2nd stop, the in house team!
We finally made it! The first section of the content team is no longer! The big switch finally came this past week and has definitely been bittersweet. The last of the content days were long and filled with myself, Kristine and Michelle all spending late nights in the newsroom. While we were all exhausted by the end of it, I felt like we grew closer together and were able to celebrate the end.
Becoming an Anchor
After the switch, my new position became the anchor. My first thought was, “I don’t want to have to watch myself on camera for fifteen minutes every Tuesday and Thursday morning.” While that was just something I was going to have to get over, I was excited to learn something new. There was a completely different writing style than there was for the packages and VO-SOTS. Instead of splitting scripts up into three or four different sections, the stories were written in one fluid piece. However, the writing still needed to be conversational and in present tense. I quickly learned that the producer is the one that gathers the stories and us as anchors quickly sign up for the ones that we want to write. With the stories coming from the AP Wire and St. Louis Post Dispatch, I finally realized how different writing for a newspaper and writing for television is. Taking the pieces and making them conversational was easier said than done, but after three days of anchoring, I think I am finally seeing how it should look.
3,2,1, We Are Live
My first day butterflies that I experienced the day Super Semester began popped right back up in my stomach the first time I sat behind the news desk. I was comforted by the fact that Kristine was sitting next to me and we were both going through the same emotions. However, I did not realize it was going to be harder to sit next to a really close friend than a regular classmate. The first show definitely had some bumps in the road, along with giggling when we as anchors flubbed some words.
The second time we were at the anchor desk together, we tried to act the exact opposite from the first show. It came off as cold and we both looked like we were angry. We were not making eye contact with one another and it looked like we hated each other. Seeing both the first and second show, we both decided we needed to find a happy medium. I believe the third show was our best yet, and I can not wait to see how we took our learning experiences and applied them for the camera.
The Stories We Cover Are Actually Real!
Being on the content team, I was so focussed on my own packages and VO-SOTS I never really heard what the anchors were reporting. However, writing the stories that are read on the newscast, I hear and comprehend what is going on in the world. It is fun to see stories that I just covered being covered in other newscasts around the St. Louis area. I like watching how they do theirs and learning from the professionals. I also have experienced the fact that life does not stop when the story is written. There was one particular story about a military man who was missing in the St. Louis area. We wrote a story and discussed it on the live show. However, an hour or so before we aired the segment, it was discovered that he had been found dead. Brandon ended up having to take the story out of the re-runs because the story did not apply anymore. Definitely a learning experience for when I become the producer. I have already made a mental note to constantly check updates on my stories that I want to be in the show because situations might change before our show goes live.
News Worthy Story of the Week
The Hilary Clinton trial was very important this past week and we reported the story on our show. It was constantly playing on the TVs in the newsroom and it was fun to see the story developing throughout the day. History was being made and the effects of the trial could have a factor in the presidential election. I liked having a small piece in reporting news that could affect every citizen of America.
