Hot Summer Intern

Once there was a time I thought I wanted to work in video and film. Actually, I was fascinated with media. I still am. There's just something about the power as well as responsibility to inform, story tell, entertain and enlighten a mass audience I've been drawn to since I can remember.

A while after our high school graduation, my friend Megan put me in contact with a local video and film producer. Michael Lienau frequented Cool Beans, the cafe across the street from his office where my friend worked as a barista. Thus began my hot summer internship in the historic heart of my hometown of Issaquah, which actually may have begun in winter.

Michael was best known for his nothing-short-of amazing Mt. St. Helens footage. At age 20 he was part of a camera crew that became trapped on the mountain during the volcano's infamous 1980 eruption. They were present immediately following the eruption, for the second largest eruption and were eventually rescued from the mountain after several days. Michael had a full head of hair until after the rescue, going bald while in the hospital. He told me half-joking one day that after Mt. St. Helens blew her top, he blew his.

The timing of my internship with his production company was interesting. During the summer of 1992 the North Seattle area was terrorized by a serial arsonist, the most prolific in our nation's history. If you Google Paul Keller a blub from Wikipedia will tell you he is a serial arsonist from Everett, Washington serving 99 years in prison without the possibility of parole. I can tell you he has two lovely parents who were devastated their beloved son's crime spree. He admitted to 76 arsons, which caused more than $30 million in property damages and claimed three lives. In a stunning twist, Paul's father connected the dots and was the one who turned him into the authorities.

Michael had just procured exclusive rights to the story when I came on board. We shot an in-depth piece for KING 5, NBC's Seattle affiliate. We also shot a special piece for Dateline working with one of the show's field producers and correspondent John Scott.

This all sounds very glamorous. I can assure you it was not. My primary duties were to schlep at exotic locations like the steps of the Snohomish County Courthouse in Everett or at a burned out marina warehouse in Marysville. I did get to work with Grant Goodeve, who I adored as the eldest brother David on TV's Eight is Enough. He hosted our segment for our local affiliate station. He's every bit as pleasant off camera as he is on camera. Really. I did learn that John Scott just wears jeans when he's on camera sitting down; business on top, party down below the desk, I guess. His New York-based field producer was an Asian man who wore cowboy boots the whole time they were here because they were in Seattle. I found that a little offensive.

I logged a lot of footage that summer, which could have been the most mundane of tasks. Except I was logging coveted Mt. St. Helens footage, likely scenes only a few people alive had ever seen before at the time. The raw power of nature. A sudden flash flood of volcanic mud washing out a bridge. Coming upon a vehicle sitting idle in the middle of an otherwise deserted road, at first appearing abandoned, and then on closer look a lifeless driver still inside at the wheel. Haunting.

Michael wanted the footage logged for a film he was hired to put together for the Mt. St. Helens Visitor's Center. I still have yet to see the finished product, and I'm certain its stunning.

During this time I was taking a media production course at the local community college and putting myself through school (and this unpaid internship) by more schlepping as a busboy at newly opened Ristorante Pompeii in Downtown Bellevue. I was taking home a couple hundred bucks from a single lunch shift, and getting my fill of iced breves (like two or more a day - sssshhhh).

My class was interesting and somewhat fun. For the life of me I couldn't figure out how to work the editing equipment properly. During the demos it looked straight forward enough. In practice it wouldn't take any of my commands, or I wasn't giving it the right ones. Who knows. Of course I put everything off to the last minute, no story boarding and did my own at home editing between camera and VCR. I guess what I'm trying to say is technically I sucked ass. Writing has always been more my thing anyway, and the technical stuff can get pretty tedious. Better to have learned these things early on than get stuck in some media k-hole, sweeping up scraps in some post production dungeon for the rest of my life.

OK, so I was neither hot nor was it summer. I did intern. Is the word intern really short for internment?

Pictured from left to right: Michael Lineau, Shari Lineau, some dude whose name escapes me, Grant Goodeve (the one time he's in the background), yours truly.