The Whirling World of News

Today I was a good intern. This means, in short that I both did the menial tasks that no one else wanted to do while also fulfilling my own agenda.

After writing a reader I collected the writings I could find and found a tape, I then brought them into the recording studio and recorded a voice over. I played it back and I sound like a real anchor, which I find SO SO SO exciting... makes me reconsider my future in broadcast.

I also shadowed a woman in sales. She explained to me her "exciting" job and others in the department.
Perhaps you haven't been in a station's building before; if not here is how ours is set up: As you enter there will be a beyond extravagant entryway with Cinderella stairs and marble floors (thank you political advertising), the first floor is all news- a busting shuffle of button-down shirts pushing past each other with a constant murmur of ringing phones. The room is full of television sets, they fight the incessant ringing with their horrifying pictures which flash simultaneously with their perky faux mid-western voices. The fluorescent lights highlight the bags under the eyes of each reporter and seem to extract the effects of the burnt coffee which cools on each desk. Hovering above this insanity is the second floor- sales. This floor is a different world from the ringing caffinated one below. Here everybody is quiet, the desks aren't scattered haphazardly but every person has their own sanitized glass cage with their organized desk and framed photographs hanging above them. Below reporters seem to be playing a game of musical chairs- switching desks, computers and resources like Wallstreet-natives. Here, in sales, each person knows their tasks; the ones incomplete from yesterday and the ones on the lists in their minds.
I felt the need to paint a picture, because that is exactly what it is. You would think they soundproofed each office. Having been in news all summer I feel a little bad for the sales hamsters. The woman assured me that they like their jobs stating she'd been there for 27 years.
I asked all the producers to write, as I always do, but this time I decided not to wait for them but to go ahead and write them anyway and if they delete them that is fine, I wrote about how fat is contagious. I don't make this stuff up.

I spoke with the "big guys" and they refused my request to leave the studio with a reporter to see the full process of how a package is made due to insurance reasons. I talked to a reporter who has taken a liking to me and told her that I would soon be seeking a part time job at a station in Bangor and she told me that she used to work at a station there and could refer me to someone there. I plan to take advantage of this. I told her I would probably end up behind a camera, she told me I was beyond that and should be a producer. I'm pretty sure my voice squeeked a "really?". I was shocked she thought that I could be a part-time producer with my lack of age and experience. I'll go for it.

Perhaps I should take to writing literature instead.

9hrs

Weather and Readers

Today was so slow. I started my day by shadowing the main meteorologist/weather guy Mike. Weather is complicated is what I learned. I did the weather for the Maine Channel and believe me, it was nothing like this. He never uses a script either.
Afterward I was asked to write three readers and a kicker. I had no idea what a kicker was but it is just a 'fun' story. Mine was about a national spelling bee. My three readers were heavily edited but the kicker was all my own words, 25 seconds worth. That is a lot of seconds for our station, most readers are 15-20 seconds.
I met with one of our affiliates: CNN. A reporter and a few crew members were at the station. I got to talk to the woman, Dana, she encouraged me to apply for an internship in Atlanta where CNN is based, she even gave me her email. I'm sure after this internship I will be able to get almost any internship I want, especially ABC or CNN since I've now worked for them.
I was really bored come 11pm so I left early. My 'boss' wasn't happy about it but she had nothing for me to do and neither did the producer.
Other than that: answering phones and filing papers... o and my favorite... making labels for the tapes and their shows.
The presidential debates that we and the paper I write for are hosting the primary presidential debates next week so hopefully things get insanely hectic and fun.
Robby the freshman intern is still sitting at his desk answering phones all day. Props to him, I couldn't sit still that long.
As for how this relates to school... I don't think any class could teach me the tricks of writing for TV. It is tough. You have to take thousand word stories and chop them into 15 seconds while still getting all the info in. I hope to get better at it but it is hard to discuss what I've done incorrectly with the producers because they are so busy. Hopefully they will give me more chances so I can improve.

8.5