Funny Thing Happened To Me Yesterday...

So I'm getting ready to shoot an interview in this house in Monclova yesterday. There are six adults in the room that have come for the interview and two kids that are going to be part of my b-roll for this story about a new children's educational product.

As I'm setting up, I pull a microphone cable out of my vest pocket and start hooking it up to my camera. I hear a slight gasp behind me and one of the ladies say, "That just fell out of his pocket."

Let me give you some back story now. I earned my BFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design. I also earned a minor in sound design. One of the courses I took dealt with gathering audio while in the field. One of the tips my professor taught me was how to protect a shotgun microphone from the rain. A shotgun microphone is a directional microphone about 3/4 of an inch round and 6-12 inches long. Mine is mounted on my camera. The professor told us that in the rain, an unlubricated condom can be put over the foam windscreen that covers a shotgun microphone with only a 10% loss in audio to protect it. See where I'm going with this one yet?

Yeah, so I hear this lady say it fell out of my pocket. I look over on the floor behind me and see this balled up, off-white thing lying on the floor. It's kind of dark in the room and I can't really see what it is, so I don't think anything of it. Now I hear more whispers behind me. I look over at my reporter, Lissa Guyton, and she has this horrified look on her face.

The lady behind me taps me on the shoulder and says, "That just fell out of your pocket."

When I take a closer look, I see it. There in all it's glory is a half rolled, unlubricated condom strewn across the floor.

After some explaining we all had a good laugh. I did, however, get an awkward look from one of the ladies we interviewed when I asked her to unbutton her jacket so that I could put a microphone cable out of sight inside her jacket.

-Billau