Part 9. Opportunities
This week’s story is Goodbye Ernie
On Friday December 12th, Ernie Bjorkman retired from Television News. For those of you not from Denver, Ernie Bjorkman was on the air here in Denver since 1982. Not many have stayed in one market for so long. The details of Ernie’s departure from television news have been well documented over the past few months. If you’d like more information about Ernie, a simple Internet search will provide you with ample reading material.
Since this is an educational blog, we’re going to talk about the story of Ernie I decided to put together as part of his final broadcast on KWGN.
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Our theme for this week is opportunities.
Our theme for this week is opportunities.
I’ve had a bit of a dry spell as far as allowing my editing wings to spread. I frankly haven’t had many opportunities to edit good stories recently. We all go through these times. So, how do you find opportunities?
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Be the go to person for projects
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Say yes, I’ll do it!!
I like to think of myself as someone that can be given a project with the confidence and I’ll get it done regardless of any time constraints. I often get asked how long does it take me to edit a package? My answer is always “How much time do I have?” Meaning if you give me an 30 minutes, you’ll get the best story I can put out in an 30 minutes. If you give me 3 months, you get the best product I can put together in 3 months.
I wasn’t given a lot of time to put this project together. In fact I started on it on Thursday December 11th at 2pm. I worked on it for a whole shift and then came in an early on Friday to put a few more hours into it before I had to work on our newscasts for the day. This piece aired that night.
For the amount of time I put in I’m quite proud of the final product.
Our Executive Producer had a few of our reporters and anchors shoot stand ups saying their goodbyes to Ernie. He gave me those tapes and a few file shots of Ernie and a few packages Ernie had done. He gave all this to me with little direction. I didn’t need direction. I needed to be me.
- This was an opportunity to be creative
- This was an opportunity to do what I do best
- I like to take advantage of any opportunity presented to me
After looking at the elements the anchors and reporters gave me and the fact that I had found all this great stuff from Ernie, I felt this would work best like a natural sound story. I decided to break up all the the stand-ups with natural sound moments from Ernie.
The style for the entire piece is set up right from the beginning. I’m going to pretty much only allow the anchors or reporters speaking to only say one sentence before I break up the stand-up with a natural sound element of Ernie.
At [:02] We have the first time you see Ernie in the package. It’s from a story about what garbage men do. The stand up from Eli Stokols is
You know sometimes there is a man,
Followed by Ernie with a trash man saying
Let’s pick up some trash, man.
In this story I’m not going to just use any sound. I’m still going to apply logic to my editing.
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Can I find natural sound that will support what the stand up is saying in some sort of way?
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Can I synchronize my words and pictures? Just like if I was editing a news story.
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Does the natural sound reinforce what the anchor of reporter is speaking about?
Lets find out.
The next track Eli says
And I don’t want to say a hero, cause what’s a hero really.
I use this fantastic shot of Ernie looking left. Eli (The reporter) came into the edit bay when I was working on this story and said “It’s the hero shot.” He was right. The shot looks very heroic. And works very well right here.
The next track from Eli is
Sometimes there is a man,
I found Ernie from a promo back in 1982. I’m reinforcing the track right? There is a man (yes that a stretch but I’m still making the effort).
The next track from Eli
Well, he’s just the man. He just kind of fits right in there with his time and his place.
I use two shots of Ernie to cover up this portion of Eli’s stand up. One of him anchoring and one of him in doing an interview. Basically I’m trying to show Ernie being Ernie.
At this point in the story I’d like to point out we are [:18] seconds into the piece and I have 9 edits already (so that’s an average cut every 2 seconds). This piece is [4:10]. I want to keep the pace up. So, I’m going to make a lot of edits and I’m going to use as much natural sound as I can just as if it were a regular news story.
- Breaking up a story with natural sound help the pace
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Even though it’s a tribute piece, my editing style still comes out with natural sound and good pacing
Before you call us we will have Star Trek in it’s entirety
This is a cute moment from Ernie during the Election coverage of 1986.
People are going to cry. That’s a given on a day like this. I love making people feel.
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As a storyteller if I can make you laugh or cry, I’ve had a good day
In this story I want to make both happen. This is a good first opportunity to make people chuckle, and it worked.
