Voter Registration

This is the first package I got to be the only reporter to go out on! I went out with a photographer named Alan and I got to interview several people for his pkg that aired that day.

Meanwhile I used this footage to teach myself the Grassvalley Aurora nonlinear editing system... I spent a lot of time on it & I tried out editing together my first nat sound package because I didn't know how to use the audio tacking booth yet.

To this day, this is one of my favorite pieces I've gotten to report on because the main woman I interviewed is such a character & she drives the whole story! My favorite line is the last one: "I'm out here... Stephanie is out here!" Hope you all registered to vote!

Belly Flop PKG

This is a package I scripted, voiced, and edited together by myself during my summer internship at KMGH Denver ABC.

The photographer who shot this footage edited a different version of this together into a one-minute nat sound PKG that aired on the station that day.

I worked on putting mine together whenever I had spare time at the station over the next few weeks. Although it did not air on KMGH, I'm posting it here and on my own resume blog so it is indeed "published" and I'm proud of the work I did on it.

Hope you like it! I'd appreciate any feedback you have for me.

working on a Sat.

Hello fellow bloggers, It's the end of week 4 for me now and I am alomst done with my internship. Only one more week to go. it's been a pretty fast one but hey when your working 6 days a week and 50+ hours it goes by quick. I have a PSA that I am working on for the local food bank and that will be completed next week. I have also been working on local news stories. Yesterday I interviewed the mayor of north pole and today I will be making a vosot about the economic development there. hmmm what else... I will be happy to be getting back into missoula soon.. I think school has already started down there.. I still need to pay for class .. it sucks that student loans won't give you money if your only taking 1 class haha oh well.... anyways I hope everyone enjoyed their summer and I will talk to you guys next week.... thanks have fun.. laterz

Alex

working

well Its the middle of week three... I was here helping cover the alaska primary elections last night. I was here till 11:30 at night but I was able to put in over 14 hours.. I am racking up my hours fast... guess I will be geting done quicker that I thought. The tape machine completely ate one of my tapes during a live broadcast on saturday but hey what can you do... I have been doing more and more reporter work these last few days. not exactly what I went to school for but hey you can't be choosy during your internship huh? any ways I will be doing this for the next week I believe then I will go back to making commercials. everything is going good.. weather has been great the last few days. hope everything is well with all got to go back to work now thanks... see ya
Alex

Just getting started

Well it looks like I'm finally going to be able to post on here.... I finally started my internship last week for KTVF in fairbanks, alaska. So much for sunny california.... I am working on the news side and I am working on their commercial production side... I usually work for the first couple hours on the prod. side in the morning and then help cover news in the evening. My first week I was just getting used to the new building and this week I am starting to go out on my own shoots and working on commercials. I am working like a mad man... I am putting in on average around 9 hours a day... but hey when your working for free it's best to just get it done as quickly as possible.... glad everyone is wrapping up their internships I hope everyone has been having fun... talk to you guys... and gals later...
Alex

Producer

So last week I was talking to one of the camera operators and discussing my interest not so much in the technical side of the film industry but more the managing side. Being a producer is what I am really interested in if I were to pursue a career in this business. He was telling me that the easiest and most efficient way to learn all that revolves around a producer is to become a producer's assistant. It is a little to late to assist the producer in this show as it is coming to an end, but perhaps next summer I will be able to find a producer to hire me as his assistant. I would like to be involved in every department and in every aspect of the movie including the budget.

Back In Montana

Somehow I managed to seal up everything at KELO, pack my car, and drive across a few states within a matter of a couple days. Here's the email I sent out to the "news group" before leaving:

Twelve Lessons In 12 Weeks

Week 1: Wal-Mart parking lots are dangerous for unobvious reasons, like mini tornados or “wind shears”
Expect the unexpected; cover it willingly.

Week 2: If you want to fit your lunch in the fridge, get there early.
The first on the scene gets the best footage.

Week 3: Stay high enough from floods but low enough from tornadoes.
The ground in the middle is the safest; be neutral.

Week 4: “Keloland” is a legitimate word to toss out on air.
Be thankful of all the people who came before you and could make a ridiculous notion a reality.

Week 5: If you go up in a hot air balloon, stay tied to the ground.
Use uplifting experiences to expand your skills, while not letting go of what you already know.

Week 6: Professional restaurants will take recipes from 10-year-olds.
No story idea is too bizarre. Be creative, and you never know who might like it.

Week 7: The muggy Midwest air is overwhelming, but I’ll miss it once I return to dry Montana.
When it seems like it’s raining news, be glad, and remember what it feels like when the wires are empty.

Week 8: If it leads, it could bleed.
If you wear heels to breaking news, expect to trip on a fire hose.

Week 9: George McGovern is an unforgettable man.
Even if he forgets to pick up his tattered cardboard box of books four weeks and phone calls later.

Week 10: Fireflies are real.
You’ll miss the real story if you don’t take time to really observe your surroundings.

Week 11: “Dot com” isn’t everything; you can access KELO online at keloland.TV, too.
There’s always more than one way to access information, some are just less obvious than others.

Week 12: Twelve weeks goes by fast.
Stay busy and enjoy every moment.

Thank you all for being so nurturing and helpful to me. You’ve given me a summer I won’t forget and taught me countless storytelling lessons along the way. I’ve grown as a writer, photographer, reporter, editor and journalist. More importantly, I’ve grown as a person.

I’ll begin my senior year at The University of Montana in a couple weeks and hope to stay in touch. Please let me know if your travels take you westward to Big Sky Country.

