Thursday, July 31, 2008

Night Shoots

Last week I took care of the DIT Station (digital imaging technician station). The DIT Station is a cart with two HD screens that plug into the cameras so that the director of photography and director can see the images and decide what lights and other aspects to add to the shot. The cables that plug into the cameras are special HD cables that render these HD images. Each time they change the location of the scenes the DIT Station has to travel with the cameras.

We shot some scenes in forested areas and also in some creeks. By the middle of the week we did some night scenes. We would start shooting at about four in the afternoon and would go until four or five in the morning. This week I am learning more about sound mixing. Will write more about this over the weekend.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

A Double Mr. Sparkles Kind of Day

So back to work after a min-vacation home. I got to watch Spanky Spangler attempt to kill himself by crashing into buses during Awful Knawful, oops, I mean Evil Kneivel days, and survived the drunken masses in uptown Butte. Back at KPAX, the normal director has taken his well deserved vacation leaving Keith and, kinda, me, in charge. Probably not such a good idea. At one point during the ten o'clock show, everyone in the control room was either age 20, 21, 24, or 25 with the only "responsible" adults being either on air or in the news room. Shockingly, we didn't screw up and adverted two near disasters during sports, one at 5:30 and another at 10. To top it all off, we got to use a double Mr Sparkles during Health Watch. A double Mr Sparkles night is always a good night at KPAX. The only thing better is a firewipe, which thankfully I have yet to get to use. Tomorrow we're having a potluck dinner between news casts. I'm making my famous, or infamous depending on who you ask, brownies. It should be fun, hopefully even a double Mr Sparkles kind of fun!! Hope everyone is enjoying the last days of summer!!!!

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Off to a shakey start

So this morning I went into work just like any other day. Around 11:30 am the building started to shake. The earthquake only lasted less than 30 seconds, registering around 5.4. My heart was pounding so hard! I sat in my seat feeling helpless. No one in the building was hurt, but there is a crack in one of the walls that is noticeable. All I can say is that I would rather brave a snowstorm any day!

The Home Stretch

Wow...only two more weeks to go here in LA. I can honestly say that I will be very sad when I have to leave here. It seems like it was just yesterday that I was loading up the car to drive into the great smog cloud that is LA. We had a UM reunion of sorts last weekend when Owen, Rob and I went with a few other friends to the beach in Malibu. It was awesome to see those guys. They say that apart from the rats in the kitchen at the frat house they live in they think LA rocks. The Late Late Show is booking some amazing guests for September. I have seen the whole process of the show: from pre-booking interviews to booking meetings to editing to live show production. I love being in the middle of that process and taking it all in. Some of the people that work here have won emmys for their efforts. It inspires me to work harder to produce quality work. I am working in the Green Room where all the guests for the show eat and wait before they go on air. It is good to work on my communication skills while being in such a professional setting.

Until next week...

Friday, July 25, 2008

Funnel Cakes!!

Hey everyone!!

So we are right in the thick of production this week--and it's pretty exciting. We are doing trial runs for all the 9 different locations and only have 2 more to do next week. So once those are all shot, we are going to start the editing process to see if our transitions work and if it's possible. We are doing a lot of after effects tricks in switching locations and such, so it's a lot of post work but very fun none the less.

And we got funnel cakes this week at work, just for fun. It was awesome.

Exciting news--the director of 2100 offered me a job when I graduate, so if I want to move to Madison in May I will have a job here waiting. Very exciting--we will just have to see what the year brings and decide if this is what I want to do.

That's all for now. Two weeks to go!!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Weeks 9 & 10: keloland.com and feature opportunities

I've been busy and spending my days off exploring or traveling the familiar 3+ hour drive on Highway 23 to St. Cloud (where I spend last summer).

I'm getting the hang of the "web" rotation, and honestly, think I might be better at it than the other rotations. Capturing video, grabbing frames, editing and resizing photos and editing reporters stories to print. It's good practice and easy to get into a rhythm.

Despite the seemingly-stable position, I did get to pursue a sports story that aired last night:
(sorry, the sound is mismatched from the telecast to web transition. ugg.)



Essentially just two weeks left in the Midwest! I already know I'm going to miss Panera Bread and using the word "Keloland"...

