Colombian Woman Being Deported

Another difficult day at the station. I did a follow-up story on the Colombian woman facing deportation. The judge made his decision today - the mother of two has to pack her bags and leave on Thursday. It was heartbreaking; the cameraman and I were with her as she got the news.

She says her cousin and uncle both were killed by a paramilitary group and her life could be taken next if she heads back. Her 10-year old daughter's terrified of going there, in the anxiety of it all she's bitten off much of her nails. 

An insider at the courthouse told me the number of deportations from Canada has increased during the past few years. There are a lot of injustices going on but people aren't getting the chance to tell their stories because they're being deported even before getting the chance to speak. The Immigration Board's become more rigid and doesn't give individual cases enough thought. One man speculated that staff-members are afraid of being more fair out of sheer fear of losing their jobs.

Anyway, I had to rush with my script once we got back to the station. The pack required quite a bit of tweaking by the producer. A colleague suggested I try to speak more 'naturally' during my voice-overs, and should sound less like I'm reading off a script. I was also asked to remember to write along to my pictures, since we ran out of  visuals at certain points during editing. So much to think about at once! Which is hard to do when you're also counting down the minutes.

The good news is I found a gorgeous dress to wear to a wedding reception I'm heading to tomorrow. I'm missing the actual wedding though, because I'm getting another day of R E P O R T I N G!  

Reporting Madness!

I feel defeated; it's been a rough day. Today's shift became complicated again. My report was originally about the Mercier Bridge construction. It wasn't starting off so well.  There was a press conference being held at 12:30pm in Kahnawake, the scheduled time is already quite late for a day reporter. We get there only to find out their press conference time was changed to 1pm, then 1:30pm and finally, 2pm! The organiser apologised saying their team is not good at organising (really, you think so?). There was no telling whether the conference would even start at 2pm sharp, and considering we'd need extra time to do interviews with officials after the conference, the timing wasn't feasible.

The assignment editor sent us out on another assignment instead - a murder case that took place in Anjou. We rushed to the location only to find out it was no longer a murder case, but a suicide, so police were keeping mum about it. One of my colleagues is convinced that it'll be switched back to a murder case later.

I went back to the station to write my construction script with the little information I actually did gather. It somehow worked out.

On a side note, I learned that the 16-year old victim from the car-surfing story I covered last Saturday has died. My colleague had done a follow-up last week about his friends and school background; he seemed like a fun-loving young man. It's a really unfortunate way to go. Drivers aren't realising that no matter how slow you drive, the surfer's (person standing on top of the moving vehicle) slightest fall can become fatal.

Extra Early Reporting

My past few reports haven't been going so well. Last Friday's story was about a Colombian woman fighting deportation. I couldn't conclude my report until learing the judge's final decision on the case - that information was only released at 5pm. The story was airing at 6pm. It gave me very little time to finish up my script and voice my story quickly enough to get the video editing done too. From the stress of it all my voice kept cracking during the voice-overs; and there was no time for re-takes!

Today's story was based around a back-to-school theme. My shift started at 6:30am. The day was simple enough and quite fun to work on. Most children loved the camera. We could only use the footage of those kids whose parents were there to allow permission.  In the end, my focus didn't quite coincide with what the director had in mind though. So more improvement required.

Don't Like Pressers

It's been a long day. I had a difficult time getting my head around my assigned topic. The hardest stories for me are when I'm sent to a press conference; the media kit's filled with a lot of excess, irrelevant fluff.  Relying on the speakers' address doesn't always help much, most of the time the party's just using the media to get their personal message across. To figure out what the real story is underneath all that information isn't always easy.

It's important not to get too absorbed in all the information that's thrown your way. I need to get better at seeing the bigger, more simpler picture. In the end, the producer needed to tweak most of my script, which really doesn't look good.  I'm remaining optimistic that tomorrow will go better though.

Reports Went Well!

Working with a newer cameraman wasn't so easy. He forgot to do things at the start of his shift, such as preparing his video kit, that effected how our day unfolded. My first interview of the morning was delayed by 40 minutes because the camera wasn't set up properly.  I had to ask the busy interviewee to come back once we were ready, which was a bit embarrassing. And the delay had a rippling effect on the rest of our appointments.

There were several other glitches through the week-end but I think we both learned from those mistakes.  I covered a story about car-surfing and a South Shore robbery.  Overall, I'm happy with how the reports turned out.

I have a couple more reports scheduled for the end of this week, and possibly the following two as well. Some days I need to pinch myself to realise I'm really doing what I've been wanting to do all along! 

Wild Goose Chase

I reported on basement flooding problems in some Laval homes today. The videojournalist and I were sent out on what our director likes to refer to as a wild goose chase. 

I didn't have the addresses of any of the residents I'd need to talk to but did have the name of one woman, from which I was able to find her telephone number. I called her. She refused to do an interview and was upset that I had found her number. I pushed a conversation with her although she kept attempting to hang up on me.  A few minutes later, she at least gave me some street names I could navigate. That helped! We drove through the areas she suggested, I knocked on some random doors and yes, found some angry residents who readily welcomed us into their homes, just waiting to have their voices heard. Cooperation - what a wonderful thing. My story worked out in the end.

I'm working with a newer cameraman tomorrow. He's asked me to try to get my script ready as early as possible so he'll have sufficient time for editing. I told him I'd try. Let's see what tomorrow brings.  

Back in the Groove!

I had an amazing yoga session yesterday - finally! I completed all 26 postures without giving up in between or feeling faint nor dizzy. I feel like I'm back into my regular fitness routine again; was even inspired to do some jogging this week.

So I'm working at the news station tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday. I might even be scheduled for the following two week-ends, should find out soon.  That's all for now, ciao!