Days Getting Shorter

My job has sort of dwindled a bit with the changes in our venue's purpose. As it turns out, our footage will be limited to IMAG (the jumbotrons) and not sold to networks (except for our coverage of the medals ceremonies) which means that we don't really have to go all out to get really awesome shots because our audience is so small. Therefore, the cameras aren't moving around much at all, so I don't really feed cable much. This also means that the hours we are working are cut down as well, which I suppose is fine since we are getting paid for the day, rather than by the hour, and we don't really need to practice since all the medal ceremonies/preshow are the same. I'm keeping a positive attitude, trying to focus on what more I can learn instead of complaining about not doing enough. Hopefully I'll actually be able to operate the camera during the pre-show some nights since we are not sending the footage anywhere! :)

The medals ceremony today was nice, nothing particularly exciting or different from other nights, but I'm trying to appreciate each night as unique so I don't get desensitized to it by the end. Lots of German medals awarded, in contrast to last night where the crowd was predominantly Swiss.

Tonight's show was Feist. It was pretty good - there was a lot of hype built up in my mind from other people, but it was still good music. She is a pretty good performer, but a definite diva. ;)

In other news, my director decided to play a prank on me yesterday.

I was at the camera, waiting for Al (camera operator I assist) and one of the camera operators motioned that I should put the headset on. Just as I was putting it on, I hear my director ask if Al is on headset. As I was his camera assistant, I knew that I needed to answer him to tell him that Al was not there yet. The only problem was, I did not know where the intercom button to speak to the director was. The director became angry, saying that if Al was not on headset that moment, he would not have a job anymore and that this was unacceptable! I was absolutely horrified because I knew I needed to tell him that I was there, but couldn't find the button, and was afraid to press other buttons because I could accidentally shut it all down and ruin it! All I could think to do was stick my face in the camera and motion that I was there. At that point, the director started laughing and I realized that the camera across the audience from me (thankfully there was no audience at this point) had been zoomed in on me during this whole freak out. What's more, everyone on the production crew saw it on their monitors. Finally, the director told me where the intercom button was, and I was able to speak to them. When I returned to our little media break tent, everyone was giving me a hard time about it, which I thought was pretty cool actually. I'm always glad to be the brunt of a little practical joke. Even today people were asking me if I had found the intercom button, which again brought some laughs, but it was a good thing to happen. It's like I've been accepted by the crew in some form or fashion.

There was another time the second day that we were running through technical details for the pre-show where dancers come out, but the dancers were not there for that rehearsal, so Al told me to go dance in front of the stage. At first, I thought he was kidding, but I did it anyway and of course the whole production crew got a good laugh out of that one too. What they didn't know was that I was semi-accustomed to that sort of thing from my figure skating/musical theater days. It definitely brought back some memories, and I actually miss dancing like crazy! Not like clubbing dancing, but ballroom. One of my life goals is to become a pro at ballroom dancing.