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Internship in Vancouver

So flew into Vancouver last Thursday and on Friday went to Panavision to start prepping cameras and loading equipment into the camera truck. The movie I am working on is called Mirabilis and it’s a heroic/adventure type movie.

There are about twenty five different departments. I am working with the camera department. It is pretty amazing how so many different departments can come together and make everything work out in the end.

I pretty much assist the camera people carrying things and changing lenses, batteries, tapes etc. Also, hang out with the director or photography and ask him about the look that he goes for in shots. The people I work are great and I am enjoying the experience, even though it can get pretty exhausting as the days are usually around 13 hours and one is standing most of the time.

The first week we shot some scenes in Squamish which is about an hour outside the city. Vancouver has great scenery for movies. I will write more about the details of my job in the next coming weeks.

KHQ...

Hey Guys...

Still at KHQ...not much "breaking news" here lately except for the Valley View fire a little over a week ago. That was pretty fun (Sad for the homeowners but good news) I filmed a couple in's and out's hopefully for a tape with Paola...and then when the press release came out that the Dr. wasn't going to be held responsible I got to go out with a reporter anchor and photog we knocked on her door and when we were about to leave a man and woman drove up and told us we were trespassing and asked us to leave with no communication so that was good experience for me...cuz apparently what she told us was lawyer talk and then also that its better to ask for forgivness and permission :)

I've been shadowing one of the fox anchors here Bill McGinty quite a bit lately...and he has been so helpful! He showed me a lot of stories he had done and that other reporters he worked with have done and he's been going over my scripts with me and teaching me ways to "build up" a story...

So all in all I'm still having a great time, learning lots and lots left to learn...I can't believe that it's already the end of July....Hope everyone's having a great summer!

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Ah Weekends

Its surprising that in the space of twenty-four hours how quickly the attitude in KPAX goes from serious to ah who the hell cares. Weekends are great that way. With everything done by four except for one or two things, weekends are mostly spent goofing off. Or complaining about whatever is annoying us at that point. And one cant forget the weekend Wheel. It just wouldn't be the weekend with out the glorious thirty minutes that is the weekend Wheel. Top it of with a 60 Sports Cart blasted during commercials, and its a fun time to be had. Working hard but mostly hardly working, that is the weekend. And I have really nothing left to say since nothing is never new now. The joys of working such a repetitive job. I know have the board mostly memorized and caught myself a few times just pushing (the right) buttons without actually seeing what i was pushing. Comes in handy when you have all of six seconds to clear out MLE 1, punch the next Nexio on MLE 1, set up a wipe and then wiping to MLE 1, while listening to three people talking and the TV. The years of multitasking are paying off!

On with the show

I am back in LA after a two week vacation in Montana. While it was awesome to be home I am glad to be back here to catch the last rays of summer in the city. My duties at the Late Late Show have shifted to more to office duties over the last week. I am responsible for taking material for the show such as clips necessary for the show production down to Edit 13, the booth where the shows post production takes place. It is a little slower than working down on the stage delivering scripts and their revisions, but it is fun to watch the show as it is filmed on TV. I can't believe that I only have three weeks left at the show. This summer is going by way to quickly. Working in television shows me there are limitless jobs out there for people in many aspects of the industry.

Until next week...

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Highlights

Summer is quickly coming to an end. I have been having a blast.
I handed in my edit of the highlight to Jerry and I am awaiting to see it on the net. I will be sure to bring back the rest of my work on a DVD which will be cool. As far as this week goes, it is a slower paced one. I will be more occupied next week as more comes in to Jerry. Hope everyone is having a Good work week !

Teal

Thursday, July 17, 2008

I want to be a PRODUCER!

The most valuable thing I've learned about myself this summer is that I would rather pursue a career in producing than reporting.

At my 2nd job, at High Noon Entertainment, there's a surprising amount of ex-reporters (many of whom used to work at the same place I'm interning now: KMGH) Naturally, my curiousity drove me to question these people... why the change? didn't they enjoy being a reporter? What did they like about producing at High Noon instead?

At the same time, I have really been bonding with the News Producers at KMGH... many of them started out as Reporters, or at least that was their original intent.

Then I thought back to this girl who came in and spoke to Ray Fanning's "preparing for an internship" class about how her internship led her to Producing, instead of Reporting. At the time, I thought she was nuts... but now I realize just how wise her advice was.
As a matter of fact, if Ray Fanning reads this: I'd really like him to tell me who that girl was and get her contact info or something...

