Saturday 27 April 2013

My days in Toon #2

After getting my head down with one of my assessments I received an email from Rob inviting me to the press conference for my 2nd and final day of work experience. Initially it was for the West Brom presser before it was changed to the Liverpool match due to changed travel arrangements.

I met Rob at the Sir Bobby statue once more at 9.30 in my blue coat which I think he was sick of seeing. Once again, it was bloody chucking it down. Marc (@MarcJobling) was running slightly late so we made our way to the office he shares with the rest of the boys. Sky sports news was on in the distance, I caught a glimpse of Dortmund's or rather Lewandowski's goals from the night before. I sat down observing Rob sort out his desktop. Whilst he went to retrieve Marc I was given the opportunity to put something together on Rob's Haris Vuckic video. I attempted to implement a PiP effect and failed, my video editing only stretches to Windows Movie Maker although one of my videos did reach 150,00 views on YouTube!

After this, Marc and I followed Rob pitch side where we waited for the players to come out. He showed us his camera, showed us the features he would use and the different microphone settings before stopping to film the lads coming out. I couldn't believe it. The lads I pretty much worship - okay maybe not as much this season - were stood right in front of me. Then I saw Shola. In the flesh. Smiling. Laughing. jhgkjgkgjd. Rob filmed the lads as they went for a run and told us what sort of shots he could obtain. For example, Pardew was in the foreground and the players were just about to run past in the background. He caught this shot and before seeing that I hadn't appreciated the thought that went into camerawork.

We changed various positions around the stadium and I noticed something. St James' should never be empty, it feels wrong. Artistically, Rob positioned himself behind Ian Horrocks or 'Horrocksy' as he is referred to. The lads were still warming up and for a few seconds I forgot that I was on work experience. The temptation to shout 'I LOVE YOU' was overcoming but I kept shut. Then the lads changed to a crossing exercise and to be honest it was shambolic. In half an hour, they scored 5 goals.  Marc and myself were given the chance to film for a short period of time, Marc caught a goal and I caught a lot of wayward passes.

We went back upstairs and Rob uploaded the footage to his laptop. He showed us our footage and give us some feedback. He told us the focus should be the ball and that it should be central at all times. I anticipated the final destination of the ball rather than the actual pass at times. He edited out the clips that were not needed and gathered about 8 minutes of quality footage. What I didn't realise was that Rob had taken individual footage of players such as Coloccini and Tiote as he was anticipating that Pardew would talk about them in his presser and he was right. Derek Llambias walked in through the door, said hello to everybody, picked up the papers and said 'I wonder who we're signing today'. I wanted to shake his hand, Ashley and Llambias have got a lot of unfair stick and I wanted to say 'cheers' but as a fan.

Marc and I went for lunch and were told to head back for 1.15 as the press conference started at 1.30. We arrived back at 1.17 and were not retrieved due to a text message failing to send to tell Rob we were back. After the press conference Rob asked us why we were late and that in this industry it was unacceptable as it was a time sensitive job. He said it was a lesson we had to learn and don't worry I did. The presser itself was similar to the post-Southampton one but even still I thoroughly enjoyed it. I introduced myself to Lee Ryder and Miles Starforth but I stopped due to the start of the presser. There was so many questions I wanted to ask Pardew or lecture Pardew on but I knew I had no right to and that I'd embarrass Rob. I wouldn't have had the balls anyways.

Rob needed to retrieve a disc from the training ground and so we had the opportunity to visit. We piled into Rob's car with another lass (who's name escapes me) and headed to Benton. It was a much more relaxed conversation in the car then it had been previously. At the training ground, Rob retrieved his disc and introduced us to the analysts. That'd be an amazing job. He gave us a tour of the place where we saw the gym, the ice bath, the boot room and the indoor pitch. Whilst in the indoor pitch I started laughing as I realised it was the place they used to film a scene in 'Goal' where Erik Dornhelm tells Santiago Munez 'the name on the front of the shirt is bigger than the name on the back'. After this, we walked back through the corridors to Rob's car where I clocked the inspirational quotes on the wall and statistics for the upcoming match vs Liverpool.

Rob dropped us back, mentioned en route about the fight you need to succeed and encouraged us to get in touch for any advice or references as long as we're not inundating him! 2 unforgettable days that have spurred me on for more. In a few years, I'll buy him a pint.

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