Herding Cats

What does a producer actually do?

I can't tell you how many times I'm asked that question.  Being a producer can mean a number of different things in a number of different situations.  But at the Olympics it means "just get this done."

The amount of logistics involved in getting a 2-minute story on the air at the Games -- particularly in Russia -- can be overwhelming.  I think there is a general assumption back home that the media (especially anyone associated with NBC) has access to every athlete, every venue, every location at any given moment. 

Nothing could be further from the truth. 

Sometimes getting a single 10-second shot can take hours, even days, to achieve, let alone coordinating all of the moving parts involved in shooting a story  Even if that story is just a 2-minute blur on the Olympic Zone.  I'm just coming off a 5-day process of producing a story for O-Zone.  Some of you will be bored to tears reading this account, others may gain a bit of perspective in knowing how arduous it can be to make a simple phone call at the Olympics.  If you're interested in the day-to-day, read along....

Friday 6:40pm  Receive email from the assignment desk to "check this out and let me know if you can get something for air on Thursday".  It's a note from the national chapter of Make-A-Wish announcing that the foundation is sending 6 sick kids to Sochi to make their wishes come true.  The most interesting story of them all seems to be a kid named Thomas from Vail, Colorado - the same hometown as American phenom skier Mikaela Shiffrin.  The email says that Thomas is friends with Mikaela.  This seems like it may be a good angle since she is a breakout American star. 

Friday 6:45pm  Immediately the wheels are turning and I spend all night thinking about the elements I'll need for the the story and how to I'm going to get them.  (1)  I'll need an interview with Thomas -- When is Thomas coming to Russia? Where is he staying?  Is he even interested in doing press?  Is he still sick?  Is he incapacitated and in a wheelchair? (2)  Since it's Thomas's wish to attend the Sochi Olympics, I'll need to get footage of Thomas at the Olympics -- Is he going to any events?  Does he have tickets? He won't have a media credential so how will he get access to the areas I need him in? (3) Thomas will have to meet up with Mikaela at some point and we'll need to get them on camera together -- How well does he know Mikaela?  Can I possibly get these two together after her race?  (4) We'll need a separate interview with Mikaela with her thoughts on Thomas coming to Sochi (assuming she does indeed know him, which I have not confirmed.  At all.) -- Is she available to give me an interview?  Can we schedule it according to her training schedule? (4) I need to document his illness -- Does anyone at Make A Wish have photos on file showing his illness so we can adequately tell his story?  Was there a Make A Wish rep on site here in Sochi who may have more specific info on Thomas than the national chapter?  Will Thomas have photographs of himself that we can use?

It is Friday, which means that the weekend is coming, and while weekends are meaningless at the Olympics, folks in organizations in the States still adhere to a weekends-off schedule. I have zero answers to any of my questions.

Saturday 8:30am  Write my boss to say I am in the process of vetting the story, does he have a correspondent in mind for it?  He says Stephanie Gosk from News was available and willing to do the story.  Of all the things I have to coordinate, the one that's most pressing are the photographs.  I'm thinking 'It doesn't matter which correspondent is available, if there aren't any photos, this story is dead.  I can't do it.'

Saturday 9:00am  Spend all morning on Saturday vetting the Mikaela Shiffrin angle.   Still not knowing the exact nature, if any, of Thomas and Mikaela's relationship, I reach out to the press contact of the US Ski Team, Doug Haney.  He is one of the more helpful team contacts -- believe me, some of the teams' press officers STILL haven't returned my requests for athlete availability sent the day I landed in Russia (I'm looking at you, U.S. Ski Jumping).   Doug emails me that he knows nothing about the Make A Wish kid but says he will ask Mikaela about it.  He then tells me to loop him in when I find out more.  Urgh, Doug, I was hoping YOU would loop ME in with more.  (Where is Mikaela, is she there?  Is she sitting right there?  Can you ask her?  Can you just find out for me and ask her if she knows this kid and if she'd be willing to do some sort of appearance for NBC for a story?? -- all things going on in my head after the email exchange which clearly put the ball in my court.)

Saturday 11:00am Connect by phone with reporter Stephanie Gosk who was on a shoot all morning.  'Hi, so we're doing this story, what are you thinking?  Do you want to interview the kid and then his parents?  Assuming his parents are coming?  Which I don't know?  If I can get Mikaela before her race on Wednesday do you want to interview her, or should i do a producer interview that we can cut in or do you want to be at the race?  I'll try to get her agent to give us some time.  But so far I haven't heard from anyone that Mikaela will even be on board for this.  Okay, cool.'  Steph asks me to keep her in the loop.  So far everyone is asking me to keep them in the loop, but I have no loop.  Nary a loop. 