Producers can move up in market size quicker (I'm a big city girl myself- I hope I never live anywhere smaller than Missoula!) And there is less competition... I used to think that people would be too self-conscious to really want to want their face on TV all the time, but as it turns out, everyone has a vain side to them and EVERYONE wants their 15 minutes of FAME.

The scary part is, that there really aren't any older wrinkly women anchoring newscasts or hosting tv shows... Whereas, there are PLENTY of handsome older men still starring on TV.

Producers get to delve into every story and rewrite anything they deem neccessary. Whereas, reporters dig deep into one story and narrow their focus. In all of the stories that I have gone out on, I get WAY attached to the story I'm working on. I hate having to end it and leave it behind...

But of course there's a CATCH: My favorite part of reporting is and always has been the interview process. I love meeting new people. I love talking to strangers. And lord help whoever sits next to me on the bus, because I see them as a friend I haven't met yet.

The light at the end of this tunnel is that Producers oftentimes get to work on side-projects, like putting together a longer PKG, and working on perfecting it over time...

My Internship coordinator here, Robin Hoffman, (who I rarely saw at the beginning of my internship, but now makes time for me when I ask for it) says that in this increasingly-shrinking business, someone who is capable of being a producer-editor-web updater will go far.
Hello All!!
I can't believe that the summer is almost coming to an end!! Well working at Barrett has been great I feel that I am learning alot about patching, avid and other media devices. I have even been able to identify some tapes in the basement (which has millions and millions of tapes, well maybe not millions but it feels like it). My terminology in hunting has also increased imensely. I look forward to more experiences this company will bring for me.

Production this week

Hello everyone!!

Sorry I didn't blog last week. I have had a hard time signing in still, but I think I got it figured out. Anyway--I can't believe I only have a few weeks left here. It's gone by so fast. I got to go home last weekend for a wedding and my whole family is coming up here for the weekend to hit the water parks in northern WI so that will be very fun.

Anyway--work is going well. The office is a little empty these days with people going on family vacations and being gone on honeymoons, but the work continues for those of us here. We start production this week on our video. We had to change some colors and fonts in the first draft because the graphics department is coming out with a style guide for Urbana (the missions conference we are making the video for) but that wasn't too hard to fix. So we are going to start shooting today for a trial run and see where it goes from there. It's an extremely artisic and creative piece, so it's really fun to get outside of the traditional newsy type shooting and story telling. I hope we can get it done by August.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Midterm Evals, Final Evals and Work Samples

Hey everyone, the summer is upon us but will be gone before we know it. Remember to get the midterm evals as well as the final reports and your work samples to me. If I don't get these items, I will not be able to give you a grade. Take care of it now before the summer is out. Thanks and take care.

Community Service cont...

Okay, so the Arts Festival was so much fun!
I've always loved working with kids, so I had no trouble recruiting participants and encouraging them. After each one participated, we gave them buttons that say "I'm a Jr. Weathercaster!" Some kids got extremely camera-shy, but others were hams! Plenty of kids lined up over and over to do it again.

Each participant got to choose either: Flood, Blizzard, Storm, or 5-Day Forecast w/State (CO) Temps on it... they could see themselves in screens in front of and on either side of them as they performed. After each "weathercast" the participant(s) got to see themselves broadcasted (on a 35-second-delay) on 2 big screen TVs outside of our tent/booth. I held their hands, handed them mics, and held up cue-cards at eye-level for each of them... And I even got a green volunteer t-shirt for it. It was truly a rewarding experience.

Yesterday I helped out with another KMGH service project: putting together packets to send to every business in Colorado nominated for the ABC "A-List Businesses". The other interns, the folks in marketing, and I created an assembly line to put together each packet... it had several papers in it, a fancy channel7 folder, and a cardboard plaque to put up in the window of their business to show that they had been nominated. There were many more little pieces to each packet, and it was crucial that we match the correct address sticker with the addressed letter inside. I know that I did at least 300 yesterday! I got to be part of the crew that finished putting together the last section... KMGH marketing had been working on this for 2 full days already, so it was exciting to take part, especially to receive gratitude when we finished sooner than anyone expected us to.
There was a grand total of 9,011 nomination packets made here this week!

