Cash For Clunkers

I asked Caleb if I could do something other than editing, seeing as how editing was becoming tedious, and I wanted to learn more. He sent me out with reporter Aaron Smith to do work for Cash for Clunkers, during its first week. The day of our interview, on our way back to Time Warner, we got the news that C4C was running out of money and there is a huge angle on the story. The reporter asked if I wanted to join him in pursuit of this story, and I happily obliged. We went back out a second day and got more interviews. It was interesting because the day before, everything was so hopeful, and the second day, we were discussing the hardships and possible early demise of the C4C program.

I was asked to edit a video (Caleb really seemed to like my work, so he wanted me to do SOMETHING). He came up with an idea where I edit a video that basically describes the process of killing a car's engine for the program. Here is the report that Aaron did, along with my video (How To Kill A Car Engine):
http://money.cnn.com/2009/08/26/news/economy/cash_for_clunkers_recycle/index.htm

Syfy Interview

After my work on Best Advice, Nastya asked me to come with her to shoot an interview with Dave Hower, CEO of Syfy Network (at the time, it was SciFi Network).

I was able to watch the process of turning a bare bones studio into a usable backdrop for an interview. I learned about lighting, about atmosphere, and about dealing with PR.

I didn't edit this video, but I basically saw the whole making of. Here it is:

Other Work

There is a lot of work I did for CNN Money that didn't result in a direct video. For example, I was given several interviews, 40+ minutes in length. There were several camera angles in different video files, and basically, what I was supposed to do was cut it so it flowed in one big video file. I did this with an interview with Bill Ford, which aired in clips on CNN and on the website. I also did this with a Bobby Kennedy Jr. interview. I also cut the Kennedy interview into sections which were later edited and published.

Here is one of the videos:


This was extra exciting for me, because I do share a lot of Kennedy's beliefs, and I was able to actually briefly meet and greet him.

I also cut a package (pkg) on "Big D's Barber Shop" in Detroit. This never saw light of day because there really wasn't a "money angle" to it. It was a bit of a personal piece. It was touching, but never made it to the website.

I "fonted" 3 CNNi pkgs, which basically means there were videos already made, and I had to put the CNN Money bug, lower third, and courtesies on them. Here is one of them:

Proprietary Software

One thing I learned at CNN Money is that most companies use proprietary software. Everyone that works there must learn these tools, and how to use them, and the lingo that comes with them. CNN uses several tools to keep their work protected and accessible. CNN Money uses even more. Everyone that works at CNN Money basically knows how to work CNN tools and CNN Money tools.

This software is so heavily used that I will probably never forget how to do it.

Also, we had several training sessions with Barry Romanski. Barry is extremely helpful, and very intelligent. He showed me how to use software, cameras, and the CNN Virtual Library.

My Final

I received an email around the middle-end of July. It basically said that I was to organize a video shoot with a Business owner, create an interview, shoot it, ingest it, edit it, and publish it. Basically, I did everything for this video.

I received a contact, Diane Paparo, who founded and runs Diane Paparo Associates (DPA) and Diane Paparo Studios (DPS). www.paparo.com

Basically her story goes like this: She's an interior designer, she joined an architect firm after college. The firm did a lot of commercial work in Manhattan, and she eventually started DPA, where she designed commercial interiors for companies. The CEOs of the company liked her work so much that they asked her to design their homes. She started doing domestic design, and has been until recently. The bad economy has her going back to commercial, and even going to the government for federal contracts.

So, I thought of some questions, conducted an interview via phone, in order to get acquainted and to fine tune my questions. Over the phone, we worked out a date where I would go to her studio on 65th St. The producers were so happy with my professionalism, that they basically let me do everything on my own without any advice/help. The only thing I asked was on the day of the interview, could I take a fellow intern to help me with odds and ends. I met Isobel Scott, another intern who was trying to become a reporter. I figured this would be perfect, I could give her my interview, tell her everything she needs to know, and she could talk, and I could take full control of camera.

Finally, I cut and edited the video, and it was published. Once again, my video made it onto the front page of money.cnn.com!

Here is the final product:


I am a little upset with the color corrector tool, seeing as how the monitor I was working on was dim, and now the final video looks a little too bright. Other than that, I really am pleased with the results.

More Editing

My Best Advice videos were online before the deadline, and people were impressed with my speedy and effective editing methods. Caleb actually introduced me to producers as a "Final Cut blackbelt." It was at this point where I emailed Joel Katz, Lou Libitz, and everyone that I learned with at NJCU thanking them for giving me this experience.

From this point on, I was given responsibilities to edit videos that CNNMoney would actually use actively (the other interns' work was basically put on the site for viewing, while mine were sent to CNN to use on the website and on the air). Clips from the Christine Whitman interview were aired on CNN several times.

I was definitely honored and excited to have finally found something I'm good at and don't mind doing.

Here are the rest of the full length videos I worked on:

The Chris Anderson video was a bit of a chore. Apparently there was a lot of controversy with his book, and they wanted me to bring it out more. So after it was published, I had to pull it off the site, recut it, add some questions into it, take some things out. Also, I made the opening intro.


I'm quite proud of the water effects I used on the American Water video.


This video was fun to edit, because Caleb said he wanted it to be exciting, and he wanted it to "pull you in." That's when I found the opening clip, and he apparently thought it was so exciting that he wanted his boss and the reporter to give it an O.K. before it got published. This made me feel happy because he wanted emotions, and I was able to stir it out of him with my editing. Since I want to get into narrative storytelling, I thought this was a good sign.

Finally, here is a promo I edited for Fareed Zakaria GPS:

My Own Show?

After the success of my first two videos, I was given a big assignment. CNNMoney has several shows/series that they work on. The way they do it, is they edit several of them all at once, and on the day of the deadline, they all get published. I was given a show called "Best Advice." What I was supposed to do here is go through interviews, find a point where someone gives advice, edit it for time (approx. 1-2 minutes each), get it approved and published by the deadline... which was that Friday at 4pm. So I had 2 and a half days to do this.

At first I was overwhelmed, but I remember some advice my mom gave me, and that was to never tell your [potential] boss that you don't think you can handle something. Accept all responsibilities, and ask for help when you need it, but don't say "I can't." I took her advice and got to working. It was at this point I met someone who works there, Anastasia (Nastya) Anashkina. She was the person who had all of the interviews for me to edit. She gave me a list of 6 people: Warren Buffett, John Bogle, Gianna Bianchini, Eric Schmidt, Charles Munger and Jim Rogers.

Several of these interviews weren't available on the server, and I was told I had to "ingest" them. I asked what that entails, and Nastya taught me how to use a device called Sony XD Cam Importer. What it is, is basically new technology that allows you to record High Definition Video (HDV) directly onto a Blu-Ray disc that looks like this:


I learned to ingest media, and I got to editing, and here are the final products (I didn't want to embed them because that would lag this site up moreso than it already is):
http://money.cnn.com/video/fortune/2009/06/19/f_ba_emotion_buffett.fortune/

All of the videos are in that section.

Another responsibility was that I had to get "factoids" for some of the lesser-known interviewees. I had to research these to the specifications that I read on day one for publishing facts.