Even though I have only been at this internship at WHAG for a short period of time I have encountered many different types of stories and also realized there are so many different things that could be done in a day. This week was a week I got to do some things I have not done at the station before, and I really enjoyed being able to do new things.
I made, what are called, beat calls this week. At first I was surprised that I was allowed to make calls on behalf of the station. However, I have come to realize that the more comfortable I become I at the station and the better job I do at the little things the more responsibilities the reporters I work with are going to give me. Anyway, I made the beat calls, which was basically calling all the sheriffs departments and local police stations to see if there was anything news worthy going on. All was quiet on the front that day and my calls led to no new stories. While on the topic of phone calls, I also made calls to a potential interviewee for a story the journalist I was with wanted to cover the next day. I did the research to find out who the reporter needed to talk to about the topic and also set up the interview time and place with the person. I relayed all the information to the reporter who was, happily, pleased with my work.
Not only did I make lots of phone calls and research, but I also did more work on the job with a reporter. I took almost all the b-role for the package and also did a stand up (which I am much more satisfied with than previous ones). As always I helped with the editing process and script writing.
I hope that as I continue my progress at WHAG that one day I will be able to put together, write and package my own story (with the supervision of a reporter of course).
Friday, October 24, 2014
Friday, October 17, 2014
From Slow to Go: How the Pace of the Day Can Change
Another exciting week at WHAG has passed. This week went from a very uneventful day, that I was not able to do a lot on, to day packed full of stuff to be done. Deadlines were pressing hard on the journalist I was with this week, so the need to work quickly and efficiently was essential, which was exciting and also a great type of situation to practice being in.
The most eventful day this week started out with a rather easy story to cover. I went out with a journalist to cover the annual Mountain State Apple Harvest Festival in Martinsburg WV. We arrived at the end of the ladies brunch and stayed to observe the pie judging (The apple pies smelled so good). I am continuing to do work with the camera and I took a lot of B-roll shots at the location. I am continuing to get more confident in deciding what would make a good shot and how to take the shot. The reporter I was out with today explained how to take shots on an axis, which was new information for me, but very useful. I also conducted an interview today, which is an intimidating thing to do with an actual reporter standing behind you, but I did it and managed to ask useful questions and the reporter I was with only had to ask two extra questions to clarify. I did a stand-up on my own at the event as well. I have decided I need to continue working on my on-camera voice and creative ways to do stand-ups. The journalist I was with and I returned to the station with plenty of time and lots of footage to put together a package; however, there was breaking story that we were assigned to cover, and this is when the day became crazy.
The journalist and I rushed out of the station to get to the scene of the fatal tractor trailer accident as soon as we were assigned to it. Everything was very fast paced on the scene in order for us to obtain the shots and information we needed. As the journalist got the shots she needed I took pictures to send to the news station for them to keep the web story updated. Also, as the journalist asked questions and took B-roll shots I relayed information and corresponded with to our point of contact at the station. Once we had what we needed we returned to the newsroom with an hour to put together both stories. Because of the time constraints the producers decided that we would only do VO's instead of packages for both stories. I worked with another journalist/the point of contact at the station for the accident, to confirm the information about the accident for the VO that would air. After I checked what he had written I moved to the editing room to see how I could help there. Because the reporter had to prepare to be on camera, on my own I had to laid down VOSOTs and selected useful clips from the two interviews we had from the Apple Harvest Festival while she prepared. I also transcribed them so they could be used in the web story and script.
I watched a little bit of the show being filmed in the studio, and also the reporter I was with front the Apple Harvest Festival story. Finally, I helped wright the web story for the Apple Harvest. All in all, the week went from a day I was not able to do anything, to a day that was packed full of things for me to do. I, believe it or not, enjoyed the intensity of the newsroom in the evening as the show aired and the deadlines were pushed. Days like this are what I've always imagined being a reporter was like, the unexpectedness and all. It makes me excited to become more capable as a journalist intern so that I can be a help more on days like this and also be prepared to handle a day like this on my own in the near future.
