Introduction

In the autumn of 1991 I had been a television floor manager for approximately eight months. I knew very little....fuck all you could say.
I had next to no experience, a year at a music channel (most of that as a rigger/driver), and Middle Eastern Broadcasting Ltd (MBC), a brand new, Saudi owned Arabic language channel, had kindly employed me.
After only going on air that October, the news end of the channel decided to send an O.B. (outside broadcast) to Madrid in Spain to cover the launching of the Middle East Peace Process. They decided this about seven days before it was due to start. For five of those days they believed they wouldn't be needing a floor manager. 39 other people, ENG crews (that's the two person teams of camera and sound that cover all the roving stuff), technical and production teams were all confirmed and, two days before the off, I was the 40th and final person to be asked to go. I was told there was a going date - but no coming back date. It could be weeks, maybe a month.
I had done some O.B.s before, to floor manage they're generally harder logistically than studio work, well, I had given Pat Sharp a visual cue and a finger count to stop talking as he skied past me on an artificial slope introducing 'I've Got The Power' by Snap. Simple stuff.
Anyway, I went, and, in Madrid, I learned more about my job in those eight days than I had in the previous eight months.
When I returned I felt like the Buffy The Vampire Slayer of Floor Managers.

DFR 10/06/2009.

Contact : dominiczero@live.co.uk