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Movie and TV Camera Operator

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AVG. SALARY

$43,050

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EDUCATION

Bachelor's degree

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JOB OUTLOOK

Stable

Interviews

Insider Info

The television host was smiling. The lights were blazing. Large cameras loomed in front of the set. A neighbor had taken 11-year-old Allan Coen to see the taping of a talk show at a local TV station.

Coen was mesmerized. "I saw the lights and cameras and I knew at that moment I wanted to be in this industry," remembers Coen.

Eighteen years later, Coen is a news camera operator at the very same station. "It's like putting on a big show and working as a team, using your skills to put a large project together that everyone can see," he says.

In high school, Coen job shadowed in television newsrooms. After graduation, he took night courses at a technical school and volunteered at the local TV station three days a week.

"It's a good way to find out if this is really what you want to do," he explains.

Finally, he enrolled in a two-year program at a community college. When he finished, he had the education and experience necessary to get a job as a camera operator.

The career is everything he hoped it would be. Often, Coen works and shoots alone. Other days, he works with a reporter or producer as part of a news team. Either way, he says it beats sitting in an office all day. "It's like a field trip every day!" he says.

"Field trips" mean a lot of out-of-town travel for freelance camera operator Naomi Wise. "You have a really good time and work really hard!" she says.

Wise's contracts in video and film production take her all over North America. For example, she did a two-day shoot in New York City doing artist profiles for a national music awards program.

There are a lot of things Wise likes about her career. "I like creating things and doing things," she explains. "I'm not someone who would really like to work in an office."

After making $25 a day as a second camera assistant, Wise took a cinematography program in Los Angeles. The course gave her an overview of the whole film-video industry and opened the door for work in features, documentaries, commercials and video production.

Shooting the news has opened the door for Coen, too -- he gets to cover the people in power. Once, on the last day of an election campaign, it was Coen's job to shadow the incumbent. First, there was a rally.

Then, the politician and all the media following him flew to a small town. Then, they drove to a rally in another town. Then it was back to the first town for dinner. Finally, the whole entourage flew home in a government jet.

"That was cool," Coen remembers. He says sitting with the other media on the way home gave him a real sense of accomplishment. He'd made it!

But it's not all jet-setting and rubbing shoulders with important people. One of the saddest stories Coen has had to cover was the funeral of a teenage girl who was attacked and dumped into a river to drown.

The TV station wanted shots from the funeral to show the depth of the community's grief. Funerals are never an easy assignment, and this one was particularly rough. "Some of her friends were shouting at us and stuff, and that wasn't pleasant," he explains.

Coen says in situations like that it helps to be philosophical and believe in what you're doing. "Years ago, people lived in a smaller global village. They knew their neighbor and his business. They don't anymore. When something bad happens, TV now has the job of communicating news between neighbors."

There's also the hope that by telling the story, you will help change things. Coen says most of the time it doesn't. "When it does, it's very gratifying," he confides. He's proud that the TV station he works for has exposed travel scams, investment hoaxes and other consumer frauds.

Coen says one of his weirdest experiences in the industry was at the first station he worked for. A disgruntled group of multi-level marketers marched in and launched a protest in the newsroom. Coen returned from lunch to find pickets and demonstrators trying to spray water on equipment.

The assignment editor told him to grab a camera. He did. The crowd was incensed. "They were upset we were trying to videotape them in our station," he says, still amazed. "It was very weird. Very weird."

Weird or wonderful, it's all in a day's work. That's why Coen loves his job. "There's not one day like every other day," he concludes.

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