It’s Bluegrass Festival time here in Stratford, Iowa.

I decided to shoot this package on my own to cover this little-known event. I ended getting up way too much footage, so hopefully I’ll be turning that into a good package Monday or Tuesday of next week.

Keep an eye out for it on the KCCI.com website.

Thursday, July 8

On Thursday, I teamed up with Mark Carlson and Donna Smith AGAIN, and covered a press conference held by DART, the Des Moines Bus and Transit company.

They’re going to build a new transit center to replace the Walnut Street Transit Mall. It was Mark’s package for that day, so we went to the old transit mall and shot a standup and got some interviews.

I’m glad I don’t use that transit mall. It’s an interesting place.

Also, I learned several things this day, all from Donna Smith (an experience photographer and ISU alum). I’ll try to list them in brief here:

• When to take water bottles at a press conference (basically if it’s federal- or state-funded, you’re OK)
• Always take notes during and interview, and watch the camera’s time code when you hear soundbite-worthy material. (In case there is breaking news right after the interview and you don’t have time later to log the tape before letting the photog edit it – you’ll have the timecode already written down)
• When to use the words “fewer” and “less.” Rule: one less and two or more fewer.

Donna is awesome.

Wednesday, July 7

On Wednesday, I put together a practice 10pm newscast. I discovered doing this activity is quite boring and challenging, especially knowing that hardly anyone will see your work. More to come.

Tuesday, July 6

Tuesday was an exciting day as well!

Since one of the reporters has to stay in the news room because she is expecting, I got sent out to do some interviews.

First, photog Donna Smith and I headed to a press conference held by Iowa Secretary of State Michael Mauro. He spoke about how Republicans had gained about 33,000 registered voters since the primary this spring.

When I returned to the newsroom, I made calls to Des Moines Public Works director Bill Stowe (great guy, by the way), to Eddyville about flooding and evacuations, and to Ottumwa about the same.

Finally, Donna and I went out again to interview with Dennis Goldfield, KCCI’s political analyst and Drake Political Science professor.

The interview went OK. That’s all I’ll say, but I can confirm a theory I have about older men who are political science professors. Again, that’s all I’ll say about that

Monday, July 5

Today was Star Wars In Concert day!

Fellow intern Tyler Kingkade and I went to check out the Star Wars In Concert that was in Des Moines for one day only. We went to the 2:30pm showing with press credentials, but we could only stay for a few minutes into the actual show.

We saw a lot of cool stuff. We also managed to catch a couple words with little kids and quite a bit of b-roll footage in the concourse.

I screwed up – both with recording too much while moving the camera and having the audio levels too high during the actual performance.

But Tyler did a good job writing and editing the story, which can be seen here.

Later, I was about to head home around 10:30pm, when Mark Carlson and photog Spencer heard about a foot chase happening.

We headed over to the scene where there were at least 20 police vehicles. Apparently, a man tried to escape from the PAR electrical sales building and was caught in the act.

Police verbally warned the man (hiding in the lot) that they were about to release the K9 unit dogs. He didn’t come out, so the dogs came in.

Several minutes later, the paramedics were called in to aid a “possible dog bite victim.” The man came out of the lot in handcuffs and covered in blood. Quite a sight.

I didn’t get home until 1:30am, but it was well worth seeing a little bit of spot news.

I went into work today – and saw some interesting fireworks.

Urbandale Fireworks #1

Urbandale Fireworks #2

A whole bunch of fireworks were seized in Urbandale. Thousands of dollars worth, to be exact. KCCI’s Mark Carlson, photog Bob, and I went to check it out.

These were some massive fireworks. Much more than I was expecting. Hell, if this garage caught fire, it would make for a show. And probably kill someone.

Mark turned what probably could have been a VOSOT into a good package (and I remixed it to make one, as well).

And then, after one short work day, I celebrated the fourth of July weekend.

June 27 – July 1

I went to Minnesota.

OK, so this isn’t part of my internship with KCCI, but I went with my family for our vacation. A couple photos here… some related to the vacation, some not.

I ripped up part of my thumbnail when I fell off while tubing.

My sister, getting ready to bike. I know, not the best picture.

My dad and his helmet before we went biking. Sadly, I had the same one on. And I didn't need it.

Today was Geoff Greenwood’s last day. We started off with a goodbye celebration in the newsroom. Words were read and cake was eaten. It seems like Geoff has had a great career at KCCI – starting out in production, then becoming a photog, then photog/reporter, then full-fledged investigative reporter. It sounds like he’ll be greatly missed by not only KCCI but by other stations who used him as a legal liaison.

