Tag: writer

This Blog – Waste Of Time

I spoke with my friend Paul last night. I’ve written about Paul before. He’s the Raider of the Lost Archives (I love seeing that in type), America’s premiere producer of television DVDs.

Paul ripped into me pretty good.

“You don’t have to write about the crab cakes you had,” he said, “or the other things you considered ordering.” Too much detail! “People think you’ve got too much time on your hands.”

I sat and pondered that for three or four hours.

It is within Paul’s natural nature to be judgmental. Don’t read this and think he was being overly critical.

Then he said, “You should write a book.”

I should, shouldn’t I? This blog has taught me one thing I never expected to learn – I really enjoy writing. But a book? That’s a lot of work and more organization than I normally muster.

I’m not even sure how one writes a book? Do you start at the beginning? Do you make decisions before the first words of dialog are spoken? Or, do you just write and let the story develop in an organic way.

That last choice is too easy and straightforward to be the correct one.

It’s not like I haven’t thought about the prospect. Everyone is supposed to have at least one novel in them, waiting to get out. I can’t even come up with a concept! I have writer’s block before the outline.

I’m sure Paul will be upset I’ve written about writing. “No one wants to know what you’re thinking 24 hours a day,” he’ll say&#185.

One of the guys I work with has written a novel. I know he’s been working on it for at least five years. Obviously, there’s more to the process than I understand, because I can’t figure out how you could fill five years writing and rewriting.

Still, it’s an interesting thought, and as I said, I really like writing.

&#185- Wow, you can put words in someone’s mouth!

West Wing – Others Noticed The Logo

Yesterday I wrote about my unease at seeing an NBC News logo on the West Wing “live debate.”

I guess I’m not the only one who noticed.

Cousin Michael just emailed this link to an AP story on that same topic (the writer probably reads my blog).

I wonder if others will object or if another barrier has gone down… much to my chagrin.

Flying With The Blue Angels, Again

Last week, my government called:

Sir,

I am an Aerospace Physiologist at [removed by request] on board Marine Corps Air Station [removed by request]. As the name/title implies, we are one of the training units of aviation physiology training for the Navy & Marine Corps. Part of that training is a G tolerance improvement program that we teach to Sailors and Marines whose outstanding job performance is rewarded with an opportunity for a one time only flight in the back seat of an F/A-18. We would like to use one or two portions of your video clip about your Blue Angels experience to show them the effects of G forces on someone who has never experienced aircraft induced G forces. Would it be possible to get a downloadable copy of your video?

Thank you for your consideration in assisting the Navy/Marine Corps’ finest.

Respectfully,

[removed by request]

Years ago, when I posted my Blue Angels video, the world was a dial-up place. No more. Most of you… actually, considering the sloppy way I code these pages… all of you are on some sort of high speed circuit.

Now that the navy wants it, I’ve taken the opportunity to lovingly remaster it (as they say when they’re trying to sell old TV shows on DVD) for broadband viewing and posted it to the site.

Click here to fly with me and the Navy’s Blue Angels. What a ride!

Blogger’s note: Since my original posting, the writer has asked if I would hide his name and base. Doing this for someone in the active military is the right thing. It is a real email, even without the name.

We’re Making A Movie

As I type this, Ray Flynn is editing our movie, “External Monologue” on a Mac here on the kitchen table.

We started early. Actually, I started excruciatingly early – 6:30 AM. Helaine woke up and I was too jazzed to go back to sleep. Three hours – as I’m now seeing, not enough sleep for me.

As hard as we tried to preplan, it became obvious much of this would be written today.

The members of our movie team started arriving around 8:20. At 8:50 neither our writer nor director had shown. No problem. They made it in the nick of time.

Our ingredients, the special things this movie had to have, arrived via email at 9:00 AM sharp.

July 16, 2005

CINEMASPORTS Remote Ingredients and Guidelines

Here are the ingredients for today’s event. No interpretation is wrong, so be creative.

1. An unexpected visitor

2. A tickle

3. Crumpled paper

Movies should be 3 minutes or less. (20 seconds allowed for credits, so movies should not exceed 3:20 min. total.)

Not much time. Still, we took well over an hour before we shot the first frame of video. Everyone threw ideas back and forth.

A concept that Chris Arnott and Hugh Mackay brought with them was our framework. The rest was molded to fit.

People brought medical instruments, lab coats, all sorts of things. We used none of them! That was OK.

