Thanks to some phenomenal work of late by Jaimie, our Publicity Princess, I’ve been on TV quite a bit here in Madison. In the last few weeks, Kim & Jason has been on NBC, CBS, ABC, and the WB. After one of the interviews, the news anchors both commented about how natural I was. I thanked them, of course. I’m not exactly sure how to say, “I’d better be, I’ve been dreaming about it for a million years!” Ever since I started this whole thing, I imagined Kim & Jason could be big – really big. It remains to be seen exactly to what extent God will decide to use Kim & Jason. To be honest, the idea of having Kim & Jason read by millions of fans seems like a pipe dream more days than not, but the vision is always there for me. The vision that somehow, I would be able to touch millions of people with Kim & Jason. I’m often given a hard time for not being “more excited” about the good things that come about, like the recent media blitz. It’s not that I’m not excited about it, I am. It’s just that they are things I’ve expected to happen all along. Boy, that probably sounds conceited. But I bet if you ask anyone who has been successful in following their dream, they’d say that they saw bits and pieces of the end goal very vividly, as if it had already happened. I think you need to. There are so many doubters and detractors, that sometimes, that little mental picture of your dream fulfilled is all you have to keep you going. Now, that’s not to say that I’ve abandoned my childlike spirit when it comes to these recent interviews. There are a lot of neat things I’ve been able to experience. There is a weird giddiness when well-known news anchors walk by me in the hallway when I’m at the station. I try to act all suave and professional, like I belong there. What that actually LOOKS like when implemented, I’d rather not know. And I had a chance to sit off-set during a big chunk of a news production (again, acting like I belong there), privy to seeing how the anchors and producers and cameramen all work together to put on a show that looks seamless on TV. The anchors have these scrolling monitors that tell them what to say, including when they should ad lib with each other. And those cameramen are back there pointing to this camera, then that camera…how the anchors manage to not look like fumbling idiots is a mystery…no, wait, that’s EXPERIENCE. There is also something kind of funny/disconcerting about seeing the anchor complaining about something their kid threw up or talk about what they did last weekend off camera and then suddenly become all professional and “newsy” the second the cameras start rolling. It’s also interesting to see how small all of the sets actually are, although I’m not sure what I expected. And I quite enjoyed sitting near NBC-15’s David George’s Storm Team Weather Lab…again, very underwhelming and not at all like the sprawling space teeming with bustling with busy meteorologists…but somehow still pretty cool. When you’re being interviewed on camera, they always tell you to look at the interviewer and ignore the camera. RIIIIIIGHT….It seems pretty easy to just tell yourself, I’m just having a conversation with this person, but there seems to be some sort of powerful force being emitted from the camera pulling your head to look in that direction. I’m not sure what that’s all about. So those are some stupid little nerdy observations and experiences I’ve had so far. I guess the biggest thing I’ve learned is that although we make such a big deal out of the people we see on TV or in the movies, they’re really just regular people who talk about regular things, who, when they do their jobs, happen to have a video camera pointed at them. And really, REALLY bright lights.
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