The Big 3

So I've found myself in a bit of a dilemma with a recent special report. Our sports anchor landed an impressive interview with Tony George (owner of the Indy Motor Speedway), Herb Simon (co-owner of the Pacers) and Jim Irsay (owner of the Colts). All three men sat down for one interview together. Truly a moment in Indiana sports history. We wanted to start generating buzz early in October so I put together a POP of sorts reminding viewers of all the exclusive sports interviews the guy has landed before. We tagged it out by saying wait till you see who he has November 5th. It worked. We had radio stations calling us, athletes asking the reporter, even our own sales staff was begging to know who it was. So what's my problem? Do three team owners in one room together justify the buzz or would we let people down when they finally saw who it was?

We did switch to promos for the actual interview last Thursday where their identities were revealed. Radio stations still wanted interviews and people who aren't normally sports fans admitted to being more than a little curious to see what these guys had to say. The interview airs tonight so we'll see if our strategy pays off. If it fails it certainly won't be from a lack of promotion. The spot aired on the DomeVision at the Colts/Patriots game as well as airing during the broadcast of the game itself. The game had a freaking 65 share. Too bad it had such a bummer ending...

Next up for me is another sports related special report. Then I'm off to work on a few things for sister station WNDY. I hope to experiment with getting some videos up on here in the near future. Wish me luck...

Here we go again...

Another sweeps month is now upon us. I'm coming out lucky this month since I only have two special report promos to edit. One is already in the can. The other should be completed tomorrow. Of course something always pops up during sweeps months so I'll probably have at least one more in there before it's all said and done.

A link for you... http://youtube.com/user/wish. We now have our own YouTube page for all our stations. There should be user pages for WNDY and Indy Univision as well. At least now I'll have a place to put my promos, as will the rest of the staff. The quality of the videos isn't the greatest but we're working on it.

The Indiana Broadcasters Association is having their Spectrum Awards this weekend. All told I believe the department is up for four (a record). None of us has ever won this one so we'll see if we can finally add this trophy to our department awards shelf. Of course if we do win one I'll have to lose a Family Feud or Bernie Mac bobble head doll to make room for it, but I suppose some sacrifices must be made...

Finally I have to share a superstition with you. I've been with WISH for almost 7 1/2 years. Over those years, I've learned that any time we're doing very well ratings-wise going into a book we usually wind up tanking the first several nights. Conversely the opposite is also true. When we're completely sucking going into a book we suddenly pull huge numbers when the book launches. Right now we've been doing very well as we head into tonight. That makes me nervous. We've got great stories and good promotion, not to mention a nice lead-in in Without a Trace, but you just never know. Viewers can be very fickle as we all know.

I'll be back in the next day or so to chat more about the promos I mentioned in my last entry. After tonight the cat will be out of the bag as to the identity of the big interview.

Hello again...

I've apparently been neglecting my blog. I realized my last post was over a month ago so I thought I'd better check in. There is nothing major to report on the work front. November sweeps will be upon us soon as will winter weather in Indiana. As such I'm working on special report promos and a winter weather image. We do have some great special reports this month so I'm hoping that will translate into even better ratings. Fingers crossed. As for the weather... it's supposed to get to 83 today. Seems odd that I need to swing by the office later to log snow footage. Bleh.

So have you been following the latest goings on in Hollywood lately? No, not Brittney and her custody crap... the possible impending writers' strike. I can't say that I blame the writers for threatening to walk. We're no longer just a TV and multiplex world. We've got I-Tunes, DVDs, online distribution... the entertainment product is making its way to viewers in a multitude of new ways. It seems only fair that the writers get a nice slice of that money pie. But the thought of what a strike could do to everyone else with a job in the entertainment industry... ouch. I'll be watching closely to see what happens in the coming week or so. I just wonder what the networks will do once they run out of programming. Will they switch to British shows as some have suggested? Will they simply opt for cheap and lame reality programs? Their choice, if it comes to it, will be telling.

I guess I do have one little thing to talk about when it comes to work. I finished a promo that teases a big sports interview we have for November. We don't say who it is in the spot and that approach seems to have revved up people's curiosity. It's fun to do promos like this but also a little odd. The spot serves to get the public talking but it's also obviously designed to be a little of a mind game for the competition. I feel so devious... I'll talk more about this when I get to a point where I can identify the subjects of the interview. This one has been a wild project to take on.

I'll try not to let a month go by before my next post. See ya.

How the other half lives...

Today's pics... Night shooting for ids... A million dollar + view in the daylight... Taking over a neighborhood... The million + view at night. The city shots were taken from the 7th floor of the Villagio on the south side of Indianapolis. Pretty sweet...

