Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1062452
58 DGA QUARTERLY PHOTOS: MARCIE REVENS cracks, "I got nothin' for you." They both laugh. All of the ADs say they love working on the show. "If I wasn't working on it, I'd be watching it," says Kate D'Arcy Coleman, who edits the podcast, cuts the voice-overs and news packages and, when necessary, updates the news for the later West Coast feed. "Sunday mornings used to be sleepy," she says. "But breaking news is pretty common lately." Meanwhile, associate director Patricia Finnegan, another long- time CBS employee who shifted to Sunday Morning nine years ago, is also in the thick of it. When she gets in on Sunday, there is already a box of tapes waiting for her from color correction. She screens them and assigns them to editors for final edits. Pauley's lead-ins must be incorporated. The logo bug has to go on. "If the audio is bad, my job is to get it fixed," she says. This morning, for instance, she discovered a stuttering problem. She had to retrieve the original tapes and ask the editors to lay its good audio over the color-corrected tapes and be ready ahead of air-time. Friedman, however, is the final person to put eyes on everything. "I'm the last pass," she says, describing how she makes sure every el- ement on every tape is in the right order. She carefully scrutinizes them for even the tiniest mistake. She's caught things like a swear word visible on someone's T-shirt. "That's a violation," she says. "Or if there is a bad edit, I would flag that. Or if the graphics are not in, or if it comes in too long, I'll flag it." Once 9 a.m. hits, the live broadcast begins and Gerard can be found front and center in the control room, sitting so alert that her back doesn't touch the chair. On her right sits Cathy Kay, who actually did a stint on the original Kuralt-hosted show in '82, left, then returned as a substitute and, more recently, as the permanent control room AD. If Gerard is the captain of this ship, Kay is the rudder. She counts backwards in and out of commercials and keeps track of the timing of each segment so that Gerard can focus on the directing. "This ends on a billboard, so look out," says Kay, at one point during the morning. "Cathy really keeps me honest on where everything is," says Ge- rard, "where elements are, where we are in time, what we can and not get done." Kay also handles preproduction tasks such as reviewing teases and making sure the top of the show is in place. "She's abso- lutely a partner," says Gerard. The two, in fact, sometimes overlap. More than once, both of them could be heard giving the same countdown cue simultaneously. "I was an AD forever," sighs Gerard, explaining that she's never totally kicked that reflexive habit. "I can't imagine a better team," says Gerard. "We've all known each other for years. Everyone's really good at what they do. Every- one cares deeply about what they do." She adds, "I can't say I love getting up at 4 a.m. But once I get here, it doesn't matter. Because I love what I do." ® If you need a caption, this is rehearsal with crew--Gerard is on far right. Clockwise from upper left: Nora Gerard, in blue, with associate director Patricia Finnegan, sitting left, AD Kate D'Arcy Coleman, with arms crossed, and associate director Jyll Friedman, in red; Gerard with associate director Jessica Frank; Gerard with AD Cathy Kay; Gerard with stage manager Mark Dicso.