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Zoey and the helicopter
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Content
ZOEY AND THE HELICOPTER
by
Matt Yoka
_______________________________________________
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(SPECIALIZED JOURNALISM)
March 2014
Copyright 2014 Matt Yoka
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thank you to Erna Smith, Sandy Tolan, and Jody Armour for their help.
i
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements i
Table of Contents ii
Abstract iii
Script 1
Bibliography 26
ii
ABSTRACT
Some of the most iconic images of 1990s Los Angeles were captured by video from
helicopters, nicknamed “eyes in the sky.” The 1992 Los Angeles riots and the low- speed
police pursuit of O.J. Simpson captured the national zeitgeist. Helicopters vigorously
documented these historical events in addition to Los Angeles’ daily danse macabre. High-
speed pursuits, floods, brush fires, freeway pileups, and other disasters made local news
terrifying and mesmerizing.
Among the most engaging and prolific of the helicopter reporters in the 1990s was Bob
Tur. With a silver tongue and an uncanny ability to spot a disaster from the air, he is
responsible for one of the most unique documentations of 1990s Los Angeles. This thesis, Zoey
and the Helicopter, is a documentary-in-progress about Tur’s work and transition from male to
female. Tur, who legally changed his name to Zoey last year, is as difficult to categorize as the
city she documented for two decades.
This work- in- progress is comprised of Tur's helicopter video archive and interviews
with Tur, former wife and collaborator Marika Gerrard, and longtime Los Angeles TV news
director Jeff Wald. The thesis is an outline produced in part to help raise funds for a feature-
length film about Tur.
iii
VIDEO AUDIO
1
(EDITORIAL NOTE: Zoey Tur is a
transgender person. Her name use to
be Bob Tur. For the sake of
clarity, Zoey will be referred to
as "Bob" when citing archival usage
that includes dialogue of Tur
speaking, reporting, etc.)
A black and white image of
a Helicopter (Bell-47) flies
across the sky. It moves back
and forth like a pendulum.
Music plays.
ZOEY TUR V/O (BIBLIOGRAPHY: #1)
(Under the image of the Bell-47)
I remember seeing helicopters as a
kid and falling in love with them. I
remember once going to the LA County
fair with my father and they had a bell
47 in the parking lot. The bell 47 was
designed and manufactured in 1947. So,
it’s the old MASH helicopter with the
bubble. The plastic bubble. And um,
you’d see it in every show opening for
MASH. So the copter would be flying
with a couple patients with the arm
dangling out, that’s the bell 47. And
they were giving rides. So, I got to
take my first helicopter ride. And it
was, it was, you know, I was hooked, I
wanted to be a pilot.
TITLE CARD: ZOEY AND THE
HELICOPTER
ARCHIVAL: Bob Tur flying a
helicopter wearing aviator
sun glasses with his hand on
the controls. (Bibliography:
#4)
BOB TUR
(Tur addresses the camera )
My name is Bob Tur, I’m a reporter
pilot here in Southern California, I’ve
covered literally hundreds of police
pursuits from the air. And what you are
about to see are the most dangerous. So
strap on your seat belts, and get ready
for the ride of your life.
INTERVIEW: JEFF WALD JEFF WALD (BIBLIOGRAPHY: #2)
If there was anybody that I would
want to pilot my helicopter or
report from my helicopter, it was
Bob and Marika. Because, as I say,
they were news hounds. They were
people that understood significant
stories and what the important
stories were.
VIDEO AUDIO
2
INTERVIEW: MARIKA GERRARD MARIKA GERRARD (BIBLIOGRAPHY: #3)
The first helicopter we had was a
jet ranger. Two seats in the front
three seats in the back. Bob would
be upfront, obviously, flying, I’d
be in the back. I’d sit on the edge
of the, like the edge of the seat,
with the open door, with the camera
on my shoulder, and shoot it that
way.
INTERVIEW: ZOEY TUR ZOEY
I chased news stories. I went out
and I was aggressive and found news
stories. You don’t fly along and just
see things, that doesn’t happen. You
go out and you, you research and you,
you, to be an aggressive news person
and to beat your competition. Which we
never, we never were beaten by anybody,
even. I worked with my ex-wife, now
ex-wife who was my wife at the time,
Marika, and it was kind of a family
business and we really prided ourselves
on fucking the competition.
ARCHIVAL: Opening montage
for the Tur’s SKY ACTION
NEWS compilation video. ie,
Helicopters, police pursuit
footage, fires, etc. --
generic action sequence music
plays.
BOB V/O
(Narrating the SKY ACTION intro)
When I start work each day, I never
what I’m going to find. Sometimes I
don’t even know what’s happening on the
ground. But my motto has always been,
"shoot first, ask questions later."
