This is the first 29.97FPS column. If you have an idea for a profile, please email [email protected]
Some people claw their way into this business; others are chauffeured. We’ve all met them: the children of important people who begin their careers on third base looking toward home plate. Oliver Janney, OJ, could have been that guy.
During his grade school years, he ran through the halls of KISS-FM in Manhattan talking DJs out of their vinyl. Legendary New York City weatherman Lloyd Lindsay Young once asked OJ to co-host his segment. Such play dates were courtesy of the general counsel for broadcasting conglomerate RKO General Inc.: his father, Oliver J. Janney.
OJ was called to journalism, but he spurned his father’s offers to help, wanting instead to earn his own place in the industry.
Oliver and Suzanne Janney once worried their son wouldn’t have much of a career. Early testing revealed that OJ had a learning disability and ADHD so severe that reading and writing might be delayed for years. Dad, an early adopter of technology, had a hunch. If he could get OJ interested in personal computers, it might compensate for his son’s learning difficulties. When a Tandy 1000 showed up at home, Dad was proved right. OJ became the kid all the adults called when they needed help.
Then came fifth grade. A job change took the Janneys to Sarasota, Florida. The culture shock was crippling. OJ’s teachers and fellow students did not know what to make of the hyper, funny-sounding kid from up north. His grades, relationships and confidence bottomed out. He begged to go back “home,” but his parents said no. They compromised and sent him to a boarding school in Aiken, South Carolina.
By ninth grade, he was elected class president and then got back to his roots at a private high school in Connecticut where he built a campus radio station and began DJing.
As a freshman at Goucher College in Towson, Maryland, he convinced that school to let him build a campus radio station, too, which became the first college station listed on iTunes, GCSR, Goucher College Student Radio.
In March 2000 a nearby news tragedy paved the way for his career. Baltimore spent 10 days on edge after a man killed four people, eluded capture for six days and held a family hostage for four days, which at the time was the longest solo standoff in U.S. history.
OJ and a buddy were watching the news on TV as a reporter described the scene in a live shot just 10 miles away. He and his friend picked up Goucher’s TV field camera and headed to the scene. They shot what they could and returned to their dorm. The next day after classes, they grabbed the gear and went back to the manhunt.
While “covering” the story for a nonexistent college news operation, they made friends with reporters, CB radio operators and the owner of a local fire news network. The reporters took them under their wing, the CB guys gave them a working radio, and the fire alert guy gave them a huge tip: the address where police thought the killer was holding the hostages.
As his friend drove, OJ recorded the scene from the passenger seat. There were no cops, no activity and no killer. Right when they thought it was a bust, they turned around to see the road blocked by SWAT teams. OJ continued until the police spotted him and pushed them back.
OJ had exclusive footage from inside the perimeter with no place for it to run. He shared his story with his TV professor, Guy Raymond, a director at the CBS affiliate WJZ who had a contact at “America’s Most Wanted.” A producer soon called to ask if OJ would sell them their video. OJ said no. Instead of money, he asked them to arrange an internship with WBFF, the station in Baltimore that ran the program.
Done.
While in Florida on spring break, OJ saw his story air. At that moment, “I was hooked,” he said. And his timing couldn't have been better because most of those who contributed to WBFF winning the NPPA Station of the Year in 1996 were still on staff. That pivotal summer exposed OJ to one of the country’s finest storytelling operations.
As interns should do, he set out to meet everyone in the newsroom, and his curiosity paid off. Shortly after the internship, he got a call from Scott Livingston, news director and former NPPA Regional Photographer of the Year, who asked OJ, by then a college sophomore, if he wanted to edit video for their new “Morning Show.” OJ blurted, “Uhhhh, yes!” and began working a double shift every day.
Up at 1 a.m., edit until 9 a.m., classes at 10 a.m. and then he’d crash at 6 p.m. He also cut the first nonlinear news package in Baltimore by bringing his personal Final Cut Pro desktop system into the station. After two semesters, his class schedule changed, and he was forced to resign. Then came 9/11.
Within hours of the attack, OJ was on the phone to WBFF asking how he could help. That sort of professionalism endeared him to his colleagues and professors. Looking for a new challenge, he asked his writing professor, the assistant news director at WJZ, if there were openings at her station. She hired him as a part-time writer. While competent, he found producing wasn't for him, and as graduation neared, OJ asked his boss if he could do something else. Much to the dismay of some of the reporters, including this author, a college graduate with little ENG (electronic news gathering) experience became a full-time photographer at the No. 1 station in the 24th largest TV market in the country.
That’s when I met OJ.
He did not excel, but I could see he cared, was curious and, most important, wanted to get better.
He heard colleagues talk about storytelling, but he didn’t know what that meant. “It had never been explained to me,” he said. I saw my opening and told him, “You really ought to go to the News Video Workshop (NVW). It’s the week that will change your life.”
The storytelling greats who shaped OJ in Norman, Oklahoma, included Darrell Barton, Jerry Hattan and Ray Farkas.
“In 2004, the NPPA pointed me in the right direction and showed me what’s possible. I felt like I was getting a superpower, the power to make people feel,” OJ explained. He’d been striving his whole life for connection. Be it technology, DJing, theater or photography, he wanted to connect with an audience. The NVW channeled his passion and showed him the way.
