Here We Are: What Makes Us Human

45. Kate Lopatowski [Show Calling]

• Joy Bork • Episode 45

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Show calling? What does that even mean? Well. I'm so glad you asked! Join us this week as one of my fellow show callers and I discuss the crazy world we work in.

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Joy Bork:

Welcome to Here We Are. The podcast where we celebrate the beauty of being a nerd by learning about nerdy things from fellow nerds. I'm your host, Joy Bork. Today, we're going to hear from a fellow production techie all about the work that she and I do. So standby for audio cue five, play on B, uh, preset six and rolling the here we are video intro video in 3, 2, 1, and go.

Kate Lopatowski:

Hi everybody. I am Kate Lopatowski. I am currently a show caller for corporate meetings and events and yeah, that's

Joy Bork:

That's how I met you.

Kate Lopatowski:

That's how we met. Right. I don't have that much of a like storied past or anything. It's just, I'm here, I'm lucky enough to be doing something I love doing. And it's been a way to meet super interesting people like yourself, people, even more importantly. And so, yeah, that's who I am. I have a lot of little varied interests. I know a little about a lot of things. But when you were like, oh, talk about what you're interested in. It made me really realize I don't have a hobby. I just, I don't, it's weird, but yeah.

Joy Bork:

in some ways, this kind of work is a hobby.

Kate Lopatowski:

In a lot of ways. Yeah. I can see that.

Joy Bork:

So, for those of you listening, Kate and I met at a studio in the Chicago land area that we both do work with, and I quickly realized I like you and I want to get to know more about you. And so when I was doing this little side project, I had to call a bunch of contractors and verify information, all of that. And I was talking to Kate and I realized, oh, you know what, let's make this happen. So here we are. Joy and Kate. Hanging out. What do you want to nerd out about?

Kate Lopatowski:

Well, let's nerd out about show calling because of my lack of a hobby. We'll talk about that. And maybe it'll branch off into other

Joy Bork:

Who knows with us? You never know.

Kate Lopatowski:

you don't.

Joy Bork:

Okay. Two questions off top. Number one: for the muggles among us who don't know what show calling is, can you please define it? And then can you tell me how you got started?

Kate Lopatowski:

Okay. So show calling is basically calling the cues in order to execute an event or a broadcast. Rolling videos, lighting cues, Mic cues, talent cues, camera cues, sometimes. It depends on the specific event or broadcast, but that's what I'm doing. So I'm lucky enough, because I also deck manage, which is doing the backstage management stuff, pushing people out on stage. I have made a career out of telling people what to do and where to go.

Joy Bork:

Ah, it's magical.

Kate Lopatowski:

I know it just worked out that way. It's a dream come true. And what's hilarious is that, way back in my past in like high school and stuff, I wanted to be in showbusiness, you know. I thought I'd maybe be an actor, something I don't know. But I knew I wanted to be in show business. And then when I got to college, I did a couple of theater auditions and realized those are not my people, when you're surrounded by your people of those were not my people. Yeah. So, I'm like, well, I'll go with television and radio broadcast production. And so that's what I majored in. I had a great time. And, fast forward all these years later I've found myself telling friends like, oh, I've got a show here, I've got a show there, I've got to show that week. And I'm like, Holy crap. I'm in show business!

Joy Bork:

You sure are different kind of show, but still a show

Kate Lopatowski:

just one of those like unanswered prayers that sorta got answered anyway in a roundabout way. So yeah, here, I find myself in show business. Not what I expected, but I love it. And I'm so thrilled that I can do this. Because I would be sad in an office every day. It would just....

Joy Bork:

Yeah.

