![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Camera Cuts
18 May 2007 15:09The green button for Camera 02 was looking up at Danielle expectantly. The producer’s voice in the black earphone nestled behind her chestnut hair was telling her to press it. Her finger hovered over the switch key, waiting for the right moment.
She pressed it.
The outgoing feed switched from the anchor’s face over to the weatherman’s smile. It was a good cut and one of many she’d made in the last hour.
Her first day with CNN. It was just the second time she’d edited a live broadcast. The only other time she’d done a live feed was back in Arizona at the local news channel there. The rest had been pre-taped segments done for larger and larger news stations as she worked her way up with a combination of tenacity, charm, and confidence.
She wanted to read the news for America in front of the camera but the bosses said that even though female anchorpersons were becoming more and more numerous, there was still a basic wall in the way of her ever reading the news.
She was not a pretty girl.
It’s a shame that America still trusts an older male face, Danielle thought to herself, whether it’s handsome or not. I mean, most people have mothers, right? Shouldn’t a stern female face have a similar trustworthy effect?
Her dream of working for CNN and having her work be seen the world over was coming true. It just wasn’t happening in the way that she had envisioned and that didn’t sit entirely well with her.
Another small defeat, she thought, another compromise. All because of a ruthless primitive system she could neither adapt to or change. Make up and surgery wouldn’t even the balance and she would excommunicate herself trying to change the system from within. She was paid well and liked her job but the lack of choice rankled her inside.
Every day, she edited people doing the job she wanted to do.
Live feeds gave her a chance to even it out.
She had a tiny revenge on every camera cut that no one but her noticed consciously. She waited until the broadcaster was given the all-clear signal and then she’d hesitate for a tiny moment before cutting to the next segment.
The broadcaster’s smile would falter for just a split-second before the cut took effect. This made the person reading the news look shifty and a little amateurish. For just a moment, the mask would drop and the people watching would realize in a small way, hopefully, that it was a mask and that they’d been watching a show.
It was a fine line. She wouldn’t be able to blame it on being inexperienced with live feeds for too much longer. Maybe nobody would notice tonight but she knew that someone would pick up on it sooner or later.
Until that time, however, she’d relish these moments. They were all recorded. She’d make copies and take them home. Once she was warned, she tidy up her act but she had no doubt that she’d visit that video library often for years to come whenever she felt sad.
tags
She pressed it.
The outgoing feed switched from the anchor’s face over to the weatherman’s smile. It was a good cut and one of many she’d made in the last hour.
Her first day with CNN. It was just the second time she’d edited a live broadcast. The only other time she’d done a live feed was back in Arizona at the local news channel there. The rest had been pre-taped segments done for larger and larger news stations as she worked her way up with a combination of tenacity, charm, and confidence.
She wanted to read the news for America in front of the camera but the bosses said that even though female anchorpersons were becoming more and more numerous, there was still a basic wall in the way of her ever reading the news.
She was not a pretty girl.
It’s a shame that America still trusts an older male face, Danielle thought to herself, whether it’s handsome or not. I mean, most people have mothers, right? Shouldn’t a stern female face have a similar trustworthy effect?
Her dream of working for CNN and having her work be seen the world over was coming true. It just wasn’t happening in the way that she had envisioned and that didn’t sit entirely well with her.
Another small defeat, she thought, another compromise. All because of a ruthless primitive system she could neither adapt to or change. Make up and surgery wouldn’t even the balance and she would excommunicate herself trying to change the system from within. She was paid well and liked her job but the lack of choice rankled her inside.
Every day, she edited people doing the job she wanted to do.
Live feeds gave her a chance to even it out.
She had a tiny revenge on every camera cut that no one but her noticed consciously. She waited until the broadcaster was given the all-clear signal and then she’d hesitate for a tiny moment before cutting to the next segment.
The broadcaster’s smile would falter for just a split-second before the cut took effect. This made the person reading the news look shifty and a little amateurish. For just a moment, the mask would drop and the people watching would realize in a small way, hopefully, that it was a mask and that they’d been watching a show.
It was a fine line. She wouldn’t be able to blame it on being inexperienced with live feeds for too much longer. Maybe nobody would notice tonight but she knew that someone would pick up on it sooner or later.
Until that time, however, she’d relish these moments. They were all recorded. She’d make copies and take them home. Once she was warned, she tidy up her act but she had no doubt that she’d visit that video library often for years to come whenever she felt sad.
tags