KBTV

KBTV::The Shooter

Today, I had accepted my mission. I would find a shooter – more than a videographer, a cameraman with an eye, a field producer who understands audio, an editing wiz – and, an adult. That was important. We needed an adult.

I opened up my browser, and Google.com popped up. I entered various iterations of “producer,” “cameraman,” “videographer,” “cinematographer,” and “South Florida,” “Boca Raton,” “Palm Beach” and “Fort Lauderdale.”

My “search” results began to stream onto the screen of my laptop. AAAAaaaaggghhhh. I yelped and slunk down in my perfectly-ergonomically-tilted chair. What appeared before my watering eyes was a vast variety of wedding ceremony and reception ads for shooters, editors, producers – even “full-service Wedding production houses.” There were so many euphemisms! ... e.g. “bridal video clips,” “ceremony montages,” “still-frame nuptial albums.” The wedding web postings kept appearing faster and more furious with each click.

My God clearly has a sense of humor, I hissed. You see I had moved, in part, to exit one of the sickest and most destructive relationships ever (well, sometimes it was fun.) He told me marry me or we’re done. I couldn’t pull the trigger, which led me to seek Plan B – “B” for Boca Raton.

Anyway, six months after I disappeared from New York to flee the insanity and seek peace and serenity in The Tropics, my friend who is a scribe at the Wall Street Journal, told me there were two popular, persistent rumors circulating the Manhattan cocktail party circuit about me. One, that I had run off to marry an extremely wealthy Saudi Prince (oil money), and I was now living in Dubai. Two, that I had run off to marry an extremely wealthy Saudi Prince who had decided NOT to marry me but to instead hold me captive somewhere in the hills of Afghanistan. Little did they know I would soon be videoblogging on Florida’s Gold Coast. Hmm. That would certainly shut them up.

I’m not exactly sure how it all happened. I think I remember calling a man named Steve Apple, who got me to a man named Barry Adler of Impact Media, Inc. by emailing barry@impactmediainc.com. After I e-mailed him, I checked out his site:

Impactmedia is a full service production facility that specializes in solutions for your advertising, marketing and communications needs. We have formed a collaboration of the finest talent available in the industry, which enables us to offer limitless creativity and the opportunity to build integrated solutions that maximize our client’s marketing investment to the fullest. Our goal is to establish long term and mutually beneficial relationships with our clients. Our success is measured by the strength of our relationship and the ability to succeed together.

“Solutions” … that was the word I seized on Barry’s company’s description – Solutions. It all sounded very impressive, perhaps a little too impressive. For the first time, I felt intimidated. Before I had felt fear – that was different. I sat down to work out my strategy. Should I pretend to know what I’m doing? Hmm. He might see through that. Should I throw myself on his good mercy? No, that would be unprofessional. Okay, I thought, I’ll play it by ear. We agree to meet at my house at 9 a.m. on Tuesday.

Tuesday morning arrives and I’m feeling marvelous – confident, ready to go. Enter Barry Adler looking very “camerman” – sensible moccasins, faded blue jeans and a pressed-ish, blue flannel shirt, sleeves rolled up. He was late-forties-ish, slightly graying cropped hair, friendly smile, with an air of being just a little bit bored by it all. Perfect!

We shot a couple of pieces and they turned out extremely well. Not because of me. I was a complete wreck. Barry, he was terrific. The only thing I did right that day was I kept going – no matter what – take after take after take. Let’s just say they used to call me “One Take Kate” at CNBC – perhaps I was a little rusty. Hmm.

That said, Barry and I seemed to get each other and after a few days shooting, I realized that I had struck gold, yet again. Barry is smart, creative, technically terrific, and he’s been around for two decades – nothing rattles him.

Barry agreed to work twice a week (although I usually eek another day out of him.) We turn six KBTV episodes a week – soup to nuts. He has since become the bolt of the KBTV team. My batty great-aunt used to say: “Katie, every nut needs its bolt!” Except in the case of TEAM KBTV, the nuts certainly outweigh the bolts.

To be continued...

posted by INSIDE FAU @ 7:24 PM