Arts Fair & A-List Businesses

Hey RTV-ers, I can't believe some of you are already done!

One of the internship requirements at KMGH is a community service project (one sponsered by our station.) I completed 2 of these lately.

First, was the Cherry Creek Arts Festival July 4th, 5th, and 6th. It's an annual event that brings a huge crowd. Every year KMGH hosts a weathercast booth for children and passerbys to experience standing in front of a green-screen and hosting a weather segment.

Got to go on a story.... write more later

Monday, July 14, 2008

half way done!

hello hello!! last week all the interns got together for a huge intern luncheon with the president of the mariners.. chuck armstrong. the lunch was formal and had amazing food and conversations. it was exciting to see what the other interns are doing in the different departments and hear armstrong's voice of wisdom to us. he was hillarious and had some good ideas for what to do when you hit the "real world." Other than that the Mariners are out of town until this friday! I have my 21st birthday this saturday so thats exciting.. and then come August 1st Amanda and I are done with the internship and get to train the next one. This week I've been working on a thing called "movie reel" this new idea in deko for the big screen that will play at the games. Hope everythings going well with everyone else!

Kelly.

we've been on the run driving in the sun looking out for number one california here we come right back where we started from

owen and i drove to L.A. after a brief layover in Las Vegas. I'm at Ignition Creative, a trailer production company. they do theatrical trailers as well as home enterainment (dvds/blu ray) and video game ads. So far it's been pretty fun, i got thrown into the editorial department. the assistant editors get calls from the editors and producers asking various tasks. i've had to digitize some movies, which means i have to watch them. Box office movies aren't as fun to watch as made in montana or news packages but it has to be done. Other tasks are random, like make sequences of when something in particular happens that is a theme for a trailer. Or, record times of sound FX or songs used so exact royalties are paid. Nothing serious this first week, working 40 hour weeks, need to start drinking coffee.

Other than that I am constantly mistaken for a younger version of George Clooney in between getting kicked out of the Viper room and trying not to get beat up by the freaks @ venice beach.

The Prettiest Baby

Hey everyone! Still interning away, can you believe that we might all actually get paid for this stuff someday? I don't think I could handle it. Just kidding! Anyways, things are still going well at CCTV. I'm really pumping up my work on the nonprofit broshures, so I can finish as many as possible before I leave. I've been having fun creating graphics and lower thirds that match these organizations' existing logos.

I did another concert with the live truck this week, and also helped to cover the Marion County Fair. The "Pretty Baby Contest" was probably the most hilarious part of that whole event. They had a guest judge from All My Children and everything. It's my own personal opinion that dragging babies out in the sun to be judged on their looks is probably some sort of child abuse, but it made for some really cute television.

I also helped to cover Salem's annual Art Invitational. I met the mayor and had a good time trying to make all of the art look as pretty on camera as it did in real life. Have a good week all my RTV friends, I miss you guys!

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Multi-tasking

Well, the Mt Sentinel fire is contained and left a pretty big black mark on the mountain. The cause was two kids playing with matches and a phone book. A lit page got away and started a small fire that escalated into over 300 acre fire. Hopefully this is not an omen for the fire season that, thankfully, has not started yet.
Today, I got my first lesson in the art of multi-tasking. I ended up td-ing and running the audio board for the 5:30 news. Shockingly, I still have no idea how, I didn't screw up, on either end. My brain was pretty much on auto pilot for both of them, my hands hitting buttons left and right without me thinking about which buttons and why I was hitting them,and I honestly don't think my brain started working again until I sat in my car to drive home at six thirty. Nick and Toni, the former td's at KPAX, made doing both look easy, but its so not. You don't have time to think about what to do next, you just listen to the director and hope to hell your fingers on the right buttons. I pray I don't have to do it again!

