Learning Curve

Brian Anthony Miller, NBC5 Next
Brand new week and a fresh slate. I turned a story last week, from start to finish, in one day. That was one of the goals I set for myself coming into this opportunity. I knew if I could finish a good story, a solid package in less than one day while being my own camera operator, producer, reporter, and editor, then I was on the right path.
I was mildly impressed with the outcome. After each piece I feel like there were one or two things I would like to back and fix, or do a different way. Or some kind of information omitted snuck into the piece. Chuck Goudie from ABC gave me some great advice while I was his intern. One of the lat pieces of advice was not to dwell on a story, move on to the next one, just keep moving forward to the next story. What’s done is done.
And that is the blessing and the curse of the deadline. Of course, any perfectionist who is trying to exceed people’s expectations like I am trying to do, will want that chance to improve, to tweak their work to get it one step closer to perfection. But the deadline says- you’ve done your work, you’ve checked your facts, white-balanced your shots, recorded your tracks, and this is the outcome.
I am learning and growing with these pieces now and I am starting to come into my own as a shooter and editor. My reporting skills have not failed me and those, too, seem to be improving each passing week and each passing story.
I will try to be proud of these final products while knowing that I could have done something better somewhere in my story. I will just know to save those self critical thoughts for the next story.