It was an Autumn day in 1995. I was in my first year of college at Grand Valley State University. The Renaissance Festival had finished up (September 18 blog: My Performance in the GVSU Renaissance Festival) and I was looking for something else to occupy my time, preferably a job. I would go to the counseling center and look at the job postings. Then one ad caught my eye. It was a volunteer position to be a cameraman for WTLJ which was right around the corner from the GVSU campus. That sounds interesting, I thought. True, it didn't pay anything but I was certainly curious. So I called on it and an interview was set up in a couple of days.
The interview wasn't much of an interview. It was more of "how to" as they told me I was going to film the live tv show "Ask the Pastor". I was in shock. Live? What if I mess up? I never did this type of thing before. I was a projectionist at my Catholic Church growing up but that wasn't nothing compare to this. My thoughts were in panic mode but I didn't let it show on the outside. I smiled and nodded and kept myself reserved.
"Ask the Pastor" was a live show set up kinda a like a game show. There was the host and there was a panel of 4 pastors from different churches in the west Michigan area. They had, which I would say, regulars and every now and there would be a different pastor that would show up. I remember Pastor Trimm. He was a large man with dark hair and fastly growing speckles of gray throughout his hair and beard. He was also loud, abrupt and animated with his actions when he answered questions and fun to watch. In almost every episode he would end up holding his Bible high up in the air shouting in a deep voice, "This is the truth; The whole truth; And nothing but the truth, And in God's Almighty name let us say Amen!" You couldn't help but say Amen after that even if I could only whisper it.
Live calls would come in from people in the area and every now and then a letter would be read by the host. The phone lines were constantly busy by people wanting to know more insight on God's word and how to interpret it. I never heard of the show previously. I never heard of the station before. I knew who God was but I was still at an infant stage with my Christianity. I am still working on my Christianity but I have come a long away. Anyway, the host would make sure the pastor's stayed on track and everyone had a chance to speak in a timely manner. Sometimes debates would break out between pastors on the interpretation of scripture and after a few moments the host would try to settle the manner and move on to the next caller.
The producer showed me how to use the huge cameras. She shows me how to pan left, pan right, zoom in and zoom out. She said that was all I needed to know and it was really quite simple. I was introduced to a late-middle aged lady who was the main camera operator and to another volunteer camera operator who was an elderly man. Then she handed me a headset (earphones with a microphone) to put on and went into another room so we can do a trial run before the show.
The camera's were huge. I had to step up on a circular platform that was connected to the camera. Huge handles stuck out from the side and the ends rotated to zoom in and zoom out. I tilted it up so it would be level to the panel where the pastors sit and remember feeling the heavy weight of the camera. If I let go the camera could slowly point downwards so I had to make sure I had a good grip on it. Even panning left and right you could still feel the weight of it. There was two viewing areas. One was what the camera was viewing and the other is what was being seen on TV. Looking at that one you can adjust the headspace and make sure they are centered correctly if need be. Over my ear piece a sound broke the silence, "Okay Jill. Can you hear me?" I replied yes back into the microphone attachment, "I want you to focus on the sign "Ask the Pastor" and zoom in closely and slowly on the P." I would start to zoom in and direction would be given if I was going to fast or if I was going to slow. After a few attempts I figured out the speed and pressure of zooming. "Now I want you to zoom in to have just the sign showing then slowly pan down and zoom out to the panel of pastors." I did just that. All was going good.
The panel of pastors soon arrived and we were ready for the live show. A stampede of wilderbeasts were running around my stomach, I was so nervous. I had to be quiet as a mouse and listen to the prompts that they gave to me. When I seen a red light inside my camera I was told that my camera was on and I had to be careful about moving my camera then. She would have me focus on one pastor, switch to another camrea, then have me focus on another pastor and she would switch back to my camera. I realized that the producer was a chatter box when the show was going on, even making funny jokes every now and then. At times, we cameramen, looked at each other with huge smiles on our faces trying not to laugh or make any sounds. I really enjoyed working behind the scenes. When we were done with the show the producer would say through our headsets, "That's a rap!" and we would take off our headsets, place them neatly on top of the machines and shut them down. On a monitor off to the side we can see that a commercial was already started on the station. Overall, it really wasn't too difficult.
Soon they would have me come in and do specials and help film the Christmas "Thank You" commercials set to music. This one time I had a really bad cough due to a cold I had. I was dropping Hals Cough Drops in me like it was candy so I wouldn't cough while on the air. They asked if I could stay after and film a special guest speaker they where interviewing for a different taped show. I had no problem with it. After "Ask the Pastor" I go the green room and drank a large glass of water and had a small coughing fit since I was suppressing it so much. I was trying to get my coughs out of my system before the next filming. I make my way back into the studio to help set up for the special. There was a group of people off to the side talking and they called me over. The producers introduced me to the guest speaker, we shook hands and we exchanged small talk. Then I went back over to my camera to get it ready for the special.
There was a new host and the guest speaker sat next to him both sitting comfortable chairs with a small table between them with glasses of water. The host started to do his opening monologue introducing his guest. "....my guest here today is going to tell us what it is like living in todays society with AIDS..." My brain froze! AIDS! I studied AIDS in school and I wasn't afraid of him and I knew I wasn't going to get AIDS by him being in the room. But I had a flashback. I am full of germs! I have a cold! I shook his hand! My sick germs are on him. I think I just killed him! and other thoughts like this pounded my head as filmed the interview. I wasn't worried about me. I was worried about HIM. Afterwards I approached him and told him I didn't know he had AIDS but that I was fighting a cold and I was concerned. He smiled and thanked me for telling him but he said he knew when he came in and seen me in the green room coughing and drinking water. He assured me that he currently has his AIDS under control not to worry. Not to worry is easier said then done I suppose.
I worked at WTLJ for a few months a couple days a week. The new semester was just beginning and I had class time during the production of "Ask the Pastor" and I couldn't film it anymore. I did a few more extra's during that last semester of my freshman year at GVSU when I could. After that year I moved down to Allegan, Michigan and it was too far for a drive to keep it up. I was so disappointed that I had to quit. I really enjoyed the people there and working behind the scenes.
Seeing the film crew working during the film The Chrysalis recalled all those wonderful memories of WTLJ. For a brief moment I could still see myself driving down the stations long dirt drive and parking in the back, walking into the station doors with the sound box to my left and station room to my right, hearing their voices, feeling the rubber grips on the camera to move it about and remembering some of shows and scenes that I helped out on. I look back on it with fond memories.
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