Geoff will be moving to the Attorney General’s office to fill the position left vacant by a retiree. I’m sure he’ll do great.

I ended up going out with Mark Carlson and David Peterlinz to look into how Des Moines hosting the 2013 NCAA Wrestling Championships will affect the Des Moines economy.

We spoke to the director of the Greater Des Moines Convention and Visitors Bureau in Nollen Plaza. It’s a very nice place.

Next, we stopped by the USA Track and Field Championships at Drake Stadium to talk to some athletes. We had a limited number of press passes, so when sports reporter Scott Reister (sp?) and fellow ISU intern Erin Karonis showed up to cover the actual event, I had to give up my pass.

Below: Pictures of our live truck setting up for the live sports segment from the meet.

Rigging the live truck

Raising the microwave mast

The inside of the live truck

Making quick work, we then headed over to Clear Channel radio in the 1040 WHO radio studio. Steve Daise was interviewing Bob Vander Plaats, and it was possible Bob would give an announcement regarding his intentions to run as an Independent in the 2010 Gubernatorial race.

If Vander Plaats decided to run Independent, it would likely split up the Republican party and give Chet Culver (D) a chance to win.

Unfortunately, after waiting nearly an hour for him to give any clear answer, he said he hadn’t yet decided if he would run as Independent. He only spoke about controversy regarding him running as Lt. Governor with votes at the Republican State Convention, set to take place the next day.

We packed up and left.

David dropped off Mark at the station, and the two of us went to Urbandale to get a VO/SOT of a man hitting softballs for a cause.

Christian James was hitting 2500 softballs in 5 hours to raise money for charity. 50% of the money was set to go to the DeJoode family’s daughter’s college fund.

We grabbed some sound, and I did a practice standup.

When we returned, I wrote the story for the 10pm (we didn’t end up using a SOT… in fact, I think they ended up killing the story). I also got myself together and re-edited the entire texting ban story. Not my best, but getting better.

Thursday, June 24

Today was Thursday. Not super sure what I did on this day. But it’s likely that I wrote stories and worked on producing.

Wednesday, June 23

I came in early today to work on that package (mentioned below).

I ended up showing a high school student around who was visiting to shadow for the morning. His mom is on the Des Moines PD, and he wanted to see how things worked.

Unfortunately, due to flooding up north and other things happening, there were no reporters in the building, and the entire newsroom was pretty dull (we didn’t even have a morning news meeting!).

I struggled with my package, and learned the limits of linear editing. When I kept accidentally writing over the audio, I got frustrated and gave up.

And that was about the same time I got a massive headache. On some days, I would fight through it. Today was not that day.

Tuesday, June 22

More concerns of flooding today.

I went out with Steve Karlin and Glen to check out how levels were looking from Saylorville Lake down to Lake Red Rock.

We stopped down at the Birdland area and got on some rafts/docks the crew clubs use to get up close to the high river waters.

Steve Karlin and the rising river

It was terribly hot, and we ended up coming back. I started work on re-cutting a package that Alex Murphy had done the Friday before about the texting ban set to take effect July 1st.

I also worked on putting together some national news segments/B-blocks for a sample show.

Monday, June 21

“Bring your family to internship day.”

Not really, but I did it anyway.

My parents were in town, so they stopped by around 11am. I showed them around the station, introduced them to people, and they watched the noon newscast.

We then ate at Jethro’s BBQ in Drake Campustown afterward. Great food!

Early morning today!

Since producers are on vacation/getting married, they’ve been doing some shifting, and I ended up working with just Chris Ludlow, the morning Executive Producer.

He gave me quite a few stories to write. I also got to do another fun thing: Trivia!

In the 5am newscast, Marcus gives a trivia question to be answered. Almost instantly, people start calling into our call-in number. The phones start ringing off the hook – and my job is to answer them.

There isn’t much time for conversation with the trivia-goers, so all I said was “Do you have the answer?”

Surprisingly, I got about seven wrong answers before hearing the right one. Of course, the answers continued to come in, but I just picked up the phone, said “Thanks, we have the answer,” and hang up.

It was a lot of fun. Especially for 5:30am.

Still working on that producing – more to come!

Monday through Wednesday

This one’s my fault – I didn’t write in my internship log soon enough.

I was in for the nightside shift every night, so I focused a lot on producing and writing.

My goal for the internship is to start producing a lot more stories for the shows – and perhaps even produce my own segment.

I’ve almost already done this in the morning show and part of the 5pm, so I don’t anticipate this being a huge obstacle.

The more writing experience I can get, the more I’ll be ready for a job in the future!

I also put together a fake 30-minute show on our broadcasting system ENPS. This can be pretty tricky to do, especially when you’re not focusing on one day with that day’s reporters and that day’s stories.