Strap yourself in for an incredible
ride and see some amazing footage
you’ll never forget. This is Sky Action
Video!
INTERVIEW: MARIKA MARIKA
Bob was a doer, he was always up to
something and it was really exciting,
that pretty much, I got on the Bob
train and it was hard to get off.
VIDEO AUDIO
3
ARCHIVAL: Bob and Marika in
the helicopter. Bob is flying
and Marika is controlling the
camera with a switchboard.
Bob moves the camera pointing
at Bob, by hand, to included
both of them in the shot.
MARIKA
(Under Archival)
Bob decided it would be a lot more fun
to be covering news from the air, so
since he was the pilot, he couldn’t
take pictures while he was flying,
so I had to learn how to operate the
camera. So that’s how I became the
photographer.
INTERVIEW: MARIKA MARIKA
I never really felt like I was truly
a photographer, I felt like I was
operating the camera and Bob was
directing what it was I was doing.
ARCHIVAL: Various shots of
Bob operating the helicopter
MARIKA
I just new that I would shoot whatever
I heard Bob talking about, so I just,
we would almost be like one person.
He’d be talking and I would just,
I would know exactly what he wanted
without even having to ask him.
ARCHIVAL: CU footage of
people looting a gas station.
MARIKA
(Under Archival)
And I always, I knew he would always
want as close up as possible.
BOB V/O
(Reporting while Marika is
shooting)
Okay here comes the police
helicopter. Marika’s going to get
you a shot of this PD helicopter.
Pan up Marik-. (sigh)
ARCHIVAL: Marika pans up
looking for the police
helicopter.
BOB V/O
I tell you, she’s very brave hanging
out of this helicopter, holding a
camera. Okay, now this is a police
helicopter, the officers aboard are
relaying information to an emergency
operation center, and to a CP. Stand
by.
VIDEO AUDIO
4
INTERVIEW: ZOEY ZOEY
My aerial perspective was really almost
my only perspective. I knew just about
every part of Los Angeles from the
air. And in fact I was, my wife and
I, ex-wife and I, use to navigate the
streets using an aviation chart because
that’s how I saw the place. I raised a
couple of kids and they spent thousands
of hours in a helicopter and they had
this aerial perspective, this distorted
perspective.
INTERVIEW: MARIKA MARIKA
I think it was my daughter, drew a
picture, and aerial view of Disneyland,
she didn’t get to go, she flew over
it. And then my son drew a picture of
a plane crashing into a mountain, and
they called us from the school and they
said we’re really concerned, your son,
I think he might be concerned you’re
going to crash or something and we said
no-no, he was with us on a story.
INTERVIEW: ZOEY ZOEY
Most people see things from the ground.
Not my family we saw things from the
air.
ARCHIVAL: 1. Bob flying
helicopter (exterior). 2. Bob
flying helicopter (interior).
ZOEY
I have flown over Los Angeles, more
than 10,000 flight hours. Los Angeles
is very unique. Within short flight
time you can go from these majestic
mountains.
ARCHIVAL: Mountain ranges,
woman rollerblading on the
Santa Monica boardwalk, and
dolphins swimming in the
ocean.
ZOEY
To the beautiful golden beaches and the
blue pacific ocean
VIDEO AUDIO
5
ARCHIVAL: Freeways (wide),
freeway (CU), housing sprawl,
suburban valley, Griffith
Park Observatory, Beverly
Hills mansion, and tilt
from hills to downtown Los
Angeles.
ZOEY
And between the pacific ocean and the
mountains, just endless cityscape. From
the valley over the mountain range,
over Bel Air and Beverly Hills, on my
way to South Central Los Angeles --
A flight that takes just a matter of
minutes -- which would take you, could
take you 90 minutes, to 120 minutes,
two hours, in a car, just takes a
matter of minutes. But within those
minutes you go from these opulent,
extraordinary homes to poverty.
ARCHIVAL: Los Angeles city
sprawl (damaged video)
INTERVIEW: Jeff JEFF
In an area like Los Angeles, to cover
stories, you really needed to have an
eye in the sky.
ARCHIVAL: Los Angeles River
and Downtown Los Angeles
JEFF
the only way you can really get there
is via helicopter.
INTERVIEW: Jeff
JEFF
A number stories come to mind.
ARCHIVAL: A series of freeway
traffic and accidents,
city floods, brush fires,
earthquakes, and a police
pursuit.
JEFF
The traffic accidents that tie up
our freeways, the floods, the fires,
earthquakes, the police chase,
certainly comes into part of that.
