I Can’t Have a Serious Chat with my Cousin without Her Adorable Kids Interrupting! (And that’s OK)
How did you get started at CBS on the network level?
I had been working in a smaller market in Canada, and I was laid off three times. And I decided, that’s it, I’m just going to go for it with the US networks. My first job with CBS was logging and editing the video that was then put up on our network’s website for the rest of the stations and affiliates to use for their shows. One of the good things about getting in on the network level at any job is you can see all the job postings that are going out before anyone else does. So after a while, I saw they were looking for a producer for 60 Minutes, so I would see a job contact, and I would just touch base with the guy who had the opening. And I took the [60 Minutes] job at a pay cut, lower on the totem pole, because I knew it was what I wanted to do.
What would it take to get recognized for employment at the network level, especially for someone just coming out of school?
I was a bit of a pest. I kept being persistent with them. Also, story ideas. I can’t emphasize enough how important story ideas are. If you send in a tape with original story ideas on it, no matter what kind of job you’re looking for, it’s going to help you. And you have to write about those ideas well. If you have strong writing on stories that employer has never seen before, you’re probably going to get hired.
Who’s responsible for pitching the stories? Is it more reporter or producer-based?
Anyone can pitch a story.
What makes a story something you’d pursue as a news magazine piece?
They’re looking for stories that the audience cares about. They’re looking for something with impact. [They’re looking for] hard-ass stories that nobody else is doing.
How much do you get that chance in the real world? How much are you able to pursue the topics that interest you in general?
It depends on how many stories we have going on at one time. My schedule gets pretty hectic when I’m working on three or four stories at once. Eventually, you can focus on one thing, getting it edited and on the air, but that’s the beauty of documentary because it’s whatever you want.
How do you best communicate with the reporters, correspondents, or “faces” of the stories you work on?
It’s all a really big collaborative effort. I mean, it’s easy to think that the correspondents have these big egos because they’re on TV all the time and they get paid more, which they do; they get paid a lot more. But if they weren’t doing their job right I wouldn’t be able to do mine, and vice versa; then the final product doesn’t get done. So at the end of the day, the pay difference doesn’t really make a difference in how hard everyone’s working; we’re all just working on different levels of the show.
How did you know that producing was what you wanted to do? How did you know that specific area of producing was what you wanted to do?
I had always been interested in longer-form news stories, in documentaries. And I was sick of the grind of daily news. Daily news is really good experience and I think everyone should do it, but after a while you’re either made for it or you’re not and I realized I wasn’t. But I just realized I like being a producer. I realized I liked being in control of all the moving parts.
You have two young kids and are working full-time at 60 Minutes. How do you balance work and family?
The babysitter costs are obscene! I try and make as much time for my kids as possible, but one of the things that’s tough is you aren’t always sure what your hours are going to be. One time, I took [my son] Theo into work with me, and he’s wandering around the office and somehow makes it into Steve Kroft’s office. And Steve’s really nice to him, says “Why hello little man, how are you?” And Steve takes him on his lap and shows him all this footage on his computer of Afghanistan and Iraq and God knows what other kind of war video. And Theo looks up at him and goes “Meh, I have Yo Gabba Gabba on my laptop.”!
