Joplin Tornado - Fox Sports Video

Jamie McMurray visits his hometown of Joplin, MO

Here is the Final cut of the Joplin piece we did with Skip. I was AC/Audio for DP Skip Clark, with producer Dan Masi.

For More info visit: Sony F3 in Joplin

House Hunters in Wilmington, NC

 

I was lucky enough to have a chance to be on a shoot for an episode of House Hunters on HGTV. It was a 4 day shoot in Wilmington, NC. Its about a 4 hour drive from Charlotte right on the coast. I went a day earlier to hit the beach for a while. Man! I really missed the beach! The water was warm and there were some nice soft rolling waves, about the size of a wave pool.

We shot at 2 different houses, about a day each, and then some fun shots walking around downtown Wilmington. The cast was great and very patient with us and the process. I had a bit of a challenging time because I had to mic up 3 people and make sure the mic would stay on them. It was so hot at times that the tape would just melt off or their sweat would cause problems. Shooting House Hunters reminded me a lot of Shooting Built to Last back in Chicago. It really was a lot of shots of rooms and tours.  I think this particular episode might air sometime in October. I hope to catch it when it airs.

One house had a pet cemetary! Kind of  freaky really.

Martina McBride in Nashville, TN

This past week I visited Nashville, TN to connect with Roger Woodruff to shoot some behind the scenes stuff of country singer Martina Mcbride. It was a pretty cool day. We spent all day getting video of the band playing and Martina in the dress room getting her hair done. We also wrapped up the day with an interview with her. It was really cool to see a larger production in action, I thought it was pretty amazing what they did with the space we had to work with. It was a Music recording studio, a pretty nice one at that, but I bet when you watch the video you could never tell.

Joplin, MO

Kansas City was the last Race of the NASCAR season on Fox. That marks the last race for me. Ten days before we arrived in Kansas, a terrible storm came over the Midwest and a F5 tornado hit the town of Joplin, MO, about 3 hours south of Kansas City. I’ve been working primarily as the ENG crew for the NASCAR Prerace show. We would do a lot of driver interviews and other 2-5 minute pieces related to the drivers and races. This time driver Jamie McMurray was the our subject because the town of Joplin, MO was where he grew up. We spent a day with him as he went back to see his hometown after the tornado. Or what was left of it.   

NASCAR Wrap up

WoW! That’s what I got to say about this season with NASCAR on FOX, This coming weekend will be my Final Race in Kansas. I’ve Never experienced anything like it before and looking back it was an amazing experience. I didn’t realized how much I learned. Even though I didn’t know anything about NASCAR when I started, I definitely have a new appreciation for it. There is a LOT more to it than cars going fast in circles. There is an element of strategy that you don’t see at first glance. As far as the TV part goes, Its awesome to see the spectacle come together, every weekend! Its definitely made me much better at what I do just by being in the super fast paced environment. Huge kudos to Skip, for being able to turn out such spectacular results in such a short time and and space, yes definitely the space it worth mentioning. I cant thank him enough for letting me in and running behind him all this time. I enjoyed every moment, really.

The races after Martinsville each had their own charm. The anxiety I used to have going into each weekend slowly went away as I became more confident with my job and what went on. I had the chance to shoot some video myself and even light a small room for and interview. At times we had lots of rain and recently lots of sun. I got to see and feel Talladega nights, yes, Ricky Bobby was mentioned and I tasted alligator on the grill. Saw the Real Hudson Hornet, (He was a character in the Pixar Movie “CARS”), and even met Larry the Cable guy. Here are some highlights from the past six races.

 

 

Fun Times in Charlotte

I had a chance to have to have some fun outside in Charlotte, I snapped some pics to give an idea of what I’ve been up to here.

Spent a day at the US whitewater center here. Its great! I havnt tried the actual rafting yet, but I have tried the adventure climbs and the Mountain bike trails are some of the best around. US Whitewater center

I also have been running into a whole bunch of snakes down here!

This guy was just hanging out in the parking lot.

Navy Seals Part 2

 

Had to start off with a good picture!

We went back to spend another day at the Navy Seals Camp. This time to find out if our reporter, Diane McInerney  from “Inside Edition”, could hack it.

If was a full day of scaling walls, smashing through windows, helicopters, explosions and firing some pretty big guns. It was literally an action packed day!

My job was to run audio this day, as usual. This time it was a bit more intensive. I had 3 wireless mics on any 3 people at one time, depending on who would be talking next I had to be johnnie on the spot moving a mic to someone new. The audio ran wirelessly to the camera from my bag so Jimmy would have the freedom to move around. Since we were running around a lot of times it was awesome not to be tethered. 

Jimmy at the Hands of a .50cal rifle. This thing is such a monster, your picking grass out of your teeth after firing this sucker. The ammo is the size of my hand!!

More on the story here:

Inside Edition's Diane takes on the Navy Seals