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.
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