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!!

WHAG Day 1

Today I began my internship at channel 25 news in Hagerstown. I was assigned to shadow a journalist and help her cover a story on, what turned out to be, an alleged shooting. We arrived at the park down the road from the crime scene where the police had set up a sort if base. Once we arrived, Mallory, the journalist I was with, interviewed one of the police officers on sight. I helped her set up the camera and work the microphone for the interview. We then drove up the road where the crime scene was, and spoke to the man who made the 911 call to the police that morning about the shots fired. The last person we spoke to was the principal of the nearby high school (which had been put into modified lock down that morning by the police's suggestion). While out getting interviews, I was able to take some B-role shots for the story and help handle the camera equipment. I learned that one should always take more instead of less footage. We returned to the newsroom, after making sure we had enough footage for the story, and worked on editing and putting together a package for the evening news show. This part of the day was rather tedious, and certainly not as exciting, but it interesting to watch the process, Overall, it was a rather exciting first day and I am very excited to go back and work on more stories.