Show Number Four

Show number four pre-production is underway. I still haven't gotten a show topic, but I am preparing by researching some interesting topics that may strike a chord with a younger audience. I haven't thought of any ideas, but I was approached by Erroll and asked to be assistant producer for All Sides. I am stoaked. I will have a plethora of responsibilities that will include segment producing, contacting guests, and soliciting ad sales. This is the part of being on a show that I am most excited about. My company along with my sister, MadBrooke Productions hopes to produce our own shows starting in 2007 so learning the aspect of production and fundraising may be the most important part of my internship yet.

As far as field reports, I haven't had the chance to delve into them yet because of lack of funding. Hopefully when we close some of the sponsorship deals this will become a reality: although I'm not really interested in field reporting.

High School Football Star

Cool Slideshows

Talk about meeting deadlines, this show was the best description of my ability to work well under pressure. Friday's show on sports afforded me the opportunity to interview a high school football star from Long Beach Poly. Donovan Warren is a Senior at Poly and is one of the top 100 athletes in the United States. He has yet to select a University to attend but has made three official visits. His number one choice was USC until he branched out to Arizona and Michigan. He loved the small town life in Michigan away from the hustle and Hollywood bustle of his home town. His last visit to Cal was extremely influential and he is really leaning towards the option of going to a school far away from home. I learned a lot of interesting things about Warren. He was moved into the Varsity division of Poly's Jackrabbits in his freshman year during the playoffs. His position of running back and defensive back is secure as he is the only athlete on the team to be ranked in the top athletes. He is experiencing the pressures of being recruited, but both of his parents are behind his decision 100%. He says his decision wont rely as heavily on football as it will on academics. He has a 3.5 GPA.

When I got the assignment to interview Warren I had a day and a half to come up with questions and interview those that know him. I was able to interview both parents by phone. His mother, was a great interview. She was very excited about his success and talked about how she wanted him to stay close so if he needs anything she could help out. I brought this up during the interview and got a great response out of the subject. Mr. Warren also played football for Poly in 1987 and he attended the show with Donovan. This was Donovan's first television appearance and he did extremely well.

As for my conduct during the interview, I would give it a C+. The camera caught me looking down at my notes a lot and I nervously bit my lip during the subjects responses. I took my professors advise and tried to smile less. It worked when I was conscious of it. I forgot to bring up a few important points like Donovan playing in the 2007 Army All American Bowl in San Antiono Texas. He said this was a major goal for him. But with only 13 minutes to work with I didn't get to touch on it.

All and all it was a great experience. I was also invited by the Director Dave Chapman to do some guest hosting and voice overs for Charter. So I can see my internship growing into something more already.

Slow at All Sides

Things are really slow at my internship right now. I am just working with Erroll on show ideas and attending community meetings to get an idea of what is going on in the City of Long Beach.

Will Show Number III Be a Field Report???

Show number three should go a whole lot smoother. I am preparing a new segment to enhance the field report aspect of the show. Erroll has planned a field report for the past two shows, but to no avail. There has been a bit of a challenge with finding a camera operator to coordinate time to go into the field and shoot. Once we get the secure story we're going after it should be fairly easy to put together a show. I am very excited about the opportunity to write a package and get into the field and report. Since I completed the Television News Production class I haven't had a chance to write a news package for TV, so this should be very useful.

This internship has helped me so much in the field that I am already preparing to go into. My research skills have been enhanced considerably. I am ready to add to my profile a bit more writing experience. Although I write for the various magazine outlets, the style of writing varies drastically from news-writing. When I first got into magazine writing all of my stories sounded like news articles instead of the narrative voice. So I plan on making an acute balance in my writing by doing more field reports and packages.