Kate Lopatowski:

Yeah, so this way I get to be around my people. so how I got into this is when I was back in college, we're using the time machine here. I went to Northern Illinois university and they had a television center. And every night at nine o'clock we would do a live news broadcast. Ready or not, oftentimes not. In which case we would, again at 10 we'd take 30 minutes to regroup and then take two. And then if we didn't get it, then it was like, well, that was a bust. There were like two blocks of classes involved in this newsmaking project. The production block and the journalism block. And since I was minoring in journalism, by the time I graduated having done both. I did the production block and then I did a special directors block where I would direct the newscast, which was my favorite thing to do. know why it was a little crazy. And I wish I had copies of some those newscasts and the calling tracks, which I'm sure would be a hoot to listen to right now. But I love that. And then I turned around and thinking, well, I did that all right. Let's try this journalism thing. Cause who knows, maybe I've got a, special journalistic talent and I can do this too. And as it turns out, I can't. I could barely keep a straight face on camera and I can't believe I didn't have that self-awareness at the time I went in yeah, no problem. And our advisor sat us down and he's like, listen, this is serious business. This is going not only to the campus, but you know, The community, the greater DeKalb area. So there's no laughing. If you start treating this like a joke, you're off the air, which is like half your grade. And he was like, then you're out for half your grade. And I was like, yeah. All right. And so I was doing okay. And I, you know, I also had to shoot and edit packages, which that part was a breeze for me. Cause I had all the production stuff down. And so it was just the reporting. It took me forever to do a stand-up. My photog would ended up walking away. Cause I'd be like no, take 14. Like I didn't even have to be in front of people and I'd have a hard time, like getting it out without laughing about, I don't know what. Stuff in my mind. So we would do that reporting and then we would do the anchoring. And so I'm like, well, maybe anchoring, I've got a prompter happy. I'm not coming up with any of this right here. didn't go as well as I thought. One of my early anchoring gigs I was doing with a really good friend of mine and we were like high fiving yeah, this will be great. And so, and at a newscast, the reporters in this case, were on an angle to each other. And my camera is in front of me, the whole cross shooting thing, hers is in front of her. So she's like right there in my peripheral vision, as I'm talking to the camera and I'm introducing a news package about new faces on the DeKalb city council, because there had just been an election or something. And I see new faces and she starts like doing this, like making awful faces like ridiculous faces. Like in my direction, like right there, I am like immediately right. Want to kill her. And then I start laughing, but I know I can't, cause I'm like I can't lose this grade. And so I tried to swallow it. So if you watch it, which we did a lot afterwards, my family would pull it out at parties. You couldn't decide if I was like if I was laughing, if I was crying, if I was about to kill. Luckily it was vague enough where you weren't quite sure. I made it through. We got into the package. I looked at my friend. I'm like, not okay. And she's like, I'm so sorry. I didn't know you'd react that way. I'm like, if we like, of course I'm reacting that way. So now the cat's out of the bag and everybody in the studio knew, like I was an easy target

Joy Bork:

no,

Kate Lopatowski:

So I made it through. Barely. Got through. It was fun. It was great, but that's when I'm like, okay, well I need to be on like the production side of things. Any hope I have for being on camera is shot. Like I just know this about myself now learning experience. So from there I went into broadcast news at a tiny little cable news station owned by the Tribune outside of Chicago called CLTV. Which was super fun because they hired so many people right out of college. They were non-union shop. So it was great. Cause you could get in and you're on an audio one day, your floor directing, you're running the robo cam. Like you got to do all this stuff, which was fantastic. And I think I was editing by the time I left. I had done. A brief horrific stint in a live truck. like A day or two. I was terrified I had done some electronic news gathering in that room where you're taking the feeds from the satellites and stuff. And I'm accidentally putting in bars to the air, which happened more than once.

Joy Bork:

Oops.

Kate Lopatowski:

to admit. So I really liked it. It was a lot of fun, but they were going to put me on overnights in master control, which was a job that I didn't like to begin with and then being overnights in there, I was like, no, thanks. See ya. It's been fun. So I worked at McDonald's communication network for awhile, which they had purchased their own satellite network. And there was a tiny little studio out of Elk Grove where we would run a bunch of different programs. Sometimes the CEO would come in and store owners would be able to call him and ask him questions. And, we have this set that literally Velcroed together. It was like panels and wooden frames and we'd pull it off and set it up.

Joy Bork:

magic.

