Week Three

This week was all about waking up early to work on the morning show.  Wednesday the studio was in a frenzy over tropical storm Beryl. A reporter was assigned to the morning show to report live on the storm from Wrightsville Beach. It was so thrilling to watch the newsroom prepare and execute the live shots throughout the show and teases. Storm coverage was definitely one of the more exciting aspects of tv news. After the show was over,  I went into the field with the producer of the morning show, Allyson, and another intern, Ashley, to work on a VO about a cruise ship called the Queen of the Mississippi that had been forced to dock in Wilmington due to the storm. The ship had been in Maryland for renovations and was on its way back to New Orleans. We were not able to get on the ship, but the video we got of the outside was really cool. Back at the station, we were able to quickly edit the video and write the script before calling it a day.

Thursday,  I was up again at 4 am to help out with the morning show. I answered phone calls for trivia, ran the prompter, and learned more about working the huge cameras in the studio. After the show was over, I got some practice reading the teleprompter and working with the green screen. I loved getting experience working in the studio. At first, I was a little nervous, but spending more time practicing in front of the camera is definitely helping me get more comfortable. Once I spent some time in front of the camera, I got more practice writing for the show. I was given the task of writing a spelling bee trivia section of the Friday show. I really enjoyed getting more experience learning to write in a fun, conversational tone. During the day side shift, I went out with Katie to cover a story on the computer software updates at the New Hanover hospital. The media relations for the hospital was extremely nice. She set up interviews for us with important people within the hospital staff and led us to a vacant floor where the nurses were practicing with the new software. Katie and I were able to film many stand ups in one of the empty rooms. Although I stumbled over my words a few times, I was able to come away with some awesome clips. To watch the story on the hospital click here. We got a quick lunch at Chickfila after leaving the hospital, and then headed over to an old cement plant in Castle Hayne for another story. A source had given the station a tip that the cement plant had been used as a filming location for the end of Chernobyl Diaries the movie. Katie and I went to get some b-roll of the plant. I was able to learn more about filming and using the camera. As we were about to leave, Katie gave me an extremely exciting opportunity! She called the station to ask if I would be allowed to front the VO. After all was approved, we quickly typed up a script in the car and shot my stand up. It was a fantastic experience. Sadly, an expert on the story was unreachable, so the story fell through. I was still very happy to get the practice and extremely excited to be considered ready to be aired on the show.  It was an amazing day of work!

Friday was a slower day for me. I went into the station to work the morning show. I  was excited to see my Spelling Bee trivia on the air. I got to answer phones at the end of the segment to find a winner. It was wonderful to watch my work come together on air. After the morning show, I pitched my ideas at the morning meeting, and I was assigned to go out with Ryan and another intern, Ashley, to cover a story on a high number of sea turtle nests. The story was very interesting, and I was able to get a very long, detailed interview with a member of the Turtle Watch. After the interview, we shot some b-roll of the beach before heading back to the station to load the video onto the computer. Once the video was saved, I left the station having wrapped up another wonderful week of work.