Monday, April 6, 2009
This past Saturday was spent attending the chaos that would inevitably be Franklin Street later that evening. UNC was playing Villanova in the Final Four in Detroit. As is tradition with big wins at UNC, Franklin Street becomes a borderline riot, complete with crowd surfing and bonfires. Ilin and I were stationed on the roof of Spanky's, which is on the corner of Columbia and Franklin. This is the main intersection, so we had a prime location. If UNC were to win, the streets would almost immediately be flooded with thousands of fans. Well, UNC did win, beating Villanova 83-69 and advancing to the National Title game against Michigan State.
Ilin and I had to shoot several on-scenes with fans during the hours leading up to the game.
Franklin Street, during the game. The bars were absolutely packed.
We went into a few bars during the game to get fan reactions. After halftime we made our way back to the roof to make sure everything was situated for out live shot immediately following the game.
Aside from Ilin and I, there were a few others on the roof. Some Daily Tarheel staff photographers were up there trying to set up a time lapse. I felt a bit guilty because I was directly in the spot they wanted to use, but they were nice guys and were certainly willing to work with me. None of us knew how much time was left in the game, but we certainly knew when the game was over.
Ilin had to hold the mic almost at her mouth because the noise from the streets below was overwhelming. I was standing 6 feet away and couldn't hear a word she was saying. She had to use hand gestures during the live shot so I would know when to pan to the crowd.
Ilin is a professional, which is fortunate for me. As soon as she was done with her live hits from the rooftop, she descended the ladder and grabbed her gear to shoot the last remaining shots needed to finish her package. This allowed me to stay on the roof and could keep a live shot of the street for the producers to cut back to. After Sports Night was over, I broke everything down and brought it back to the truck, where she was just finishing. We ended up leaving for the station around 1:45 or so in the morning.
It was a long night, but a good experience for me. It was my first time operating the stinger (a portable microwave transmitter that allowed us to have a live shot from the rooftop), and it was also my first time on top of Spanky's, but it felt nice to be trusted with such a major event (News 14's news director being a UNC alum may have added a bit of pressure).
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