The Thug Question

         Last summer Seattle running back Marshawn Lynch agreed to be interviewed and filmed by E:60 over four days of charitable activities in his hometown of Oakland.

         Producer Frank Saraceno and reporter Jeffri Chadiha undertook the assignment with some apprehension.  Lynch is famously reticent with media, so much so that the NFL reportedly fined him $50,000 for shirking his obligations.

         On the first day Saraceno tagged along with Lynch to his family picnic and shot video on his own.  He found Lynch relaxed and pleasant.

         But the real test was the sit-down interview the next day, in front of the producer, reporter and crew.  Initially, Lynch was “restless”, Saraceno recalled, and tended to answer questions with questions of his own.

         About 30 minutes in Lynch’s demeanor changed.

         “He opened up,” Saraceno recalled.  “Once he opened up he talked three, four and five minutes at a clip.  Not just meandering – very insightful. It wasn’t contrived -- everything felt original and genuine."

         At that point Saraceno and Chadiha were emboldened to steer the interview into a sensitive area.   Lynch has had several scrapes with the law, including a DUI and possession of a concealed firearm.  In a 2008 incident he was the driver of a car that struck a pedestrian and left the scene.

         Chadiha referenced Lynch's cousin Josh Johnson, who had told E:60 that "some people" perceived Lynch as a "thug".
         "How do you deal with that perception?"
         "Me bein' a thug?"
         "Yes."

         Lynch reflected, in silence (at 6:35), as the cameras rolled.  Saraceno held his breath.

         “He kind of went ‘hmmm’,” said Saraceno.

         Then Lynch responded...and responded.  His answer went on for a couple of minutes.  In its candor and self-awareness, the answer belied Lynch's nickname of "Beast Mode". 

         “I remember standing there and thinking ‘Wow, that’s going to make the piece’,” Saraceno recalled.  “Because it gave you not only a window into where he came from, but an answer to his critics.”

         In edit, Saraceno decided to let Lynch’s response run beyond a minute.  He did so, he said, as a matter of context and fairness.

         “We let it go on for a while,” Saraceno said. “He thinks a lot in that answer -- stops talking for gaps at a time.  Normally we would edit that up just for time -- I didn’t want to do that in this case.  I wanted that silence to resonate with people, let it sit there.  You could see he was troubled -- he was really thinking. 

         “As a producer sometimes silence is your best friend – I think what made this answer so special is what he didn’t say.  If we had edited it down for time it would have taken all the emotion and power away from it.”

         “We wanted to do him justice by letting him struggle – because I think people realize this isn’t a guy who’s polished. He’s not a guy who’s blow-dried who is going to give the same answer over and over.  This is a guy who is really thinking through what he wants to say and then it’s up to the viewers to decide whether they like him or not.

         “You don’t want to misrepresent anyone.  It’s not like you’re protecting people, but you want to be fair, and as a journalist that’s always the struggle.  Am I being fair to this person?  Is what we’re reporting accurate?  Is their answer fair and contextually right?

         “In this case I know the way we handled it was definitely the right way.”

Jeffri Chadiha (left) and Marshawn Lynch

Posted by Steve Marantz on January, 20, 2014

        

        

        

        

                 

        

        

          

         

Editing Mariano Rivera

On Thursday of Holy Week producer Frank Saraceno and editor Marlon Hidalgo began to edit a Mariano Rivera feature.   Facing an Avid DS, they studied footage Saraceno shot of the ageless Yankee closer in his native Panama in the second week of February.

This was a labor of love for Saraceno, who grew up in Rochester and Syracuse, and for Hidalgo, who grew up in the Bronx.

  

This was the start of two-week process, for a piece that might run 10 minutes and have as many as 1000 edits.  

“To me, this is the most rewarding part until the piece hits the air,” Saraceno said. “You feel like an artist and this is your canvas.”

Frame after frame moved across the Avid screens, at Hidalgo’s deft command.  Saraceno scanned his index of logged shots and called out requests.

He chose shots of Rivera inside the partial construction of a new church, which Rivera financed, for the impoverished fishing village he came from.  Saraceno liked one in which Rivera shook the hand of a worker in a hard hat.

He chose shots of Rivera, with his wife and son, as they handed out backpacks and school supplies to the local children. 

 Saraceno and Hidalgo especially liked shots of Rivera, as he drove slowly on the main street, and chatted and laughed through his open window with locals.  The camera, in the passenger seat, saw the same adoring and admiring faces that Rivera saw.

A theme emerged. 

Rivera is a good man.  Saintly, you might say.  Especially for allowing E:60 a rare glimpse inside his off-the-field life.

With the Yankees and Red Sox set to open the season on Easter Sunday, even a Sox fan – such as myself - couldn’t blame Saraceno and Hidalgo for a reverent take.  

Posted by Steve Marantz, April 2, 2010