INTERVIEW: Jeff
JEFF
Obviously, I think we made a lot of
um people who were unimportant feel
more important because they were um
VIDEO AUDIO
6
leading the police on and the media
with them.
ARCHIVAL: Corresponding image
of high speed pursuit to Bob
reporting.
BOB V/O
He’s been unable to shake these
officers, we don’t have an air
unit overhead yet but that’s just a
matter of seconds before the sheriffs
department helicopter is overhead.
INTERVIEW: Zoey ZOEY
I was a pioneer, I did the very first
live police pursuit. I was such a big
part of Los Angeles and the media, for
so many years, um I was kind of iconic,
you know, for the police pursuit.
VIDEO AUDIO
7
ARCHIVAL: Corresponding image
of high speed pursuit to Bob
reporting.
BOB V/O
This is a dangerous pursuit, he’s now
over in the left shoulder, um now
moving at about 80 mph....Congested
residential at this point. These
are single family dwellings, single
story family dwellings, uh, nice
neighborhood....With no regard for his
own life, doing over 120 mph....Where’s
this guy going? He’s out of control,
another fishtail. Smashed! Collision!
Okay, the suspect is still in the
vehic-, okay no, he’s out. He’s moving!
Unbelievable! The deputies are now
chasing the suspect into the parking
lot, wait a minute, okay looks like
a detective has got him, down on the
ground, there’s Rin Tin Tin, he’s
down, it looks like a code, wait a
minute, Rin Tin Tin’s no eating the
detective!....Ah, three units of police
now behind the suspect, left hand turn,
residential, oh collision! He’s on his
side....Okay he’s got his hands outside
the window, his torso outside, officers
are approaching the suspect now, with
their weapons drawn.....He’s moving,
he’s still alive, but we don’t know
how.....Leaning out of the window,
firing, or appear to be firing into
some of the resident- no, he’s firing
at officers.....Cul-de-sac! Cul-de-sac!
This is going to terminate right now.
Foot pursuit! Foot pursuit! Suspect
is running, suspect is armed, suspect
running west, suspect now running
northbound....It appears as though this
man has now been boxed in by the Orange
County authorities, there you gonna
see shots fired shots being fired right
now, they are killing the suspect, this
has been a high speed pursuit, speeds
reaching over 100 mph, this driver
has tried numerous times to run over
officers, and there you saw it on live
television shots being fired....
(Helicopter noise)
BOB V/O
Wait a minute, up on the curb,
VIDEO AUDIO
8
okay, into a house, the man has
struck the garage portion of a
home....Officers wrestled to the
ground down....He’s moving, he’s
running from officers, look at the
suspect go, this is like the 100
yard dash and the suspect is ahead
of the officers....Okay, wait a
minute, looks like the sheriffs
deputies have got him, they just
tackled the suspect and now they’re
kicking him, they’re beating him,
okay they are continuing to beat
the suspect, the suspect is not
resisting at this point, still
getting some more hits by sheriffs
deputy with a flashlight, okay,
he’s now down on the ground, okay
his hands are behind his back, this
is now a code 4. A very dramatic
end to a very wild pursuit!
ZOEY
The very first high speed pursuit
that we covered was a gentleman
coming from Northern California.
INTERVIEW: Zoey ZOEY
He had committed a murder up there and
he was in a shoot out with police, with
the California HWY patrol.
ARCHIVAL: Images
corresponding to Zoey’s
description of the high speed
pursuit.
ZOEY
He wound up carjacking another vehicle
and, then another vehicle, it was a
red Cabriolet, aiming a shotgun out
the review mir- you know, out the rear
window, and he was firing at pursuing
HWY patrolmen. This pursuit wound up
in Los Angeles, the suspect was clearly
out of control. He was driving up on
sidewalks, around cars, going through
intersections, red lights...
INTERVIEW: Zoey ZOEY
nearly striking people on the sidewalk.
The pursuit finally terminated...
VIDEO AUDIO
9
ARCHIVAL: Images
corresponding to Zoey’s
description of the high speed
pursuit.
ZOEY
off the 405 freeway here in Los
Angeles. The suspect ran out of gas.
And when he did, officers surrounded
the vehicle and they put an end to this
deadly rampage by killing him, all on
live television.
Interview: Zoey ZOEY
Anyone who saw the live pursuit as it
played out, as it happened, felt the
officers were justified in using deadly
force, using their 40 caliber handguns
to kill this...
ARCHIVAL: Images
corresponding to Zoey’s
description of the high speed
pursuit.
ZOEY
...to euthanize this this mad dog.
People later, that watch the cut story,
the tape delay story that they of
course edit, were wondering why police
didn’t do something else.
