Things are finally starting to calm down a bit at work. And by starting to calm down, I mean that I got a couple hours to go home after arriving at 6:00am and leaving at 8:00pm today. It's nice to be busy and all, but this is getting ridiculous.

Last month I shot an interview with Bill Clinton. It was conducted in NYC at the start of his Clinton Global Initiative event. I brought a bunch of lights up from DC and had Paige and Nathan bring some more. They only gave us an hour and a half to set up, which is not a lot for a big-name, two-camera shoot. When we were almost done setting up, they made us move the lights and cameras to the sides of the room to make way for catering. Twenty minutes before Clinton's arrival we were finally let back in the room to re-set everything. It was a mess. The interview went well though and he stayed around afterward to take pictures with us. The edit took a lot longer than I expected, because I was using a new camera and a new recording format. I ended up missing the last train back to DC and had to wait for the 1:30 bus. I didn't get back to DC until 7:30am, but there was so much going on at the office that I had to work all day. That was probably the worst part, but the best part was that the Colbert Report picked up a clip from the interview! Oh, and no one touched the catering.

At the beginning of the month, we put on the First Draft of History event with the Atlantic Magazine. It was a forum for famous journalists to interview politicians and other newsmakers. Emily did most of the planning, design and production. She did a great job, but I don't think she had a single day off in September. She became the main point of contact for all of the people and organizations working on the event. In addition to being on the phone 12 hours a day, she designed all of the graphics and took over the Managing Editor's job for a couple weeks.

I was in charge of the video side of the event. I set up the control room, directed four cameras, and controlled the switched feed going to the major networks. I am not sure which networks showed our video, but I did see a clip on Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

There were some great guests at the event, including John McCain, Lindsey Graham (who comes to all of these events), General Petraeus, Alan Greenspan, Larry Summers, Tim Geithner, Janet Napolitano and CEOs from Google, AOL and Time Warner. Given this was the first time they have done this event, it went really well. The Atlantic is planning to do the event next year and I'm sure Emily is the first person they will call.

Yesterday I helped my friend Ted shoot some green-screen footage for Georgetown Basketball. This footage, plus some some stuff from the highlight reel will be played on the Jumbotron at their games. We used a 400 sqft freestanding green-screen, plus over 20 lights to fill the basketball court. The shoot went well, but I wish we could have hired some extra people to help us carry all the equipment. It took us six hours just to set everything up.

Today Emily and arrived at the office at 6:00am to shoot an hour long talk show about Hispanic American issues. Emily designed and constructed the set. I set up all the cameras, decks, monitors, sound equipment and switcher. We did it for the first time last week and we're suppose to do it every week from now on. I just hope that the set up will take less time in the coming weeks than it has for the last two.