Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, October 4, 1993 TAG: 9310040056
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFFREY BILS CHICAGO TRIBUNE
DATELINE: CHICAGO LENGTH: Medium
It was a two-car, head-on collision. A mother and two children were dead in one car.
Smith, 26, of West Chicago arrived at the scene about the same time as emergency workers. He leaped out of his car and spent the next two hours videotaping with his Magnavox EasyCam.
He's not a reporter. He's not a cop. He's not a lawyer.
He's just a guy with a video camera.
And he's a foot soldier in the video revolution.
That revolution has unleashed an army of moms and dads and doting grandparents who love to capture their offspring's lives on videotape - and who sometimes capture a little more. Neighbors turn the lens on neighbors. And when the house next door is on fire, it's becoming almost guaranteed that someone will show up with a camera.
"It used to be you'd run over with a hose to help," said Rod Gelatt, professor emeritus at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. "I hope people still do that. But now it's probably, `Hey, Myrtle, get the camera! We can get some good footage here.' "
Fueled in part by the proliferation of hand-held cameras, these video voyeurs are making their presence known on the evening news across the country.
From the Rodney King beating to a deadly explosion that tore apart a Niles, Ill., home last month, America is getting more than a taste of what it's like to be a bystander in the electronic age.
"It's a new phenomenon as videos become more accessible, meaning a lot cheaper," said Drew Hallmann, associate producer and director of research for NBC's "I Witness Video."
"The whole purpose and premise of the show is, because of video technology, the world has really changed," Hallmann said. "It really empowers people. Suddenly, people themselves can be a reporter."
One specialty magazine, Videomaker, ran an article in February telling readers how to sell their home-video images of calamity to the local news station.
That article inspired Ken Leschin to carry a video camera in his car. The 29-year-old Orland Park, Ill., man ended up filming an apartment fire where three people died. He sold the tape to four Chicago stations, earned about $800, and used the money to buy a new video camera.
Firefighters were arriving when Leschin found the March 3 blaze. He said that if faced with a choice between helping people or capturing their misery on tape, "I would put life ahead of video any day."
Not all video experiences end so amicably. On Aug. 31, at least two neighbors showed up with video cameras after Wayne Conrad, 39, of Niles, Ill., opened a booby-trapped toolbox and was killed in an explosion that sent people as far away as a mile running out of their houses.
One version of a tape that aired on local news programs showed Conrad's wife lying in the doorway of her home, bleeding from her legs, moaning, "Oh, my husband is gone."
"I don't know what made me think of the camera," said Joe Schneller, 36, who lives across the street from where the bomb exploded. "I was filming with one eye and looking out the other eye. My sister was at the side of the woman. I'd really rather not talk about this. I have neighbors that are upset with me about it."
Another man who videotaped the incident and sold his footage to a Chicago TV station said it was the first and only time he would do such a thing. The man said he didn't want to be identified or talk about the incident.
Despite the enthusiasm more and more people seem to have for videotaping tragedy, television news directors say it's still uncommon for them to use the footage.
"The level of professionalism is too high here," said Phyllis Schwartz, news director at WLS-TV in Chicago. She said her station uses amateur home video "maybe four or five times" a year.
"Obviously, a station's camera people can't be everywhere," said Gelatt, who has spent three decades in the University of Missouri's broadcast news department. "We can't have photographers in every neighborhood when a house blows up. That's why we're lucky if we can find a neighbor who took a picture of it."
For Smith, who keeps a scanner by his bed at night, being the first one on the scene with a camera paid off. He sold his footage of the July 5 fatal accident to ChicagoLand Television News for $50.
For two years, Smith, a security guard, has pursued his hobby, chasing mayhem with his video camera. But he said he would never opt to film rather than help out.
"If a house were on fire, I'd probably hand the camera to my dad," Smith said. "I'd say, `Dad, film me putting this fire out.' "
by CNB