A couple of weeks ago, I opened an email from the account for the James A Ramage Civil War Museum, where I volunteer, and saw that a producer from that program wanted to film a segment at the museum.
That sounded like a great opportunity so I shared it with the other museum board members and eventually we realized I was the one available at a time that worked for the producer. I wasn't thrilled about that as I am not the most outgoing person - I much prefer writing than any form of public speaking - but I was ready for the challenge.
A few days ago, I met a lady from the station at the museum. All she had with her was a backpack with her small camera and tripod. It wasn't the big TV camera I expected, but it was probably better, being so small and easy to carry.
We talked for a while and then she interviewed me standing in front of the museum since it was a beautiful day.
It was an interesting experience. She asked me a few questions and I provided answers. I think the questions were something like "Why is this place important?," "What should people expect when they come here?," and "What has changed here in the time you have been here?" I did my best to answer these. A couple of times, I had to stop, say "Sorry, let me restate that" and then start over, which she had told me was fine. I was nervous about saying "uhm" or "uhh" or having too many pauses, but I avoided that pitfall. I think a couple pauses still showed up after editing, but not many.
Obviously, she, and whoever helped edit and produce the segment, did a terrific job of tying my comments together so that they came off sounding coherent. The segment turned out better than I could have hoped and the final production really did make me look good, certainly better than I felt when I was restating my thoughts, trying to make sense. It was a good event and I thank the people at the show for the opportunity. I now better understand how these interviews work - I'm sure some others I see were similar to mine in terms of being edited/produced to look good. I'm just glad it was not a live shot and don't know how well I would do in a live interview. Yikes! LOL
The interview aired on Tuesday the 16th. It was weird seeing myself speaking on TV, especially a big station like Channel 9 instead of some local community cable channel. It really was surreal.
A copy of the show was put on their Facebook page. I shared this link to it on this blog's Facebook page already. (The link is to the interview on Facebook, so I don't know if you need to sign in to see it. If you do not have Facebook, I do not know if you can see the interview. Maybe it will be on the "Cincy Lifestyle" tab of wcpo.com eventually, but I do not see it there right now.)
Anyway, this was fascinating and the product turned out well. I really like this museum and wanted to represent it well. I think I did so and that this segment was a very positive one for the museum, myself, and, hopefully, the show and station.
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