We wrapped up shooting yesterday with the Steadicam but I forgot to bring my camera for that one. Oops. The shots we got at the Villagio were absolutely beautiful. We shot them on HD and our anchors looked gorgeous.

I love night shoots. I hate the long day that usually goes with them... but it always seems worth it if the fates aligns to give you beautiful shots. The fates were indeed kind. I can't wait to get the transfers back. This should make the competition a little green with envy. At least we hope so! :-)

The Steadicam shoot was interesting. I was a bit rushed for my part of it (late anchors) but I saw some shots that I'm hoping will look as kickass on a big screen as they did in that small monitor I was watching. Fingers are crossed...

I think the pace is about to pick up at work. A lot of things seem to be materializing in the pipe and rushing at us with quite a bit of speed. I may not have much time to post in the next few weeks but I'll try...

Finally...

My days of being the Susan Lucci of the promotion department are over. It only took nine nominations but last night I finally won a freaking Emmy. Oddly it was for a promo I came in and did on a weekend because there were a lot of reservations from management about doing it. It was decided that I would put it together so we could show off a finished product instead of trying to explain what it would look like. It paid off then and apparently now. How about that?

Unfortunately we didn't do so well in some other categories. It's tough when you think your co-workers have the best stories but don't take home the trophy. Just to show you how fickle the whole process is, however, one of our reporters won ever major award for an investigative piece, including a Peabody, then didn't even get nominated for the Emmy. Weird.

Research is back so we'll soon have a new slew of promos to produce. In the meantime I've been wrapping up all the launch and re-launch work for our My Network affiliate. Tomorrow will be the worst of it then it should get considerably easier. I do have promo shoots the first three days of the week. I'll bring my camera along since we'll be working with a Steadicam on one of them.

Back in action...

I've been a little remiss in updating this blog recently. Truthfully I haven't had a whole lot to report. Work has been busy but there are no huge projects on my plate at the moment. I'm sure that will all change once we get our research back at the end of this week.

Saturday was SkyConcert - the Labor Day fireworks show in downtown Indy. I worked most of the day setting up our station's tent and handing out goodies to everyone. Man, you want attention at your booth at any event... get a prize wheel. People flock to it like it's crack. I'm not a fan of participating at events but I don't absolutely hate it, either. I'm just happier sitting in my edit booth or working on a script in my nice air conditioned office than mingling with the masses.

I'm getting more involved with our web projects which has been very educational. I spent Thursday in our regional internet director's office trying to come up with a tag line and promotion campaign for a new site we're working on. When I left we were pretty up beat about some of the ideas we generated. Right now I have to admit that this is the project that's got my creativity sparking. It's nice to step outside your comfort zone every now and then - especially when you don't fall flat on your face...

I'll be serving in more of a special projects producer role this coming Monday. I'm sworn to secrecy about the shoot for now, but I can say that it's a huge interview and that there are lots of cameras involved. The reporter actually asked me to come which I thought was nice. I'm not usually a fixture on interviews. I'm the one who promotes that we have them.

Off to paint my spare room. Hope everyone has a nice Labor Day!

So I finally checked out Saving Grace. I missed the pilot since my DVR decided to record black instead - again. The show is a bit over the top, yet, I found it engaging. Weird but engaging. Give it a try if you're looking for something to watch. Just prepare yourself. The language is not what you're used to if you're a network watcher like me.

I also gave Mind Control on the Sci-Fi channel a shot. It was good for one episode but I can't imagine checking in week after week. And speaking of Sci-Fi... what is wrong with their promo department? Could they make Flash Gordon look any more boring? The show's lead is a handsome guy but the promos make him look dull as dirt. I have never gotten this channel's way of promoting their shows. Still don't. The only one they ever managed to promote halfway decently was Battlestar. If they'd give their other shows a little more promo love they'd probably do better in the ratings...

So now that I'm yapping about promos I might as well turn to the promos I'm working on. I'm still wrapped up in the fall launch for our My Network affiliate. I had made a lot of progress - until the programming department went and changed the whole syndicated schedule!!!!! Ouch. My head hurts from banging it against the wall. So now all the work myself and an editor did is in the toilet. We start over almost from scratch next week. Blah.

I'm also still working on Colts promos. I hope to have one done on Monday. Keep your fingers crossed.

We're also looking at launching a new website so I'm fiddling around with a spot for that. I can't say more until things firm up on this front but the project has the potential to be a lot of fun. I'm hoping I can jump into this one with both feet. Any additional experience I can get with on-line stuff is a good thing.

Oh, as for on-line stuff... Check out Denver's CBS 4 promo reel on YouTube. A co-worker stumbled across it the other day. They've got some really enjoyable spots - stuff that stands out from the norm. Maybe the folks at Sci-Fi should take notes...

Later.