DV Info Net - Revamping awards ceremony for time

Figured I'd ask some 3rd parties for advice/input on something I'm having difficulty with. Maybe need some independent/non-vested parties to think it thru or give a suggestion. About 3 years ago, I did a bit of a volunteer/charitable shoot. It was for a family who went thru something very tragic, and the local paper did a followup article on the girl about to celebrate her quinceanerra, but financially, couldn't afford one at all. Its a sad case, and I had shot 1 quinceanerra before and although I'm just not a fan of sweet 16s, bar mitzvahs etc, I figured for a good cause, and since I kinda knew the scope of the day, I'd offer coverage for it. It truly was a tragedy what the family went thru (break in, death of young brother & more).

So, I shoot the day, etc etc and at the end of the church, met with the police commissioner briefly & spoke a bit. (It was a neighboring fairly large city, but not the Philadelphia commish). Thought not much of it. So about 6 months later out of the blue I get a call from the police department, asking if I could cover an awards ceremony they're having. TBH I thought they were just kinda throwing me a bone, like show up, we'll cut you a check, thanks again for what you did. To be fully honest, it a pretty poor & crime ridden city, so even though its 'Government work', I wasn't sure what price range they had, and I likely underbid a rate. But again, do it once, viola.

Well, it kinda went on as a quasi-Quarterly ceremony, and I say 'quasi' because they 'try' to have it each quarter, but usually some cancel or delay too long that they only have about 2 or 3 a year. Still, its a good name for a client & I'd like to hold onto them.

My problem is in the editing. They ask for a 'highlights' version, as well as the full ceremony. For the 'highlights' however, they get a bit particular in what they want in it. Too much in my opinion. The format live tends to be 1 1/2-2 hours with the Commisioners intro, a few politicians or company execs, then awards given to police most of whom handled a situation involving a gun (about 10-12 for them), then the Officer & Supervisor of the Quarter award, the the Commish gives about a 15 minute conclusion speech.

My problem is they always want the local politicians speaking and company execs involved, plus almost every officer who handled a gun situation in it. Which is understandable, however the presenter (typically a local newscaster) tends to give a bit of a lengthy recap of about 1-2 minutes. So it becomes "Officer SoAndSo pulled over a car, at which point the passenger got out and ran. The officer ran after the suspect and eventually caught the man, at which point it was determined he had a warrant for his arrest. Upon patting down the suspect it was determined he had a gun on him which was removed. For his persistance and for helping get a known suspect of the streets this officer is deserving of this award" -- or something like that, typically longer & again there's usually 10 or more of these. So add these up (10 minutes +, then add in the intro, and local pols & execs, it can easily go well over 25 minutes. Not exactly a 'highlight reel', however on the flip side I've had it come back to me saying 'I didn't include this officer, or what about the bank robbery etc.. yet, they've also come back & said 25 minutes seems long for highlights.

So my question is if I were to attempt revamping it altogether, anyone have any thoughts as to how I could go about this?

I want to use this past quarters & just re-edit it (on my own dime) to show how maybe I can do them going forward instead. I'm thinking maybe using a lower thirds type graphics highlighting the result ("Pulled a handgun from felon", "Captured bank robbery suspect" etc) with about 5-8 seconds of the officer receiving the award & shaking hands of the commsiioner, maybe shoot 60p so I can slow it down. Because when it comes to the audio portion of the speaker, its very time consuming to edit what he says down, yet still have it make sense to the listener. The other thing is they always want the 'highlights' done overnight, so its difficult to really do too much editing (of the audio) quickly.

Any thoughts or suggestions?