Next up is one of our younger reporters Audra Ensign [:29] with her goodbye stand up. In the stand up she says Ernie’s been like a father figure to her. So, I felt the package with him working in a pre-school would work perfectly. Later in her stand up she says we will truly miss Ernie at News 2. I cover that with a shot of him working at his desk [:44].
Next up is our primary weather anchor Dave Fraser [:51] When Dave says
I can’t believe it’s been 8 years from the day I walked into the door.
I found a shot of Dave walking into frame from a special. He walks into the shot, kind of like walking in the door.
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I’m still trying to synchronize my words and pictures (S.W.A.P.) in this type of piece
I can’t always S.W.A.P., but I try.
Ernie’s next career in life is going to be a veterinary technician. So, I decide here to start using stories in which Ernie had animals in it.
When Dave says I’m going to miss your overall presence I wanted to keep the pet theme but find Ernie being cute. I think saying hi to the dog worked here.
At [1:26] you see Ernie working at a Drive-thru. Ernie’s really funny in this story. What part of the news is the most humorous? The morning show. I decide to inter-splice the morning show goodbye with the story Ernie did about working at Krispy Kreme Donuts.
At [1:39] our morning anchor Tom Green says he’s been a Denver favorite for the past 75 years. I found this shot of Ernie with a coat that’s mauve?
Really? Who ever wore Mauve?
Anyway, this shot is from the early 80s. I thought it worked here. Why did I slow this down at the end you ask? To create kind of long ago feel.
At [1:53] the morning show guys put their bare feet on the desk. Not that it’s any educational help, but Ernie grew up in Florida and often walked around the newsroom barefoot. He was just comfortable that way (more shots of Ernie’s or anyone else’s feet I didn’t feel were necessary).
At [1:59] There is a shot of Ernie putting on make up while our morning feature reporter is saying his good bye. There is symbolism here that I’ll let you interpret.
At [2:10] I managed to find a story in which Ernie put on scrubs, something he’ll being doing a lot of in his next career.
As you see our next good bye is from Bertha Lynn. She’s Ernie’s former co-anchor at KMGH (The ABC station in Denver). Her goodbye really made piece. I didn’t set this up at all.
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Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good
Bertha with her dog just works so well here. Building natural sound elements with pets around here really makes this piece work.
When Bertha says
I cried alone when you left me for another anchor.
I have a shot of Ernie’s co-anchor at KWGN kissing him. As an Editor I keep lots of little things. This is from a video for our annual Emmy Awards show. It never aired but I kept all the raw from it. This is another shot that I think really makes this piece work too.
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If you think you might use something again some day, keep it!!!
At [2:28] Bertha says
You have important work to go to,
Another easy opportunity to slip in some natural sound of Ernie and an animal. In this case talking about a sick frog, something Ernie might eventually have to deal with.
At [2:48] reporter Amana Miyamae has her good bye stand up. When she says
You make us all laugh in the newsroom every single day
I didn’t have a moment in the newsroom, but I did have a moment when the anchors were on set from the day before. It worked fairly well here.
At [3:04] she says
You know how people love those animal stories
This was another easy place to add Ernie with animals.
More animal fun continues at [3:11]. Anchor Mark Koebrich from KUSA (The NBC station) sent us a great good bye too. At [3:20] he says,
You think Ernie knows anything about Horses?
Look what I found in a story. Ernie and a horse. Agian, sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.
The final good bye from Ernie’s current co-anchor Kellie Macmullen. At [3:39] she speaking about looking up to Ernie. I found this great shot of Ernie looking confident.
Another great shot I think worked really well. Kellie says she’s really going to miss him.
With that I do a little montage of Ernie with the music full.
The music I choose for this piece is the theme from the television show Six Feet Under. The music has a good flow and is old enough that most people don’t recognize it. We haven’t touched on music yet, maybe in a post soon.
A quick note on my philosophy on music. I love using popular music. What I like to do is use something that’s maybe a little more obscure or from a long enough time ago that people don’t immediate associate it with anything.
At [3:55] I decided to add this part with Kellie Macmullen and weather anchor Dave Fraser wondering if he’s gone yet.
Then there is the final shot. Ernie leaving the building.
We shot this the day before but it completes the package. I don’t think I’ve ever had a better closing shot in any package ever.
Look for Opportunities
Opportunities aren’t always obvious
Within those opportunities; be creative, practice your craft, and enjoy the opportunity