Happy trails, until we meet again!

-Breanna

***
I can't wait to see you all! I'm back in Missoula for today and headed to Alaska tomorrow, so I'll probably have to wait for the first day of school to see everyone, but I'm very excited! :)

the times they are a changin

Well I am truly sorry to say this is my last week at the Late Late Show. I have had the best time ever this summer. I feel like I have a better grasp on what I want to do after I graduate-possibly work in network television. Just seeing the whole show come together everyday from the ground up is incredible. It helps when I have to go on crazy tasks like picking up a ford mustang convertible for Mr. Ferguson. (which I didn't get to drive)...but all and all I love what this internship has shown me. I am going to keep my ears open for future jobs here and keep in touch with all the interns I met here. Thursday is my last day and then I am driving to Las Vegas to have some fun before the real work begins. Can't wait to see you all back in Montucky!

Highlight of the summer

I got some great news yesterday that ESPN either has or will very soon air some video I shot last week. Dan Schlereth is the son of one of their NFL analysts Mark Schlereth. One of the producers for NFL live called up looking for video of Dan's pro baseball debut and the stuff they sent was shot by yours truly. Definitely a thrill to hear that...only problem is I'm on the road this weekend without cable access. So if anyone happened to see it let me know!

two more days

i have sixteen hours left as an intern but who's counting? just when i started feeling comfortable it's about time to go. been in with the assistant editors i'm not sure how interesting that work would be, but seems the standard way to work up to an editor. the editors are extremely fast and it's brushed off on me so fingers crossed you pull my name out of the production hat this semester.
still living with owen. there are dead rats in this filthy kitchen where we cook meals to stay alive, there was a dead baby racoon on the stairs but these are unnoticeable hurdles in the steeplechase that is journalism

Last day

Hello for the last time from Madison. It is my last day here and part of me is really sad to go. I have really come to enjoy the team I work with and the company--and Madison too. But I may be back after graduation so that makes it a little less sad. I am just working on getting some more test shots done today and finalizing the script and making a ridiculously detailed story board made so the people who are taking over the video can do what we have planned out. I am hitting the road tonight and will be back in Cheyenne tomorrow. I can't wait to be back in Missoula however and to see you all!!

Training My Replacement

So I'm training one of the guys to td. And its frustrating me so much. Not only do I not get to do anything but fix his mistakes, but it doesn't seem like he gets ANY of it. He's only been watching me td since he started working at the beginning of the summer, but he doesn't have a clue on where things are even though he's been seriously watching and training for the last few weeks. Urgh! Its not like anything has changed over this time. Its the same buttons, same preset numbers, same commands and sequences for both shows day in and day out. He still really doesn't have a clue on most of it, and I'm not going to be there to fix everything for him when he starts by himself next week. Again, so frustrating. And he's also real slow and taking and dissolving and.... basically everything. I know I had my issues when I was learning, but I swear I knew more than he does by this point and time. Any little change and he gets to flustered to do anything. So I will quit ranting now, though I could probably rant for forever at this point. I wish he would figure it out so I can go back to tding by myself. I miss pressing all the shiny buttons!!

Practice Anchoring

Today was my third time practice-anchoring. I’ve taped it all 3 times and while anchoring is still more of a challenge for me than singing or acting on stage, I definitely see improvements in my performance each time. I can not stress enough how important it is to practice reading scripts out loud before taking a seat in that anchor chair! I’ve been finding the best clips to put into a sequence, just in case I need to use them as anchoring examples on my resume tape.

I’ve also made a montage with clips of my best stand-ups and teases. One of my favorite stand-ups is the one I did on the news station’s roof, announcing that it was the 18th straight day of temps 90 and above –tying a record set back in 1901-

They just released the tickets for Obama's acceptance speech at Invesco Field (where the Broncos play!) where he'll accept the democratic nomination... it's happening while he's here for the DNC (democratic national convention) An interesting twist is that they've reserved 1/5 of the tickets for Coloradans and 2/3 for people from Northwestern states... some people in New York are pissed! And everyone who buys a ticket must be able to show proof that they CAN DEFINITELY ATTEND (aka: they must have a place to stay all lined up, and the means to get to Denver) because they don't want any empty seats, so they need to know if anyone who bought a ticket can't go...

This year Denver's ballot initiatives (19 total) are the most that Denver has ever had on a ballot! They also keep changing the format...

I've got to go, but I want to let Ray Ekness know that I have my work samples all ready to send to him & I'm planning on mailing them to him tomorrow!

~Stacy

Its a small world after all

It's amazing what a small world this is...I thought Monday was going to be a normal day at the ballpark with nothing worth noting... Then I got into a conversation with the Great Falls Voyagers radio announcer. Turns out he went to my rival high school in Charlotte waaaaayyyy back in the day and he also taught my fiance Kelli when she was in college at Coastal Carolina. This by the way is after I'd known for quite some time that the trainer for Great Falls was the trainer for the minor league team I was a bat boy for when I was a kid. And that's not all....after I was done talking with him, I ran into a scout for the Red Sox and after a while we realized we know a lot of the same people in Boston. It's crazy to me... but I'm sure you all feel like the time you just spent reading this is 30 seconds of your life you'll never get back. Sorry. I gotta write something though.
G

Hey Everyone! I can't believe it's already August and summers almost over...this summer has really flown by! I'm still at KHQ...lately I have been working on a fall sports project for them and doing some more practicing in front of the camera. I'm not sure when I will be done with my internship...I have all my time in, but I just have some stuff I would like to "finish" so we'll see...Hope everyones summer is still going great!

