Tuesday I went to NYC for the day to shoot an interview with Karl Rove for Politico.com. I took the 8:00am Acela train up there with all of my gear - two full light kits, camera, tripod, laptop, microphones and a ton of other stuff. Last time I was up there, I learned the hard way that some of the escalators in Penn Station are too narrow for my gear cart. This time I got off the train and headed straight for the freight elevator. About 15 other people seemed to think I knew what I was doing, so they followed me on. When the elevator was full, someone pressed the button. Nothing happened. They manually closed the doors. Still nothing. Everyone started looking at me, expecting me to know how to operate it. I just shrugged. They noticed a rope hanging from a cage door and pulled it down. Finally the elevator started moving. We went up to the top and the doors opened into what looked like a freight dock. So they decided to close the doors and go back down. Everyone got off where they started, looking a bit discouraged.
The interview was conducted at the Simon and Schuster office, located across the street from Rockefeller Center. I met Nathan, the B-camera operator, an hour and a half before the shoot was meant to start. It takes at least an hour to set up a decent looking two camera shoot. While we were setting up, there was a woman standing around chatting with us who I assumed was Rove's press secretary. I didn't pay much attention to her at first, but she started talking about all of her recent press appearances and I suddenly realized who she was - Dana Perino, the White House Press Secretary under G.W. Bush!
Rove arrived right on time for the interview. I asked Tammy, the executive producer, to clap to help me sync the cameras in post production. Rove took it upon himself to clap and he thought it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen. He kept clapping and yelling things like "quiet on the set" until we were ready to start. Towards the end of the interview we were really rushed for time, because Rove had to be at the Charlie Rose show. Suddenly one of his assistants walked right into the shot and stood behind him typing on her blackberry. I could have killed her. We had no time to re-ask the question, so there was nothing I could do to fix the shot. Click here to watch the full interview.
Wednesday, I spent all day editing. That night I went to the premier of the new Discovery Channel series 'Life'. It was a great event. They had the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra playing the score for the screening and the food was outstanding. They served fried mac n' cheese balls, sweet potato fries and mini cheese burgers before the screening and sushi, steak, stir fry, and all kinds of delicious desserts afterwords. Plus there was a full open bar the whole time.
Friday I shot an interview with Rep. Kingston from Georgia. When I got there, I learned that they wanted to move the interview to the Capitol Building. As we headed downstairs to the underground tram, which connects the Rayburn Building to the Capitol, he grabbed my light kit. It was really nice of him, but I really didn't want him to carry it. Especially because it is by far my heaviest piece of gear. I asked for it back a few times, but he wouldn't relent. He ended it carrying it on the tram and all the way to the Capitol.
