Well, I wasn't. Turns out that my new job with the Vikings (new job at least for now ... see below) was a lot less painless than I thought.
So my job was to relay down and distance. I was doing so from the suite right to the left of the announcer's booth. That suite, which is bigger than my dorm and a hell of a lot more opulent, was commandeered to enforce physical distancing; I and two other people, each of us at least six feet apart the whole game, had the run of the place. (The other two guys, I think, were audio people. The guy behind me needed me to stay seated so he could see the people wearing the parabolic microphones on the field. Their equipment was strewn all over the granite-topped buffet table behind the three rows of leather seats overlooking the field, just left of the 50, at the perfect height to watch football.) Of course, we were able to do that because fans were not allowed in the stands because large gatherings remain banned due to the pandemic. (There were, however, 250 fans, mostly staff and family members of players, couched in, I think, one of the corners in the lower level. I believe the state restricts gatherings in large venues to a percentage; it's the Vikings which had decided two weeks ago not to allow anybody and then to allow a smattering this past Sunday in the hopes of safely bringing in more people in subsequent games.)
When I got in (a little later than call because I was parking in a lot I had never parked in before, and it was on the other side of where I usually parked, so I needed directions to get around to the entrance) I introduced myself to the Broadcast Assistants to which I thought I would be giving down and distance to. Turns out that even though other people could hear me, I was speaking to and working with only one person, a guy who was working remotely from the New York City area. And thank Buddha and God and all the deities above that he was absolutely chill. He told me what he needed me to tell him and what he didn't, and he seemed to be happy with what I gave him. He even said after the game that he would recommend me to other crews. I like that a lot.
One unfortunate thing that I should have realized much sooner. I had complained from the start that I couldn't hear him. I thought it was just something I would have to live with because of the crowd noise, which was being piped in and cranked up from the in-house production team even though there were only 250 fans (it was weird to see the Vikings go through many of their pre-game rituals -- the ship, the pyrotechnics, the defensive starters running out onto the field, The Skol Chant, the "blowing" of the horn -- when those mostly stir up a crowd that was not there). It was in the Fourth Quarter where I realized that the box my headphones were hooked up to had a volume dial. Moreover, I have used such a device before, even though it had been a long time. Moreover, I used those boxes back in college, when I was in the journalism program and, when I was helping with production, I had used them. I totally forgot there I could hear him if I just turned up the volume. I am ashamed.
Still, if I take this guy at his word, I did a good job, and maybe, possibly this will lead me to assume this post from now on. Furthermore, I need to understand how big of a break I had with the circumstances leading up to this job. Assuming I would be as late on the uptake to the volume dial, I would be fighting to hear this guy if he needed to ask me something through a torrent of 65,000 screaming people as I am trying to both communicate down and distance and see where the ball was spotted, probably through a sea of Vikes fans who are standing up while I have to remain seated. And like I said, guys on production crews usually aren't cool like this guy was. All mistakes I made were forgiven, and hopefully now that I have broken my cherry doing this, I now know a lot better what to do. And thankfully so, because I should not need to have my hand held for the next guy, who may or may not as nice as the one who helped me on Sunday.
Bottom line? Phew.
No comments:
Post a Comment