In The Right Place At The Right Time.

Heading home yesterday I heard a Davie unit report he was in pursuit of a reckless driver that had just left the scene of a hit and run with injuries, they where heading east on Griffin Road and I was heading West on Griffin, so I decided I would setup and shoot from the intersection of Flamingo and Griffin.

As I got out of my car I noticed backup units heading westbound on Griffin and could hear sirens coming toward me eastbound and then there was this loud crash, the eastbound fleeing driver, driving agaist the flow of traffic in the westbound lane just had a head on with an SUV travelling west in the northernmost westbound lane of Griffin.

Knowing that this would shut Griffin down, I shunted down Orange Drive and headed toward the crash scene got setup around 142 street and began rolling just as EMS was extricating the driver.

This is what I captured.

http://www.youtube.com​/watch?v=0sZDBFhbeWU

After editing the clip, watermarking it and uploading to the Asset server, I began sending out e-mails with a link to the video and got a few nibbles, but no bites.

As the story developed, it turned out the guy fleeing, had in a few short minutes, been involved in numerous traffic accidents including a fatality where he hit a guy on a bicycle and even though everyone and his brother was shooting with their cell cams, I had the only “useable” up-close and tight video of the fleeing driver being taken into custody.

Then at around 5:30pm (just before the news hour, it never fails) I get a call from NBC Miami and they want to video and they want it first and they want it now, so we negotiated a fair non-exclusive license fee and I FTP’ed them a copy without the watermark and they ran with it.

This is the report as aired.

http://www.nbcmiami.co​m …th-of-Bicyclist/191596921

Wayne

Nice!

Fortune favors the prepared

awesome!

But tell us the good, juicy part: how much did they give you!?!!

ben_r_ wrote in post #15632954
But tell us the good, juicy part: how much did they give you!?!!

A fair amount for what they wanted.

Wayne

Channel One wrote in post #15633120
A fair amount for what they wanted.

Wayne

enough to buy a 5Dmk2?

StaticMedia wrote in post #15636070
enough to buy a 5Dmk2?

No.

Wayne

Congrats Wayne!!

Channel One wrote in post #15639134
No.

Wayne

ah well close enough.

I have always wondered if I could go buy a Sony EX1 and run around as a videographer all day...if I could pay it off and still pay rent. I think that would be exciting. Depends on the city though I guess.

StaticMedia wrote in post #15641650
I have always wondered if I could go buy a Sony EX1 and run around as a videographer all day...if I could pay it off and still pay rent. I think that would be exciting. Depends on the city though I guess.

While things like this happen all too often, the chances of being there before it’s all mopped up or the rest of media has arrived diluting your chance of capturing anything exclusive would be in my opinion, quite rare.

Between that and the cost of being on the road, I don’t see it as a viable method of earning a living.

Now, if you’re working as a contractor for a station and they are feeding you assignments, then you can do rather well, but the lines for those types of jobs are long and the openings few.

Wayne

Channel One wrote in post #15643855
While things like this happen all too often, the chances of being there before it’s all mopped up or the rest of media has arrived diluting your chance of capturing anything exclusive would be in my opinion, quite rare.

Between that and the cost of being on the road, I don’t see it as a viable method of earning a living.

Now, if you’re working as a contractor for a station and they are feeding you assignments, then you can do rather well, but the lines for those types of jobs are long and the openings few.

Wayne

I would have to agree... I mean of all the years of driving I've only actually seen something like this once and I had nothing with me.