I Am Learning

As I get close to my final week at WHAG the reporters I am with are making sure that I get to do as much as I possibly can before I leave. I went into the station three days this week and I definitely got to do a lot. My week started off on Monday when I did a follow up on a plane crash in Hagerstown. I did I a stand up that had a great background setting at the airport. When we got back to the station I really worked on trying to help edit the package with the reporter. On Friday I discovered what it was like to do a story that was far away (distance wise) and have to put it together on a tight deadline. Thankfully it was not a very complicated story, so it was possible to work with the deadline I was given. However, this week, in addition to the things I normally do during the week I also went into the station on Saturday, which proved to be an excellent decision since I was able to do a lot more than I ever would have been able to do during the week. As normal, I went out with a reporter to cover a story. I did a stand-up that I am very proud of and plan on using on my reel. Of course, while doing the same thing I do quiet often during the week was great and insightful as always, the highlight of my day was the new stuff I did. The reporter I was with took me out to another location so that I could put together a story of my own. So that I could be responsible for the entire thing I only did a VOSOT (video with a sound bite) instead of a package. I conducted the interview as well as shot all the b-roll for the story. As far as the editing is concerned I pulled and laid down the SOT's I liked best and also chose which one I wanted for the story. I also put together the clips for the VO. Finally I wrote the intro, script, and tag for the story. I am perhaps more excited than I need to be about putting together the VOSOT and it airing on the news Saturday evening, but the fact that I did it all on my own gives me a great sense of accomplishment. Today I also managed to pull all of my past stand-ups from the archives so that I can begin working on my reel. As I enter into my final week I hope to finish strong with another great week and to also, maybe, add a package to the list of things I completed.

The Interesting Stories Are Not Always Hectic

This week seems to have lasted forever. As I sit here writing this post I am struggling to remember what I did way back on Monday. Here we go.
 On Monday I covered, probably, the last political story I will do for awhile. The reporter and I was with and I cover some last minute campaign rallies that were happening locally as campaigners tried to rack up the last few votes.  I did realize this week that despite the push to avoid having, what is called, a phoner in your package sometimes that is all that is available to use, and when it comes to having a phoner in the package or having a one sided package, the best bet will likely be the phoner (one politician we needed to interview was not available for an in person interview that day). Another thing I realized this week is that politicians, and anyone involved with them, love to talk and when they talk you must indulge them because not only must one professionally portray the news stations but also just in case a prospective story is on the rise in the political world. As far as editing is concerned I put in all the hit times, and CG's for the package as well as help with editing in general. The editing process is literally the most complicated for me to grasp, it is my goal to be able to put together a package by myself  before I leave this internship.
To move on to Friday. . . I did a lot of what I normally do: shot b-role, handle the camera etc. As far as the editing is concerned for Friday I actually put together the VO for the package all by myself, so my handle on the editing is getting better. On a completely unrelated note as far as what I actually did on Friday, I found out what I needed to put together for my reel, which I am super excited about having, and I plan on working on that in the near future. All in all it was a rather slow week  for me at the station. I unfortunately, but fortunately, was not able to be there on election day (which I think would have been a great experience) but I did get to deal with a lot of the coverage for pre-election. Besides that one bummer part, I feel like I had a fairly nice week with very interesting stories. I concluded from this week that just because the story is not "breaking" or extremely hectic or eventful does not mean that is not interesting.

Election Time

With the local elections right around the corner the news station is highly focused on the whereabouts and appearances of the local political figures. On one hand  politics may sound like a tedious and dull area of news to cover. However, while the answers to every question were the general political spiel the process of researching to interviewing was much different than normal.
    Because politicians, especially the week before elections, are very busy one major things that was different than a normal day was that we had to work more to their schedule than to ours. Working to their schedule meant either waiting around for them, or moving fast to get a quick interview before they left the building. I found, this week, that the most conventional way to approach interviews with politicians is to keep it generic (especially if it is around elections time). Which means asking about the campaign, what they are out promoting (in the case I covered early elections), their thought on a major issue, etc.
      Anyway, this week among all the politics I learned how to work a camera that was new to me. The reporter I was with also showed me some interesting techniques that I had never been shown, or thought about doing. I did another stand up which is my best one to date (as voted on by myself and the reporter I was with); however, the other highlight of the day was that I interviewed a congressman, by myself ! In the past reporters have had me only ask a few questions for each person, however, this time I did the entire interview alone. The sense of accomplishment I had after doing it alone, as well as the compliments from the reporter I was with, absolutely made my day. For this particular package, as far as editing it concerned, I put together most if the video clips for the VO (the reporter had to do a little tweaking since I haven't really done that before). Later in the week I covered a luncheon where candidates spoke. Because of the chaos with the other reporters from other stations being there I played helper for the most part. I took notes and handled the equipment while on sight.
       Overall, it was a very interesting week coving the politics. Politics and elections are covered a little differently than other stories, which make them interesting at times. I definitely think that I would enjoy doing a short stint of work in DC where I covered politics primarily in my career.

Something New Everyday

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).

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.

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.

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!!