More of my own practice segments and newscasts are to come!

Although I didn’t work today, the story about Des Moines businesses using social media for advertising was finally posted on KCCI.com.

Tyler wrote the story and did the interviews, and I shot it and taught him how to edit. He did really well for his first time editing. I mean, a lot of people don’t normally have their first-ever edited video stories posted on a legitimate news website.

Thursday, June 10

Today there was big news regarding the Big XII conference.

I’m sure you’ve heard how the conference is falling apart. Geoff Greenwood (our more legal-oriented reporter and soon to be working for the Attorney General’s office) was sent to Ames, so I tagged along.

The guy who answered the phone at the ISU athletics office was extremely rude and not helpful at all to Geoff, so we ended up having to focus on the fan- and business owner-aspect of the story.

We talked to the owner of Dogtown University on Welch and some students in the MU.

After eating at Battle’s BBQ, the pouring rain throughout the day didn’t seem so bad.

My original intent was to put together a practice story based on Geoff’s story, but since this story is so up in the air regarding Big XII decisions and the B-roll and sources are located on several different tapes, I’ll probably wait until next week to focus on a simpler subject and perfect my editing/story writing a bit more.

That’s the last of this week – I get a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday break from KCCI this weekend. I’ll be shooting a friend’s wedding, so I won’t be away from the camera for long.

Wednesday, June 9

I didn’t do a whole lot, other than write a couple stories along with SOTs for Megan E, the fill-in 10pm producer.

In the mean time, Dave Busiek approved Tyler Kingkade’s story about Des Moines businesses using Social Media as free advertising. I shot the story, so I’m pretty excited for it to be on the Web. It’s almost three minutes and not really to-the-point enough for air, but it’s a good Web story.

Tuesday, June 8

PRIMARY NIGHT!

Mollie Cooney interviewing Tim Albrecht (Branstad campaign)

It was time for some spectacular election coverage at KCCI.

We had reporters live at five different locations, and at each location was a field producer. Field producers dialed into a conference call line, which was tied to an intercom line into the control room.

The news director Dave Busiek was the producer for the field producers: he told us when our reporter was coming up, and we told him who they would be interviewing and what was happening at each venue.

Three of us interns got to be field producers, so I went with Mollie Cooney to the Branstad location at Seven Flags.

We set up in time for both the 5 and 6pm newscasts. I used a wireless IFB (interruptible feedback) earpiece in one ear to hear what was going on through the station audio and a cellphone with the producer conference bridge in the other ear.

Since it’s about a seven second delay from the studio to over-the-air live, the reporter and camera operator on location have to rely on the IFB for their cue to start speaking and to answer questions.

It can be moderately confusing to a bystander in the remote location, because often times the IFB is hidden and the reporter will start talking, seemingly out of turn with the corresponding video. It’s humorous to see this.

I did some hunting down of people for Mollie, as she was wired to the camera/live truck and moving away to find interviewees would cause potential problems if she would need to go on air right away.

While it was a very crowded and loud room, I didn’t really have any trouble finding the people she needed to talk to. The only problem I had was getting Doug Gross to come talk – I made the mistake of walking up to him and saying “Hey are you Doug? Would you come talk to Channel 8?”

It wasn’t until later that I found out Doug Gross was kind of a big deal in the Republican Party. He just waved me off and walked away.

I went back and told Mollie, who ended up having to detach and go find him. She brought him back with no problems.

Just another learning experience, right?

So they ended up calling Branstad the victor pretty late, so I didn’t get back to Ames that night until after midnight. However, the experience was a lot of fun, and it was nice to be depended upon by KCCI for something.

Monday, June 7

I was producer in the early AM this morning.

I helped out Hillari and Chris again, so I wrote a few stories. I’m getting better at entering MOS commands (for CG and titles, etc) into ENPS.

I also sat out and listened to the scanners while Chris had to step out of the newsroom.

It was a pretty uneventful morning overall.

This morning, we covered Dam to Dam, a race through Downtown Des Moines. KCCI is the media sponsor, so we covered it and did several live shots for the live Saturday morning show.

After covering that, we went to Gray’s Lake, where I got to try a standup. We also stopped by HyVee Hall to cover a Methodist Church convention of sorts.

Friday, June 4

It’s been a while since updating this, so I don’t remember a whole lot.

I went with Keri Gavin again (and photog Alex Murphy) to do a package about a senator who got picked up for an OWI. We went to the corner where he was arrested, and Keri did a standup. She already had plenty of footage from that day, so there wasn’t a whole lot more to do that night.

But hey, you can check out my Camp Lakota story on YouTube, now!

