Personality Interview Project -- August 7
Another morning's worth of interviews. ABC Affiliates from across the nation sent their "entertainment correspondent" out West this weekend to get the scoop on all the new shows. Today's format was slightly different. At 9am, David, Rena, and I took our places in three director's chairs. One camera on the three of us, another camera on the interviewer's chair. For the next four hours we spoke to that chair. Every eleven minutes or so, it had a new person in it. WBHM Birmingham, WATL Atlanta, KOGN Portland, KONC Fresno, twenty in all, ending with George Panachio from KABC Los Angeles. Each asked questions of the three of us. In fact, each asked pretty much the same questions of us that we've been asked all along. Tell us about the show. How does your character fit in? What made you want to take the show? And for me... How did you go from pre-Med to Hollywood? And how do you feel about playing a gay character?
It certainly worked to our advantage to have the three of us sitting there together. When we can play off each other, this type of thing goes quite well. Most of the time it was actually fun and funny. The rest of the time? Well, it is starting to get a little old answering the same questions again and again, but even more so because I feel like my answers are so boring. Maybe I should be scripting stuff with a little more pizzazz so I wouldn't feel like I'm putting everyone to sleep. Or maybe I should really see what the final product in all this looks like and then worry about it. We're only days away from starting this thing. I think that's what I need. Let's get to work!
After lunch, David, Rena, and I stood in front of a silver backdrop
and run through a litany of promos: "You're watching KOSH
Cleveland and ABC-7!" "This is WMIN, Home of the Purple
Pride!" "When you want great news coverage, turn to ABC
40!" "Catch Oh Grow Up right here on KCNA
Sacramento!" That was funny. It was quite a list, too. We
probably churned out 150-200 promos in a half an hour. At first, we
were trying to break them up and share them and be cute and clever,
but after the first 30 or so, they said that we had a whole lot left
and we streamlined our process. From then on, we pretty much just
took turns. I ended up with the Purple Pride one. David had this one,
"KRCK Television Arkansas, For the kids." Still don't know
what that means exactly. What was silliest about the whole thing is
that I felt like we were down in my basement at home turning at more
WDUC Sports product. It was the kind of goofy, pointless video
project Mark Murphy and Chris LaRose and I might have come up with as
a high school project. Of course, this time we got paid more money
for it.