INTERVIEW: Zoey ZOEY
Why didn’t they bring in a negotiator,
why didn’t they use water cannons? And
the immediacy of live television tells
a much better story, it’s framed in the
proper context. The problem with giving
an editor the ability to take news
material and edit it, uh, can cause
things like riots.
ARCHIVAL: Slow Motion of
the Rodney King beating.
(Bibliography: #5)
VIDEO AUDIO
10
Interview: Zoey ZOEY
I was in Santa Monica, I was at the
helicopter hanger with my wife Marika,
when we watched the broadcast like
everybody else, the verdicts being
handed down and soon as the acquittals
came down, ah, she looked at me and
said let the beatings begin. We had
done a lot of research in the, in
the weeks and months leading up the
LA Riots and I talked to religious
leaders, police officers, gang members
and...
ARCHIVAL: Slow Motion of
officers involved in the
Rodney King beating walking
into the court house.
(Bibliography: #6)
ZOEY
...I wanted to know what would happen
should the police be acquitted which we
believed would be a forgone conclusion,
because they were being tried in Semi
Valley which is, you know, made up
pretty much of police officers. So,
believing they would be acquitted I
just wanted to get a feel for what
would happen and...
INTERVIEW: Zoey ZOEY
...universally everyone believed there
would be violence and the police
department believed there would be
violence and if it, if there was
violence it would happen at a liquor, a
liquor store. And so I talked to some
people from the Eight Trey Crips and
they said it’s going to start in our
territory. So when you couple a liquor
with the Eight Trey Crips, you get
Florence and Normandy.
ARCHIVAL: Slightly damaged
rotating view (high
altitude)of Florence and
Normandie.
VIDEO AUDIO
11
INTERVIEW: Jeff JEFF
Bob was right over the right place at
the right time. Which I don’t think
was a coincidence, I think he had that
much of a sense of the city and Marika
had that much of a sense of the city.
And they knew if there was going to be
trouble where it would be.
ARCHIVAL: Images
corresponding to Bob’s
reporting of the Los Angeles
riots.
BOB V/O
We got a car on fire, car on fire, oh
what’s going on? What are they rushing?
Another store. Are you getting this?
JEFF
(Continuing under images of riots)
They were fearless, ah, at that
time we weren’t using a
gyrostabilization system on the
helicopter. Marika was the
gyrostabilizing, ah, force in the
helicopter.
INTERVIEW: Jeff JEFF
She hung out and held the camera and
shot the beating of Reginald Denny
herself while Bob piloted and reported
on it.
INTERVIEW: Marika MARIKA
Although I did wonder if we were
watching somebody getting killed in
front of my eyes. Because it was in
black and white for me, it didn’t hit
me until I looked at the video in color
when I got back to the hanger that,
uh, how incredibly horrific what I was
watching was.
VIDEO AUDIO
12
INTERVIEW: Zoey ZOEY
From my perspective, the aerial
perspective, being there was very
different from the perspective of
Marika’s who was looking at from a
viewfinder. She was very much watching
it on television. So, she was distanced
from the violence even thought things
were being shot at from under her feet.
So, she was watching it on TV. And I
told her, "Get tight shots, tight,
tight, tight, tight, tight. No wide
shots. Tight."
ARCHIVAL: Images
corresponding to Bob’s
reporting of the Los Angeles
riots.
BOB V/O
Here’s the situation from South
Central, drivers of automobiles and
trucks that enter this area can expect
to ah, oh look at that! Terrible! And
there’s no police presence down here.
They will not enter the area. That’s
right. This is attempted murder.
ARCHIVAL: Cont. Images
corresponding to Bob’s
reporting of the Los Angeles
riots.
BOB V/O
No! There’s there’s no, there’s no
shutting down Florence, lets shut
Florence Blvd down! That’s the answer!
We’re going to tell the LAPD to do that
now! Tell LAPD to shut Florence blvd
down and Normandie! Because people are
still driving through here!
ARCHIVAL: Cont. Images
corresponding to Bob’s
reporting of the Los Angeles
riots.
BOB V/O
That’s right. That’s right, Ross.
ARCHIVAL: Cont. Images
corresponding to Bob’s
reporting of the Los Angeles
riots.
BOB V/O
Ross, Ross? Okay he’s moving, he’s
lot of blood gushing from the, from
the man’s head, um, someone’s standing
there taking a picture. Taking a video
tape of the man laying on the street
but nobody’s helping him!
VIDEO AUDIO
13
ARCHIVAL: Images
corresponding to Bob’s
reporting of the Los Angeles
riots.
ZOEY
I did the reporting. I didn’t do the
reporter thing, where, you know, "I’m
over the intersection at 500 feet and
down below there’s been violence and
ah this violence has been going on
for 8 minutes, the Los Angeles Police
Department is not here and back to
you."
