Rockets in Flight
How I found and told one of my favorite stories
One morning at work, I sat at my desk looking for an idea. Something creative, something worth telling. Nothing came.
It’s a familiar feeling in journalism: moments when you want to chase a story but none are chasing you. So, you start digging.
I can’t explain what motivated the journey I took, or at least what started it. The seed of an idea came from drone testing around Las Vegas. There are plenty of companies using small, mostly abandoned airports for testing. But frequently, dealing with companies leads to a labyrinth of corporate speak and press relations managers who stifle creativity.
I started Googling UNLV and space. Or rockets? Something like that.
I found SEDS UNLV. It’s the university’s student rocketry program. I sent an email. The email led to a phone call. The phone call led to a few months of trying to set up a story.
My thought was to follow a project from the beginning of the semester to the end. As it turned out, that wasn’t really possible. However, there was a SEDS team preparing for the IREC, an international competition of fellow student rocketeers.
That was it.
Months later, I was finally able to meet the club near Jean, NV and drive to the nearby Dry Lake Bed for the team’s only test flight.
Not long ago, I would’ve shot this story with a news photographer. However, ever since COVID, I’ve mostly worked on my own, with my own gear and my own editing. Usually, at my own pace.
In this case, my gear was an iPhone, my GoPro and a new-to-me Sony A6400 mirrorless camera. This would come in handy for the variety of shots, sounds and interviews I’d need.
Most importantly, I wanted to get several angles of the launch.
For six hours that April morning, I hustled around the campsite. I popped from one work spot to another. The back of one SUV is where the payload was worked on. The back of a camper van hosted the avionics sled.
I left one wireless microphone on the project manager. That was linked to the A6400. I had a Sennheiser microphone on my cell phone for b-roll. The GoPro kind of did its own thing.
The students were all great to speak with and get to know. They weren’t bothered when I intruded into conversations and work spaces with cameras and microphones. I doubt most of them watch local news anyhow.
Throughout the shoot, I had my headphones on. It captured the A6400 audio and so many great little moments. Those would be useful during editing.
Six or so hours after arriving, it was time to launch. I left my GoPro near the launch site, stationed the A6400 from the viewing area and used my iPhone to record the reactions.
I think it worked perfectly.
I knew I captured good video and good sound from the shoot. I couldn’t wait to edit. After logging the video, I hammered out a script. However, the story didn’t really come together until I started editing.
All the natural sound slid perfectly into soundbyte breaks (also called parallel parking) and between voice tracks. It all fell into place.
Perhaps that’s the benefit of not having a firm deadline. I also wasn’t trying to keep the story to a certain length. I decided to edit it all and see how it looked, then let the bosses decide if it was good or needed to get chopped.
All that said, here’s what I captured for 8 News Now.