Last Week

Hello hello. So I didn't post last week, my Friday got really busy. But we had our first show and tell on the video we have been working on and people seemed to like it. They had some great script and treatment ideas that actually make our job easier. It defintely won't be done by the time I leave, but I'm sure they will do great things with it. We have to get the new script approved, hopefully today, and then start shooting this week for the final product. I also had my farwell party last Friday which was very fun but sad. I have really come to like the people I work with and it will be hard to say goodbye. But hopefully I'll be back here when I graduate for a while. I can't believe it is my last week here. I'll post again on Friday which will be my last day here in Madison.

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.

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!!!!

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...

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!!

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"...

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!

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...

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

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.

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

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!

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!

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!!!

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.

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

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!

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 :).

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

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!

Last Week!

Soooo I'm almost done! Only two more days! I had a great time and I really feel I've learned a lot! They offered me a position as a weekend reporter so that was really exciting! I am going home to Lander for the fourth and then when I get back we are going to talk about what I will be doing here when my internship is finished.
I cant believe the summer is halfway done. I don't want it to be over! I'm kinda sad the internship will be done. It's been fun! Right now for the last week I've been learning tricks to producing. It's been helpful. They have to do a lot more here than we do in class. The producer is in charge of a lot of different things.

Have fun with the rest of your internships!
Take care!
Ally

Really? July starts tomorrow?

Hello everyone...After Ray had pulled my teeth last week at an Osprey game I finally decided to figure this thing out. And while it looks like you guys are doing things much cooler than what I've been getting into, this summer hasn't been bad at all. Working in the sports department at KECI has been pretty legit. It is definitely more fun when the Osprey are in town, but its not that bad when they are on the road either. On days with a slow sports schedule in Missoula, I go in and archive all these old Betta tapes from the 80's on to a dvd. While it is quite boring to dub and write down all the things on the tapes, the style of sportscasting from the early and mid 80's keeps me very entertained....We could NEVER get away with some of that stuff today.....When there is stuff going on in town (usually Osprey games) I love it....I get to the stadium around 6:30 for a 7:00 game. head down to the field to get some establishers and shoot the bull with some of the coaches. Last week I found out the O's manager live two doors down from Big Papi in the Dominican during the off season...stuff like that....these guys all have great baseball stories....So then I head back up to the press box for the game. Nice and air conditioned with all the normal press box perks. shoot the game till about 9:15 -9:30 then head back to edit the tape and write a shot sheet. Sometimes we have to send the game highlights to our affiliates so I'm getting pretty well versed in the world of FTP as well. Once video is sent and the scripts are in I'm usually out the door....But as some of you on the facebook set know every now and then I get some anchoring experience in as well......Its been fun for sure...and great experience. If any of you guys are in town and suffering from the heat, you can always come cool off at the McMansion....Peace!

Your Who? oooohhh....

Hey everyone!
OMG the M's are winning!! WHOO HOO!!! I am so excited for them to come back home! This week I logged and logged, the games and completed the head shots for next weeks home stand. So Funny story! I was on a shoot to get shots of Johijma signing autographs at the Ronald McDonald's house. Well on the way to the shoot we rode the Moose van and I was sitting next to this guys from Australia and just thinking he was part of the crew handing out stuff to the kids. We all talking making normal coversation and I was showing Steve, the Boss man, my wicked bruise for being hit by the opening pitch in front of 38,000 fans. lol thats another story! So showing of my knuckel bruise and listening to the Aussie talk I had the cool question to ask what brought him to Seattle........
Hmmmm...
everyone in the van turns and looks at me like I was crazy and the "WTF" look. Hahaha!!
He answered Well I play baseball.....on the team.... I'm a pitcher Number 18.
Oh man! I turned Bright Red!! cuz I couldn't walk away for being soooo embarrassed.
It was Ryan Rowling-Smith.
He knew I was embarrassed and said oh its ok people in Austria don't know who I am. Oh well he was really nice about it and joked with me the whole way there and back. Not only did he recognize me for being the antenna girl (backpack with Huge Antenna) He said I have seen you out on the field.
Later that day Game Time. Well we won the game and I finally got to go on the field with the antenna haha and go in for press confence. Waiting for all the players to enter the dug out, Ryan Rowling-Smith points and laughs at me and says Hi. Of course my co-worker has to yell out "hey she'll never forget who you are."
It was a very very funny thing and everyone I work with thinks its even more hilarious.
So thats a good story for the books. haha

Week 5

Whats up?
Staying busy editing away, I am just finishing up another edit and going to be working on another.
I have been playing around with adobe premiere and there are some cool shortcuts. One of them is "ripple delete" if I end up deleting a section on the timeline causing there to be an empty space on the timeline, I just right click to ripple delete and the two join together. There is another tool that is on the preview window that lets you select the media (as in audio and video, just audio or just sound) and choose which one. Adobe is very cool and I have become very used to it. It will be interesting when coming back to use avid and see if it has helped me with my editing.