Thursday, July 10, 2008

3 breaking news days in a row :)

Hey Everyone...
I'm still going out with reporters at Q6...practicing doing standups and ins and outs to packages...Last Sunday we were on our way back to the station to be done for the day when we came upon a brush fire in a spokane park...then after we had done some live cut-ins the pio told us they found two claymore mines, which are explosive military devices, so they sent in spokane pd, and they confirmed it and sent in fairchild...it was pretty crazy, but good because i got to practice some breaking news...then monday we went up north of sandpoint for some more breaking news on a guy who robbed a liquor store (less than 40 dollars worth) and it ended in a 6-7 mile chase with police and police shot and fataly wounded the guy....And finally to make it three breaking news days in a row we went to this lame kitchen fire tuesday that was out before we got there, but a couple hours later we were notified that the fire had started because the owner was making meth and the house was actually a meth lab...so that was kind of exciting fun...I have until Saturday off...but I'm hoping for some more breaking news when I get back...oh and one last thing...they told me Tuesday they might have me do some web coverage of the olympics so that would be pretty sweet...and I'm also working on a project for them with all of the GSL schools...Thats all for now...hope everyone is doing great!!!

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Hey Everyone, urgent news from Missoula

Just to let everyone know, at about 6:30 tonight, a small fire broke out on Mt Sentinel near student housing. As of now, 11:00 pm, its still going. It's spread about most of the mountain, and its probably at the M right now, can't really see since its pitch black out. Its heading over the mountain and away from town so far. (knocking on lots of wood) They don't know the cause of the fire quite yet, our bet at KPAX is its some idiot playing with fireworks. I live about two blocks away, so I took some pictures before I went to work and after. If anyone wants more info, you can go to kpax.com, since the website has pictures, video, and live streaming of the eye cam.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Weeks 6 & 7: One month remaining

First and foremost, it was wonderful seeing Melissa Berry in Madison last weekend! We shared Midwest stories on State Street and I loved every moment.

Since I've last written I've interviewed former senator George McGovern, stayed up all night covering a downtown fire in Orange City Iowa, and met with a rural family from Turkey Ridge, South Dakota.



I think I'm the only intern here who hasn't had to do a firework story yet, we've had big news with a 23-year-old man dying from a sprinkler bomb. Also plenty of court cases to go around...

I finished up my final reporting rotation. I'm on my last producing week before I cap off the internship with a 4-week web shift, where I'll act as copy editor as I convert broadcast stories to web copy and probably fill in reporting a few of those days.

I still haven't "worked" a day yet!

Another week

How was everyones 4th. This has gone by really fast!!! Anyway, I just finished an edit and it is going back to Jerry today. I have a chance to make a highlight of a wedding to post on jerry's website. I am going to be learning how to do that today. I think that it should be helpful because I am guessing that it will be simular to the way we will be posting our work on the um news website. I hope that it will be fun and that I will do alright. The point of a highlight is to give the couple, friends and family a chance to take a look at the wedding before it is completely edited. Jerry usually doesn't do highlights. He usually does them when for example people have a ceremony on one day and the rehersal on a different day. This way it is used to give an example. I think it is a really good idea because it not only lets the client see the work so far it also allows future clients to see the work that Cloudbreak has to offer. I will see if I like editing the highlight today, wish me luck!
Hope everyone is doing well, see you soon.

Teal

Monday, July 7, 2008

Ah the monotony, must be a Monday

After a long boring weekend, it was a long boring Monday at KPAX. For the second day in a row, the entire show was built and done by four, leaving an hour and a half until showtime. All the keys, and the few graphics were easily made in an hour. For the ten, everything but a few things were done by four, and those not done were easily so by nine. At least I'm perfecting my crossword puzzle skills considering all the free time I have anymore! Then at ten tonight, the opening SOT didn't work, opening on a green wall instead of the two shot with Mark and Jill. Why, I don't know. I didn't even mess with the preset like I do most nights. The joy of technology. AT least Jeff, the weatherman provided some amusement. During the shot of Polson (a sailboat in Flathead Lake) he mentioned the last time he went sailing, the sailboat he was on sunk a week latter. "But that was okay," he said, "my friend had insurance." Leave it to Jeff to make weather the only enjoyable segment of the night. Hope everyone's holiday went well. I almost had a chance to see Obama in person, but Secret Service decided the parade route was too risky, so he didn't walk in it. But he was in my hometown. Ya Butte!!!

Go M's! They are rockin!

