Excited to have another year in the books as a member of Howe Springs Fire Department! This years video was a little more challenging than in years past. We have been working really hard on trying to get the new station in order, working with Spectrum to get all of the services installed and ordering networking equipment. I didn't have a lot of time to devote to the video over the past couple of months like I normally do, so I took off from work the Thursday and Friday before the party to make the video.
Content, Content, Content
Footage was really hard to come by this year. I had some random clips the guys sent. Vargo had some wreck footage (mainly traffic duty...just giving him a hard time) and some structure fire footage but nothing interior. Several guys that have helmet cams are either broke or they forgot to turn them on. Thankfully Chris "Chuck" Norris had some helmet cam footage. But even that wasn't a lot of interior fire attack.
As I sat at my desk Thursday morning we got a tone for a structure fire. And fortunately we had a lot volunteers show up so I was able to use that time to film for the video. So a good portion of the intro came from that fire. This was good and bad. The good is that I had more content to work with...the bad was that a lot the content came from that fire. This is being worked on as I am trying to talk Chief into buying more helmet cameras for the guys.
Time, Time, Time
It seems like this year was a very busy year. We were suppose to be in our new station around May 2017, but that didn't happen so we were trying to move in while also trying to create the video. This created a massive time shortage and made life hectic at best.
Showtime
When I show the video during the Christmas party, I am always nervous. I fear the video won't play, or it will skip, or the audio won't sound good, I will see something that I wanted to change and forgot to. There are all kinds of things that run through my head when the video is playing. I try to judge the members response to the video. Are they laughing, are they interested, do they think it is cool enough, or do they think it is just blah. There was a running joke when I was full time staff that if the video isn't better than last years then I get fired. I know it is a joke...or at least I hope it is. But I still put more pressure on myself to try and make the video as good as I can. I hope you enjoyed the video and thank for making to the end of the blog...you amaze me when you do!