From the Stevens Point Journal April 27, 2004:

Trivia documentary intern learns on the fly
Schedule for production crew just as busy as Trivia teams'

By Geoff Fyfe
Journal staff


Rich Hanson has been working for Student Television for most of his four years at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. For him, it is a passion that came early in life.

"I've always wanted to do this," he said. "I watched a lot of TV as a little kid and thought it looked like fun."

This month, Hanson had the opportunity to expand his experience as one of the six students hired as production assistants to help the film crew "Trivial Pictures" document the annual Trivia contest. He jumped at the opportunity.

"I heard about it from my production professor," he said. "The production company got my resume, and Rebecca Ritchie, one of the producers, called me the next day. I gave her the list of everything I'd done, and she said they could definitely use me. Basically from that point on, I was on board."

In the week before Trivia began April 16, Hanson was already quite busy. His duties included reserving a camera for the weekend and meeting with his fellow production assistants and the producers in the days before to plot strategy before the big event.

"I started at 8 a.m. on Friday," he said. "All interns who didn't have class had to be there. We got all prepared, I picked up the camera I rented, and we set out. When the parade started at 4 p.m. we split into groups to cover different teams."

"Basically, my job was to get performance release," he said of his duties during the contest. "If we got an interesting quote on tape, I had to label it to make it easier for the editors to identify."
Hanson was paired with executive producer Patrick Cady and fellow producer Brit McAdams. The Trivia teams he was responsible for included Graduates of a Lesser God and 90 FM, as well as any other team they could find.

"Patrick and I found Your Mamma Got Served on Saturday morning," he said. "We started talking to this woman who was leading a team of high school students. She played professional football in 1979, along with every other sport imaginable. She was a really enjoyable person. We covered her team around 9:30 on Saturday night and she brought out her old football pads and everything."

Hanson even managed to give some advice to one of the teams he covered.

"When I was at the Graduates' house, I knew the answer to the third trivial question," he said. "I didn't know what to do at first, but Brit said it was okay to tell them. In the end, they said the wrong name. They were very nice people. I was blown away by the number of books and magazines they had at their place."
Like the Trivia contestants themselves, the production assistants had to work without much of a break all weekend. The assistants worked in shifts with breaks of three hours for naps. Hanson said the pace was tiring.

"I was pretty delirious at times," he said. "One night at 2 a.m. I got to go home and sleep. I thought someone was on our neighbor's porch and called to him. Then I looked again and realized I was talking to a wicker chair. Remember, I was really tired."

Despite the exhausting schedule, Hanson said his experience was very informative.

"I really learned a lot from them," he said. "I especially learned how to set up and ask questions. Brit was really good at getting subjects comfortable, asking questions and getting a good story."
Hanson, 22, a fourth-year senior and communications major, is a news producer at Student Television. He also created and stars in "Newspoint," a satirical news show that runs on the network on Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m.

"Doing the show has taught me a lot," he said. "It takes a lot of work, but it's worth it when people laugh. I enjoy making people laugh."

Hanson added that being a production assistant was a fun experience as well as a learning experience.

"We got kind of goofy at times," he said. "Patrick and Brit knew how to work, but they also knew how to have fun. They were great."

Looking to the future, Hanson will graduate in May and hopes to find a job in news production. He feels his experiences over Trivia weekend will help.

"I would definitely do it again," he said. "This is the only way to break into the business. It takes skills to pay the bills."