What up peeps! The M's are totally stepping up to the plate!! I work the 4th of July which was really fun!! It was a busy week! I worked the game after the 4th and you could tell everyone is a little sluggish. But it turned out ok because we won!! I met J.J Putz and rode the elevator with him. He's a real nice guy. I also met the Tigers head coach hes a cute old man. lol I have been having a lot of fun! I have just been doing the same ol working with Deko and such. Tomorrow is the lunch in like Kelly mentioned. yay! for interns!!
Amanda

MARINERS can win??

So since the old manager got fired the mariners are like 10-5. Which for this season is amazing! Haha.. because of the new wins interning has been a little more fun being able to run on the field after the games and congratulate the players as we film them shaking hands/celebrating. The press conferences after the game has been more upbeat as well and you can actually see the otherside of the mariners when we win.. instead of the frusteration and question of who was getting fired this week? Last night was a loonngg game it went into extra innings till the 15th inning.. and we ran out of pitchers so our catcher jamie burke had to step up and pitch which was fun to watch. Tomorrow Amanda and I have an intern luncheon to go too to meet all the other interns in the different departments which should be fun.. and other than that its been the same helping with camera 3.

Hope all is well with everyone!

Kelly.

And the beat goes on . . .

I’ve completed week six of my internship at CCTV! Time is going fast, and I’m enjoying my various duties and projects.

I started this week by helping CCTV to cover Salem’s annual World Beat Festival. They set up their production truck at the main stage and film various performers all day. I saw everything from traditional Japanese Taiko drumming to Polynesian fire dancing. The coolest part, though, was that I got to direct several shows during this festival! My boss was really impressed with my directing skills, and I even got compliments from CCTV’s various seasoned camera operators. Directing concerts is different than news, but I liked it a lot. I had a great time dissolving and cutting to the music, and we did some really cool funky stuff with our handheld cameras.


Also this week I helped with one of CCTV’s bi-weekly programs “Reel Film Snobs.” This is a Siskel and Ebert style film review show, one of the more popular and professional that my station does. They have a pretty big following on the Internet, and I like the look of their show a lot.

I’m keeping up work on my nonprofit video brochures and various editing projects as well. Can’t wait to see samples of what everyone’s been doing this summer!

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Happy late fourth

Hey guys...

It's the weekend again which means I'm back at KHQ and going out to cover stories with Paola...Today we did fire prevention packages and kinda tied it together with the 4th of July and fireworks...I shot in's and out's for the package as if I were the actual reporter...and I think/hope they are finally starting to get better so hopefully I'll be able to put some on a resume tape...

Ohh...and I did get to conduct an actual interview with a member of the fire prevention team...which was awesome practice for me.

I don't know a whole lot else...just still learning lots and have lots left to learn...

Hope everyone had a fun fourth!!
Hello All!!
Well it seems that everyone's interns are going awesome. Well to re-cap briefly on what I've been up to at Barrett this past week is transcribing a couple of shows and learning a lot on dubbing and creating chapters in DVDs. While transcribing one of the shows I actually increased my knowledge on guns, like what rifles are the best when shooting an elk :). Everyone at Barrett has been very helpful with teaching me the equipment and understanding new terms. Right now Barrett is really busy getting all the shows out, so it has been very interesting watching a huge production team keeping it together at the last minute. So that has basically been what I've been doing this past couple of weeks at Barrett :).

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Final Papers

For those of you finishing up your internship soon, don't forget to get your final paperwork in along with your work sample. Just a reminder so I don't have to withhold your grade. Thanks.

And then it was done...

Hard to believe, six weeks at Loopline Film, nearly two months abroad. 

Tomorrow will be my last day, and naturally it's a mixture of the pluses and minuses. I'm very exited to come home and get a half-summer in beautiful MT. A lot of floating, fishing, and...foresting is what I'm hopin' for. I also get to spend four days in Greece before I head back, so it could be worse.

But I'm also depressed to be leaving right now, you know? I feel like I've just gotten to know everyone and my way around the different projects we're working on. having to leave three different films in different stages of incompletion is certainly anti-climactic. And I couldn't help but smirk when one of the employees said, "Yeah I think we're in denial. You know, if you could have stayed around a little longer I think there would have been a lot of really great stuff. We could have even maybe started to pay you!"
I take that with a grain of salt, but I thanked her.

Today and tomorrow I'll be wrapping up (as best as I can) and compiling the different things I've done. A thick binder labeled "Dan Boyce's Loopline Film Projects" now sits on the shelf.

