Super Semester Blog Log #4
During this period of Super Semester, I concluded my time working on the content team and transitioned to working on the in-studio team. I will admit, I had a huge sigh of relief once I turned in those final news packages and VOSOTs. Working on the content team was both fun and completely intimidating every day.
At first, being on the content team was a lot of fun. I have always enjoyed making news packages, getting interviews, and relaying a hard news story. Towards the middle of my time on the content team, those feelings began to change. I soon formed a strong love/hate relationship with making news packages and VOSOTS. I made the mistake of letting too many videos pile up, and I ended up with 2 packages and 2 VOSOTS to do with only two weeks left until midterms. I had two words on my mind; they were “oops” and “yikes!”
It became very stressful trying to get these stories in by their deadline. Getting footage and interviews was still enjoyable, but sitting down and writing out voice over tracks, stand ups, and editing everything together seemed like a nightmare. I wanted to just get this portion of the semester over with.
Having a heavy work load at the end of my time on the content team was 100% my own fault. I did learn valuable lessons, even if I had to learn them the hard way. I needed to allocate my time better with going out and getting packages. I didn’t have a problem going and getting footage and then immediately going back to the newsroom and editing it. My problem was actually getting out and finding a story. Once I had a story and motivated myself to go get interviews, I was on the right track. Unfortunately, this motive wasn’t always there, and I ended up not turning in one VOSOT.
Looking back on working for the content team, there are many things that I wish I could have done differently. But since I do not have a time machine to alter the past, I have to accept what I have done. I do feel proud of myself though. Sometimes, things would get really stressful and I would often sit and wonder if I really wanted to potentially be a broadcast journalist. Every time, I would say “yes” and keep doing everything to the best of my ability.
Now, I have completed the first half of Super Semester. I started my role on the in-studio team this past week. In the first rotation in the studio, I was the producer. I fell in love with working as a producer probably an hour after working the first day.
Being a producer was never something I would have thought I would enjoy. I felt like the news was a puzzle and every story that was going to go into that newscast was a piece to that puzzle. When creating a rundown, I learned that stories had to be placed in a specific order so that the story flows well. It really is an amazing feeling watching a newscast that you produced and knowing, “Hey, I put that story in that place” or “I decided that this graphic should be a full screen, and I think it looks great!”
I also noticed that the newscasts I produced resulted in little or no re-shoots. To me, I feel like this means that my newscast either went well, or was completely simplistic and it wasn’t elaborate enough for mistakes. I wish that I was able to produce more than three times this semester, so I will probably look into doing producing for television in another Lindenwood class.
Since I want to work behind the scenes at ESPN for sports broadcasting, doing a few episodes of LUTV news as producer taught me a lot. I look forward to working on the in-studio team for the rest of this semester. It will be interesting producing one more time, as well as stepping onto the anchor desk. I have worked at LUTV since last year and I have never anchored any show besides Lion Pride Sports. It should be exciting to anchor and do sports and weather. But I already know that producing a newscast was my favorite part of Super Semester.
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