INTERVIEW: Zoey ZOEY
I didn’t do that bullshit, I did it
like a sports commentator, I tried to
put feeling into it because I really
was feeling. I mean, to watch this
stuff happen your city, if it doesn’t
reach out and grab you by the neck or
or or it’s like a punch to the chest,
you’re an unfeeling human being. You
know, you don’t have a heart. And to
this, and feel for Mr. Denny and to
feel for the residents down there as
the city burned, you know, that wasn’t
me. I did it, I did it, you know, with
empathy.
ARCHIVAL: Images
corresponding to Bob’s
reporting of the Los Angeles
riots.
BOB V/O
South Central Los Angeles, we are
seeing a dark day here in Los Angeles.
The LAPD is nowhere to be found. I, I
feel very frustrated.
INTERVIEW: Zoey ZOEY
We remained on scene and flew for
another three days, almost nonstop. And
during that time, I watched the city
burn. This was my city and um it was
horrifying. Exhilarating, horrifying,
it was like flying over a war zone.
VIDEO AUDIO
14
ARCHIVAL: Images
corresponding to Bob’s
reporting of the Los Angeles
riots.
BOB V/O
Well it’s getting worse, night is
falling here of this troubled area
and under the cover of approaching
darkness we had a number of buildings
set ablaze. Right now a video store
is now fully engulfed in flames, no
fire department presence. Also some
automobiles that were set afire.
They’re clearly, ah the fire department
is presence is clearly not wanted here
by these ah thugs down here, several
dozen of them, well maybe three dozen
of them that are actively continuing in
this violence.
MARIKA
(Under Archival)
All of a sudden you realize that
they’re aren’t that many law
enforcement people in this city,
that if enough people decide not to
follow the law, there’s not much
they can do and you realize how
close, how much you depend on the
rest of the people around you doing
what’s right as opposed to only
doing what’s right because they
think someone’s going to put them
in jail if they don’t.
ARCHIVAL: Images of night
fires during the Los Angeles
riots.
ZOEY
(Under Archival)
Here’s really the, the thing. In the
absence of live television coverage,
how would this have played out?
In the absence of live television
coverage there would have been probably
confined, there would have been some
violence at Florence and Normandie,
there may have been the the exponential
growth of violence, but it would have
been stopped. Police department would
have gone in there and they would have
killed a few people.
VIDEO AUDIO
15
INTERVIEW: Zoey ZOEY
They would have opened fire, they would
have killed a few people and they would
have regained order. And it was the
live dissemination of pictures that the
police department had left the area,
that they weren’t responding, ah, some
people would say they, um, abandoned
the city. In fact I think I said it on
the air, so I can’t pretend I didn’t
say it, because they did.
ARCHIVAL: Day 2 of Los
Angeles riots, smoking plumes
from buildings across the
landscape.
ZOEY
And, people heard that and, and a lot
of people went out and, and looted.
INTERVIEW: Zoey ZOEY
Live pictures can destabilize a city,
can destabilize a country...
INTERVIEW: Jeff JEFF
And they got magnificent footage and
unfortunately it probably had a lot
to do with light the, uh, the spark or
the, the flame to begin the riots.
INTERVIEW: Marika MARIKA
Ah, we always thought, and I still feel
that what we did was more of a public
service.
INTERVIEW: Jeff JEFF
So what are you suppose to do, turn off
the camera, not tell people about it?
You have to, the public has the right
to know, the public needs to know about
what’s going on.
VIDEO AUDIO
16
INTERVIEW: Zoey ZOEY
The public has a right to know! A
public has, the public always has a
right to know! Bullshit! The public
doesn’t always have a right to know,
and you have to weigh the public’s
right to know with safety, security,
it is, it is two powerful forces
that should always be at each others’
throat.
ARCHIVAL: Images
corresponding to Bob’s
reporting of the Los Angeles
riots.
BOB V/O
Call 9-1-1, and let them know, also
the emergency operations center of
the LAPD they’re monitoring these
pictures.
INTERVIEW: Zoey ZOEY
Even the LAPD had to admit, we saved
a lot of lives. We may have started
a lot of looting and maybe cause the
city a billion dollars in damage but we
saved hundreds of lives and thousands
of injuries because we warned people
of this title wave, this tsunami of
violence that was coming through.
ARCHIVAL: Images of Reginald
Denny laying on the street
unconscious.
ZOEY
(Under Archival)
By focusing on, ah, Reginald Denny
being beaten that became an iconic
image of the Los Angeles Riots, it was
the bookend to the Rodney King Beating.
