Sunday, July 28, 2019

It's Not Always an Easy Journey


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.

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