Kate Lopatowski:

It was. Still live the golden arches, like right there. So we did that. We did another show that was mostly chroma key gags called,"what's up, mcDonald's?" With the hip kid, talking about the latest promotion or something. And occasionally those of us on the crew would get dragged into it. Like I played a ball from the ball pit. So I can't remember, but it was back in the days where ball pits existed in the play places, which now they've determined have just always been like gross festering, bits of everything, fluids of all sorts. So. So I think this was a video on maintaining the ball pit and its cleanliness or something. And I think there were three or four of us lined up and our faces were painted like the color of the balls. And then we were in these balls and we were like, oh no, like here they come the kids or whatever. And then they rub us and, we're happy again or something. But it was one of those things. Like what else are we going to do? They're not bringing in talent when they got a bunch of knuckleheads from the studio who are like, yeah sure. I'll be a... I'll be the red ball. That wouldn't be interesting or humiliating at all. Yes, I'll do it.

Joy Bork:

not

Kate Lopatowski:

Oh, hold on. a great story coming out of, that little event, more bizarre than like being the red ball in the ball pit video. And I hope I can tell this. I hope this isn't like a problem. But there was this, there, there were a few Ronald McDonalds. The Ronald and the corporate Ronald and I think there were like training Ronalds. I don't know. But we had the corporate Ronald in. And he would come in and we knew his name, but he was always Ronald. He hit the studio and Ronald would tell surprisingly e jokes for being Ronald. Little, like seeing your childhood, like in front of you briefly. And so we, do. whatever we needed to do with Ronald. He'd show up like full Ronald. And apparently he had a little like mobile dressing room, like in a van that was the changing room.

Joy Bork:

Doesn't sound creepy at all.

Kate Lopatowski:

Not at all. It gets better.

Joy Bork:

Oh no.

Kate Lopatowski:

So we do this stint in the studio with Ronald. He leaves. We un Velcro the pieces of the set that we need to unvelcro. We know tidy up the studio, do our stuff. At this point I was floor directing. And so there's three or four of us walking out of the building for the day. And here's, his like van with a little air conditioning unit on the top. It was a nice size, parked just off the door. And we're walking by and all the sudden, the side door flies open and there's Ronald,"Hey guys!" But I'm not sure if we could call him Ronald, because he was stripped to the waist and he was like, Not like some young fit guy. I'll just say

Joy Bork:

no,

Kate Lopatowski:

Surprisingly hairy like middle-aged dude with, I dunno, varied amounts of hair. And so he's Hey guys. And so we, look and we're all like, Hey, like what is this? And he's like, come here, come here. I got some for you. And so we all it's almost like. We did link arms as we like gradually like approach the truck or the van. And his makeup was like, not all on like most of his Ronald's makeup still on. And he goes, hold on. And then he goes here and he had a baby wipe or whatever he used to like rub his face. So he liked made a Ronald McDonald like print and he was handing them out to us now, like it's like the shroud of Ronald.

Joy Bork:

Ah

Kate Lopatowski:

Like, well, Thank God. I was in like a group of people. I can't imagine, like by myself, going up to him. It was weird and creepy and scary. And so that was the last time I saw him, thankfully.

Joy Bork:

Wow.

Kate Lopatowski:

Yeah. Hey kids.

Joy Bork:

Nope, Nope, Nope, Nope, Nope, Nope. Okay. So you made it through all of these traumatic events. Somewhat traumatic and also very funny. What's in between the Kate I know now and that Kate?

Kate Lopatowski:

Well, let's see. Okay. So. After McDonald's, I spent six months at Aramark. Believe it or not, they were running the AV for Sears corporation. And I was managing a group of more sadly that were really weird and disturbing. And one of them kept claiming to have a gun in his car. It was weird. So I got out of there rather quickly, like trying to just manage all their AV and.

Joy Bork:

you just end up in weird places?

