01:45:00 00:02.01.00

That’s the approximate running time of the first VO or voiceover package I edited for TV Patrol World.

This was Monday, September 28. Typhoon Ondoy/Ketsana had passed, and we were now taking a sober look at the damage it left.

How long it took to edit the piece? Almost an hour. We started to lay the audio by 5:35 p.m. and had it ready for airing just before the headlines ran at 6:30.

Residents in submerged Pasig areas still await help. Report by Jorge Cariño, ABS-CBN News, for TV Patrol World, September 28, 2009 (Click on screen grab to watch via ABS-CBN News Online)

Our Electronic News Gathering Van 4 was set up in Pasig’s De Castro subdivision, which hours earlier was knee-deep, and days before head-high in flood.

Reporter Jorge Cariño had then joined police riding a rubber boat to move displaced residents. Where he stood for his live report that night, the waters were gone.

They left behind tons of garbage–a lot not even from the place–strewn in mud. Carcasses of cats, dogs, and birds mingled with the refuse. What effects families did not move up they piled in the street, all wet and rendered useless.

For my first time with primetime, the output and the batting average was not bad.

The piece was a “take 10,” meaning it had to air in the first 20 minutes of Patrol. The only obvious glitch was a white band in one cut, indicating a wear in the Betacam tape.

That VO was only the first that week where co-newbie Kerch and I moved from the “safe” morning shift to the more demanding primetime.

Thanks to Sir Jorge who “guided” my editing. He noted the time codes of all his S-O-Ts (sounds on tape)–very helpful to a speeding editor. Plus, his script indicated the shots to put in from the two tapes of raw video.

More so to my ENG team. Inside the van, our two engineers monitored and answered my questions as I edited. While outside, the other boys rolled out the cables and placed the lights for Sir Jorge’s stand-upper.

It was our first week of long hours, even overnights outside. An unforgettable week, if not only for the tragedy.

Two later VOs with Sir Jorge, both still in Pasig. The first was that night for Bandila, the second last October 1. (Click on the screen grabs to watch)

Live morning reports: with Niko Baua in Pasig on Sept. 29 for News Patrol, and with Sir Doland Castro in Cainta-Taytay the next day for UKG. One of them caught some of my bloops in the switchboard. (Click on the screen grabs to watch)