Robert Chambers - Caught in the Glare
of the Lights |
 |
On exalted wings of pure coincidence, occasionally
one finds themselves in the right place at the right time
and destiny takes the wheel. Suddenly, it seems as if someone
else is driving the ‘Semi.’ Chance meetings, random
commonalties, and synchronistic opportunity, ‘what a
trip.’ Each step of my journey through this ever-evolving
world of production has been directly related to the one prior.
Gigs… daisy chained like the data run from desk to final
fixture, contacts made and followed up on, friendships forged
and memories storehouse.
The catalyst throughout, however, has been
hard work, long hours, sore bones and the late night - load
out - Jell-O of mind, but that’s why we love it, isn’t
it?
|
It all began one sweltering August day back in the early eighties
in New York City where I was driving Taxi. Yes, one of those famous
yellow cabs, complete with beaded seat cover, impossibly small back
seat, and nothing but balls and brakes… there be no cruising,
only acceleration and hard stops. My fare was a pretty talkative
native New Yorker, and I, having been know to jabber jaw a bit myself,
was having no trouble keeping up the conversation. You know, one
of those loud, aggressive New York ‘guy’ conversations
loaded with testosterone posturing and bravado, who could top who,
and a lot of ‘gettouttahere’s’ and ‘whattaUkiddinme’s’.
Turns out the guy was Vinny Torricelli, shop stuart for NABET Local
16 and my good friends Uncle, ‘go figure.’ Once that came
out, that his nephew Marcello was my buddy, well that made us family
and he was going to ‘hook me up.’
Cut to: two weeks later, I’m working VR (Vacation Relief) at
ABC Television, midnight to eight AM laying timecode on 1”
video reels and dubbing programming for achieves. Me and thirty
of the finest edit/playback units in the industry, all alone, all
night - five nights a week. I taught myself how to edit on the hot
panel, build master reels from multiple sources, the works - until
finally one day I was bored and I wanted more. So, I checked in
with my Supervisor and as chance would have it, one of the four
editors for World News Tonight with Peter Jennings had a break down
and was in rehab, they needed someone and they needed them now.
“Hell yeah, I’m up to it.”
In retrospect I had no clue what I was getting into. It was common
for us to be still editing the back end of the show while the first
half had already gone to air. The Director, Producer, Reps. from
Public Relations, the entire Ways and Means Committee, several college
football coaches, a drill Sargent or two, and some creepy Roman
Polanski type guy whose job was to maintain Ethics in Broadcasting,
(good luck) would all stand right behind us and yell. I was the
only editor not whacked out on speed, and I quickly understood what
had happened to my predecessor.
I lasted three months and then put in a request to move over to
Studio Field… I wanted to be a cameraman. ‘My Uncle Vinny’
helped things along and I became camera #2 for WNT, my claim to
fame: zoom to Quantel, “I’m Peter Jennings, and Welcome
to World New Tonight,” daa – daa – dada, dun-dudu-dun.
Good clean fun.
|
