Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1124770
27 Q2 2019 / CINEMONTAGE MY MOST MEMORABLE FILM on before it happens so that you're ready," Stiller remarks. "The director is always looking not at the shot that's on the air, but the next shot." Most games would wrap up within three hours, but many — including those that went to overtime — could go even longer. Stiller remembers a game during which Bryant broke his latest in a succession of NBA records. KCAL had a crew in place with first dibs on the player's post-game interview, but the higher-ups at the station wanted to cut away before it could be broadcast. "There was another show that was coming up on KCAL that was very important to the people at the station," the technical director recalls. "They told us that we should get off the air, but Susan didn't. We sat there and we broadcast the interview. You really want to be able to serve the audience and give that to the audience." At the end of each game, the crew packed up and flew with the team to the next stop. "We stayed in the Ritz-Carlton and Four Seasons," Stiller says, though accommodations were not quite as luxurious as what the players could expect. "For us, to order a cup of coffee was the entire per diem," she laughs. "You learned to travel with your own tea and immersion heater. They didn't have them in the rooms at that time." She also had to spend chunks of time away from her family. "I was very lucky to have a really good husband who looked after the kids and worked while I was gone," she says. "We were so blessed." By and large, though, the technical director is grateful for those years on the road. "We'd go into different cities and they each had different labor characteristics," she relates. "Texas is a right-to-work state, and people don't make very much money, but they made sure that everybody eats and they're very hospitable. And then you got into Boston, which is super-organized, but they had horrible conditions for the crew." Over the course of Stiller's run as technical director of the Lakers road games, television itself was going through changes. "We went from standard definition to high definition," she points out. "When you're in one format, that's cool; when you're in another format, that's cool. But the transition between one and the other is very difficult." The one constant, of course, was the top-level play. She remembers Bryant stringing together nine 40-point- plus games, including a memorable contest with the Utah Jazz in 2003, but she appreciated any game in which he went airborne. "It seems the man could magically fly through walls," she marvels. Stiller's experiences with the Lakers led to other opportunities in the sports world. "It helped me career-wise," she says. "I worked on the NBA Finals for the NBA. I went to four Olympics with NBC — including snowboarding in Italy, which was really great — and Australia." Eventually, she left sports to move on to entertainment programming, including stints technical directing NBC's The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien (2008-2010) and its successor, TBS' Conan (2010-present). But Stiller will always remain grateful for her years with the Lakers. "Something magical happened during those years," she reflects. "It was something just to be there." f Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, right, rounds Utah Jazz guard Calbert Cheaney (40) and center Greg Ostertag (00) to score in February 2003 in Salt Lake City. Photo by Douglas C. Pizac/ Associated Press