When he was younger, Jim Daddonna,
a freelance sports director and producer was watching the Super Bowl at home
with his dad. The moment he saw a camera operator on the field he knew he
wanted to do something like that. However, it was a long road to get to where
he is now.
“I wanted to go into [sports production]
but did not know how to go about it,” Daddonna said. “I went to The University
of Massachusetts which was terrible for tv. We barley had a TV studio and I did
not do much to further my career.”
Daddonna got out of college and struggled
to find a job. It took him 16 months before he landed anything, and this job
required him to move from New York to New Mexico to become a Production Assistant
at a TV station.
“I did everything they asked and
was good at a lot of different things,” Daddonna said. However, when our
station was bought people were let go including myself.
Daddonna bounced around for some
years until he got hired as for a cable company and started to finally produce
sports.
“I was basically in charge of the
entire production,” Daddonna said. “We started out small, but I was directing and
producing, and I loved it.”
Daddonna only went up from there. After
years of sticking with his dream, he has become a great freelance director and
producer for multiple professional sports networks and has directed or produced
hundreds of games and loves what he does.
Daddonna’s biggest piece of advice
to the next generation is to take advantage of all the opportunities that come their
way and to foster the connections that are made along the way.
No comments:
Post a Comment