My Eyes! My Eyes!
(Written by kencraw)
Well, the interview went well yesterday… or so I thought:
I know that we’re often our own worst critics but MAN my facial expressions were flat. Yeah, the answers were fine. But I just can’t get over how, as Jason put it in an IM discussion with me “you did sort of look like your cat had just died”. I mean, I SPECIFICALLY said to myself “make sure you’re smiling” because I know that I can look a bit stone faced in pictures. In fact, I remember a couple moments when I tried to smile more. There’s absolutely no indication of that attempt on film.
I mean, how is even POSSIBLE that I can look both like this:
and this:
Oh well…
In any case, here’s a little background on how it all works. They sent me to the University studio when the show was being taped in the morning. They put me in a little room with no more than a chair with a backdrop and video equipment. Then they put a mic on me and an earbud in my ear. The earbud had the audio from the show as well as occasional cut-ins from the producers with instructions or heads up.
That’s all I had. No video monitor to see what was going on. No teleprompter with questions that were going to be asked (they did give me a general idea in the studio that they’d be asking about Riley as starting QB, Javhid Best, the 3-4 and team chemistry, but that’s about the extent of it). Nothing. So if you’re one who noticed that my eyes kept shifting off camera too, I have NO IDEA what I was looking at. I think it was mostly that I felt pretty disengaged and distant as opposed to feeling like I was “talking to the camera”.
While I guess the equipment setup is the norm, I had no idea what to expect and was a bit thrown off by it. But what REALLY threw me off, was the pacing of the show. I had never watched the show before, so I had no idea. I was expecting something a bit more drawn out with more detailed discussion as opposed to the quick hitting, fast paced answering that was expected.
So when the first guy from USC, who’s not in the clip, started blathering away at lightning speed, I had a huge “oh crap” moment. I knew I would get about a 15 second warning when my turn was up, so I quickly in my head got ready to just fly through my answers and did my best to prepare them. I knew that when the moment came I just had to spew out whatever was first on my mind. “Don’t think, just talk”, I told myself. As an example, I had no idea I’d say that Riley’s attitude/energy might make a difference after the first loss. It’s just what came to mind while I was blathering away. The whole thing was just a stream of consciousness. There wasn’t even time to think. In fact, I couldn’t have told you afterwards that I said that. I couldn’t even say how long I was on the air.
I think the next time I’m on I’ll do a lot better. I’ll spend a lot of time prepping content to say. What I noticed from the other two guys (the 3rd guy was Florida) was that they didn’t mind straying from the question and would just keep talking as long as the host would let them, so that’ll allow me to prepare content and use it liberally after quickly answering the question. Basically, the first time you pause, no matter what you just said, they’re asking their next question.
Also, I’ll spend some time in front of a camcorder “having a little talk” with Mr. Stone Face.
All in all though, I was happy with my answers. My only complaint was with the stone faced delivery. In fact, I’m genuinely surprised my answers were as good as they were considering how it all came about and how much of a blur it was. I think what saved me is that I’m so comfortable with the material, that there was never a moment I had to pause to come up with anything. I was able to “execute” on my “don’t think, just talk” and it didn’t make me sound stupid.
Hopefully I’ll get another chance to show I can do it better…
August 27th, 2008 at 10:13 am
You’re way too hard on yourself, but from someone who does media training for a living, practicing with the camcorder is a great idea.
Your aftergame podcasts are awesome. Totes. Get into that mindset and your golden.
Go Bears!
August 27th, 2008 at 10:52 am
Thanks Great for the re-assurance.
I know that with the podcasts, I’ve gotten a lot better over the last year talking because I’ve had to listen to hours on end of me talking. Every time I have to edit out an “um” it helps me remember to next time not say it. That’s what gave me the idea with the camcorder. I’m sure after an hour of staring at Mr. Stone Face I’ll figure out how to smile on camera. 🙂
The big difference between the podcast and being on the show is the pace. On the podcast, I take a lot of breaks that get edited out. As an example, my podcast I recorded last night was 25 minutes of raw audio of me. I haven’t edited it yet, but I doubt it’ll be over 15 minutes.
Point being, I have time to think through my next bit and think through what I want to say. I can take as long as I want. I have no such luxury on the show. Luckily the solution, since the content is a lot more simple, is to just prep answers ahead of time.
Thanks again for the re-assurance.
August 27th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Hey Ken,
Don’t sweat it man. All in all, I thought you did a fine job. I can imagine how the absolute lack of production on your end might lead to a feeling of being lost, but I thought it came out just fine.
BTW, you look a little bit like Mike McCarthy. Haven’t seen you without facial hair. Ever heard that before?
August 27th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Ken-
Great job! You did a very nice job. You are pretty hard on yourself. You provided some great perspective.
Go Bears!
August 27th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Ken, aside from stone face, you did fine. You spoke very well and sounded knowledgeable (not that you aren’t, you are).
August 27th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Ken,
As your brother, I am not at all shocked by this performance. Next time you mock me for spending 8 years to get a BS that states “TV-Radio”, I’ll remind you that I’m practically married to a doctor, and show you this video.
That being said… who told you to wear white polo with a blue stripped shirt? With your skin tone you need to break out maybe an light green dress shirt with silver tie or something. Maybe even a pale yellow? Don’t make me show this to mom to get you some good TV shirts…
In regards to ESPN showing about 5 minutes of highlights in you 90 seconds of TV game, ask yourself, WWBD? Then ham it up even more, and you’ll do fine…
August 27th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Yeah, I’ll echo everyone else’s sentiment and say you did a fine job. Besides, with all of ESPN’s whiz-bang graphics going on there, I don’t think anyone noticed your rather uninteresting face.
August 28th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Ken,
You kicked ass in the interview and you looked no different than any other expert on these kind of shows. Content is what people want, and you talked about the Longshore/Riley situation which was pretty much (BAD ANALOGY ALERT!!!!) the delicious top of the muffin/cupcake that everyone covets….anything else you said was a bonus.
Plus, not smiling is F–king FOOTBALL Lombardi style. I caught the last 0.8 seconds of the Joe Isuzu USC dude…. He looked like he was in on the sick joke that is the USC football program.
All that being said, I will also make sure to remember this interview as the proper expression for a poker face or someone telling me they lost a ferret in a horrible vacuum accident.
October 16th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
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