On the other hand, a lineman for a local utility drove by in his bucket truck… and we got him to shoot a few seconds of ‘crane’ video. Not too shabby for an ad lib.

I’m not going to say much, because I expect to put the finished product here on the website tonight or tomorrow. Why spoil the fun.

The question is, will we be finished in time? At the moment we’re two and a half hours from the deadline to start uploading. I think we’re OK.

The accent is on the word think.

Making A Movie

I don’t know how the bug bit me… but it did. Ever since I first read about ‘instant’ movie fests, I needed to try one.

I scouted the Internet and finally latched on Cinemasports, out of San Fransisco. They sponsor competitions&#185 from various locations. The filmaker gets a list of ingredients – a name, a character, a place, some dialog, and then fashions a short movie in a very short time span – usually no more than 9 or 10 hours!

In that time the script has to be written, or rewritten to include the ingredients, then shot and edited and uploaded. I’m breaking out in a sweat already.

The finished movie is no longer than three or four minutes. Still, it must be a real structured movie… well, it doesn’t have to be anything, but you’d like it to be a real structured movie because people are going to watch it that night in a club in San Fransisco.

When I started calling friends, asking if they’d like to be involved, I was surprised, because everyone said yes! In the end, not everyone could fit it into their schedule but we’ve still got a good turnout.

Our Director of Photography is Ray Flynn. He used to work with me at the TV station. Now, he runs a production company. He’s a good guy, plus he has the equipment.

The Director is Hugh Mackay. This is a great leap of faith because I’ve never met Hugh! He comes recommended by our writer, so why not?

Chris Arnott is the principal writer. I say principal because it’s a good guess there will be improvisation and suggestions from the rest of us. Chris writes for the New Haven Advocate, so he can push out words against deadline.

He and I had dinner this evening. It was Hollywood on I-95. I was ‘taking’ a dinner with the writer.

He has ideas, but it’s going to be tough to pin anything specific down because we need to work in the ingredients. More specifically, we want it to look like they belong, not that they were squeezed in.

Rick Allison, professional voice guy, poker fiend, bon vivant, will be there. I’m not exactly sure what Rick will do, but Chris said he wants to take advantage of Rick’s pipes. He has an incredible and distinctive voice. Trust me, you’ve heard his voice.

We’ll all be acting. That’s for sure. We’ll also all be holding boom mikes or reflectors or logging shots. There’s plenty to do in the field.

My friends Steve and Harvey (as opposed to Steve Harvey) are also in on the action. The funny things is, they’re the most educated – both being physicians. They have the least amount of discernible skill in this endeavor. They’ll probably have the most fun. If nothing else, Harvey is going to learn to edit using Final Cut Pro on his laptop, which he’s bringing.

I am the producer. I really don’t know exactly what a producer does. I picked up the check for dinner tonight. That’s a first step.

I’ll try and draw everyone together to get this to be a team effort.

Actually, the team might not be done. Depending on what he writes, Chris will recruit a few more actors and (this is so over-the-top it’s beyond me) someone to score the film!

Yes – a four minute movie with an original score. How cool is that?

So, there you have it. Our production opens and closes Saturday. Barring unforeseen grief, I expect to post the film right here for anyone to see.

Wish us luck.

&#185 – Competition is probably a bad word, but the best I can come up with at the moment.

Historical Footnote Dies

One of the most famous recurring bits on the early Saturday Night Live was a Point-Counterpoint confrontation between Jane Curtain and Dan Akroyd. It was based on the end-of-show feature on 60 Minutes with Shana Alexander and Jack Kilpatrick&#185.

Curtain would make a point in their argument, only to have Akroyd respond, “Jane, you ignorant slut.”

I loved 60 Minutes back then. The show was different than today – less self conscious. The look was different too, as 60 Minutes was the last of the news shows to be shot on film. It even started with one of the correspondents reading the day’s news headlines live.

In the pre-Andy Rooney era, Point-Counterpoint was a pretty big deal.

I’m sure you know where this is going. It’s another death announcement.

’60 Minutes’ commentator dies of cancer

By LAURA WIDES

ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

LOS ANGELES — Trailblazing journalist Shana Alexander, whose verbal skirmishes with conservative James J. Kilpatrick on CBS’ “60 Minutes” were spoofed in a “Saturday Night Live” skit, has died of cancer. She was 79.

This will probably go unnoticed by most. That’s a shame. Shana Alexander was responsible for some very thought provoking TV.

&#185 The feature actually began with Kilpatrick and Nicholas von Hoffman. Shana Alexander replaced von Hoffman in 1972, producing the iconic relationship best remembered.

