I did my civic duty today. And boy, did it feel good.

It wasn’t even painful.

In Indiana there had been a lot of talk about how long it would take the typical Hoosier to vote. Some people have waited in lines for as long as 3 hours, just to get inside the polling place. I would have been glad to wait that long to make sure my voice was heard, but I didn’t have to.

My wait didn’t even come close.

I walked into Indianapolis Fire Department Station 5 around 9:50am; and walked out at 10:00am.

Easy. Simple. Painless.

Then I got to work.

Sweeps is always hectic at a TV station, but Election day at the beginning of ratings is especially crazy. I fully expect to put in 12 hours today, if not more. It’ll all be worth it in the end, though.

Instead of the typical “here’s what’s coming up at 5:00pm” promo, I took a different approach.

Here’s the spot that starts running in about 15 minutes:

We’ll see how long we’re on the air, and how long before we know who the President-elect will be.

(Some are betting we’ll know the next President by 11:00pm, I’m saying 2:00 or 3:00am)

Sweeps is upon us, and that means not only are political candidates vying for your vote, but so are television stations.

November sweeps and elections go hand-in-hand. All the local TV stations try to out perform the competition by promising “the most experienced news team,” “accurate reporting,” or “trust.”

I could talk all day about my competition’s position on such issues, but why would I want to? Instead, I want to ask you: “This November, can we count on your remote?”

I completely forgot about posting these pictures.

Earlier this month, Charles Gibson anchored ABC World News from Indianapolis. And I was there.

We showed up at around 3:00pm to shoot behind-the-scenes for some upcoming promos. And ended up spending the day at the location (the St. Clair St. bridge). The part I was most looking forward to, was the close of the show. When Charlie says, “I’m Charlie Gibson, and I hope you had a good day. For all of us at ABC News, have a good night.” That’s my favorite part of the show.

And I got to see him say it. He was 10 feet from me.

Awesome.

Here’s a first peek at the latest campaign we’re running at RTV6 for 6 News at 7:00.

These spots should debut over the weekend.

I think we did a great job, considering how quickly we put this spot together. We took more than half of the stills on Wednesday, grabbed the other images from stock photography and composited everything together in only 8 bench hours.

Steve B. took all the stills we used, except for the guy at the desk. I did all the Photoshop work to cut elements out from the background, and duplicate elements to become background plates. And I did the After Effects “camera” work and design. I must say, it came together nicely.

Look for it this weekend.

I’m getting really sick of cable news (and local news), claiming every story is breaking.

If you’ve had enough time to put together multiple packages on the subject, and have “team coverage” in the field, it’s probably no longer breaking. The one exception to this rule is weather. A hurricane just coming on shore is breaking news, and most networks will have people there on the scene, ready to lay their lives on the line for “journalism” (no where are you taught journalism is standing on a rain-soaked pier as a hurricane prepares to rip you limb from limb).

This brings me to my problem.

ABC News (and I’m sure other networks) broke in at 10:30 am to announce McCain’s Vice Presidential pick.

At 12:30 pm it was made official by McCain himself.

But at 4:01pm?! Is it really still breaking news when Wolf Blizter comes on for The Situation Room? Especially when this story is all his network has been talking about for 4 hours?

And we wonder why people don’t listen to the media. And why the media isn’t living up to its title as the “Fourth Estate.”

This could be my biggest fear as someone who works in broadcast television.

Now, they claim this was supposed to be a recorded segment, and the wrong tease was cued up. Last time I checked, a station like WNBC (which is facing major cutbacks) would be on some sort of automation system. Which means a Media Manager-type would have to ingest the spot, and I’m hoping would catch “what the fuck are you doing?”

It definitely makes for a more exciting newscast, though.

Anyone in television have an opinion on that?

Yet again I’ve read articles and watched stories by reputable news organizations that refer to horrific acts of hatred around the world as “Islamic extremism” and “Islamic terrorism.”

Now it’s true that many of these mass killings of innocent people are committed by individuals who practice a perverted form of the religion, but not all Muslims are terrorists or even “extreme.” Yet we feel comfortable lumping them all together.

The phrases just aren’t appropriate. What would Christians say if the Spanish Inquisition, the Crusades and the Holocaust were referred to as “Christian extremism” and “Christian terrorism.” Because that’s technically what those events were; a bunch of individuals narrowly interpreting religious documents, and using those interpretations to oppress others and justify killing innocent people.

It’s just ridiculous in a society that puts so much weight on words and religion, that we wouldn’t be cautious about this. But if someone calls Christianity a cult, we’ll sure as hell stand up and tell them they’re wrong.