Saturday 6:00pm  Learned in the Marriott lobby that a colleague of mine knows the marketing agent for Mikaela Shiffrin and had his email address.  Oooh!  Another Mikaela angle!  Email this agent and ask if he knows if Mikaela knows this Make-A-Wish kid.  No reply.  Crickets.

Sunday 8:30am  I have no where to go at this point.  No one from Make-A-Wish is returning my emails (it is the weekend remember), and I have no way to even find out if Mikaela knows this kid and if she will play ball for my story.  Spend entire morning biting my fingernails.

Sunday afternoon  I write a panic email to Make-A-Wish that I need to get in touch with Thomas.  Nothing for about 5 hours, until the national MAW chapter emailed me a phone number for a girl named Ilja who is based in Norway but here in Sochi on behalf of Make-A-Wish.  She has an international cell which I cannot dial from my NBC-issued Russian cell.  So I have to use the one landline in our office to call her.  I call her, no answer.  No ability to leave a message.  I wait an hour and call again.  No answer.  I email the States-based chapter to ask them to have her call ME because I cannot dial out because NBC does not give us phones that dial out of Russia.  Embarrassing. The States-based contact apparently passed along the message because an hour after that (8:00pm Sochi time) I hear from Ilja!  She is on the coast with a few of the other MAW families, and she has no phone number for Thomas but knows he is staying at the Mercure Hotel in the mountains.  I track down a phone number for the Mercure Hotel which I am hoping is somewhere nearby.  Call the Mercure and ask Russian receptionist to connect me with a guest named Thomas Walsh.  No understand.  Hang up.  Ask the Russian translator in our office to call back.  The Walshes are staying there, but they are not in their room.  Ask the receptionist, through a translator for the Walsh family to call me, a producer with NBC whom they never met and have no idea why is calling them.  Hang up and freak out to self that the message will not get relayed.  Continue biting fingernails.

Sunday 9:00pm  Receive email reply from Mikaela's marketing agent that 'Thomas and Mikaela are friends.' (Phew!  One question answered!)  Learn that Mikaela is only available in the crowded press zone after her race on Wednesday.  So, part of the puzzle is coming together -- Mikaela definitely knows the kid, but she can't talk about him until her required press avail after her race on Wednesday.  Which is fine, if I can actually somehow get Thomas down from the stands to the press zone.  Which is not allowed by Olympic regulations.  But I'll figure something out.  They have to meet up, that's the end of this story, I have to figure out a way for an Olympian to meet a kid who she knows who has a ticket to the event but no credentials to get to where she is going to be.

10:00pm Not feeling hopeful about the message floating around the desk at the Mercure Hotel for a family who doesn't know that I'm trying to get in touch with them.  My Russian translator has gone home for the evening.  In a last-ditch effort I call the Mercure Hotel again from my hotel room asking in deliberate English for "GUEST NAMED WALSH.  THOMAS WALSH".  Miraculously.....Thomas and his mother were at the front desk right at the very moment I called.  What are the chances???  The receptionist gives Thomas's mom the phone and I launch into a litany of questions - how long are you here for, what events are you going to, etc.  I learn that they only had tickets to Mikaela's event on Tuesday, so we'll have to do the sit-down interview the next day, Monday.  Start asking about Thomas's health.  'Is he okay?  Oh, he's in remission, so his health is good now, good.  Okay, the front desk needs their phone back?  Oh, jeez, okay, I guess just be ready in the hotel lobby at 1:00pm tomorrow.  I'll have a car waiting for you to bring you to the interview.'  Hang up phone.  Think to self 'I'm getting a car to pick up these random people to bring them to an interview which is taking place at a location I have not secured with a camera crew I have not requested.'   Shit, I forgot to ask them if they had any photos.  Sigh. 

10:30pm Call Stephanie Gosk  - 'hey I got in touch with the family - I'm gonna set up an interview for tomorrow.  Can you be there?  You're doing a live hit on The Today Show tomorrow?  Oy.  What time?  You have to be there by 3:30?  Oh, fine, that's all fine, we can do the interview in the morning and have you back down to the coast in plenty of time for your Today Show duties.  I have no idea where, or with which crew, but for now just assume you're coming to the Marriott.  Good night.'

