If there’s one thing you can count on after spending hours staking out a primo spot for the fireworks, it’s that some slack-jawed giant sipping a Big Gulp will wander into your sightline the second things get started. That’s certainly what went down in the above clip, which finds a big, dumb, lumbering bus ruin The Weather Channel’s carefully orchestrated broadcast of the Georgia Dome’s implosion.
What’s so amazing here is the timing. Literally the moment we see fire, the bus dopily trundles its way in front of the camera, blocking everything but the thick plumes of smoke billowing into the air. And then, just as the explosions spews its final flames and the crowd erupts into applause, it pulls away. All that’s left to see are grey clouds of dust and debris, which don’t make for great TV.
Be sure to listen with sound. “Get out of the way, bus!” whisper-shouts one of the camera operators, his rage curdling into a futile grunts and cusses as it dawns on him that are no reshoots on this one.