Shooting cross country meets for a high school provided two of my most embarrassing moments. I was set up in the best place I could find to shoot kids coming up a grueling hill. Pretty soon these people came and parked right in my line of sight, though 50 feet or so away. I grumbled something about wishing they'd get their a**es out of my way, forgetting that we were right next to Pend Oreille Lake. Well, you know how sound carries near water...and they were coaches.

Weeks later I found another really cool shot near the starting line where I could shoot runners as they neared a bottle-neck turn. How could I know that some of them would cut the corner?

One good thing: in Idaho if you show up with an XL1s people think you're with the news. Because of that, I got to stand in the media box for the finish at the state meet--all by myself.

In an effort to keep things light, I didn't confess to my biggest screw-up. Now I'm thinking it might possibly save some other inexperienced person nightmares if I tell the story. Caution: It's a long one, but might be worth it to newbies like me:

A while back, one of the '04 Democratic presidential hopefuls came to Boise for a banquet. They had oversold, so I got the bid to provide the video portion of a live feed to another room. (I didn't know there were enough Dem's in Idaho to overfill a ballroom! :) --just kidding; I'm not knocking any party.

When the senator's entourage got there they asked why I wasn't set up for taping. I explained that it wasn't part of the bid. They wanted it anyway, saying the state committee would pay for it, so I recorded it in low light. (nobody paid) I could have kicked myself for not bringing lights, although it would have ruined the aesthetics of the room and I'd had to fight for position as it was.

As if that wasn't bad enough, with audio gear and accommodating another videographer we had run out of places on our power strip, so I used my 3-hour battery for the two-hour event. I didn't pay much attention to my viewfinder until the speech when, to my horror, I discovered that my battery was fading right before my eyes. I'd used my other battery for setups, so I called my friend forty minutes from there and asked him to fly over with our other batteries. I made the switch, losing only a few seconds--but gained an ulcer.

You'd think that was enough for me, but no. For a very modest fee I agreed to get up early the next morning and record his wife's speech at some breakfast. She wanted to critique her speaking skills. I set up in front of everyone, leaving my gear hidden in the back. She was scheduled to speak for twenty minutes. I thought she would like to hear the nice things her good friend said about her so taped the ten minute introduction, then settled in for the cakewalk. Horror of horrors, she droned on for over an hour! I only had my 60 minute tape with me and didn't feel right running to the back of the room, so when the tape ran out I rewound it and taped over the introduction--but she even went too far for that! Talk about a nightmare.

To add insult to injury, when I explained what happened in a letter accompanying the tape, her people said that they were knocking money off their paying price, plus they let me to eat the overnight shipping. I felt so dumb I would have given it to them if it weren't for paying the audio company.

I learned MANY things, among them--take all gear for the unexpected; keep extra batteries and tapes on your body somehow; don't get involved in politics :)

Question for those who know: What caused the huge battery drain? The S-video line out?

Batteries to me are like politicians: unpredictable.

Difference in temperatures, a lot of zooming or auto focussing
etc. can drain a battery faster then "normal"...

This listing (http://us.imdb.com/Goofs?0250224) was just pointed out to me. The "crew or equipment visible" item was something that I was certainly aware of from the first time I saw the movie, but it's embarassing that anyone else noticed it! We were doing a big remote head crane shot and the reflections in the bus door weren't visible on the video tap--still, I should have caught it (by checking out the door by eye rather than relying on the tap). I can justify this a little though, because on this movie we also had 3 weeks of shooting in a glass house and never once photographed bad reflections, which took plenty of effort.

Here's another ( http://us.imdb.com/Goofs?0120586): the "shadow of camera visible on Seth", that's me in the rig. This time we saw it when it happened, but I was told the classic line "we just won't use that part of the shot". It's not subtle by any means...!

The most noticeable one from American History X was the paper
at the end.... Flying out of his hand and then was back in his
hand the next shot.

On my first shoot I had myself as a reflection in the window too.
Learn everyday eh!