My Nephew Jacob

I recently saw a commercial for the next season of Survivor: China on CBS, and it made me remember something that I wanted to write about.  I am not a fan of Survivor (have never watched it), but this season I have a personal tie to the show.  My youngest nephew was an assistant cameraman!

My sister, Dennice, has three children, and the youngest is just short of 22 years old.  From the time he was in middle school he had an interest in sound engineering.  All through high school he worked with one of his teachers, doing sound for school events, county events, and even events taking place in other nearby areas.  After high school he graduated from a school in Florida that is tops in the field.  He served a short internship, working with a company that is hired by a lot of musicians.  He worked on various music videos and at least one independant movie (and took the female lead out to dinner after work one day!).

He told his mom that he went to an interview once (one of the first ones after his internship) for a job doing sound on a yacht for some reality music show, and the man interviewing him told him that he could only pay him $400.00 a day.  Jacob told his mom that he stayed professional, kept a serious look on his face and told the man that would be fine, but inside he was jumping up and down and shouting "$400.00 a day!!"

So anyway, a few months ago he called his mom while he was in China, and she asked him if he were anywhere near the flooding.  He said, "There's flooding in China?!"  I guess that was a "no."  He said he'd taken the assistant cameraman job because there weren't any sound positions open, and you didn't turn something down just because it wasn't your field if they offered it to you -- it was good to be able to work with different production companies.  Actually they asked for him.  This isn't the first time he's been asked for by name, so apparently he's getting quite a reputation.  He said that assistant cameraman basically just hauls around equipment for the first cameraman, but it was better than nothing.  He said the first cameraman dropped a several-thousand-dollar piece of equipment in some water they were crossing and ruined it, so he was glad that wasn't him.

So anyway, I am going to have to watch at least one episode just to see if his name is credited.  I don't know if it will be or not.  I thought that was pretty neat.  He has gotten to travel and visit a lot of interesting places, and this is just the beginning for him.  Tags: Survivor China, Jacob F. Smith