VIDEO AUDIO
17
INTERVIEW: Marika MARIKA
The video was so important and so
iconic that a lot of people, a lot
stations just felt they could take it.
And channel 9 was one who we couldn’t
license it to them, so they took it.
And then we had to sue them and, it,
was a um, it really had a bad effect
on the company and on Bob and our
relationship in the end. That we had
to fight so hard just to maintain the
copyright ownership of that video and,
and then there was the aspect of we
were making money off of something
that horrible that happened. And it’s,
you know we were making money which
allowed us to continue to operate and
do our business, but there were people
that, that wondered, whether that was,
whether there was something wrong with
that.
ARCHIVAL: Bob and Marika
together in the helicopter,
looking around, not speaking.
MARIKA
(Under Archival)
All the fighting we had to do, to
get this stuff done and never being
treated as anything but not really,
that somehow we weren’t legitimate.
INTERVIEW: Marika MARIKA
We ended up doing the entertainment
stuff basically to keep going. We
would have loved to just have been
doing news, if we had, the way we
when we, our first contact when we
just were able to go out and find
breaking news, video tape it, get
it to the station and when we could
make that work, when he was doing KNX
reporting as well. That was great. But
then we had to make, we had to keep
the helicopter going and we didn’t have
enough contracts, we had to sort of
figure out another way to make money,
so we started packaging it.
VIDEO AUDIO
18
ARCHIVAL: Various title
graphic sequences of their
compilation videos (Eyes in
the Sky, etc.)
MARIKA
And then reality TV started and they
had the pursuit shows.
ARCHIVAL: Title graphic for
Worlds Wildest Police Chases
INTERVIEW: Marika MARIKA
And they had the pursuit shows. At what
point does covering the news become,
in a sense, a voyeuristic thing. Are
you catering to people’s interest in
just seeing something because its, it
bleeds. Does the people that drive by
the car wreck and just want to stop
and look at it as opposed to the people
that stop and want to help.
ARCHIVAL: Corresponding
images to Bob’s reporting.
BOB V/O
Well okay it’s an incredible sight
as firefighters now swarm all over
that pickup truck and they’re still
working to free this injured man. He’s
been trapped close to an hour. He is
in critical condition with multiple
injuries, crushing injuries and they
have literally cut this truck apart to
rescue him.
INTERVIEW: Zoey ZOEY
I destroyed television news. I mean,
there’s, I did it, yeah, I did it.
Maybe somebody else would have done
it at some other- some point down the
line but yes, I fucked up. It was, I
was, I was really good at what I did.
ARCHIVAL: Corresponding
images to Bob’s reporting.
BOB V/O
I’m battling 45 knot winds to get
these pictures. It’s incredible.
It’s like a blow torch...
VIDEO AUDIO
19
INTERVIEW: Zoey ZOEY
In fact, the highest rated news events
in the history of television prior to
September 11th, were my news events. I
had the top three. Now I have, I’ve got
two, three, and four.
ARCHIVAL: Corresponding
images to Zoey’s description"
OJ Simpson/White Bronco,
Riots, and SF Earthquake.
ZOEY
(Under Archival)
And that was you know, you know, um,
finding OJ, followed by the LA Riots,
and then followed by the San Francisco
earthquake.
INTERVIEW: Zoey ZOEY
So, you know, again, I’m getting super
bowl numbers, for an investment of
$1500 bucks, $2000 an hour, maximum.
You know, that’s pretty good.
(FADE OUT/IN) ZOEY
And you’ll show the drunk guy, driving
down the freeway, and then after that,
maybe that will take 45 minutes then
you have eight minutes left in the
newscast and um, you know, um, nuclear
annihilation on its way but first
Justin Bieber arrested again
(FADE OUT/IN) ZOEY
MSNBC, Keith Olberman verses Bill
O’Reilly. Fox News verses CNN. You
know, the last place that I ever
thought I would be getting my news is
Al Jazeera yet Al Jazeera is giving a
more balanced view of the world than my
news media.
MATT YOKA (FILMMAKER)
(Off Camera)
I’m going to bring it back just a
little bit, to the, to the actual-
ZOEY
That’s important.
MATT
(Off Camera)
VIDEO AUDIO
20
I’m-
ZOEY
And that’s where there should have
been silence,
ARCHIVAL: COLOR BARS
INTERVIEW: Zoey ZOEY
You know Arab Emirates are providing
better information in our country than
we are, and if you don’t hear that,
that’s that really is scary, Matt.
MATT
(Off Camera)
You’re saying that if I don’t
acknowledge that-
ZOEY
That’s really where you should have
just stopped and let there be
silence. In my opinion. Because
that’s something, that you, you can
you can just, that’s just
horrifying. That’s the most, that
is the most significant thing I
have said here today.