10:45pm Need to change interview time with Thomas's family - Call The Mercure Hotel again to let them know interview would be earlier.  'Hope you don't have regular Olympic fan plans because I'm sending a car to come get you at 10:00 in the morning.  Good night.'  CRAP WHY DIDN'T I ASK IF THEY HAD ANY PHOTOS!!???

11:00pm Head downstairs to the Marriott lobby to see if I can shoot an intimate 2-camera interview with this kid and our correspondent somewhere in the hotel.  Now, let me tell you, my experience with the hotel staff has been dicey at best.  Find someone who speaks broken English and ask if I can set up in the hotel bar which in all likelihood will not be crowded at 10 in the morning.  The staffer tells me "it shouldn't be a problem."  "Shouldn't be a problem" is not one of my favorite phrases.  I like "Definitely, the space is yours!"  "Shouldn't be a problem" is a way of giving me an answer without giving me an answer.  I just imagined setting up this interview in the middle of the lobby, having all kinds of chaos and then having some hotel manager shut me down.  I cross my fingers and head upstairs to my room.

11:30pm Call my camera operators to fill them in on what's what.  2-camera interview in the Marriott.  I don't exactly have permission to film there, so please don't haul in lots of gear and bring attention to yourselves.  Yes, you can bring in light panels, but not much else.  It's the equivalent of saying "hey I need this to look as beautiful as possible, but I am not allowing you to use the equipment you will need or let you take the time you need to take in order to achieve that."  Camera operators love producers.

Midnight - What the hell is Ewing's sarcoma?  Do some research.  Type up some bullet point notes to give to Stephanie Gosk for her interview.  Stephanie is a pro and doesn't need notes, but I do them for every correspondent.  It makes me feel better. Write out list of other elements I need for my story.  Write note to myself to have the runner who is picking up Thomas in the morning to ask him to bring his computer with him to the interview  (if he even brought it to Russia??) so we can get pictures off of Facebook.  I need photos.  If you haven't caught on yet, I cannot do this story without photos.

Monday morning, 8:30am.  Call our office translator and ask her to high-tail it over to the Marriott where my camera ops are setting up the interview.  Ask translator to run interference if the Marriott natives get restless. Ask Marriott staff to please turn off music in the bar.  They don't understand me.  Ask translator to ask staff to turn off music.  No one knows how to turn off the music.  We can't do the interview here if the music is playing.  Someone needs to figure out how to turn off this music so we can do this interview in a place that really no one has given us permission to do.  Stop worrying about getting in trouble and start focusing on the shoot. Send car to get the kid and his family.  Remind runner when she gets to the Mercure Hotel to ask Thomas to bring photos.  I need photos.  Stephanie arrives from the coast up to the mountains and we chat for a bit about the direction of the interview.  Again, thank god Stephanie is the correspondent assigned to this, she knows what to do, she really doesn't need me here.  Thank you thank you thank you.  Thomas and his family arrive JUST as the music in the bar is turned off.  Interview goes off without a hitch.

Exhausted??  Me too!  And all I have is one (one!!) of my elements for the story -- the interview.  That's it!  (An aside here, I am simultaneously trying to vet 2 other stories while all of this is going on, stories with similar complications.) Over the course of the next two days, the narrative is much more of the same with me coordinating how to get Thomas and his family down to Olympic Park at the coast and shoot his experience, how to get Mikaela's people to know we need to interview her about Thomas immediately following her inaugural Olympic ski race, how to coordinate with the Alpine venue that I want to shoot Thomas in the stands watching Mikaela's race, etc. etc. etc.  It was 48 more hours of missed phone calls, unanswered questions, and -- on race day when most of the shooting was going to happen -- the worst weather we've seen so far in Sochi.  But at 4:00pm on Wednesday afternoon, it all came together.  I had all the elements I needed to take into the edit room, write a script, and create a 2-minute feature on a Make-A-Wish kid from Vail and his Olympian friend.  I even got my photos! Thomas had a bunch of pictures documenting his illness which he emailed me so we could tell the story.  I got my photos.  And if you watch tonight, you'll see that they are fairly powerful.  Without them, all of my efforts would have been in vain.

You can watch this 2-minute feature TONIGHT (Thursday) night on the Olympic Zone.  And if someone asks "what the hell was Sheila's role in that short little piece?" you will know :)

Stephanie Gosk interviews Thomas Walsh in the bar of the Marriott Krasnaya Polyana.