Sunday, November 09, 2003

Photo Essay: How a "sojo" (solo journalist) files a live report from the field (or doesn't).  

Click on thumbnails for full-size image.



Above: Setting up the dishes. I'm on the Iraqi border with Syria (actually very cold this day) and I'm getting ready to do an interview with U.S. Army Lt. Col. Hank Arnold. He's the commander of the Second Battallion of the 101st Airborne and is responsible for the security of a 70 mile stretch of border with Syria. Now this is newsworthy, you remember, because President Bush says foreign fighters are sneaking across from Syrian and Iran to stir up trouble in Iraq. Lt. Col. Arnold says, that at least in his sector it's mostly goats, sheep and smugglers going from Iraq into Syria. I'm setting up the satellite phone dishes on the Colonel's Humvee. These will bounce my video into space and then back down to New Jersey.



Above: Adjusting the camera. See that dirt berm? That's Syria on the other side. See that guy with a gun? That's a new Iraqi border guard. Nice pose, huh. See that guy in camo -- that's Lt. Col. Arnold (he's going to be bummed because he wanted to take off his cold weather gear before going on camera -- too late. It's an Army macho thing). See that guy behind the camera? That's me. See that tripod? It's a piece of crap -- one of the legs fell off en route to the border and will never be found. See that box of MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat)? That's my new tripod leg. See the Colonel's helmet? That's the counterweight that keeps the camera from tipping over. It's amazing how desperation can push you to new levels of creativity in the middle of the desert.




Above: Damn videophone. After all that, the videophone won't power up to give me a picture, so I have to take it out of it's little box, jiggle some wires and screw around with it for about an hour before I will accept the fact that I am in possession of very expensive paperweight. I ended up just videotaping the interview and feeding it back later--when the videophone decided to make a miraculously recovery about two hours after we left the border. NBC sent me out a brand new videophone from London when I returned to Tikrit.



Above: Joe Raedle. Joe's an ace photographer from Getty Images who's as humble as he is talented.You can see his work on any given days in newspapers across the country, or at gettyimages.com. He took these snaps of my comedy of errors.


My "Typical Day" in Tikrit
It's hard to call any day typical in Iraq. But that's why I try to build my own foundation of time here, put together a routine that lets me pretend I have some control over an environment that spins on a shifting axis between war and peace.

I live in the guardhouse just outside the gates of what was once one of Saddam Hussein's secondary palaces here in Tikrit. It sleep on an army cot and have constructed a makeshift desk out of a sheet of plywood and sandbags the soldiers let me use. There are a few resident mice and plenty of mosquitoes, but all in all pretty cushy--especially compared to my digs during the war. Here I've got a shower and toilet inside--and a Bradley Fighting Vehicle  with a 25mm cannon outside. The guards keep watch over my gear and in turn I give them some time on the sat phone to call home. They're good guys and gals but most are living groundhog day, dreaming of a two week r&r break or February, their departure date, whichever comes first.

In the morning, if I have time, I might take a jog around the palace which is surrounded by a 14-foot hight concrete wall. Then I'll shower, eat breakfast at the dining facility, which serves the same kind of meat and potatoes fare you'd find at any U.S. Army. After, I go back to my "hooch" and check email on my computer which is hooked up to a satellite modem called a Began. After that I might go out on a patrol or raid with one of the units or shoot a story on one of the civil projects they're working on -- like creating a new local Iraqi television and radio station in Tikrit.

By midafternoon I'll call NBC's Foreign Desk in Seacacus, NJ and find out if I'm scheduled for any live shots. if there's news in my region or it's slow in Baghdad, I'll usually do between two and four live reports, via videophone, for the morning shows on the east coast. I'll get information from the Army's battle captains in the TOC (army lingo for tactical operations center) and check the news wires. I'll write up some notes and then grab my PD-150 Mini DV camera and climb the ladder to my live shot position on the roof of the guardhouse.

The palace in the background provides a nice backdrop during the day, but is pitch black on the video phone at night. I put my camera on the tripod with a small mounted light, tie a bandana around the light to diffuse it, plug in the video connecting cable to the camera and put on my lavalier microphone.

Then, I turn on the videophone and hope it's working. If it is, I'll see a little square inset picture of whatever the camera is seeing at the moment. I dial the videophone which makes two calls to MSNBC in Seacaucus for each of the satphones it's connected to. Once the calls go through, I see a video picture of MSNBC's master control room and they can see my camera shot. I stand in front of the camera with my remote control and adjust the shot and dial another handheld satphone called a Thuraya which I use with an earphone. That line gets transferred to a system called an IFB which alllows me to talk to the anchors on air at MSNBC. I get a cue from the producers and then do my live shot. Its a lot of effort to get a grainy little picture halfway across the world but it gives viewers a sense of the environment I'm reporting from (if it's not already completely dark out).

Sometimes the videophone will either freeze of just drop the lines right in the middle of the live shot. Other times a Humvee or Bradley will run over the electrical line that connects the guardhouse and all my power will be cut. Then I have climb down, start my tiny Honda two-stroke generator, plug in my main power strip, climb back up the ladder and redo all of the steps above. After the live shots I may write and file a taped news package for one of the MSNBC shows-- or if there's big news from my area--like the recent Blackhawk chopper crash, I might do a spot for Nightly News with Tom Brokaw. In that situation a driver usually comes up from our Baghdad Bureau to pick up the videotapes I shot for the story and deliver them to the bureau where they're fed via satellite to London or New York where they're edited into the final story and broadcasted on the network.

Discuss

Kevin 8:45 AM