Stormy Weather

I was busy yesterday afternoon with some stormy weather that moved into Connecticut. I got an email from someone on the other side of the state who was unhappy I had broken into a soap opera.

That sort of thing comes with the territory. I have heard other weather people describing the same type of call or email. There is no question in my mind that I did the right thing. The writer will probably never agree.

At least the bad weather brought one thing – this unreal picture taken in Northfield, CT by Lou Belloisy. Lou’s an old friend and former chopper pilot for the station. I’ve seen his photography before, so this shot is no surprise.

I am jealous.

This is the kind of photo I’d like to take. Hopefully, I will. I understand the mechanics and technique, but there’s more involved. There will be more pictures like this one over time because more people with digital cameras will be willing to experiment, taking hundreds of photos and getting instant feedback.

Along with our thunderstorms, I’ve been watching two tropical systems closely because it looks like they might affect us – not as tropical storms or hurricanes, but as gusty rainstorms.

My forecast for Bonnie, the first, looks on target. Tomorrow should be very, very rainy. I’m not so sure about Charley, storm two.

Here’s the problem for me as a weather forecaster – I am very dependent upon the computer guidance. Every once in a while I’ll hear a forecaster poo poo the models, but that’s baloney. The reason we can have 5-6-7, even 8-day forecasts is because of computer modeling. No human could discern the weather patterns that far in advance without mathematical help.

Unfortunately, the medium range models, and to a lesser extent the short term ones, don’t see these tropical systems! They are compact, and usually occur in areas where data is sparse. As of this morning I can’t find Charley on the models we depend on for the first few days of the forecast, much less the extended forecast.

I know Charley will be there, so everything in the models he could interact with is probably wrong!

I try to look at special tropical models and integrate the data myself – but that’s not a great solution. There’s just too much physics taking place. I’m sure I’m missing things left and right. So, the extended forecast, when there’s tropical weather around, tends to be less accurate – which is a shame.

There’s no ‘level of difficulty’ excuse. If this forecast busts, people will be (correctly) upset. That’s what I get for claiming to be able to predict the future.

It’s An Addiction – I’m Not Alone

Katie Haffner had an interesting story about blogging in this moring’s New York Times. I always thought (and Helaine will confirm) I’d gone off the deep end with blogging, but this article makes it seem like I’m not so bad. There are others who have been bitten far worse.

Thanks God for small favors.

Continue reading “It’s An Addiction – I’m Not Alone”

I Wish I Had Known Jerry Nachman

Jerry Nachman died overnight last night at his home in Hoboken, NJ. If the name isn’t familiar, you might remember seeing him on MSNBC. Nachman was a large man physically and a giant in the business. He was 57, but could have passed for older.

I didn’t know Jerry Nachman. – only met him briefly one night here at the TV station. I had some minimal contact with him while he was editor of The New York Post.

It was a major holiday – probably Easter – at least 10 years ago. Helaine, Steffie and I had driven to Philadelphia to visit Helaine’s parents. On the way back, we waited an eternity to cross the George Washington Bridge. As we approached the toll plaza, I saw some of the booths (on this incredibly busy travel night) weren’t open. I asked, and the toll booth operator offered up, not enough people had been scheduled. The seemed very uncaring on the part of the Port Authority, who runs the bridge.

This was costing people untold hours, and costing businesses money. It wasn’t a story for my station, but it did seem like something for the Post. I wrote Jerry – and he responded. It felt like he was listening, interested and involved… and all because he took 10 seconds and put pen to paper.

I know of Jerry Nachman because of his reputation. He was a radio newsman, TV newsman and manager, newspaper editor, writer… you get the idea. If you look at all of his jobs, you get the feeling that people met him, realized he was really smart, and knew he could do whatever he set out to do.

There is a story that I’ve heard more than a few times. He was news director at WNBC-TV. There was a break in a big story, but no reporter to cover it. Jerry was in an off-the-air position – a management position. But, he told the crew to stop by his apartment on the way, pick him up, and he would report. It’s tough not to respect that.

Nachman seemed like the kind of guy you’d want to work for. Aggressive in his approach to the business, as if it were sport to him. Smart enough not be threatened. Skilled enough to command respect because he knew how to do his job… and your job too.

He was not a coiffed pretty boy with a ‘ripped’ body. In fact, his face had taken on the shape of a canned ham – not uncommon when you’re physically immense. He was all skill and little glitter. He died too soon.