Hope everyone is doing well, talk to you soon.Publish Post

Teal

Calm, Cool, and Collected

The last two days have been a teensy bit stressful at KPAX. Yesterday was the first time Greg, the normal director, was gone leaving the new director and me by ourselves. There was a live shot, and the weather guy was live in Kalispell via KAJ within a minute of each other. I've never been so stressed out! I had a feeling something would blow up in our face. Somehow, though, we never screwed up, which I am completely thankful for. Then today, with fifteen minutes before the show, the producer and anchor decided to add a breaking news stinger, which we don't have on the new non liner system, for a story that occurred two hours prior to the show (i was the only one who didn't think the story was very breaking news by that point). Needless to say, the wrong stinger got put in, I knew and I thought everyone else did too, but they didn't and the anchor was quiet while we sat on a soundless stinger for thirty seconds though we told her to talk. The director was freaking out before and after, a repeat of yesterday. After the show, I was thanked for being the calm, cool, and collected head in the control room. I'm looking forward to a non-stressful day where all I have to do is make graphics and push buttons!!

Hoopfest

Hey Everyone,
KHQ is still going good...this weekend is hoopfest so today I went out with Paola and wrote a package on the oldest team in this years tournament...they ranged in age from 62-67 and were all former college bball players... I also shot a couple of in's and out's for practice.

Tomorrow we will be at hoopfest again, but I think we are going to do something on drunken arrests, because they actually have a place in the park where they take the people and keep them in holding after they arrest them...so it should be interesting...

Hope everyone is still having a great summer!

Oregon Trail, Cont.

Hello my RTV friends! I was out on vacation for two weeks, but now I’m back in action. Everyone at CCTV has been great to work with and flexible in terms of my schedule. When I got back this week I continued work on some non-profit video brochures. These brochures have definitely become my babies. We had a meeting with my boss Alan to go over a completed brochure and make sure the style was right. After a few adjustments and an initial screening with the clients, my first brochure will be ready to go. I am currently in the midst of working on about six other brochures.

I also did some on-air work this week. A producer here is creating a video technology podcast and wanted a, “cute girl who knew something about video.” (flattered that I fit the bill) There was lots of tech bantering, and I think it turned out well. I have a newfound admiration for all of you who spend time on camera. I’ve never been so paranoid about how my hair looks. As soon as that show gets all put together I’ll post the link so you can all laugh at me.

Working hard – more next week from the beautiful Willamette Valley. (You know, the place you got to at the end of that Oregon Trail game?)

Scrambling

Wow, next week is my last one.

I feel like I still have so much to do here at Loopline. I think I'm actually going to get a little depressed leaving the projects we are working on. I suppose I'll live...

The cool thing is I'm finally starting to edit a bit on this Patrick Ireland project. What I do is go through each individual tape and create a separate timeline trying to piece together the best bits of footage-- so the editor has a better, more manageable idea of what each one has to offer. 

I don't know if anything I'm doing will make the final cut, but I don't know if it won't. 

Outside of that I've been doing research for another film (on an early 20th century female Dr., I've mentioned it), and trying to help set up a master class workshop the company will hold in a couple of months.

Two of the employees went to a film festival in France this week--I set up a meeting for that too. Felt pretty good about myself.

Anyhow, I'm heading to Belfast this weekend. I hope to get a feel for the perspective of Northern Ireland, since I feel I've learned so much about the Republic. 

Next week is my last one, wow.

-db

FINALLY SUNNY

It's finally sunny in seattle so it finally feels like summer!! The mariners are currently out of town until June 30th but last Tuesday I worked an event called "Girls night out" Where 4 lucky winners got a 500 dollar shopping spree at the mariners team store and a full spa day make over.. so facials... hair... makeup... pedicures... manicures the whole nine yards. Olav (one of amanda and i's bosses) let me shoot aton of the footage so that was pretty awesome. He couldn't really handle the girly stuff haha. I met Jen from 101.5 (a radio station here) and she was really nice and gave me alot of insight into how she got her job. The day was long... 5 am till 6pm. But it was worth it for the hands on experience and anything to get out of logging game highlights!! haha. Today I did game highlights... and helped finding certain shots for our new manager. Since everyone is getting fired this internship has proved to be a very eventful one lately. Hope all is well with everyone!!

Kelly.

The Hectic Newsdesk

I just finished all of my Newsdesk training.

I love that the Assignment Editor gets to have a hand in everything and knows what's going on with everyone in the newsroom, but there were also nonstop distractions.

Watching 4 TV's (we log what stories our competitor stations put in their A-segments every time), answering and transferring incoming phone calls, trying to hear your own thoughts over 6 police scanners constantly babbling, keeping track of which reporters are doing live shots and where, and looking up story ideas to file from the AP wires, every Colorado newspaper, and all incoming e-mails.... is a BIG job!

I really liked being so busy and so in charge of everything, but it definitely got to a point where it was hard to do soo much multi-tasking. If the police scanners were somewhere else, i think i could have handled the rest of the duties... they are soo distracting! The sound level on them constantly varies and lots of them talk at once and have static interruptions.

I am so glad that KMGH uses inews, because my familiarity with the program gives me an advantage. I didn't realize, however, just how much each inews-using station could personalize it so much. I really like how KMGH has created shortcut buttons for each employee, depending on their position. The producers have the setup best for them, and so on... If you can imagine it, these shortcuts make inews even easier and more user-friendly!

One of the most useful skills I have been picking up lately is learning all of the shortcuts on different computers and for various programs. I am learning all of the inews shortcuts at KMGH, and I am learning all of the Avid shortcuts at my High Noon Entertainment job for the Food Network Challenge. After this summer, I may never use a mouse again!

