It happened to me yesterday. I was filming an innocuous shot of Southampton port when a jovial chap saunters over and says, "Great to see you again..!"
Blank.
I raise my eyebrows and smile at him. Nope, still blank. My brain is shuffling through an internal rolladex filing system...
File: Released killers: Empty. (Phew)
File: Grieving widowers: Standby.
File: Crackpots: Various... Standby... Still searching.
"So, how's the camera going..?" He says, instantly trashing about fifteen and a half years. As I've only had my new camera about six months or so. That narrowed it down a bit, as my mind flipped through the pages of the last 16 years. "Oh good... Err... Thanks." I reply.
File: Celebrity Chefs: At the docks..?
File: Local Politicians: Possible. Standby.
File: Perverts / Ex Lovers / Dopeheads: (Same file) Searching...
Nope still nothing. "You remember me... A month back, at the union demo. You showed me your camera..."
File: Socialist Agitators: File found. Discarded 16/8/12... No interest.
"Oh yeah... Listen, must go as I've got a lot of stuff to get through... Nice to meet you again... See you soon... Yep... Yep... Bye..!"
Honestly, some people think that us news cameramen remember everyone we meet. Well let me tell you, I can't remember what I was doing two days ago let alone remember a half arsed conversation on a street corner a month or so ago. It's nothing personal. It's not that I don't like you. (Although I probably won't) it's just that unless we meet more than six times in two days you will get filed under...
File: Unknown.
Paul Martin is ukcameraman on Twitter.
www.media-attention.co.uk
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