Thursday, June 3

Today, I wrote a VOSOT for a story about a new bariatric ambulance. Pretty simple stuff.

The story was shown in the 5:00pm news.

Wednesday, June 2

Another early bird shift – at 1:00 a.m.

I came in and wrote stories for a few blocks with Hillari. Most of the writing involved looking at the script and packages for the video found through CNN’s and CBS’s satellite service.

After writing a few stories and filling in the news part on the ticker (the scroll that goes at the bottom of the screen during the newscast), I got to “booth,” or sit in the control room with the headset, for almost 30 minutes of the two hour show.

During that time, Hillari asked my opinion on what stories needed to be cut. We have to hit weather and traffic “on the 8s” (it’s a KCCI thing), so I had to pay attention in the live rundown when each story was estimated to hit.

If the time for the weather was off, we had to “kill” stories leading up to it so it would hit correctly.

I also did the negotiation with our traffic guy (who calls in every ten minutes for his traffic phoner). Basically, I answered the phone, found out if the status was still green, then put him on hold until he was needed.

Before we go live with traffic, we have to update the MOS CG template, entering the traffic cameras to be used. The switcher then brings up the CG for the traffic cameras, and I click on the camera control sitting in the control room to choose one of many traffic cams throughout the city.

I also did some communication with the anchors about the trivia question. Each morning, a question is given. During the break, viewers call in hoping to answer the question correctly. The executive producer then notifies the producer in the booth of whom the winner is, and we let Marcus know through the IFB line.

We did have breaking news – a fire happened.

Our photographer was on the scene and confirmed that a woman was found dead.

Hillari took over for the second half of the show and killed quite a few stories to make room for the breaking news.

Our EP then wrote up a breaking news story, and we put it into the newscast a couple times after we got tape back and cut.

It was another productive early morning at KCCI. More to come later!

Tuesday, June 1

Today I went out with Steve on a story about the levee repairs in Des Moines. Even though they’ve been approved, the contractor hasn’t started work.

Steve had talked to the Army Corps of Engineers, who told him the project was a go but that the contractor just hadn’t started.

He got a phone interview recorded for his package, and the contractor didn’t respond to his phone calls.

We went down to the Birdland Levee area where a glass company was located. Steve interviewed Kevin Bauer, the President of the company that had to surround the building with sandbags and barriers in case of another flood.

The amazing thing is that they STILL hadn’t removed the sandbags after two years – mainly because the levee still hadn’t been fixed.

We got a lot of good sound from Kevin. I got to film my own standup, and Glen and Steve also filmed a cluster and a whip.

That’s about it for Tuesday – unless I’m forgetting something!

Another night of breaking news! I’ll start with that:

Around 7pm (while I was in an editing bay), a wood shavings plant caught fire. We sent a live crew out for the 10pm. I didn’t go, though.

At 9:30pm, another call came over the scanner for a fire in another part of Des Moines. On a whim, Keri Gavin and Will decided to go out. I came along, and we took a camera and a laptop for live streaming.

It was the first house fire I’d ever witnessed, so that was interesting in itself. The fire had started in the attic, and there were four fire departments fighting it.

Filming the fire

It started out with a lot of smoke, but flames emerged after a few minutes.

While Will, normally a sports guy, shot footage, I talked to a neighbor who gave me some details. The woman who owned the home was walking around in a neck brace, and she stood right next to us.

Keri sending photos of the fire - "Next Gen News"

I helped Keri find an outlet for her laptop since it was low on battery so she could do a livestream videocast for the 10pm news. She spoke on air over the phone while the control room back at the studio took the feed from her laptop – it was pretty cool.

Keri Live Streaming for the 10pm News

We found a better angle, and they came back to her feed right at the end of the show. What a crazy experience it would have been producing that show!

Live Streaming

I also got to practice doing a standup, holding a mic in front of the camera and pretending it was a live report. It was harder than I thought, but I got the hang of it after a few times.

That’s it for exciting news.

I finished editing my Camp Lakota story on the linear editing system (tape-to-tape). I had some trouble with the miniDV adaptor for the system, so there is crappy audio/video issues. It took me a LONG time to edit – partly because of the adaptor syncing issues but mainly because I’m still getting the hang of hitting all the buttons in the right order.

Linear Editing (tape-to-tape)

Despite the technical issues, I think it’s a pretty good story. I might come back and edit it on the Premiere to polish it – it’ll be online somewhere soon.

Wednesday, May 26

Another early morning shift, followed by having a part in the top news story of the day!

I was supposed to come in at midnight, but I ended up oversleeping (fell asleep at 10:30) until about 2:50am. So I got to KCCI a little after 3:00am.