Kate Lopatowski:

I ended up in that weird place. And then I ended up in a small corporate communications firm that introduced me to this industry because I walked in just knowing, okay. Communications firm and, as a communications major, covers just about anything I want to do. So I stroll in there like, yeah, sure. I've done stuff. You know, Let's see what this company does. And then they start telling me what they do. And I'm like, This exists? Like I had no idea these corporate meetings were happening. And of course it makes sense that they were happening. Of course they were happening. But it just never entered my mind, nor did I realize the extent of production that went on to make these meetings happen. And so I'm like yes, I got some skills that will jive in this environment. So I started there doing PA production coordination stuff, and that's still what I was doing by the time I left. And I left after we had our son and I wanted to be home. I wanted to work there part-time and they wouldn't let me, so I'm like, fine, I'll quit. And then freelance for ya. And make even more money than I was before. So jokes on you. So I started freelancing and that's how I ended up in the freelance business. And I ended up doing some line producing and in doing that, I needed to show call some like breakouts and stuff, just cause there wasn't a budget in show caller. And I realized how much I really loved doing that. But I was not great at it. I would try to be great at, but I'm like, there's something I'm missing. Like I'm missing a system or something like I'm pulling this off. I'm not doing it well. Like it's going okay, but I don't like how this is happening. I want to do more of this. And I happen to know a really great stage manager, show caller by the name of Dick Hammond. And when I first started working at this small firm, they were using him all the time and I got to meet him and he was a great guy and I loved how he called shows and he was really just chill about it. And he had a really dry sense of humor that was brilliant. He still does. But he's just not working in the industry anymore. And so I sent him an email. And I'm like, listen, I want to do more show calling. But. I don't know where to start. I was wondering if you'd let me shadow you, on my own dime, I'll go wherever you are, as long as it's okay with the producer or whoever that I could just sit next to you and listen to you. And I'll bring you a coffee and I'll run errands, I'll do whatever, but I'd love to learn your system and how you do this. And the next day he called me I think, and he's like, yeah, this is great. Happy to do this. I've got a couple shows coming up that are local, which were great. I didn't need airline ticket. And he's yeah, sure. Let me run it by the producers. And I think they'll be fine with it and sure enough, they were. And so I went with him on a couple shows and the one show was in Milwaukee. The client like put me up in the hotel and they were all staying and I just sat next to him and I learned so much. And I know he thinks he didn't teach me a lot, but he really did. I just needed to know, like a good system. And he shared with me and I'm like, yeah, this all makes sense.

Joy Bork:

that's a gift.

Kate Lopatowski:

I just wasn't thinking of it. And I will be eternally grateful for the fact that he was willing to do that for me. And, I promised myself I would pay that gift forward if given the opportunity to help someone else, because it was invaluable. And I recently heard on two different occasions, like someone compare me to him and I swear, I was like

Joy Bork:

Mm,

Kate Lopatowski:

It was so meaningful. Because to me he's like the gold standard and to be even in his ballpark, I was honored. So I hope that, I'm going to get there eventually. I feel like I'm on a good path and I'm still learning. And oftentimes, as you know, you learn by screwing up and being like, well, that was a mistake. Mental note. Don't do that again. So that's how I ended up here and I've been just freelancing, doing show calling probably for the past six years, six or seven or so. I don't know, somewhere in there cause it started gradually by necessity.

Joy Bork:

Wow. So I want to nerd out about the process of show calling. It's been really interesting. Cause I also show call. Like coming from the perspective of people that don't know what we do. And they enter into this production world and they're like, oh my gosh, there's so many people talking at once. There's so many details flying around. How do you keep track of it all? What were some of your big key learnings that like helped lock in oh, I can actually do this and I can actually do this really well.

Kate Lopatowski:

At some point I realized I have the ability. And most people have this ability, but I'm figuring out not everyone does. I think a lot of people in our industry do. Is, being able to listen to more than one thing at once and not just listen to it, but pay attention to it. And it's a juggling act mentally. Which I also do, literally. Because oftentimes I'm hearing, somebody, a producer, somebody giving me either a countdown or information like wait, no we're doing this or something. As I'm waiting for the presenter to get to the cue they're going to give me about rolling a video or introducing somebody else, or, blah, blah, blah, or I'm listening to them talk, and I'm hearing, wait a minute, we just lost the connection for the next presenter. What are our options? What are we going to do? Or the presenters connected, but he's just not showing up because,

Joy Bork:

Yeah, why not?

