Train of Thoughts

Last night I was interviewed for a program in the Internet. Upon entering the room, I already was feeling something was amiss but could not place what it was. I noticed that the camera operator was different from the previous.

The lights! Yes, I hated lights directed at me. They make me very conscious. Worse, they hurt my eyes. They were soon transferred over there and back. They later were directed upwards the ceiling, and I felt better.

We soon started and I could see that my camera operator was an artist all right – a perfectionist at heart. He checked and measured everything from intensity and direction of lights to sound and position of everything. He would test and test again – let me sound out, let me face that way and that. I would start talking, stop, and talk again, while he did his measurements.

Then came my time to deliver. I stammered my way, managed to pick up, and then stammered the rest of my talk, all the while putting no punch in what I was saying. I didn’t like my performance.

Some three days before this, I was also interviewed for the Huge Event of UNTV37. There were no lights to speak of. The camera was simple – a handcarried one. The interview went smooth, as I was able to talk spontaneously. I did say sensible things and I was my natural self. No stammering.

In a project where there are components that have to work together, it always best to think wider and beyond one’s own objective. We cannot do things just by ourselves. There are always others who have to have an input and their existence have to be acknowledged by looking also into their needs. Each part must have a tenable output.

In my second interview, the camera operator was clearly thinking only of his own presentation as though it was all that mattered – how good his work would appear on the tube. But come to think of it, which was the more important: my appearance or my message? Suppose I had the one and only chance to be covered and it cannot be repeated for lack of time, which should be given priority? Should I be allowed my concentration in what I was going to say? Or should it be treated as just plain material that had to be tested and tested for an artist?

Technical people should give some importance and care to the message or content to be delivered. In this regard, the interviewee should be allowed to keep her train of thoughts. After all, what is a channel or medium without a good message?