All said and done, I'm thrilled with the experience I have gained and the perspective I've seen over here across the pond. It's been formative and invaluable.

So take care all. Enjoy yourselves,

-db

Back to blogger-land

Hello all. So somehow I got booted off this website and couldn't post so I'll do a quick re-cap of the past few weeks now that I'm back in blogger-land.

So the past ten days there have been over 100 new InterVarsity staff in Madison for Orientation (ONS--orientation for new staff). So 2100 has been staffing the conference which included set-up and running audio and powerpoint for all the sessions. It was actually pretty fun and I enjoyed the behind the scenes stuff. We tore it all down yesterday which took about 3 hours and loaded it into the big ol' truck to come back to the office. And also as part of ONS there was a day the new staff came here to the NSC (national service center) to see the various departments and what we do to serve them. Anyway--all that to say we had an olymic theme open house and 2100 decided to go with a Wheaties theme. So we all put our heads on Wheaties boxes and made a giant Wheaties box for them to take their pictures on and made Wheaties snacks and decorations. It was pretty awesome.

Anyway--we got to pitch our video ideas to the main guru's around here which was extremely nerve racking. I'm working with another intern named Sarah and our idea got approved (!!!) so now we are working on more and more script development and story boarding. The idea for the piece is super creative and involves a person telling a story of Urbana (a missions conference) through art. It's hard to explain but I think the end product will be really neat and I can't wait to get to edit it together. They want it done by the time we leave--which is great.

I'm headed to Milwaukee this weekend with the interns to go to summerfest. And Bre is coming through on Sunday--can't wait to see her! Life is great here--I love Madison and can't believe the summer is half way done.

Until next week.
Melissa

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

intense voter registration canvass-ers!

Hey guys, Stacy here. Yesterday I didn't get to do much, but today was fantastically busy!

First of all, my Wednesday dayside shift is by far my favorite.
On Tues & Thurs I work nightside; in other words, I arrive for the 2pm meeting & then no one has time for me until after the 5pm newscast. I love helping Kim update the website www.thedenverchannel.com but there are online-specific-interns here on Tues & Thurs.

Shane is my favorite producer because he lets me rewrite a lot of stories (and then i get to hear my phrasing used on-air) and he coaches me one-on-one to help me actually improve. (whereas some of the other producers just rewrite what i've written without fully explaining what i did wrong or how i could improve.) But Shane only works morning-side shifts on weekends and Wednesday mornings. I worked with him this morning...but his shift ends after the 11am show.

So, today I got to:
*pitch ideas at the 9am morning meeting
*write the readers for the 11am show with Shane using the AP wires and video on Pathfire from other ABC affiliates.
*work on the website with Kim (incidently we were celebrating her birthday today, but it's her 3rd one this year because she was adopted and no-one knows her birthdate)

*and, since i wrote an online story from scratch, (because I didn't base it off an AP wire or newspaper article or package... instead I started with a short Press Release e-mail and did a lot of research to complete my story) I got my name published as the byline for the story! Since i intern in such a large market, I don't get to take credit for many things I do... Overall I'm just grateful for the experience but it was so great to see my name on a published article! Even though it was an article on the danger of fireworks, the number of injuries was disturbingly high (and the photos were gruesome!)

you can check out my Fireworks article at this link:
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/holidays/16765604/detail.html

*I have a new favorite photog! His name is Alan, and we shot a story today on a nonprofit group walking around with voter registration forms in the ghetto of Denver in an effort to encourage young adults, minorities, and low-income communities to participate in the upcoming election. The reporter couldn't go because she was on another story, so i got to do everything! We shot 4 interviews and B-roll of their daily volunteer orientation and lots of shots of them at bus stops... where some of them got so excited that they basically harassed some of the locals.

A reporter named Jane is assigned to turn it as a PKG for Thurs or Fri (depending on what other stories come up on those days, since this one isn't timely and will be just as newsworthy tomorrow as it is today.)

I am planning on writing my own PKG version for practice & possibly for my resume tape. The edit bays, however, are busy until the 5pm newscast starts, and I leave at 5:30. That gives me a side-project to work on all day tomorrow. I just hope that I can get into an edit bay long enough to ingest the tape (aka digitalize it onto the Aurora server.)

that's all for now folks!