KBTV

KBTV::The Equipment

Looking back, for reasons I now cannot fathom, I must have felt I'd actually (successfully!) completed the project -- simply by sending out the proposal. Like ... Whew! That whole KBTV video blogging deal was super fun! Now what?

Of course that wasn't true, and nothing could have prepared me for what happened next. To tell you the response was overwhelmingly positive would sound like I’m bragging -- or trying to impress. I’m not. It's embarrasing, in fact. You see, hmm ... I'm not sure how to put this ... I come from the world of what everyone now calls “traditional media": Four-hour editorial meetings -- once a week, endless five-part series that run, say, on Tuesdays, 35-inch newspapers columns, giant sluggy, glossy magazines, and the daily churn and burn of netowork television. During my tenure as a correspondent at CNBC, I think we might have even still used generators when shooting on location.

Even today, the old world of publishing creeps along in a quiet, polite crawl. An example my agent likes to use is the avalanche of communication needed just to schedule a lunch -- not even eat it -- to just "put it on the calendar." After weeks of trying to get a particular editor or publisher on the telephone, an agent will suggest that he or she send an e-mail with possible dates when the two can meet for lunch, sometime in the next few weeks -- instead of simply picking a date, at that moment, on the telephone.

At the time, I didn't equate "someone loving the proposal" to me actually having to go to work.

Hence, the pain and fear that emanated to my temples upon receiving the e-mail below:

Here’s a simple thing to get started: a new macintosh + a lapel microphone + HD mini camera on a tripod…capture the image and sound in a quicktime movie. This movie can simply be uploaded onto a video site like YouTube. The iMovie tools that come with a Mac allow you to add a soundtrack of some type. Voila...you are done. The movie can also be put on your website etc.

There are many more sophisticated tools you can use (for example, Finalcut Pro is the movie editing suite) and there are a lot of tools on YouTube for more customization; etc. It's worth doing a simple experiment to try this (i.e. a one-minute movie of be beach or the town).

Streaming live video is much more complicated and not really necessary; if you want to do it you need a dedicated server and lots of bandwidth to do it right…

Ten days later, equipment started arriving at my home (everyday!) in Deerfield Beach, Florida. And it kept coming: an HDR-HC3 HDV 1080i, a VMC-30VC High Grade Handycam® Component Video Cable ACC-FP71, a Camcorder Starter Kit, a NP-FP90 InfoLithium® P Series Rechargeable Battery Pack, a AC-VQP10 InfoLithium® P Series AC Adaptor and Dual Battery Charger, a VCL-HG0730X 30mm 0.7X High Grade Wide Angle Conversion Lens, a HVL-HL1 3 Watt Video Light and a VCT-1500L Tripod.

The DHL delivery guy (Jose) went from being a complete stranger to the "Man in a Uniform" walking into my house unannounced, plunking down a package and requesting a diet coke. Jose and I became fast friends -- one of the few I had in Florida.

By Dec. 18, three weeks after I had sent out the proposal, I was standing on an oh-so-WINDY beach wearing a lavender wrap-around, miniskirt paried with a purple Diane Von Fustenburg top, spurting out content about God knows what -- written only moments before. After some rough edits using iMovie...Voila!...I unvieled the first episode of KBTV to a mixture of mixed, solicited reviews. The following day, I decided to uptick the quality of the content. I migrated from local crime to a slightly controversial book by a Harvard-educated psychiatrist that had ruffled the feathers of some of Manhattan's intelligentsia. Oh, and I wore black.

Over the next few weeks, the reviews got better, although one annoying mentor of sorts kept using the word "progress." I hate that word. I hate that concept! What is progress anyway?

It wasn't for another few weeks, when I found myself being shot by an ESPN intern behind a rustic mildewy church, that I comnpletely hit the wall.

To be continued ...

posted by katebohner @ 7:38 AM