News » Behind the Scenes with Access Tucson

For every hour of local community television that appears on Access Tucson’s channels ; untold hours of preparation and hardwork insure that the faces and voices of Tucson are seen and heard.

Access Tucson has long worked with non-profit and civic organizations, educating the public about the services these orgainzations provide. We make it our business to fill those gaps that the mainstream media often ignore.

It’s been exceptionally busy the past three months: 8 shoots on location and one live show from Studio A gave Tucsonans the opportunity to enjoy diverse community programming. 30 Access Tucson volunteers donated nearly 250 hours of crew time. The earliest crew call was 4am for AIDSWALK 2006. The longest shoot was the Musciale Regale coming in at 16 hours!

Each location shoot requires decisions about what type of shoot(truck, mini-mobile, or package) is best for the event; plus site visits, a ton of equipment wrangling, selecting a crew and expecting the unexpected. Now, the behind the scenes tour:

Viva Arizona! concert at the UA Centennial Hall with the production truck. A 13-hour day and 10 Access Tucson volunteers brought the history of Hispanic dance and music in Tucson to your television. We also produced and aired a 30 second event PSA for Viva Arizona! to help them promote the concert, and hosted the organization on Local Matters.

Ashli Cotton and Fara Baidinger make sure all is O.K.

Waiting to go on at Viva Arizona!

Byron Bissell and Marco Sanchez take a break

2006 Election: Access Tucson cablecast the most extensive debate coverage in S. Arizona.
We partnered with the Arizona Daily Star and Pima Community College to shoot and televise the Primary Election Candidate Debates for Congressional District 7 and the nationally-watched race in District 8. We also joined with the Arizona Clean Election Commission to air all of the locally contested legislative races (8) and state offices.

For the General Election debates we went live with a studio audience for the Cogressional District 7 candidates and took the mini-mobile to Pima Community College for the CD8 debate–this program was on the air 45 minutes after the debate finished! We used the new Tricaster digital switcher in the mini-mobile for this shoot. C-SPAN aired the District 8 debate and CNN used many video clips leading up to the election.

We aired 11 other local legislative and state debates produced by the Clean Election Commission. And produced and cablecast numerous PSAs promoting the debates, which also aired on Pima Community College channels. And we featured the Arizona Daily Star Election Team on our weekly, live program, Government Connection.

Citizens wait for the debate to begin

Mini-mobile, poised and ready

The new digital Tricaster switcher makes its debut

City of Tucson Welcomes the new UA President, Robert Shelton. A shoot/edit package at two locations. Access Tucson partnered with Council Offices Ward 3 and 6. A first-time volunteer, fresh from Digital Field Production class, has to unexpectedly fill in at a camera position and does a wonderful job.

AIDSWALK 2006 Began before the sun came up. We set up in the dark on the UA Mall. Seven cameras and volunteers scattered to shoot the 10K race and the 5K walk, the opening ceremonies, the displays, interviews and the thousands of people who made the walk a success for the Southern Arizona Aids Foundation. We aired a pre-produced PSA for SAAF and featured the organization of Local Matters.

Mark Jordan and Vicki Evans begin the day

Gordon Austin is on top of it

Enjoying the day at AIDSWALK 2006

Musicale Regale 2006 The world famous Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus annual kick-off concert. Probably the most physically strenous shoot. The venue was the UA Student Union Ballroom—up 2 flights of steps from the production truck and far from the elevator. All cameras (5), miles of camera and audio cable and accessories were hauled up and down the stairs. Again, a brand new volunteer, who didn’t expect to run a camera was thrown on one at the last minute and stayed 2 hours longer than he intended. This was the 16-hour day and no one could feel his legs when it was over.

Tucson’s renowned Boys Chorus

First time volunteer, Dominic Mamaril makes it look easy

Stephen St. Clair makes it look easy

Memory Walk 2006 Access Tucson managed to stetch its resources, thanks to volunteers, and shoot this event on the same day as the Musicale Regale. Though small, the crew was efficient and covered the entire event: the walk, entertainment and interviews. We helped the Alzheimer’s Association of S. Arizona promote this event by producing and airing a 30 second PSA and an appearance on Local Matters.

Tim O’Grady and Fara Baidinger unload gear

Signing up for the Memory Walk

Shooting interviews helps tell the story

Tucson Money Faire was a first-time, special one-stop event to combat predatory lenders and offered consumers free credit reports, tax prepartation and financial services for low and moderate income consumers. To promote this event we produced a 30 second PSA for the Westside Coalition, Weed and Seed Program, and an appearance by 2 of the sponsors on Government Connection. (One crew person finds, in the remote gear, her glasses which had been missing for 5 months–since the Juneteenth, 2-day remote!)

Please join us for our last remote shoot of the year. With our production truck, we go live from our parking lot to bring you the Holiday Parade of Lights from 6-9pm on December 9th. This is the second annual partnership between Access Tucson and the Tucson Downtown Alliance.

Check out for yourself just what “behind the scenes” with Access Tucson is all about. And if you can’t be here; watch the parade live on Access Tucson channels Cox/99 Comcast/74.

As Access Tucson teaches individuals to “do” television, so we provide services to organizations to educate, inform and promote public dialogue through cable television. Our definition of community is limitless.