I am a ‘Logger’

My essays were due the following day but when I was summoned to do some video logging for the On Assignment team at ITV,  I jumped at the chance.  Now before you tut tut and mutter priorities,  let me reassure you that I had mostly completed my courseworks and so I was able to say yes to the call. 

I was told to come in for 1pm and that I’d be working till late. This was fine until I walked out the door and saw that it was raining. As usual,  I planned on cycling but sometimes when it rains I sneak past my bike and run off to the train station.  But there was no chance of doing that today. The transport for London workers were on strike so public transport was off limits unless you fancied a taste of the apocalypse. So on my bike I hopped and pretty soon the skies decided to open up,  I arrived at the fancy building you see in the above photo,  utterly soaked. Thankfully when I left work at 9pm, I had a lovely ride home on the quiet and mostly dry streets of London. 

So anyway, what is video logging? You would probably recognise the term better if I called it transcribing. However that suggests that I had the job of creating subtitles for episodes and programmes but video logging is slightly different. When documentaries are filmed, the production crew usually film a lot more material than they would be able to fit into the final version. So to make the task easier for producers and the editors,  the videos/interviews filmed are ‘logged’ so that when they sit in the editing suite,  they can skim through and select the most interesting sounding pieces of footage instead of wasting time watching hours upon hours of film.

Now this task is usually given to people like me: young enthusiasts looking to break into the industry. However to be totally honest,  I had no idea that a job like this existed, that a route into the industry like this existed until I did some work experience at ITV. It was only whilst I was there that I was told about this and it just goes to show how important and valuable work experience placements can be. 

A few weeks after the palacement, I was offered the chance to come in over a weekend to log some videos, and I received another chance yesterday. Working alongisde 2-3 other loggers, we tackled the videos that we were expected to complete by the end of the day. The grear thing is, we are paid quite nicely for eight hours of speedy typing, unlike how it used to be 10 or so years ago. One of the producers told me how he had to do the same job, for a few months when he started – for no pay. Ouch.  

By the middle of the shift, your fingers do start to get quite stiff but a small break usually leaves them feeling rejuvenated enough to soldier on.  Of course, the more often you type like this, the quicker and easier you find it. It may sound a little dull but some of the videos you log can be quite interesting and time really does fly. You hear different people speaking-although unfamiliar accents can make the job tricky- and you also get to appreciate the time and effort the producers put into getting the material for their documentaries. 

It makes me want to go out there and do what they do. 

Until Next Time 

A Worried Student