I haven’t done any freelance work since my audio editing for LegalWiz, so today was a welcome experience: 8 hours of video work and archiving for Syracuse Police and Syracuse University on the occasion of the annual disaster drill. Staging a scenario much like the Virginia Tech incident, Syracuse Police partnered with the Newhouse School’s Newspaper department to arrange an on-campus shooter and hostage scenario played out with actors, empty weapons, and even a helicopter rescue. Check out this minute-long clip of my footage following “Team 1,” the first team into the building after the start of the scenario. I am very sure I choose the best minute of the video.

These videos were recorded for 2 purposes:

1. To show newspaper students what actually went on inside the building to verify whether they got the story right through interviews with the victims (actors). Each was given some roles to play before the start of the scenario, and no one actor saw all of the events inside the building. It will be used to verify the information in the student’s articles and to reinforce the importance of verification.
2. For a review of tactics and methods by the Syracuse University police department. Our raw videos, about 50 minutes each from 6 cameras, are being given to the department on DVD so that they can do an internal review of their performance in the drill.

While it was not a normal shooting or editing experience, it was an interesting one. It definitely reinforced reporting standards for me, and it gave an unbeatable perspective on the ways in which these events actually play out.

Here is Joe Blum’s edit of the video for Syracuse University