Curveball

Last week I was supposed to shoot a video on University of Colorado quarterback Bernard Jackson. They are doing 7-on-7 drills on their own in the evenings, so the plan was to go shoot some footage of him practicing and then do a bit of an interview with Camera reporter Kyle Ringo.

So I had all kinds of ideas for ways I could put the video together. Before I continue I'll explain a little...you see, Bernard has had an adventurous trip through the Buffalo football program. He was recruited as a quarterback but was asked to play wide receiver after learning the offense as a quarterback. Then after a season as a receiver they had him return kicks and other random jobs. I think he may have had to take the trash out once or twice when the grounds crew was hurt. Just kidding. So last season he was asked to play quarterback once again, but under a new coaching staff. He was about the only thing that somewhat worked on the Buffs offensive side of the ball last year. So for all his trouble in the first few years, his gift is that he is listed as a quarterback still, but there are at least two other guys in front of him on the depth chart. One just happens to be the head coach's son, but it's not what you are thinking on that front. This season he might even end up playing defense just to get on the field.

Bernard is a really good guy and a gifted athlete. I made photos last year of him and his son playing for a story that Kyle did when it was learned that Bernard was finally going to get his shot at quarterback. He just needs to learn a bit of time management.

Back to the story behind the story behind the story...so the players decide to cancel the 7-on-7 drills. I learn of this from Kyle the moment I'm setting up my gear in the parking lot.

"OK, no practice to shoot. Just going to do an interview?" I have a pain run through my conceptual mind, it's described as seemingly endless minutes of a collegiate athlete talking to a reporter about something I don't have any footage of and won't happen again for another few days. Like coach said in high school, "Sit on a fastball, but be ready to adjust for the curveball and change up."

So I adjusted and shot a few things here an there while waiting, but mostly just shot the interview. In order for it to not be super boring I tried to move the camera position a little once in a while during the two talking and figured I would just use still photos from other practices and games. It's not going to be a homerun, but if you keep your weight on the back foot you can adjust and at least hit a single or double to opposite field.




I'll keep swinging. This video gig is a constant learning experience. It's been a challenge to adapt to all the learning of video and still try to capture good moments in stills. Sometimes though, I do feel like Adam Anderson. You get a pretty easy opportunity to end the game with a simple flip to second but try to do too much and throw late to first and let the other team back in the game. Just learn from it, that's hopefully what we all do from mistakes.