Some Final Thoughts

Headed to the wrap party at Boston Pizza last night, had a great time talking to the folks we’ve been working with, a lot of whom I didn’t get the chance to chat with before since we’ve been so busy.

Working on the Olympic games has been a great experience for 2 main reasons; it’s something I’ve never done before and is a lot different than what I normally do in editing, and I met a lot of great new people that have a wealth of experience in working on sports.

The staff was made up with a mix of freelance people and APTN staff. There are pro and cons to both positions. Th staffers are paid their standard rate and we bank overtime to use later, I banked over 3 weeks worth that I can use later for vacation. The freelancers got paid more than I did, but they work for a day rate regardless of how many hours they put in. As a staffer I have the company benefits like medical coverage and a steady gig, while freelancers would have to pay for their own insurance. We had a few discussions amongst us about that aspect.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Paul Sampson. Paul is an Avid guru, he’s done training for APTN staff for about 3 years in different software and hardware systems, he’s been the System Administrator for the duration of the games and set-up the edit suites and workflow. When we had an edit suite problem he was there to help and got it done quick. In addition to that he does a lot of research and writes manuals for Avid, such as the one on XDCAM. 

After taking this week off I go back to my usual role as Editor/Producer in Creative Services. I think that many of us that have worked on these games now have a higher standard and will bring that with us in producing content on APTN and making it better than ever.