October 2, 2024
This may have been my favorite story I reported on this semester. It was just so fun.
It was announced Monday afternoon that Miles Teller (actor) would be visiting Athens Tuesday night. As a college town, we’ve had promotional visits like this before, and Athenians tend to go all out for them. I knew it would be a huge event worth covering. Because it was so last minute, I struggled to get an interview with the General Manager of Paloma Park. But as soon as I walked in the door at about 4pm (for the 7pm event), I saw Sewell, and he said he had five minutes right then. I dropped everything and interviewed him as quickly as I could, basically in the doorway of the restaurant, while his staff were bustling behind him. I didn’t have the proper mics, and I didn’t frame the shot as carefully as I normally would have, but I got the interview.
After that, I just hung out! I watched the entire place fill up and spoke to as many people as possible. It was such a fun environment, and everyone was happy to be there. Eventually, my camera and my phone died, so I actually went home before Miles Teller did. I just had to hope I had enough footage at that point, and it worked out nicely!