The clip shows a behind-the-scenes Couric as she covers the New Hampshire primaries. There's scenes of her adjusting make-up, asking her staff where she put her cue cards, wondering why she doesn't look good on a particular monitor, and other assorted outtakes.
If they're meant to show Couric in a bad light, I'm here to tell you that they don't. I'm not a Katie Couric fan, but I've shot hundreds of talking heads in my time, and she's a friendly, affable pussy cat. For the camera guys, the on-camera personality is called "talent." As in, "The talent royally screwed up and blamed it on us again," or, "The talent must be nuts," or "The talent is a major pain in the ass."
Couric isn't. If these outtakes are evidence of Couric at her worst, then she is a dream talent to work with. She's amusing, self-deprecating, and doesn't wear her ego on her sleeve as most talent do. Her foul language isn't of a "screw you, cameraman," variety. It's, "Oh, shit, I almost screwed up."
Here's a look at her clip of outtakes. If someone released them to do a hatchet job on her, then they don't know what a horrible talent really acts like. If they did it to make her look warm and cozy, I'm not buying that, either. She just looks like a pro that would be cool to work with.
That, to a cameraman, is a dream talent. She doesn't demand, she asks. She doesn't curse, she swears. And there's no point in looking for liberal bias in anything she says. Katie might be as liberal as they come, but you'd be giving her far too much credit for sewing it into the news. Anchors read a lot more than they write, and their paramount concerns are not what they're reading, but how they look while they're doing it.
Here's another favorite of mine. This is the RV salesman, Jack Rebney, who looks like he was a laugh to work with. According to Wikipedia.com:
In 1988, Winnebago hired a production crew to shoot a promotional video for their 1989 product line. However, the project was taken over by Rebney, who brought his own cameraman and a production assistant named Tony (often referred to in the video).
Rebney had thought the video would be shot in sequence (and memorized his self-penned script accordingly), but his cameraman thought it made no sense for Rebney to walk in and out of the vehicle repeatedly (as scripted) and that it would be more practical for Rebney to shoot all the outdoor scenes, then go back into the vehicle to shoot those scenes. Because Rebney was not prepared for this sudden change, he repeatedly forgot his lines, leading to profanity-laden outbursts.
Afterwards, the production crew originally hired to shoot the video was sub-contracted by Rebney to edit it; they responded by circulating the outtakes as revenge against Rebney for stealing their gig.
Sure, he swears like a lumberjack, but he isn't taking it out on the cameraman so much as he is taking it out on himself. He invented one of the best sayings I've ever heard: "I don't want anymore bullshit anytime during the day, from anyone...that incudes me."
The cameraman that saved this footage, and the editor that put it together, deserve a medal. Every time I watch this video, tears of laughter flood the keyboard. I'd pay good money to have been on the set. Enjoy, but if you've got a five-year-old in the room, you might want to switch to headphones.
1 comment:
What is wrong with Katie. She seems cool and fun to work with.
Post a Comment