INTERVIEW: Marika MARIKA
Bossy. Controlling!
ARCHIVAL: Turs filming
sunsets over Los Angeles.
BOB V/O
Shoot the, uh, the sunset. Sky. Bring
the camera up. Bring the camera over
here. Up higher now.
MARIKA V/O
I think this looks good.
INTERVIEW: Marika MARIKA
The stress of doing it the way he
wanted it done, we had a lot of fights
over how far out of the helicopter I
was leaning. You know, I didn’t hang
out far enough or was I getting the
right shot, you know, and it would, it
would be tough.
VIDEO AUDIO
21
ARCHIVAL: Night shot of
Marlboro Man advertisement.
Corresponding with Bob and
Marika conversation while
filming.
BOB V/O
Alright lets stay wide, forward ’k?
You’re blowing the shot, you blew
the shot, you blew the shot, you
blew the shot, what the fuck were you
doing?! Marika V/O I was looking at the
Marlboro Man!
BOB V/O
Why?!
MARIKA V/O
Because it was cool looking.
MARIKA
(Under Archival)
When it was going right, it was the
most fantastic time. The adrenaline
rush is fantastic and that kept us
together for a long time because it
was a lot of fun. I use to say, I
was seeing a therapist for awhile
and would say you know, if we just
didn’t work together and weren’t
together 24 hours a day, I think
that would be, that’s the source of
our anxiety and why we have such,
why we have so many problems. Then,
with my very last therapist, I
found, you know what, I’ve got it
backwards.
INTERVIEW: Marika MARIKA
If we didn’t work together, we’d be
broken up, because the work was the fun
part. The work was great. And you know,
and when the work disappeared, that’s
when it got really difficult.
VIDEO AUDIO
22
INTERVIEW: Jeff JEFF
The helicopters have become very
expensive to operate. They don’t go
up as often as they use to and um the
stories are covered at a distance.
So you don’t necessarily, the viewers
don’t necessarily feel the connection.
Plus the fact they’re using um I would
call generic personalities in the
helicopters, now. Ah, KTLA’s first
helicopter pilot had a personality,
ah Bob Tur had a personality, there
were others in the market that had
personalities and ah, that was
something that I think people relate
to people not to machines or to ah
ah, cameras and things like that. They
really, they watch a newscast I think
because they are comfortable with the
person presenting the news to them.
INTERVIEW: Marika MARIKA
The company kind of ceased to exist
as an aerial news company in 1998 and
I just, I haven’t really been in the
business since then. I haven’t been in
a helicopter, I don’t think much, since
then.
INTERVIEW: Zoey ZOEY
Generally, they don’t put reporters in
helicopters anymore. You know, they’re
pilots or they, you know, they’re
contact people. For many stations it’s
just too expensive. But, when you could
be real and be yourself, you know and,
and talk like a human being, as opposed
to "The suspect is now running, he’s
alighted the vehicle, he is now running
from police officers, police officers
are now responding..." You know, using
all the police buzzwords, that’s not,
you know, that’s police speak. That’s
procedural. But when you speak from the
heart, then you, people are waking up
and listening.
VIDEO AUDIO
23
INTERVIEW: Marika MARIKA
I just ran into somebody the other day
at a music event. And he was talking
about, being a pilot, so I mentioned
something about the helicopter and then
I told them who I was and what I shot
and he said, "Bob Tur?" I said, ah,
"Yeah" and he said "I was wondering,
I thought it was weird that he was
flying and shooting the video." I said,
"well, you’ve hit on a sore subject
there but..." (Laughs)
INTERVIEW: Zoey ZOEY
So people would go, "hey! Bob Tur is up
in the air, or there’s a pursuit" so I
was synonymous with breaking news and
I was just one of those LA characters
and there’s a number of LA characters
but I was, I was the breaking news, you
know, person. I don’t want to say guy,
because I was never a guy.
INTERVIEW: Marika MARIKA
I think that Bob almost thought of me
as him, in a sense. So it didn’t really
matter to him, which one of us got,
that he got credit because we’re the
same person, in a sense. And I really
thi- and I kind of got that from him
when we were together but know I’m
really thinking that, that it was a
part of him that almost wanted to be
me. And a lot of his anger towards my
not doing things the way he wanted them
done had the genesis in that, ’cause he
didn’t see me as a separate person. If
that makes any sense.
VIDEO AUDIO
24
INTERVIEW: Zoey ZOEY
As I’m going through the process, I
don’t know. I don’t what the, I don’t
know all the, I don’t know what I don’t
know. Um. As oppose to once believing I
knew everything. Ah, I don’t. I don’t
know what the future lies, and what
it holds for me. I am hopeful. With
respect to flying, I still love flying.
