It’s not every day you’re nominated for an Emmy, but our own Jake Hamilton has done just that at the ripe age of 20. A broadcast journalism junior, Hamilton is part of a 5-man team nominated for their work on the PBS documentary The Last 24 in this year’s Annual Lone Star Emmy Awards.
The ceremony was held Saturday, October 18 at the Verizon Wireless Theater.
"While I may not have walked out of the ceremony with a trophy in my hand, I’m lucky enough to still have walked out feeling like a winner. Of the three nominations that The Last 24 received, it won two – for cinematography and editing. Hamilton said, "While we may not have won Best Entertainment Special (the category for which I would have won a trophy), I am incredibly happy for Matt Brawley (the director, cinematographer, and editor) and Fujio Watanabe (cinematographer) and that alone feels like winning."
A half-hour documentary focusing on revered dance choreographer Dominic Walsh’s latest work, "Made in Italy," the appropriately titled The Last 24 is about the 24 hour period leading up to the premiere of the program. Throughout the documentary, viewers are exposed to the challenges, the philosophy, the disagreements and the understanding it takes to launch any major event.
"It has less to do with the production itself and more of what goes on behind-the-scenes," Hamilton said. "With so many things, whether it be a TV production or a newspaper production, no matter what you see at face value there’s just a tremendous amount of work that goes on behind it and very rarely does that work get the respect that it deserves and I think that this documentary pays tribute to the hard work that a lot of people put in."
Hamilton’s involvement in The Last 24 came through his association with producer Ernie Manouse, as the two had worked together on the Houston PBS late night film review program The After Party. When Manouse began work on The Last 24, he asked Hamilton if he was interested in being part of the production.
"At the time I just thought he was absolutely nuts for ever considering me because I really had no experience at all, but he promised me that if I sat down with him and followed his direction then I would be able to do it when the time came," Hamilton said.
"He sat down with me a good three or four months before anything actually happened, so all that time I used for preparation, and when the time did come I almost halfway believed that I could do it," he said with a smile.
The nature of the project made the production of The Last 24 quite challenging in and of itself.
"All we had was a block of 24 hours, so our job was to go out and get as much footage as possible, because we had to catch these moments as they were happening. We had four different crews, which were all assigned to get different kinds of shots and to approach the story from a different angle. That way once the finished product was done and we got to look at what we actually had, it was a different story from every perspective and we could use a little piece to put one grand story together," Hamilton said.
While the entire process was very taxing on the crew, they remained in good spirits and Hamilton greatly enjoyed the working environment during production.
"We were the last people to put our stuff down and the first people to pick our stuff back up, so my hats are tipped to everyone involved in the production because of how they just went straight through the production and no one complained and it was just a complete team effort," Hamilton said.
On being nominated for a Lone Star Emmy, Hamilton was both amazed and gracious for not only the nomination, but the experience as well.
"It was so rewarding in and of itself to be part of (The Last 24) and it seems that it keeps just giving back because it was such a rush to be a part of it and then the rush comes back whenever other people appreciate it. And then when it gets rewarded with a nomination it solidifies the pride that you have and just being part of any kind of production like this," he said.
"There’s no way I would have been able to do any of it without the people that involved me, Ernie Manouse and the entire crew behind Channel 8 because they all helped me along and none of them treated me like I was the new kid on the block, I was equal with them and for that I will always be grateful."
Hamilton’s film reviews and interviews with actors can be seen at 9 a.m. every Friday on KHOU on "Jake’s Takes" and an archive of his interviews and reviews can be found at www.myspace.com/jakestakes.
