Kite Aerial Photography - CNN Interview

Notes on Kite Aerial Photography: Background

This is CNN ....
San Francisco's Marina Green

During the summer of 1997 the San Francisco Chronicle published an article on my KAP endeavors in the Sunday Section. A few days afterwards I received a call from the San Francisco office of the Cable News Network (CNN) wondering if I could provide an interview. I thought it would be an interesting experience so we arranged a meeting for the subsequent week on San Francisco's Marina Green.

Your author and the CNN crew on the Marina Green (37K jpg, Canon 24-mm, June 1997).

On interview day I easily found CNN correspondent Don Knapp and his cameraman Kevin. I general, I was very impressed with Knapp's interview process which I can describe. The CNN crew quickly hauled out their gear, got the camera set up and equipped us with wireless microphones. They then, as a first order of business, shot the in-depth "talking head" question and response segments of the interview. This was followed by a demonstration of launching the kite, mounting the camera rig, and controlling its functions. At one point I asked Don Knapp serve as the kite's anchor. Kevin shot a nice clip as Don was pulled down the sidewalk by the Sutton 30 and that sequence made it into the broadcast edit. At this point I figured we were about done but they surprised me by asking "now that the rig is up what subjects would I normally proceed to shoot?"

Images from the filming of kite launch and rig functions. I was photographing cameraman Kevin as he was photographing me. (32K jpg each, Canon 24-mm, June 1997).

I explained that I would normally avoid shooting in the middle of the day but that were it later I would try to get shots of the harbormaster's Building, the nearby marina slips, and the urban edge of the Marina District. Besides this the wind was quite strong and gusty, my Canon rig was bouncing all over the sky.

Nevertheless, Don Knapp proposed that we go shoot each of these subjects. So, with correspondent and cameraman in tow I spent the next hour taking a couple of rolls. I first walked over to the Harbormaster's Building, threading the kiteline around fences and over obstacles. I eventually got into position to shoot the building and its flag. Kevin shot footage of me positioning the rig (and using quite a bit of body english.) In the final footage they then inserted a click and the photographs below replaced the video process footage. It was a great way to set things up. I would be talking about how I'm about to shoot a verticle, oblique shot of the flag with marina beyond and - click - there would be the results. Of course, we didn't know the results as we shot the interview. I just gave the unexposed film to CNN and they had it developed. I'm glad the shots turned out ok.

The Harbormaster's Building at the Marina Green. (24K jpg left and 28K jpg right, Canon 24-mm, June 1997).

At the end of the interview I asked if they had an idea when (and if) the story would run. Don explained that CNN San Francisco basically had little control over this -- that they compiled the piece, sent it to CNN Headquarters in Atlanta, and waited to see if would be used. Turns out it aired just a few days later on the 4th of July (a US holiday.) CNN chose to run it on CNN Headline News, a channel dedicated to short summaries of the news repeated every half-hour. It was my good luck that they ran it opposite the landing of the Mars Explorer landing module. I expect that increased the number of viewers a hundredfold. CNN later thoughtfully sent me a video copy of the piece that aired. I know the interview has been used several times in CNN's classroom video program.

The Marina District and moored boats (41K jpg left and 78K jpg right, Canon 24-mm, June 1997).

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URL: http://arch.ced.berkeley.edu/kap/background/cnn.html

This is CNN .... San Francisco's Marina Green

This is CNN ....
San Francisco's Marina Green