This week at High Noon, we've been busy with shoots-- there's a live studio audience every time. I have gotten to sit in the audience, assist a few photogs, meet the competitors and hosts, and shadow the producer a bit. At the last one -called the "Battle of the Brides" Challenge, where designers team up with brides-to-be and have to make them their dream wedding cake... in just 8 hours!- The designer who made the winning cake surprised me by giving me an extra rose... The rose, like everything else on the cake, was edible but so beautiful and delicate that I saved it. And it's made with a substance that will last for quite a while and not rot, despite the fact that it's a sugary food product. My boyfriend will be visiting me this weekend, so i'm surprising him by taking him to be part of the live studio audience for the chocolate competition on Thursday.

Learning a lot!

Fun Moment

Fun Moment:

during a 10pm newscast the other night the weather guy pulled a great improv move. I was in the studio that night looking over the shoulder of the guy who controls all of the floor cameras... (they are all robotically controlled, and no people physically touch the studio cams, so it's fun to see the guy in the control booth use the different remote controls!) One of the nicest anchors, Anne Trujillo, had just done a VO on how coffee helps keep women's hearts healthy, and she tossed to weather. So the weather man actually went out the studio doors and filled up a cup of coffee in the break room next door -mind you, this was all DURING his weather cast as he was explaining CG full maps and the week's temps- and he walked back in and handed Anne the coffee just in time to sit down for a 3-shot with the 2 anchors. All three of them couldn't stop smiling about it, and the moment the commercial break started, everyone in the studio busted out laughing.

Not only had the weather guy not planned that move beforehand, but he didn't even have a paper to read off of... he had all of this week's temps memorized! LOL

Week 5: More reporting

Worked with a photog:


Just me:


Worked with a photog:

back to it...

hey guys,
sorry i know that i haven't blogged for a while but i don't really have any new stuff.....we went on a family vacation so I haven't been to work in a while, but will be headed back saturday...i'm excited to get back and get into a real routine...i'll write again when i have more exciting stuff :) hope everyone is having a great summer!
~Marianne

Same old Same old

Since I cant remember to do anything, I'm now starting my internship. Ya for procrastinating and forgetfulness! Life at good ol' KPAX is the same as it has been since school's got out. I show up around three, create graphics, ots's, plasmas, eyecams, and then when its time for the show to start I get to technical direct. At least now I only screw up about once every few shows on the technical directing front which is a huge plus. I'm also getting better using Photoshop. I made a standard bike graphic look all wrecked and twisted on Saturday. It was neat. Well, that's all. Hope everyone else is having a blast.

nose to the grindstone

Work was hectic last week! We are getting ready for a two week dark week. (in case you don't know a dark week is where we do not produce any tv shows during that time). That means we have taped six shows a week. I get to see a lot of crazy sketches, and have killed many trees getting everyone their scripts. I feel like I am getting to know the people at the show a lot better, as well as the other interns. I got to sit in on a talent meeting this week where me and another intern pitched our ideas for potential show guests. It fascinated me listen to the talent coordinators pitch thier own ideas. I felt honored when the show's producer complimented us interns for doing our "homework". Although none of our ideas were used we may get to sit in on another meeting hopefully. I am going home for the next two dark weeks so in preparation I have been doing research for more guests, and as always, making lots of coffee. I'll send some California sunshine your way Melissa and Bre, it was 115 in Bakersfield this weekend.

until next week,
Holly

dead ducks

Well everyday I've been logging Wade and Mike kill ducks.... I've never seen a dead duck before so it really has been very interesting to watch. The internship has been going great I really do enjoy everyone that I work with and it really has been giving me an opportunity to see really great footage. Next week I will be looking at Elk hunting.

week4

I had the week off which is nice, I am going to la to go to a concert and I will be back and running with full force. My boss, Jerry is getting married on Tuesday and he is leaving me in charge of filming and editing his wedding. Pretty cool. I am also getting another edit on Sunday and will be busy all week. I really like what I have learned. I also like the time that I have had with the camera and I have worked on strengthening my camera skills. I definitely feel more comfortable with the cameras. there are a few different ones that Jerry has so I get a little variety.
Today in San Diego it is a scorching 98 degrees! Way too hot!! Well, I hope that everyone is doing well and staying busy. Happy Summer officially.

Talk to you later gators

Teal

Moo

So thanks for all your concern about the flooding situation. Madison did get hit pretty hard but not enough to shut the city down. A lot of roads were closed going out of Wisconsin, but luckily I had no travel plans. I think the worst is over though.

We finally finished up the student stories we were working on. They aren't that impressive production wise, but it was time consuming to trascribe the entire interview and find the story to tell in 90 seconds. The group process here is slow--but extremely effective. So those are done just in time for the new staff training that will happen next week. We are helping tech the whole week long training which will include setting up and running audio and powerpoint throughout the sessions. We have also been helping set up the stage and helping the graphics dept.

As far as production goes, we got the go ahead to start script writing and story boarding our ideas for the next two videos they want to produce. But then we have to pitch our ideas and get one of the three approved and then really work on making the script perfect. It's along process, and hopefully we will get to at least start shooting and editing it together.

That's about it from here.

A Part of the Team

That's how I felt this week. I've reached that saturation point where all the little tasks I've been given by the staff here have accumulated to a real contribution. Just yesterday, as I was sitting in on a meeting, my advisor off-handedly asked when I'd be leaving. She actually seemed startled to hear that I'd be gone in just a couple of weeks. "But no, you should try to extend it."

Flattering...

Last week I was telling everyone about this old/new school linear editing system, "Lightworks." Well here's a picture of the controller I described. That circle in the center is the size of your palm and your fingers fit it that groove above it. Still undecided.