The most eventful day this week started out with a rather easy story to cover. I went out with a journalist to cover the annual Mountain State Apple Harvest Festival in Martinsburg WV. We arrived at the end of the ladies brunch and stayed to observe the pie judging (The apple pies smelled so good). I am continuing to do work with the camera and I took a lot of B-roll shots at the location. I am continuing to get more confident in deciding what would make a good shot and how to take the shot. The reporter I was out with today explained how to take shots on an axis, which was new information for me, but very useful. I also conducted an interview today, which is an intimidating thing to do with an actual reporter standing behind you, but I did it and managed to ask useful questions and the reporter I was with only had to ask two extra questions to clarify. I did a stand-up on my own at the event as well. I have decided I need to continue working on my on-camera voice and creative ways to do stand-ups. The journalist I was with and I returned to the station with plenty of time and lots of footage to put together a package; however, there was breaking story that we were assigned to cover, and this is when the day became crazy.
The journalist and I rushed out of the station to get to the scene of the fatal tractor trailer accident as soon as we were assigned to it. Everything was very fast paced on the scene in order for us to obtain the shots and information we needed. As the journalist got the shots she needed I took pictures to send to the news station for them to keep the web story updated. Also, as the journalist asked questions and took B-roll shots I relayed information and corresponded with to our point of contact at the station. Once we had what we needed we returned to the newsroom with an hour to put together both stories. Because of the time constraints the producers decided that we would only do VO's instead of packages for both stories. I worked with another journalist/the point of contact at the station for the accident, to confirm the information about the accident for the VO that would air. After I checked what he had written I moved to the editing room to see how I could help there. Because the reporter had to prepare to be on camera, on my own I had to laid down VOSOTs and selected useful clips from the two interviews we had from the Apple Harvest Festival while she prepared. I also transcribed them so they could be used in the web story and script.
I watched a little bit of the show being filmed in the studio, and also the reporter I was with front the Apple Harvest Festival story. Finally, I helped wright the web story for the Apple Harvest. All in all, the week went from a day I was not able to do anything, to a day that was packed full of things for me to do. I, believe it or not, enjoyed the intensity of the newsroom in the evening as the show aired and the deadlines were pushed. Days like this are what I've always imagined being a reporter was like, the unexpectedness and all. It makes me excited to become more capable as a journalist intern so that I can be a help more on days like this and also be prepared to handle a day like this on my own in the near future.
Saturday, October 11, 2014
Must Accept the Slow Days
Before I say anything about how this week went at the news room...check this out!! I'm on WHAG's webpage, well, the back of me is. Perhaps I am being a bit to overly excited about this, but hey, soon my face is going to be all over a news station website as a news reporter and I'm going to be more excited then, because that will be stage one of the mission accomplished; yet, for now I'll take what I can get. (My hand has also made an appearance in a few packages)
I'm on the stations web page!!!! Sort of... Check it out! I'm the blonde one.
Anyway, on to this week...
Due to some scheduling complications I was only in the newsroom one day this week. The day was both good and bad. The bad first is that it was quite a slow day. The story the reporter I went out with was covering was pretty straightforward and easy to get the one interview for. Literally...we only did one interview because the reported already had B-role from another I visit to the location and the second "interview" for the package was a press release we already had. Needless to say, one interview did not take long to get and we were back in the newsroom by the afternoon with an abundant amount of time to work on putting the package together. This leads into the good parts about the day.
Since there was a lot of time before the package aired, Rose, the journalist I was with for the day, was able to take the time to show me how to work with the editing process. She showed me how to put in CG's (as well as tell me what a CG was). She taught me what hit times were and how find them, as well as how to put them in the edition program Avid. Rose really clarified what some things where and how they worked for me. For instance, what a VOSOT was and what it was for, and how to work with things like pad in the videos, why out cues and roll cues were, and what the Hold was, as well as what a locator was and how to put it in etc.. The keyboard for the system has lots of markings on it to help with the editing, problem is, I don't know what most of the symbols mean, so Rose explained a lot of the important ones. At this point I could not work the system or edit a package together alone, but now that it has been explained a little, I think with a little practice I could actually get pretty good. Which would also mean I could help, and the slow days would not seem that slow. Finally, I did more script work. As an English major, writing is my thing, and I've found that the script writing process is more tedious than it seems, but it's a very interesting kind of challenge to overcome.
All in all,despite the slowness of the day I did get a decent amount out of it. The editing system, I had decided my first day, was going to be the bane of my internship, but now that I understand it a little more it's not quite as intimidating. However, I also realized that there will be VERY slow days, and I imagine that some days they will be welcome (especially when one of the producers/anchors decides to bring everyone's donuts and you are entertained as everyone gets very involved in the changing if the posters around the newsroom) , but other days they will just be too long. I must accept the reality, but that just means I appreciate the busy days filled up with hot stories even more.
