Don Ingle
News Photographer
People say to me "wow you are so lucky to get to go the ACC tournament." I have to say yes I am pretty fortunate to be able to attend the premiere college basketball tournament in the country. But what people fail to realize is that just because I am at the games, doesn't mean I am sitting there with my popcorn and Pepsi, rooting for my favorite teams. It's not like that all. There is work to be done.
Our coverage began on Thursday with the opening round games. Julia Lewis and I made our appearance at the tourney around 10:30am (it was here 1st trip to the tourney, my 2nd). The mission was to do two stories (ACC expansion and how much money people throw down for the tourney experience). We started shooting our stories around 11am and by 12:30pm we were finished shooting both stories. Julia began logging tape at 1pm and by 2:30pm she had both stories written and approved. Of course this would make any photographer happy. Both stories done, all that is left to do is a little mixology of video and audio (I like that, MIXOLOGY). With only really one editing station available at my disposal, I had to share it with our other crew of Debra Morgan and Nathan Monroe. I edited the first story then let Nathan put his stuff together, before returning to put our second story together.
Once done with my two stories, it was off again to shoot a story on the FanFest area at the tournament. The only way to describe the FanFest area is lots and lots of hoops and balls. Everywhere you looked there was a basketball goal and a ball being shot at it.
Quarterfinal Friday arrived and so did Julia and I. Our second mission for day #2 was once again two stories (tailgating and people playing hookie from work/school). The playing hookie story was a lot of fun to shoot. We hid the identity of the people we interviewed. All in all not a bad story. The tailgating story was also fun; we met some interesting people. We were both invited back to join the festivities of one particular tailgating party. Just imagine 3 huge RVs, plasma TV, huge grill, fresh cooked pig, ice cold....well you get the idea. Of course with our busy schedule we weren't able to revisit our new found friends.
Our work was all done by 5pm. This allowed us to go inside to where our live shot location was and snap a few pictures of our crew hard at work. Hope you enjoy them below.
After a well deserved dinner break (did I mention the ACC provided free food and all the sodas/water you wanted), Julia and I hit the road around 7pm. We were back at home by 8pm. Made it home in time to catch the end of the UNC/UVA game.

"Part of the WRAL team that covered the 53rd annual ACC tournament. FRONT (L-R) Don Ingle, Julia Lewis, and Debra Morgan BACK (L-R) Jeff Gravley, Brad Grantham, Mark Simpson, Nathan Monroe"

"The view from the upper level of the Greensboro Coliseum. Duke versus Miami on the hardwood."

"Sports anchor Jeff Gravley and news anchor Debra Morgan go live for our 5pm news from the ACC tournament."

"Here's a view of the WRAL setup inside the Greensboro Coliseum."

"If you wanted to get inside the Coliseum, you had to have one of these; Media/Photo Passes. From L to R: News photographer Don Ingle, News Photographer Nathan Monroe, and Assignment Editor (Field Producer) Brad Grantham."

"The duo (Julia Lewis and Don Ingle) that brought you stories from ACC expansion to tailgating at the tourney to playing hookie to attend the big party."