Also, so get this. Loopline does their own video mastering (they contract out the mastering of their audio.) So in order to get their films up to theatrical quality, one of the programs they use is this program Color. The software works in tandem with Final Cut Pro, and basically is like a souped-up color corrector times ten. It also has it's own €5000 controller to get just the right look.

Alas, I have to run. I get play photographer for another super top-secret museum archive search.

excl slán!

-db

Oh Poor M's.. Who's Next...

Hey peeps!
The M's are going great! Its been soo fun!! Its too bad everyone is getting fired!! Its a new day everyday at Safeco field. I have worked the cameras and followed the hand held camera, I wear the backpack with the antenna its pretty dorky but whatever I get to go everywhere! The field, the locker room, press conferences! And IF we win we run of the field, that is when you can see me or Kelly on the field. Its been really super! I do the decko projects with head shots and all the info for the screen. I am working on making SWEET head shots with photoshop for the 80's night I have to make them look goofy. And LOTS and LOTS of logging tap!its really a never ending process. Me and Kelly got to watch the production of a commercial with the moose and watched them edit. That was really neat.

Mid-term Reports please

Hi all-Don't forget your midterm reports are coming due. It's been very exciting for me to read what all of you are doing. Keep posting updates, links, video, audio, whatever. And don't forget you'll need to hand in a work sample at the end of summer. Ray Fanning will also be wanting some of you to speak in his Preparing for an Internship class. I'll be making calls over the next week to your internship hosts. Take care and keep working hard.

Almost done : (

Hello Everyone!

Sooo I only have eight days left! It's hard to think I'm almost done! I've been working over 9 hrs a day on average so it's wrapping up around here. I have learned so much around here and I want to remain and intern ha ha! Is that totally weird. I like being the newbie that everyone is excited to teach things to.

Lately I have been working on rewrites and VO/SOT's. My package on the Welcome Home Picnic for the Veterans went on air on Sunday. That was stressful I literally was working on it down to the last minute! I had a great time working on that story. Everyone was so eager to go on camera it kinda got out of hand! I'm surprised so many people want to go on air. Usually its a fight to get an interview with strangers but not lately.

Yesterday I went with the live crew to set up for a live shot at the first Osprey game! It was really fun setting up and hanging out in the stadium before all the fans got there. The shoot went well but the mascot was really annoying! He kept trying to jump in on the live shot.

Everything else is just work work work! I'm finally getting into the swing of things!

Till next week, take care!

Go Stop Go

Dear RTV-ers,

It's the first day of my 3rd week at KMGH. I am really starting to fall in love with Denver, which makes the news here all more more interesting. My internship has been a mix of busy learning and speedbumps, where all of the sudden I have to slow down and stay off to the side. The trick is finding your own mentor(s) in the newsroom.

I work Tues nightside, Wed dayside, and Thursday dayside... Last Wednesday I met someone who I see becoming one of my mentors. Shane is an executive producer who has only been at KMGH for 2 months. He's been working with me one-on-one to improve my script writing skills. We started out by picking out some AP stories for me to rewrite... After my first draft we went over how I could improve each one.

I never realized just how concise readers have to be! It really comes down to pulling the most important info, "the meat of the story" and announcing it right off the bat. I have been struggling with when to attribute --at UM this past year I have been combating my tendency for passive voice by adding in attribution before each fact I bring up-- the problem with this is that all of my sentences start to fall into a monotonous pattern. for example, "officer John Doe says...." This example is great to have as long as the next sentence doesn't start the same way. I keep running into this problem because when I shorten important stories, I often end up citing one source's fact after another source's bite (SOT)...

But most of all, to improve my broadcast-style writing I just need practice. I'm still not getting it right the first time, but every story I write I am catching more of my own mistakes. What I really need, and finally am getting, is the one-on-one teaching to go over everything I write, give me suggestions, and be willing to go over my next draft too. At UM Denise gives me great advice on this but she has soo many other students to work with too. Admittedly, everyone in the newsroom is too busy for me at one time or another, but Shane worked with me right after he finished producing the 9am show that day.

Shane has given me a lot of insight on how & when I can get the best stuff for my resume tape. He talked to the weekend morning crew he works with and they are more than willing to help me record myself anchoring/reporting in the studio after one of their 9am shows. This is a huge hook-up for me, as even the studio chairs are sacred here. Shane has offered to help me prepare for this by helping me produce and write material for me to anchor and report...

this all sounds great! the only downside to these opportunities is that it means coming in at 3 or 4 am on a Saturday and/or Sunday morning. But if I've learned anything from the reporters who have come to UM as guest-speakers, it's those odd-hour opportunities that allow you to get your foot in the door. It sounds like coming in that early, I would be able to do more hands-on learning. And the few morning crew people Shane has introduced me to are soo friendly and helpful. I'm going to come in on a Saturday some week soon, and possibly switch one of my other shifts to this morning-side shift, where there are no other interns, but lots of helpful crew, and the show is a little bit more relaxed then too... they even get free breakfast because they have a guest chef every weekend morning.

I've also found a potential reporter mentor... I've been watching 7newscasts regularly, with particular interest in the reporters who do great packages. Most of my favorite packages have been done by Lane Lion. (cool name, huh?) I admire his writing style and he turns packages regularly. I spoke to him this morning about shadowing him through every step of a package next week. Before this encounter I had only briefly met him, so I was nervous to approach this busy man. But he was really flattered and excited that I would like to work with him. I plan on following up these plans next week.

One of the main reasons I chose to intern at KMGH is the 7 positions they rotate you through. 3 of these positions only require a one day rotation. I am completing those this week.