Kate Lopatowski:

because he's got two minutes and why do we need to see him? That sort of thing. We've all become very accustomed to that.

Joy Bork:

We sure have.

Kate Lopatowski:

Yeah, so I think that's been helpful. Not that it was really an aha. But I think I came across some people reasonably that don't have that skill where I was like, wait a minute, what do you mean you can't listen to him also be listening to this person. I'm like, oh, okay. Apparently that's a skill I either have had, or have just been fine tuning all along. And I love live stuff. I mean, Even recording for live is fun, but I love the energy of like a live broadcast and I always have. And that's what appealed to me initially about the news environment. And so that's not something everyone likes either. So you have to have, I guess, that sort of sense of adventure of like, all right, let's kind of embrace whatever this is going to be. And, I'll often say like, all right, well, this is a journey of discovery because we think we have a plan, is it really the plan? Oh, it's so suspenseful. I can't wait to see what really. So, I'm not sure if that's an answer to your

Joy Bork:

No. I resonate though, with every single thing you said. And I've been developing a statement when people ask me what do you do? And I'm wondering how true you feel this is as well. I basically talk about how I go from show to show and it's the same process over and over again, but just different information. Does that feel true to you?

Kate Lopatowski:

Oh, yes. Yeah, it really does. You develop a template, and certain things are always going to fit into it. Unless something is, totally off the wall. It's going to have an open, a middle and a close. And those typically have one of a number of different types of elements, which isn't, introducing presenters are typically going to have. Any number of elements. VOG, a play-on, a title slide now a lower third, we're learning slowly. We don't need both and that sort of thing. So

Joy Bork:

Let me translate those words real quick. VOG is where somebody says, and please welcome Kate Lopatowski. I don't know if I said that right.

Kate Lopatowski:

close that's enough.

Joy Bork:

Ah, well, And then the play on is the music that plays underneath that. That still plays as the video transitions to seeing the person on camera. And then the lower third is that little line that comes up at the bottom of the screen that says their name and their title on it. Okay. Translation over.

Kate Lopatowski:

Yeah.

Joy Bork:

What is one of the moments that hopefully happens in each show that just lights you up.

Kate Lopatowski:

You know what? Yeah, hopefully it's a clean show. And that's when I always, get the warm fuzzies that something didn't get completely off the rails. But secondly, it's the energy, like leading into the first moment. it's that momentum build and we get into the opening video and, like that kind of moment is always fun to me. And what I also love is when we get like some sort of guest speaker that's ridiculous. And in one room, we're all just laughing about it or making our own little, I love the humor that just comes out of and it's not necessarily directed at that person. It's just. The little odds and ends that are happening. That's where the, like the little nuggets of funny are where you have some, a presenter that totally reminds you of someone. Like we had one presenter. All I could call him. I don't know. His name was surprised John Cena. Because that's exactly how he looked. Like. Like every time we came to him, rehearsal, show, matter, he had like his eyes wide open kind of his mouth, like partially open. Just like John Cena like he had, it was built up, and like that kind of stuff just sticks with me because it's hilarious. And

Joy Bork:

Wow.

Kate Lopatowski:

bizarre. And I, I love when I can say something over comm and then I hear somebody laughing. Cause that's, to me honest, that's my favorite thing to do is make people laugh. As much as I love show calling. part of it is sadly, and I apologize to all of you, who've been on comm with me, you're a bit of a captive audience, and I run with that and I just make books and I'm, oh, it's interactive.

Joy Bork:

my favorite thing.

Kate Lopatowski:

I love making people laugh. I love telling a story that makes people laugh. I love just coming up with something or sharing a little observation. And you are one of those people too. Sometimes it's a risk. Sometimes that's not going to work and you're going to make you look like a jerk or an idiot or both. But worth it. Usually

Joy Bork:

it is,

Kate Lopatowski:

of payoff.