His stories got better, reporters started requesting him, and his union, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, sent him to a National Association of Broadcasters conference to report back about new technology. At a B-Roll.net party, he met NVW faculty member Les Rose, who introduced him to Rick Denius with CNN. They talked for much of the night, OJ never knowing that Rick was the recruiting manager at CNN.
In 2007, OJ was hired by CNN Newsource as a photojournalist in its D.C. bureau, where he caught the attention of management.
“Early on they gave me a day to edit a package. I cut it in a half-hour and wanted to know what was next,” OJ recalled.
When the 2008 elections ramped up, OJ crisscrossed the country. “I loved it. I learned how to travel and solve all sorts of technical problems,” he said.
The In Focus series, created by former CNN photojournalist and NPPA member Bethany Swain, piqued his interest. The photography and storytelling series was open to anyone in the network, but few people from Newsource submitted ideas.
A colleague remembers him as “fearless.” He pitched, produced, shot and edited a story about a medieval-themed pillow fight. “That story got me on the radar of Jeff Kinney, CNN senior director of field production and chief photojournalist,” OJ said.
Post-election, OJ was transferred from CNN Newsource to CNN’s domestic bureau in D.C.
“I was horrified,” OJ recalled. “I did not want to roll a cart of gear around Capitol Hill.”
During his six years as a photojournalist at CNN Domestic, there were days on the Hill, but he also got assignments across the country – and in Afghanistan, Australia, Bahrain, France, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan and Qatar.
Part of the reason he was trusted to travel was because of his attitude. Kinney, his new boss, remembered the pillow fight package.
“He was a great, positive, forward-thinking member of the team, and he wanted to be fully engaged,” Kinney recalled. “When transferred to us, he requested a new cellphone. His CNN phone had an Atlanta area code. He requested a D.C. area code because he wanted to be part of the D.C. team. That showed me something. He wanted to be all-in.”
Things were going great. He was respected, well-liked and was doing good work. But he felt it was time to do something different.
“I woke up in Paris covering the Charlie Hebdo massacre with Jake Tapper and Christiane Amanpour and realized I wasn’t being challenged anymore,” OJ recalled. "I know I was in a remarkable position, but I wasn't having fun.”
Back in D.C., he asked management if he could fill in on the Desk.
“By being on the Desk I could be a part of the conversation about why and how we cover stories,” OJ said. “I felt like it was my solemn responsibility to be the person on the other end of the phone who could let a crew know that someone had their backs.”
Those fill-in stints on the Desk paid off on April 27, 2015, when OJ learned about an opening for senior field production supervisor at CNN D.C. He remembers that day because it’s when the Freddie Gray riots began in Baltimore.
The crews were running low on batteries. Since he lives just outside of the city, he volunteered to deliver new supplies. While at the epicenter of the riots, he got too close and was punched in the face. While he lay flat on the street, his CNN conflict training kicked in. As his assailant rose to drop a cinder block on his head, OJ threw his new iPhone. Distracted, the guy went one way and OJ ran in the other. “That CNN training saved my life,” OJ said.
Afterward, his eyes were black and purple from the assault, and his doctor would not clear him to return to work. OJ said, “If you won’t clear me, I’ll find a doctor who will.”
They came to a compromise: He could go on desk duty. That doctor never knew that OJ’s idea of desk duty was to return to Baltimore to coordinate the crews from the CNN satellite trucks at City Hall. “I don’t want to be the guy in charge. I want to be the guy who has your back.”
Because OJ had proved himself in the field, on the Desk and as a field supervisor, CNN made him the senior field production supervisor.
Tasked with training, retention and hiring, he leaned on his NPPA roots by immediately sending a team of CNN journalists to the NVW.
“He was the driver behind it. He made it easy for me to OK the budget request,” Kinney said. And he saw how his staff had changed from its week in Norman.
“Absolutely! We have seen the return on investment,” said Kinney. “Those crews now have a common set of storytelling goals, terms and a sense of collaboration. To me, it's a no-brainer. It’s such a valuable resource for the industry.”
Gratified to have a partnership with CNN, NVW’s director, Dr. Julie Jones, added, “To have OJ reach out and get CNN people to Oklahoma ahead of the current political climate of ‘fake news’ reinforces what we want to do, which is to serve journalists who have stories to tell within a video paradigm. It's a testament to Oliver and Jeff as leaders.”
This year OJ has been promoted again. He is now the CNN manager field production D.C. At 38 years old, he doesn’t know what’s next, but he doubts he would have gotten this far without the NPPA.
“I still ask for advice from the people I met in Norman in 2004. I found my passion for storytelling there, I got inspired and, you know, that's a powerful thing! The NPPA is still my compass to this day.” ■
For over two decades Mike Schuh has been on the faculty at the NPPA News Video Workshop. He is an award-
winning storyteller at WJZ-TV in Baltimore. Interact with him @MikeWJZ and [email protected].
This is the first 29.97FPS column and is the brainchild of Mike Schuh. If you have a story idea and/or would like to write a 29.97FPS column, please email [email protected].
News Video Workshop, click here.
