots.
He
would say into her ear, "Us stupid
assholes...." this, "Us stupid
assholes...." that, just punishing her. Nobody
could her what he was saying but this anchor woman.
My time
at CNN was good. I was trusted by the professionals
because I was dedicated and worked hard, as if I was
getting paid well. Other interns figured they weren't
getting paid so did the least they could. One guy was
ego tripping, handing these established pros his
business card as if he was going to do them a favor.
Most of those business cards ended up in the men's
room urnals!
George
Romero's response when asked how you get a job in this
business was simple and 100% on target. It's what
I did. Be a do'er. Be reliable. Work as if you are the
highest paid person on the set. If you do the least
you can or hang out or take lots of breaks you
aren 't likely to be re-hired on the next gig. Its
just common sense but you'd be amazed how many stupid
people there are out there who cut their own throats
career-wise just being lazy.
I was
offered a job as cameraman as a result of my work
ethic at CNN but turned it down. I wanted to make
movies. I incorporated Visual Experiences, Inc.
instead and crawled from the frying pan into the fire
but at least it was on the road I wanted to be on.
