|
|
Larry gives President Jimmy Carter a farewell handshake after producing a live feed interview only five days before the incumbent President was defeated by Ronald Reagan in 1980. |
I remember going to city council meetings, press conferences and some accidents here and thereall those things I did at Channel 8 that I was happy not to be doing anymore, he says. I had been there, done that and was determined to come up with something I could do that would be funto find my own little news niche.
Once again, Larry paved his own career path and went the feature route. His first stop was doing Summer Shorts, an every-Friday video essay set to music. He remained very much a cameraman, reporter and producer all wrapped up in one.
One of my favorite films was shot in slow-motion. It captured the joy and innocence of some youngsters cooling off by swinging out over the Alafia River on a ropeand letting go. It was timeless.
| The single news figure who most influenced me was the great Charles Kuralt, Larry says. In my eyes, he was the 'Babe Ruth' of television.Kuralt was the master of telling stories. I liked the way he wrote and the expressive way he delivered a story. But most of all, I admired the stories he told. His 'little' stories were mostly about good people doing good things in a world spinning out of control. |
Kuralt found the beauty in life and the wonder of all living things. Having the chance to talk and be with Kuralt on several occasions was a dream come true for me. Larrys produced-for-WTVT features would eventually share airtime on overnight CBS newscasts with Kuralts folksy material.
From the Summer Shorts in 1979, Elliston moved on to creating some 300 artistic film essays shot on 16mm film and edited on tape. He called them Something Else and that they were.
I enjoyed doing them because I was so focused on telling a story visually. I learned a lot about doing that while working on Project 13. The thing that made it really challenging was because by its very nature, I had to go from telling a story in 26 minutes to doing the same thing in two minutes.
Larry produced the Emmy award-winning Something Else for two years and never once uttered a single word on the air, preferring to let his pictures and music tell his stories. He did two or three stories a week with no pressure from higher ups. He was free to do his own thing with natural sound, music and editing...on every subject and emotion imaginable.
In the fading days of Something Else, Larry felt the urge to use his voice and get more involved in telling a story with accompanying narration. A proposal for a new series of short features was made to News Director Hugh Smith, stating that a more demanding audience needed to see 'Larry Elliston' kinds of stories at the end of each news program. Smith was convinced and gave Elliston the go-ahead to hit the road.