I still care a great deal about it. Um,
I always flew with a female- my brain
always had a female structure to it.
And I’ve done, aerial news gathering,
surveillance, I’ve pulled 54 people out
of 22 foot seas and 60 knot winds at
night, during a storm. You know, all
that stuff. With a female structure
of, a female corpus collosum. So, I
processed information differently but
I didn’t do it, do so on hormones.
Hormones change so much of the way
your brain processes information. So,
I don’t know, I, you know, there was
a certain aggression that I had on
testosterone, that I just don;t have
anymore.
INTERVIEW: Marika MATT (TO MARIKA)
Do you ever miss Bob?
MARIKA
No. I think that part of my life is
the past. And I don’t miss it. I
really enjoyed it, I don’t want to
go back and do it again, and um,
I’m glad I did it, but it’s the
past.
INTERVIEW: Zoey ZOEY
Will I be a, maybe I will be a better
pilot. You know. I might be a better
pilot. Maybe I won’t take as many
risks. I don’t know. But, I will be
a safe pilot.
VIDEO AUDIO
25
ARCHIVAL: Montage of
helicopters flying through
frame, people looking at
helicopters, and other images
from the sky. With music.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Tur, Zoey. Interview by Matt Yoka. Video Recording. Los Angeles,
January 31, 2014
2. Wald, Jeff. Interview by Matt Yoka. Video Recording. Los Angeles, March
7, 2014
3. Marika, Gerrard. Interview by Matt Yoka. Video Recording. Los Angeles,
March 7, 2014
4. Tur/Gerrard Archive. Video. Directed by Zoey Tur. Los Angeles,
Tur/Gerrard, 1987-1998
5. Beating of Rodney King. Video. Directed by George Holiday. Los Angeles,
March 3, 1991
6. LA Verdict (Report on Rodney King LAPD Verdict). Report by Judy
Muller. World News Tonight. ABC, April 29, 1992
26
Abstract (if available)
Abstract
Some of the most iconic images of 1990s Los Angeles were captured by video from helicopters, nicknamed "eyes in the sky." The 1992 Los Angeles riots and the low‐speed police pursuit of O.J. Simpson captured the national zeitgeist. Helicopters vigorously documented these historical events in addition to Los Angeles' daily danse macabre. High‐speed pursuits, floods, brush fires, freeway pileups, and other disasters made local news terrifying and mesmerizing. ❧ Among the most engaging and prolific of the helicopter reporters in the 1990s was Bob Tur. With a silver tongue and an uncanny ability to spot a disaster from the air, he is responsible for one of the most unique documentations of 1990s Los Angeles. This thesis, Zoey and the Helicopter, is a documentary‐in‐progress about Tur’s work and transition from male to female. Tur, who legally changed his name to Zoey last year, is as difficult to categorize as the city she documented for two decades. ❧ This work‐in‐progress is comprised of Tur's helicopter video archive and interviews with Tur, former wife and collaborator Marika Gerrard, and longtime Los Angeles TV news director Jeff Wald. The thesis is an outline produced in part to help raise funds for a feature‐length film about Tur.
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Asset Metadata
Creator
Yoka, Matthew J.
(author)
Core Title
Zoey and the helicopter
School
Annenberg School for Communication
Degree
Master of Arts
Degree Program
Specialized Journalism
Publication Date
04/22/2016
Defense Date
03/31/2014
Publisher
University of Southern California
(original),
University of Southern California. Libraries
(digital)
Tag
Bob Tur,documentary,helicopter,Journalism,Los Angeles,Los Angeles Riots,media,OAI-PMH Harvest,reporting,Zoey Tur
Format
application/pdf
(imt)
Language
English
Contributor
Electronically uploaded by the author
(provenance)
Advisor
Smith, Erna R. (
committee chair
), Armour, Jody (
committee member
), Tolan, Sandy (
committee member
)
Creator Email
mjyoka@gmail.com
Permanent Link (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c3-382934
Unique identifier
UC11296294
Identifier
etd-YokaMatthe-2397.pdf (filename),usctheses-c3-382934 (legacy record id)
Legacy Identifier
etd-YokaMatthe-2397-1.pdf
Dmrecord
382934
Document Type
Thesis
Format
application/pdf (imt)
Rights
Yoka, Matthew J.
Type
texts
Source
University of Southern California
(contributing entity),
University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
(collection)
Access Conditions
The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...
Repository Name
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Repository Location
USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA
Tags
Bob Tur
documentary
Los Angeles Riots
media
reporting
Zoey Tur