I am doing the "Production rotation" for the 10pm news tonight. KMGH uses ParkerVision and Ignite programs to run the production booth. I've sat in and watched this once before, but the thousands of screens and buttons in those rooms are still foreign to me.

Tomorrow I am doing the "Call 7 For Help" rotation. This has not been a favorite of the other interns, as you get many complaint calls. But I'm still looking forward to experiencing it so that I am familiar with every area of KMGH.

and Thursday I will be doing the "Graphics Art rotation." KMGH uses Deko for this, (along with inews) so hopefully I will have a little bit of an advantage going into this, because I at least know what Deko is.

I am really enjoying my transcriber & pre-editing job at High Noon Entertainment too. I work with Avid there and I am finally meeting friends around my own age in Denver on my lunch hours there. Ray, just out of curiosity, would it be possible to split my intern hours between High Noon and KMGH?

mariners suck...

So I'm not going to lie the mariners suck. were losing every single game almost... firing general managers... having our own manager freak out in a press conference... 13 swear words in 45 seconds which i am sure most of you have seen all over FSN etc. but my internship has been fun so thats a plus. I worked an event where a silent auction with the seattle seahawks raised over 1.6 million dollars for a charity. I met Matt hasselbeck which was amazing. Then we worked 3 graduations where I was put on camera 2 which is a big camera they use for the games so that was good to get practice in there. And this week so far has been another losing home stand but I get to work with camera 3 which is running around getting fan shots etc. I also got to meet Rick Rizz today by interviewing him for a spread called "baffling the broadcaster" (rick is the voice of the mariners on komo 1000) he was really nice and wanted to hear all about my internship and montana life. I work my last home game for a while this wednesday and then it will be more commercial shoots with the players and promos for radio stations like girls night out etc. I am looking forward to more commercial shoots because those are always fun...
hope all is well with everyone else!! its finally sunny in seattle thank god.

Week 4: Uplifting Balloon Ride

I'm just coming off my two-week producing rotation and cloud nine. I got to go up in a hot air balloon! Too many storms threatened us going up WAY high, so it stayed tied to the ground. Still, very fun.

Here's my story preview "web element:"

It's a little goofy since I didn't plan to be on camera that day (dressed a little down for producing)
And my package:

I love getting to do it all--shoot/report/edit. Most reporters there get a photog. Even the other intern often does! Hmm..

All this national news (flooding, tornados) is happening so locally--that boy scout camp was just 1.5 hours away and we sent reporters down there. I know Melissa touched on just how wet it is, really, all the rivers are just spilling over; it's unbelievable. And tornado warnings! Yikes! Thunderstorms probably 4/7 nights a week.

-Breanna

This is the big time now

Tomorrow I get to sit in on a talent meeting for the show. I am supposed to have a list of five to ten people who I think would be neat guests to have on the show. I am trying to mix the list up- I have found a variety of writers, actors and recording artists who inspire me. I am excited and more than a little nervous to put my input in front of the producers and talent people at the Late Late Show. Last week was exciting. We got to see two bands perform, and Craig did a few hilarious sketches. The days go by really fast, which is good. The summer seems to be flying by. It is quite interesting how I am getting more and more tasks from the staff at the show. I am very happy that they are putting me to good use. I have been helping out one of the talent coordinators responsible for booking and pre-interviewing the talent for the show. Seeing how a lot of her job is just talking to people and watching the work they have done just cements even further in my mind that you have to be a people person to work in entertainment. I am trying my best to be charming and efficient. Oh, and I saw Betty White (a golden girl) last week and she is cute as a button. Until next week...

Tornados and floods

Hello all!

Well--if nothing else it has been quite the exciting week weather wise. (But no snow!! I can't believe it snowed in Missoula!!) I have heard the tornado sirens go off 3 times and there has been a massive amounts of flooding. Pretty crazy out here--I have never seen that much rain fall in that short amount of time--and it just doesn't stop. Check out some pictures online if you haven't seen all the damages these rains have caused--it's pretty crazy.

Anyway--work is going well. Life is a bit slower here than it is in college, but I think that's because I (and all of us I'm sure) are used to living such crazy fast-paced lives at school. So it's a nice change of pace. This week we had our photo shoots for the website, so soon my picture will be on the 2100 website. I'll post the link when they get posted. I also got to voice the narration for a multi-ethnic piece which was fun. I finshed up editing the small project I was working on and survived my first show and tell, where pieces are played for the whole production team and feedback is given. Besides that, the 3 other interns and myself have been brainstorming and starting to do some basic script writing for other videos in the works.

That's about it from here. Just trying to stay busy and not get sucked up by the tornados. And I signed up for a pottery class--which I am very excited about.

Until next week . . .

Melissa

Week 5... whew

I've become almost a pro at Avid editing system lately. When I've got nothing to do I've been making videos with crazy edits just so I can practice what I've learned. Examples are fast-forwarding, zooms, effects that have lighting bolts!
Today I stayed in and didn't go out with a crew... it seemed like no one was here. I finished writing a couple of stories from yesterday and edited them. Minor problem, when I finished one package I realized that I had never opened a sequence, rather I was just editing on a blank timeline. Soo... that whole package was a waste and I had to re-do it. That's kind of how it goes I guess!
Hope everyone's having fun!

Snow? For real?

Hello Hello!

