I met a guy who actually had little video-drones to fly over the protest and get raw video. That was pretty sweet.
Some of my most cherished memories at this job were spent covering protests. It can get weird out there and certainly dangerous but that's a huge part of why we do this.
The Montreal student protests unfolded over many weeks, and I'm wondering if there ever was a sort of coverage fatigue. Having lived in the city through those months, I can definitely say that there was some fatigue with the Printemps érable amid the general population.
Every time we got coverage fatigue, there'd be some new and outrageous development in the student strike and things would get crazy again. The crazier things got, the easier it was to get out there. And a lot of us were paying our rent because of freelance work during the protests. So whether or not you were fed up, you knew where your bread got buttered.
I think the weather made it the most challenging. But that's just my opinion. There's always something to see/report so there's no fatigue per se. There is however a physical exhaustion that takes over. From all the walking/standing in the heat.
Oh good god was there ever protest fatigue. I remember my most-tired point was at 10am, after having covered them for 5 nights straight (and getting arrested at one)
and trying to take a day off, only to end up doing a slew of radio interviews, then a national TV appearance. I walked out of the studio and got four or five texts from some friends: "Oh my god, are you okay? You look so tired." (And that was with a liberal amount of makeup.)
Chris, bread without butter tastes terrible indeed.
The energy is usually pretty intense and so the challenge is always to stay on top of it and to keep focused. Keep water on hand. : ) And lots of espresso beforehand.
It does. I agree with Justin though. There were days where you could barely get out of bed in the morning. I fractured my ankle playing basketball just before Victoriaville but I still had to go out there because you don't want to miss anything. Sadly, I wasn't TV famous like Justin.
You got butter? Well aren't you fancy.
The protests never got boring. Just really really tiring. I walked a lot, being tired and alert simultaneously does take a toll on you. But there's always something new to come across at every protest, so you sort of refueled at the start of each one.
The sound of helicopters fluttering over the city every night. Does anyone else miss that?
Well, our time is just about up. Thanks a whole lot to my four guests for joining me today. I think we covered a lot of ground, and there was definitely no fatigue with it.
Welp, that was fun. Thanks, everyone.
Thanks for tuning in. Too much naval gazing?
Nope. None. Thanks Charles!
It was great to talking to all of you, old colleagues and fellow journalists.
I met a guy who actually had little video-drones to fly over the protest and get raw video. That was pretty sweet.
Some of my most cherished memories at this job were spent covering protests. It can get weird out there and certainly dangerous but that's a huge part of why we do this.
I think the weather made it the most challenging. But that's just my opinion. There's always something to see/report so there's no fatigue per se. There is however a physical exhaustion that takes over. From all the walking/standing in the heat.
The energy is usually pretty intense and so the challenge is always to stay on top of it and to keep focused. Keep water on hand. : ) And lots of espresso beforehand.