It begins as I was getting ready to leave CNN and launch my own inspirational website. To produce stories and videos for DarynKagan.com, I was going to need to learn how to shoot video. The cushy days of picking up the phone and requesting a three-person crew were about to end quickly.
Luckily, I knew just who to ask to teach me how to shoot like a pro. Dan Young was my shooter when I traveled Africa covering the trip of U2’s Bono and then U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill.
Dan was always up for a challenge. No matter what someone would ask of him, his response always was, “Great! How can we get that done?!” He was always delighted and honored that you would ask him for help.
Shortly after our trip to Africa, Dan was promoted to CNN chief videographer. That made him the Grand Poobah, the Big Cheese in charge of every CNN videographer. The lofty status and management title didn’t change him a bit. He was still the guy you could always go to when you needed help.
“I know,” I thought. “I’ll ask Dan for shooting lessons!” A brilliant idea!
But sadly, it never happened. Three weeks before I left CNN, Dan suddenly was diagnosed with leukemia. A week later he died. There are no words to describe how shocking it was. Vibrant, non-stop-energy Dan dead at 47? It was devastating. This wonderful, sunny man was gone way too soon.
His funeral was standing-room only, even in the extra spillover room at the church. As I looked over at his wife, young son and twin brother, my heart ached for them.
The next day in the CNN newsroom, I ran into another longtime CNN shooter, Dave Haeberlin. We hugged. We shared memories of Dan. Then Dave asked me, “What’s the project you’re working on? Tell me about your website.”
As I told him about DarynKagan.com, a great idea suddenly popped into my head. I would now ask Dave for shooting lessons!
“Hey, Dave,” I said. “I could actually use your help. I could use some shooting lessons.”
That’s when the inexplicable happened.
Before I could finish explaining what I needed, Dave cut me off.
“Dan took care of that,” he said.
“What?” Clearly Dave had misunderstood me.
“Dan took care of that,” he repeated.
How could that be? I’d never had the chance to explain my website to Dan, let alone ask him for shooting lessons. How could he have possibly taken care of it?
But Dave insisted that’s exactly what Dan had done.
“I don’t know how to explain it,” Dave shook his head. “But two weeks ago, Dan sat down and wrote out a lesson plan detailing how to shoot a story so that it could be edited into a beautiful, professional-looking piece. I’ll e-mail it to you.”
My jaw dropped as I looked at my computer screen. There it was, line for line. This was the shooting lesson I needed: the way to frame a shot, the sequences, the necessary elements and how to hold a camera.
Through the words, through the excellent instruction, through my tears, I could feel Dan looking down on me with that delighted twinkle in his eye. “Great! We got it done!”
We sure did, my friend. We sure did.
Daryn Kagan is the creator and host of DarynKagan.com, an online community that features a daily webcast of inspirational stories. The former CNN anchor and news reporter is the author of “What’s Possible! 50 True Stories of People Who Dared To Dream They Could Make a Difference.”
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