This week was arts fest. While the weekend was fun and I got to hear some good live music, see some cool paintings and take some cool photos of dogs (which you can see here), the highlight of my weekend was definitely working a professional baseball game.
Growing up, I was always a huge baseball fan. From the time I was five, I knew I wanted to be a ballplayer. By the time I was twelve, I knew I wanted to work in sports media, and by fifteen, I was set on becoming a producer. I saw an opportunity a few weeks ago with WHVL-TV, the local cable channel, looking for a freelance camera operator for the State College Spikes, the short season Single-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. Despite barely being a freshman in college, I sent in my resume and cover letter for the job. About a week later, I got an email saying that crew call was at noon for a 6:05 first pitch.
Once I got there, I met some very cool people who had worked all over the industry, including for ESPN. The other camera operators were seniors, graduate students, or had already graduated, so being a freshman made me the youngest one there.
After being introduced to my new co-workers, I was given a giant case with a camera and a lot of attachments and was told to go set it up. About an hour later, the task was complete. I found out that I would be operating one of the dugout cameras, which meant that I would have the main angle on the batter if he was a righty, or on the pitcher if he was a lefty. I was also in charge of acquiring shots of the baserunners, as well as hero shots when someone made a great play. I spent the whole game in the Spikes dugout, which is a completely different experience when a stadium has over 3,000 fans in it.
Before the game, I was able to explore and wire things throughout the stadium. I walked through the clubhouse, the suites, the press box, and even by the private batting tunnels. I got to go up on a lift to see the center field camera’s view, and I had to run to cover a few XLR connections when thunder loomed in the distance. The coolest part of the day for me wasn’t seeing the clubhouse, but rather, it was being able to sit in the truck before the game and see how all the different cameras were set up.
Throughout the day, I was able to learn many new things about both the equipment and the industry. I made new friends and new connections and learned how to operate under pressure. After 3 hours and 12 runs, we were finally able to start breaking down the equipment.
Despite “working” for 11 ½ hours on Sunday, I had a lot of fun, and even got paid for it. I’m excited to have been invited back to do the same next weekend. I look forward to continuing to do camera work at Spikes games and can’t wait to see what the future holds for me. Maybe one day, I’ll be doing the something similar during the Subway Series or even the World Series!