Editing the Highlights

 

I have a process that I do after each broadcast.

I publish the game on Robcasting via Mixlr so that it stays in their showreel archive. Then I open the audio in an editor and do some basic cleanup, including changing the file's bit rate so that I'm not filling up hard drives.

Then, before uploading each broadcast to Mixcloud and Archive.org, I pull out any highlights.

Obviously, highlights can accumulate over the year, especially if you want to do a year-end collection.

Well, we're at the end of the year and I just reviewed all 167 highlights.

From there, I tried to edit down to just pertinent stretches of audio, meaning most of my moments of shutting up and letting crowd noise take over is removed. That also means there are limited appearances by analysts (don't worry, Chris Erway, you made it).

And? When I was finished, it was a monster file at 14:33.

Yes, fourteen minutes and thirty-three seconds.

So, back to the drawing board I'll go. I'll listen to the whole file and pull more highlights out. There is no magic time I'm trying to get down to but over 14 minutes of highlights just seems obnoxious.

I'm always trying to represent everything and everyone. I'm trying to get so many names into the collection. Kyle McDonald and Derek Craft and James Nelson and Anthony Volpe and Josh Breaux and Oswald Peraza share space with Michael Salandra and John Scarlata and Jack Wilson and James Iarapoli and Thomas Foster and Danny Lauter and Chris Gaine and a lot of others.

I try to find the laughs, like when I called John Scarlata's pick-six against Trumbull while trying to put a hoodie on. Or when, after snacking on candy, I broke out, "Break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar" following a big play.

I don't normally have a "call of the year" (I leave that to those begging for approval from STAA) but I'll gladly submit both the walk-off home runs by Breaux and Volpe.

But I try to catch all of it. Jake and Jomboy? Yup. Trumbull winning the Babe Ruth Tourney? It's in there. Delaware Valley Youth Sports? Yes.

Not everything can make it. Not every name can be represented. Realistically, there's probably a lot I can slice off of that.

Yet it does highlight (blech, bad pun) how special all of it was. I didn't call a game in January and was pretty quiet for most of March yet I stayed as busy as ever.

Still, I didn't have any highlights in the package of Brunswick baseball or lacrosse. I don't have anything from Section 1 soccer. 

My guess is I might have had other things on my mind as the highlight system isn't always perfect.

Or, and this is likely, I told myself I was terrible and there was nothing worth keeping.

I wanted to find a better segment of the 100th-anniversary baseball broadcast we did in August but it was a bit too cumbersome.

So I'll chop and cut, and hope to play it this week on "Doubleheader." Short of that, I'll post it somewhere, regardless of how narcissistic that feels.

It's no secret I am protective of this industry because I just hear so much bad (the past 24 hours alone have me on alert for my well-being). I realize it often makes me look bad. I also realize I often lack a filter and call out garbage.

In the long run, I'm trying to give tough love but I don't think many will ever understand that. In truth, I'm a teacher and think I can help (which I realize is foolish). Many don't watch to be taught and/or think they're "too good" for some small-time broadcaster like me.

But I'd like to see people get better and the sports broadcasting business improve as a result. We're in this troubling time where basically anyone thinks they can do it.

They can't.

I'm not saying there's a course they have to pass but sometimes I wish there was something to gain a license!

Silly me, caring about quality.

So, I'll go back to editing now.