Super Semester Blog Log #6
After countless hours of shooting video, editing packages, producing newscasts, and writing stories, the semester has finally come to an end. On December 3rd, the Tuesday/Thursday Super Semester class had their final live newscast. It’s crazy to think that it’s all over.
Let’s Talk About Super Semester
After hearing rumors of how awful this semester would be, it’s a shock that I’m still alive. Super Semester was not awful, or bad, or scary. If anything, it’s the most realistic experience I’ve had so far in my college career.
I’ve only been at Lindenwood for 1 ½ years, but I already know that the Super Semester classes have given me the most experience that I need in the “real world”. It’s true that the class did get intense at times. Everything is due in a small timeframe and every project takes hours of dedication. But that’s what should be expected in the real world.
Super Semester is not meant to be an “Easy A” class. Jill will not sugarcoat anything. If a story is written poorly or you need to add more sound bites to a package, she will tell you. She doesn’t do this to be mean, she does this to help benefit us as students.
Reflection
Since my last blog post, I took a seat at the anchor desk for a few newscasts. It was a very interesting experience having to write, edit, and practice stories in a short amount of time before each newscast. It was awesome to see everything come together in the final production.
For the last few newscasts, I was assigned to be the sports and weather anchor. I’ve been in the LUTV studio since last year, so I’ve done sports and weather before. Being in this position allowed me to take a step back to help my classmates in the afternoon after I finished all of my work. I felt like I learned a lot this semester, and I was able to show that knowledge by helping my classmates.
I enjoyed being the sports anchor specifically since I want to work in the sports broadcasting field. The sports stories that I wrote in these last few newscasts have been some of the best sports stories that I have ever done. I tried to get a lot more VO in my stories. During many of the sports segments, we were able to go from one VO to the next for multiple stories. This made the sportscast look better and added another element to each story.
What’s Next?
During finals week, we will be working on our demo reels and our online portfolios. I’m excited to see how everything turns out. It’s very strange going back and watching my old packages and reading old stories that I wrote earlier in the semester. I notice that I have grown a lot as a writer and video editor. I hope that I’m able to find good pieces to include in my demo reel.
Since I am only a sophomore, I know that I will have videos and stories to add to my portfolio and demo reel in order to enhance it. It’s amazing that I was able to get this experience now. I’m hoping to do internships during the summer to make my way towards the career of my dreams. I feel confident going forward with my career because of my experiences in Super Semester.