Joy Bork:

it really is. I think the normal life equivalent of it is running with somebody else's typo in a text. That's what we end up doing behind the scenes

Kate Lopatowski:

Yes.

Joy Bork:

where it's let me just improv yes and that in the most dry way possible, because I think correct me if I'm wrong, but I think there is a thing called comm voice. Like I put my comm in and all of a sudden I talk like this the whole time and my voice changes and stand by this. Go and then a joke happens and it's like K convoys goes away.

Kate Lopatowski:

Yeah, no, I feel the same way. And I've had friends like mention it, like you start off like this. And then once we get into a show, you're like this. And I don't know if it's an effort to just project calmness and confidence. Who knows if that's even working, but you're right. minute anything even knocks me mildly, like off course, it's over. Yeah, I'm... comm voice isn't coming back. And then I've had times where I'm laughing so hard. Like I can barely get a cue out and I'm like wiping tears to my eyes. It's rare. And I've gotten better, believe it or not since college at controlling myself a little bit. Because sometimes, I am on camera with the client or they're hearing me, I have to make it sound like I'm not laughing.

Joy Bork:

Client on headset is very hard. Not because we're saying things that are inappropriate, but because it's slightly outside of the safety bubble of the production world, and our lingo, in our jargon. Okay. Last question. What do you wish people knew about show calling, about events?

Kate Lopatowski:

You know what I wish and not so much about show calling. I wish people, and mainly on the client side of our industry, really knew what it took to go into one of these presentations. Either live or, virtual. Because if it's live, odds are, you've got a beautiful stage, a screen, that pieces are pipe and drape that's all lit beautifully. And back there, you got 20 people at various positions making it all happen. The presets on determining what hits the screen and rolling, videos and rolling multiple videos for multiple screens that might be going on. And unless somebody ends up walking back there, it looks like there's maybe two or three of us out front controlling the whole thing, as if we possibly could. And I love being backstage when a client walks back there, cause most of the time their reaction is whoa, oh my gosh, like so many people. And it's like, yeah. And I also want to let them know that when they decide to take, two hours on stage discussing like a line in the script, they've got 20 or 30 people waiting on them instead of just like them, their writer or whatever cause that's, we got stuff to do. We're doing a whole production here. Same goes for virtual. I work with a producer that loves to show the presenter who's all in the room. And I love that. Because every time the reaction is, whoa. So many people. And I like that they have that in mind to show that, yeah, it takes a village to do this.

Joy Bork:

Yes. This is your friendly reminder to always look for the humans. Because they are there. Not everything is magic.

Kate Lopatowski:

They are there and they're laughing backstage, having a great time with their new and old friends. They don't need to know that, but you know, that's the part I enjoy the most.

Joy Bork:

Well, thanks for your time. This was so fun.

Kate Lopatowski:

Oh, thank you so much for inviting me and for making me feel comfortable and,

Joy Bork:

well, I like you. Of course.

Kate Lopatowski:

Well, likewise.

Joy Bork:

All right. Well, I'll see you around the studio.

Kate Lopatowski:

All right. Take care.

Joy Bork:

So here we are. It makes me so happy to share a glimpse into my work with you alongside my friend, Kate. What we do is multifaceted, complicated, and yet elegant all at the same time. I have so loved working on shows alongside Kate and hearing her jokes on headset, making light of small things and having a blast all while working toward a goal together. I hope you have as much fun at work as we do when things are going well on a show site. Kate, thank you again for your time. And I'm so excited to work with you. If you've got a flavor of nerd that you want me to celebrate, I would love to hear all about it. So go ahead and email me at herewearethepodcast@gmail.com and tell me everything. And guys, I really mean it. Like, I love taking time to sit and make space for nerd to be celebrated. So if you really liked this podcast, and want to financially support what I'm doing. Head on over to patreon.com, search for Here We Are the podcast and sign up for one of the many, many beautifully and sassy written support tiers that I am really proud of. So until next time, don't forget that curiosity wins and the world needs more nerds. Bye