I'm on the stations web page!!!! Sort of... Check it out! I'm the blonde one.
Anyway, on to this week...
Due to some scheduling complications I was only in the newsroom one day this week. The day was both good and bad. The bad first is that it was quite a slow day. The story the reporter I went out with was covering was pretty straightforward and easy to get the one interview for. Literally...we only did one interview because the reported already had B-role from another I visit to the location and the second "interview" for the package was a press release we already had. Needless to say, one interview did not take long to get and we were back in the newsroom by the afternoon with an abundant amount of time to work on putting the package together. This leads into the good parts about the day.
Since there was a lot of time before the package aired, Rose, the journalist I was with for the day, was able to take the time to show me how to work with the editing process. She showed me how to put in CG's (as well as tell me what a CG was). She taught me what hit times were and how find them, as well as how to put them in the edition program Avid. Rose really clarified what some things where and how they worked for me. For instance, what a VOSOT was and what it was for, and how to work with things like pad in the videos, why out cues and roll cues were, and what the Hold was, as well as what a locator was and how to put it in etc.. The keyboard for the system has lots of markings on it to help with the editing, problem is, I don't know what most of the symbols mean, so Rose explained a lot of the important ones. At this point I could not work the system or edit a package together alone, but now that it has been explained a little, I think with a little practice I could actually get pretty good. Which would also mean I could help, and the slow days would not seem that slow. Finally, I did more script work. As an English major, writing is my thing, and I've found that the script writing process is more tedious than it seems, but it's a very interesting kind of challenge to overcome.
All in all,despite the slowness of the day I did get a decent amount out of it. The editing system, I had decided my first day, was going to be the bane of my internship, but now that I understand it a little more it's not quite as intimidating. However, I also realized that there will be VERY slow days, and I imagine that some days they will be welcome (especially when one of the producers/anchors decides to bring everyone's donuts and you are entertained as everyone gets very involved in the changing if the posters around the newsroom) , but other days they will just be too long. I must accept the reality, but that just means I appreciate the busy days filled up with hot stories even more.
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Week 2: So Much to Learn
This week was a great week. I think the more comfortable I get with the atmosphere and get to know people at the station I am going to get more and more out of this internship. Anyway, on Monday I went out with a journalist who was absolutely fantastic. She was very determined for me to be involved in the process of following, getting, and putting together a story; it was intimidating at first, but very exciting because I was getting a real feel of what the job was like. After her original story lead didn't pan out she had to turn to her sources. Sitting at her desk she pulled out a stack of business cards and split them in half. "You take half and I'll take half. We'll just start calling and see what's been going on and see if we can get a new story idea" is what she said to me with a smile, much more enthusiastic about the idea than I was. Keep in mind this is only my second day, I was a bit shocked she was ok with me making phone calls and trusting my judgment enough to get a story lead. One of her sources managed to give us a pretty interesting angle for a story, so off we went to get some interviews. For the first interview I watched and listened, taking in everything she explained and said, which was good because she told me I was going to do the next interview. I did too. Of course, she asked some extra questions that I didn't think to ask. Then, I did my very first stand up. I did two stand ups this week actually, and after them I realized that I need more work on camera to be more comfortable and natural.
Both Monday and Friday I did more camera work and learned about the editing process. The editing process is definitely the part that is the most confusing and tedious. I do need to learn how to use the editing program though, because both journalist told me this week I should put together a package before I leave the internship. Guess that is added to my goal list. I also have been getting more involved with the script writing, which is great.
Anyway, there was so much new information this week, I can only imagine how much more there is to learn about the field. From learning what is and how to do a stand-up, to what editing requires, and how to conduct an interview and much, much more, I realized this week that I have so much to learn and I am very excited to learn.
I'll be back next week, with hopefully more exciting, reports of my newsroom experiences!!
Both Monday and Friday I did more camera work and learned about the editing process. The editing process is definitely the part that is the most confusing and tedious. I do need to learn how to use the editing program though, because both journalist told me this week I should put together a package before I leave the internship. Guess that is added to my goal list. I also have been getting more involved with the script writing, which is great.
Anyway, there was so much new information this week, I can only imagine how much more there is to learn about the field. From learning what is and how to do a stand-up, to what editing requires, and how to conduct an interview and much, much more, I realized this week that I have so much to learn and I am very excited to learn.
I'll be back next week, with hopefully more exciting, reports of my newsroom experiences!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)