My week as the Red Hot Reporter

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I’m back from London.

As I wrote in September, I won a contest sponsored by Virgin Atlantic to become their Red Hot Reporter during the NFL International Series game in London. After a week covering the Dolphins, Raiders and general fanfare, I figured I should write about the whole experience and compile all my work in one spot.

Then I got home, caught up on sleep, had a busy week and finally got around to it.

It was a great trip, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to go.

Virgin Atlantic set my itinerary, from their Clubhouse at JFK through the trip back home. The guidelines said I’d report from both teams’ practices, the NFL Block Party on Saturday and the game Sunday. Virgin Atlantic had a camera crew to shoot and edit at the rally and the game, and I was asked to tweet at least five times a day, but beyond that I could cover the week however I chose.

As a sports reporter, I was obviously interested in doing as much actual reporting as possible. I wanted to go on the trip because I knew it would be fun, but also to get great clips for my reel.

I planned on completing actual news packages from the two team practices, with standups, relevant sound bites, good B-roll, etc.

At the same time, I knew Virgin Atlantic was hoping/expecting me to do what amounted to de facto PR for them. I’d seen videos of past Red Hot Reporters interviewing Virgin Atlantic employees and plugging the airline. So I knew there would be a tradeoff, and that at times I might blur some journalistic ethical boundaries.

But I figured I’d be able to get what I wanted out of the trip and still keep Virgin Atlantic happy, so off we went.

Wednesday:

Wednesday afternoon I drove from Philly to JFK with my friend Greg, who had helped film my submission video (which you should check out), on the condition that he’d be my +1 if we won the contest. I’d say the deal worked out for both of us. We also met Olivia, from Virgin Atlantic’s marketing department, who was our guide for the week.

Hanging out at the JFK Clubhouse before the big trip.
Hanging out at the JFK Clubhouse before the big trip.

I snapped an Instagram photo from the Clubhouse and then we were treated to all the complimentary food and drink we wanted, and even a massage. I sheepishly agreed to shoot a video from the massage chair, but let Olivia take it on her phone and post it from Virgin Atlantic’s account.

Her video got 250 likes on Instagram, flagging me as a PR sell-out before we even left the runway. But I accepted that fate since this wasn’t my career, just a one week gig. So I enjoyed my first class seat that folded into a bed and got ready to do some actual reporting from London.

Thursday:

Thursday was intense, as we hopped off the redeye and went directly to Raiders practice on about two hours of airplane sleep.

I didn’t have time to shave at the airport, but needed to before going on camera. So naturally I stripped down to my undershirt and shaved in the training facility’s lobby bathroom while other media members walked in and out.

I absorbed a few funny looks, but most people seemed to understand. We were all waiting for the portion of practice open to the media to start anyway.

Once it did, we spent 30 minutes on the sideline collecting footage, while the team mostly went through drills that wouldn’t give away any clues to their game plan. After practice, players hung around the field to answer questions before a formal press conference with head coach Dennis Allen and veteran Justin Tuck.

I’d asked Greg to capture some shots of me working, which I thought would look nice on my site, or in future videos. With our multi-cam set-up, I edited my interview with Antonio Smith, who told me he was a ninja.

Unfortunately I wasn’t completely thrilled with my package. I’d spent time preparing and thought the content was solid but, frankly, I looked and sounded like a guy who’d come directly from a transatlantic redeye.

I had also bought a new DSLR camera the day before trip that I was still getting used to, so I had a few issues with the audio settings in certain spots.

The Raiders also wouldn’t let us use tripods on the sideline (which seems strange— it wasn’t even their field) so most of my zoomed-in shots were too shaky to use.

But I’m always hard on myself, and it still turned out fine. Here’s the package:

Friday:

Thanks to some lucky timing, our British friend Megan showed us around London.
Thanks to some lucky timing, we had a local to take us to Big Ben on our first night in London.

Friday was a little smoother.

I still hadn’t gotten much sleep, because Greg and I had a mutual friend from college come hang out with us. Our friend Megan was born in the UK, moved to the US as a kid, and happened to be back visiting her homeland while we were there.

Instead of sleeping, we followed her around the city to sightsee and eat fish and chips.

But we pushed through and still woke up early for a full English breakfast.

Dolphins practice that afternoon had the same format as the Raiders’ practice the day before. I’d fixed some issues with the camera, and the Dolphins allowed a tripod, so my package turned out much better:

I also did some more Virgin Atlantic PR, as Olivia set up an interview with Brandon Gibson and Will Davis specifically about their charter flight over. Virgin (understandably) wanted clips of NFL players talking about how cool the flight was.

Interviewing Brandon Gibson and Will Davis after Dolphins practice in London.
Interviewing Brandon Gibson and Will Davis after Dolphins practice in London.

While I won’t exactly highlight the interview on my website where I tout myself as a journalist, Virgin Atlantic can use it and I got a couple nice screenshots.