So this is week three at KPAX and today I went to Polson to get shots of SNOW. I am pretty bummed that the weather has been so bad lately! Oh well what can you do I guess it gives us something to report! Yesterday I got to go out and shoot footage in Hamilton about solar energy and I also interviewed the installer of the solar panels. Then I came back to the station and wrote a VO/SOT and I got to report it in the studio at 5:30. This was my second time on air and I was a little more nervous... I don't really know why haha.
I cant get over the quality of the cameras we use. The picture is sooo clear! I love it. I have also been doing re writes for the shows and they let me shoot whenever we go out. I start the producing segment next week so hopefully I learn some tricks to help for next semester! I really like everyone at the station they are so friendly and willing to help! They are constantly trying to find ways for me to get in there and report! I really like that.

Hope all is well with all of you!
ally

week 3

Hello everyone.
Today is cloudy and kind of cold. Which makes it perfectly alright that I am editing all day. I just got a new assignment and I have plowed through it most of today. It feels good to get an assignment and be able to edit with confidence. Maybe this edit isnt as time demanding as the 1st because I understand the program so much better now. I am happy that I have learned Adobe Premiere, one more tool to put in my belt.
I shot on Saturday which was cool. I get to get my own shots and I can't depend on anyone else to get them, I like that I think this has and will continue to be a good learning experience.
Since I last blogged I have joined a yoga studio and cleaned out my car. You cant leave anything in your car because of the heat! Yet the heat is better than snow, which I hear it is snowing in Missoula. Bummer! I cannot believe it.
Well, I better get back to editing and see if I can finish even earlier. I hope that everyone is having fun. Holly, jealous that you met kristin davis:)

Hey RTV-ers!

My first week was a whirlwind. My internship coordinator was incredibly busy, so I was often left to fend for myself. My first week duties were observing and introducing myself to people at opportune moments. The most important lesson I learned was how to be engaged in the newsroom without being an annoyance. Overall I think I did really well at this. As I introduced myself to people around the newsroom when they had a spare moment, an intern who had been there 3 weeks already followed me and introduced herself then too. I have already gotten more opportunities to do things than she has because I have figured out who to ask, while she has spent her time on facebook. Clearly, how much I get out of this internship depends on how much I put into it. Knowing this, the responsibility to get newsroom experience here rests on my shoulders.

In that first week I buddied-up to a lot of photogs who didn't have reporters with them. I got to practice 2 stand-ups and I even got to interview the county Sheriff on the rise in vehicle break-ins. One story I went on with a photog was a bust: the day before a man had burned down 2 churches on the same block, so we went to the churches to see if anyone was there organizing repairs and if and where they would be holding their services, but no-one was around.

I've practiced writing a couple of VO's and one of them got used in a 10pm newscast. At the end of my 10pm shift I go into the studio and watch the newscast live, and sometimes do the same with the 5pm newscast. Oh & I go to the 2pm meeting or the morning meeting daily.

Oh and I got to hear the Governor's live statement on the capital building's front steps. The Governor announced his support for Obama right before his deadline to do so. Every Denver station was there and I got to meet interns from other stations. In fact, Bre Roy I met a photog who worked with you at that RTV camp you went to... his name is Dave Wertheimer and he says Hi Bre!

In my last few hours last week, I started to train on website postings for: www.thedenverchannel.com
I didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I did. Therefore, for my first rotation I am starting with Online News. It turns out, there are a lot more things interns are allowed to do online than near the cameras. I get to pick the top 7 video packages that show up at the top of the website and I get to rewrite AP stories, read the original articles from papers across the nation, and update each story with new info.

My first week certainly kept me on my toes. It was exciting to never know where I'd be going each day and I am making valuable connections.

I also started working at High Noon Entertainment in the Denver Comcast building. I'm getting paid a great salary to transcribe tapes from the Food Network Challenge and I get to go to a shoot of it on Monday. I am learning lots of shortcuts and the people who first introduced Avid to stations across the country work here. It's basically a Production Internship, so I was thinking about splitting my intern hours between KMGH and here because they'll let me do some editing and pick out bites as I am trained more.

~~Stacy

Loving the rain... well not really

Hello everyone, Paige here from rainy Spokane. Apparently before I came in this morning it actually snowed briefly in West Spokane (thankfully far from where I am)! Anyways, I am well into my internship and just have a few weeks left. KHQ has been wonderful! I am editing whenever I can but havn't done anything too awesome yet. When I edit something good (preferably my own story) I will post it on this blog.
Recently I have been writing packages and editing some of them. I've done a couple stand-ups to include in my pachages and hope to do another today. Since I really havn't done a ton of this at school yet I do get a little nervous but am quickly getting used to reporting at the scene of a story.
Here's a few reasons KHQ is awesome:
5. probably the best TV station in the Spokane market
4. photogs are really helpful and help me with projects
3. reporters are nice and pretty funny sometimes
2. I love Spokane (of course...I am from here)
1. There are about 8 Grizzlies around the station! Including another intern- Marianne, a new Producer, one reporter- Paola Cherzad, one photog- Gabe, one promotions guy, the EP, and a partige in a pair tree.
If we can we'll take a picture soon and post it up on the blog.

Enjoy the weather!
Paige Browning

Hey All!!
Well this is my second week at Barrett and I am not going to lie, I was taken back seeing the killing of an Ox. But it has been great working with the staff at Barrett. I've been able to look at a lot of videos of hunting and fishing and would probabaly never see the things I am seeing now. Right now Barrett has tons anbd tons of projects due in the next week so it has been pretty hectic there making sure everything has been loaded. I am really looking forward to working with Barrett