Anatomy of a Compass Story

Apparently Deputy Mayor Stu MacFadyen mentioned The Talking Bus at last night’s meeting of Charlottetown City Council.

CBC Radio reporter Brendan Elliott was there, and tweeted about this and then mentioned the mention to CBC Television reporter Brian Higgins who called me first thing this morning and asked if could come down and do an interview.

And so I cleaned up my office. Quickly.

And 15 minutes later Brian Higgins hauled his video gear into the office – he’s a “VJ” and shoots his own video – and after a brief pre-interview he shot about 5 minutes with me about how The Talking Bus came to be.

He followed up with some “perp walk-style” shots of me clicking on various icons on the interactive bus map, an awkward attempt to tape the actual computerized voice with the wireless TV microphone sticky-taped to my phone, and some shots of the computer up in the server room that actually answers the phone (hint: it’s a beige box with flashing lights on it).

Once Brian is done with other interviews related to the story he’ll head back to CBC HQ where, I learned, he’ll edit the whole story together himself using a desktop video editing system.

And, as long as a hurricane doesn’t topple the Confederation Bridge in the interim, you’ll be able to see the story on Compass tonight (not sure whether it’s on Compass Lite at 5 or Compass Serious at 6).

Comments

Peter Rukavina's picture
Peter Rukavina on December 16, 2009 - 18:21 Permalink

Update: the story aired, in a cut-down version, on Compass at 5 and then air again, in a longer version, on Compass at 6. There was also a version of the story posted on the web.

Anonymous's picture
Anonymous on December 21, 2009 - 23:04 Permalink

Hey thanks John — and hi Peter. I work for Twilio and would love to chat with you about how we might be able to work together, if you’re ever interested. And of course you can find us on Twitter @twilio Cheers, Danielle @ Twilio http://www.twilio.com