Friday night was another late one. Greg and I went out for what the Brits would call, “A swift half-pint,” which is my favorite expression I learned over there. It’s sarcastic— you say you’re getting a quick half a drink when you plan to be out much longer. Who goes out for half a drink?

Eventually we made it back to the hotel and crashed for the night.

Saturday:

Saturday was the most fun day of the trip.

Regent Street was shut down from Oxford Circus to Piccadilly Circus for the NFL Block Party, a massive festival for fans to celebrate. My mission for the day was to capture the excitement of the event and interview fans about their interest in American football.

Virgin Atlantic sent along a two-man camera crew to film and edit. I didn’t have to obsess all day about cutaway shots or worry if we had enough B-Roll. I could just relax, be myself and have fun on camera, and I think it showed.

This Dolphins fan wearing a kilt was one of the better interviews of the day. (Photo by Greg Patchak)
This Dolphins fan wearing a kilt was one of the better interviews of the day. (Photo by Greg Patchak)

One notable milestone: This was one of my first experiences doing a standup with a gigantic crowd watching me. Those of you who know me in real life or follow me on the internet know that I’m pretty clearly not a celebrity. But when people see you holding an official-looking microphone in front of a camera with a two-man crew, they think you’re… somebody. So they stare and take pictures of you while you’re trying to sound natural reciting a 15-second memorized schpiel.

The rest of the day went great. I interviewed a Dolphins fan in a kilt. I interviewed the Raiders’ mascot. I used my press pass to cut lines and film myself participating in carnival games (though I felt a little bad about that one).

The crew did a great job editing what is definitely my favorite video from London.

After a long day of walking, I finally got to bed early. But first we had a Virgin Atlantic event inside the London Eye, plus bangers and mash at Winston Churchill’s favorite pub. The pub is next to the House of Parliament, so it has a big bell above the main bar. Whenever a vote comes up, they ring the bell so the members of Parliament know to stop drinking and go vote.

I like this country.

Sunday:

Greg and I woke up at 6:30 a.m. Sunday to see more of London. We walked around Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square and the Horse Gardens Parade, which were all nice and empty so early in the morning.

Buckingham Palace, early in the morning before most tourists were awake.
Buckingham Palace, early in the morning before most tourists were awake.

We also took a guided tour of the Tower of London, which had a ton of historical information and was the best sightseeing we did.

Our bus to Wembley Stadium departed at 2 p.m.

The game itself was fun, though surprisingly not a ton of work. We arrived early, picked up our credentials and then went outside to shoot a standup amid a huge group of fans.

I thought I was prepared to deliver a standup in front of a crowd after I’d done it at the block party, but this was a much more intense crowd. The cameraman told me he was rolling, and I started speaking before I’d thought about what I was going to say. All I said was, “I’m Mitch Goldich, Red Hot Reporter for Virgin Atlantic… actually I’m not sure what I’m going to say yet.”

People laughed. People stared. People took more cell phone pictures of me.

I did a second take that I managed to finish, but told the cameraman, “Let me do another take, I can do better than that.”

At this point a man in a Giants jersey and heavy British accent yelled out, “Come on Mitch! Get it together! You can do this!”

Which would have been embarrassing if it hadn’t been so funny.

My next time through, I nailed the take and then about 100 people half-seriously, half-jokingly cheered for me. I thanked them and got out of there.

Next we went down to the sideline. I shot a few standups and played it cool for a bit, then gave in to temptation and shot a few photos of myself.

On the sideline at Wembley Stadium before the teams started warming up.
On the sideline at Wembley Stadium before the teams started warming up.

I also made one of the plays of the day, catching a ball in the back of the end zone. A Raiders QB had overthrown a receiver and the ball darted toward me. I know it sounds lame to say you made a great catch off a bounce, but it was still moving really fast, tumbling like a squib kick, and I did make a nice grab. Olivia had her camera out and quickly snapped a semi-candid photo before I tossed it back.

Yes, I'm bragging about making a nice catch even though it was off a bounce.
Yes, I’m bragging about making a nice catch even though it was off a bounce.

We spent the game in Virgin Atlantic’s suite, not the press box, but I was fine with that. We ate free food, drank free drinks and enjoyed the game.

I didn’t love my video from the game as much as I did from the rally, but kind of expected that. They had me interview members of Virgin Atlantic’s cabin crew. They had cutaways of Virgin Atlantic signage. It was infinitely more PR-heavy than the video from the rally.

But Virgin Atlantic’s people were great to me. They let me record some strictly football related standups at the game and said I could have all of the raw footage to later cut my own football-only packages. Those were the kind of clips I came to London for, and I don’t mind if that’s not on Virgin Atlantic’s website. Everybody ended up with what they wanted.

At the end of the day, my integrity wasn’t compromised much. I was never restricted from doing things, I was just asked to do some additional work for Virgin Atlantic, and I happily obliged. It’s not like anybody censored me when I tweeted negative things during the game.

So that was the trip. We left the stadium, watched the late games until deep into the night and flew home early Monday morning.

Thanks, Virgin Atlantic, for a memorable week. And thanks to my friends who followed along.