I wrote a few national stories, but for the most part observed the routine for weekday morning shows.

They’re a lot “newsier”: we have a reporter come in at 4am (Molly Nelson), and she usually does a live shot. We also have live traffic updates and often encounter breaking news situations.

Earlier that morning, there had been a standoff in Ogden where a man was shot and killed by police. Our Ames Livelink photog Dewey got the incident on tape, so we had nice sound and video.

I saw how busy it gets as a producer during the show. At some points, she was answering two different phone calls, monitoring the show, and setting up traffic shots.

A big part of the job was cutting stories. The show was pretty full of content, so if the anchors would ever go over or banter, it would usually cause Hillari to have to drop (or kill) a story.

To kill a story, it just takes a simple click in ENPS, the computer program running the show. However, she then has to communicate with the TD, director, and floor manager that the story is dead.

It could get kind of complicated if you had a very set flow of stories, where one anchor would eventually move to a different part of the set. If you were dead set on that, dropping stories left and right could cause some confusion.

I was nevertheless impressed that the show went off without a hitch.

Cool thing about the morning: a lady called in offering a story idea which was kind of iffy.

She said she’d seen a bunch of kids at Ledges park with a church group. She said they were only supervised by one person.

The kids apparently beat a raccoon to death and then got fined by the DNR.

Before the 9:30am news meeting, I’d called the Ledges park office for info. The man who answered the phone didn’t know anything but said he’d contact the guy working that weekend.

I didn’t hear back from them before leaving at 11am that morning, but I pitched the story in our news meeting at 9:30am.

BUT, apparently the DNR called our station looking for me to talk about the incident at about 1:45pm (obviously I was gone), so they talked to our assignment editor who assigned it to a reporter.

The story ended up being the top news story of the night (and on the web with 47 pages of comments!), and it was neat having a part in getting that started.

Later that day:

I went out with Tyler Kingkade to shoot a story about how businesses are using social media to interact with customers.

Interviewing the "Mayor of Mars Cafe"

We spent a lot of time at Mars Cafe, where they use Foursquare to offer specials and allow customers to “check in” on the site whenever they’re at the cafe.

We spoke to the “mayor” of Mars Cafe about his social media use.

The Des Moines Social Club was our next stop, where we spoke to their marketing gal.

Further information will be posted about the story – hopefully we get it together next week!

Tuesday, May 25

Today was supposed to be Internet day, but fellow intern Addison Speck and I decided to go to Ames and enterprise a story.

Interviewing Students about Deposits

Her idea was to talk to students about troubles getting their deposits back after they leave their apartments.

We spoke to three different students who had trouble getting their deposit back due to damage and uncleanliness. They had some interesting stories.

We then spoke to a representative from Campustown Property Management about deposits and how students could get charged for leaving their apartments in certain conditions.

After getting some good interviews, we called it a day.

In the meantime, there was some interesting activity going on at the station. Slipknot’s bassist, Paul Gray, had been found dead in the hotel room that morning.

We’d heard rumor’s that it was him (and we got footage of them carrying out his guitar), but we couldn’t officially report that it was him until the police had confirmed it. Another one of those “accurate reporting” things.

I came back and noticed that nearly 4,000 people had “Recommended” the story on Facebook – it was a big traffic day for that story, so I had indeed missed some excitement on the Internet front.

Monday, May 24

Monday got more exciting as the day went on.

I came in for the nightside shift. I logged my Girl Scout story (went through and found soundbites that sounded good) and was asked to attend the Des Moines City Council meeting to take notes on a couple issues.

It was a minor task driving through downtown Des Moines and finding  a place to park. However, finding the council chambers within City Hall was easy.

The issues discussed were Dahl’s adding a new store/C-store/gas station/car wash to an intersection in Ingersoll. There were 12 residents of the neighborhood in attendance. Nearly all of them spoke in favor of not having Dahl’s be built in their neighborhood. I’m not completely sure of the entire situation, so taking notes was difficult. There’s a lesson for ya.

I also took note of the homeless shelter’s request to purchase a new chunk of city land. They needed to relocate after their recently-built shelter was facing lawsuits. The council didn’t seem to have a problem with it.

I got back and chilled in the newsroom for a while.

Then – breaking news!

At about 9:50pm, we heard calls over the scanners that a girl had been shot in the chest.

I got to jump in the live truck with photog Spencer, while Todd and Donna rode separately. It was amazing seeing how quickly Spencer got the live truck set up (the microwave dish has to be raised and cables run).

Donna got the camera and IFB set up. Todd was ready, and we went on in time for the headlines at 10pm. Todd gave a brief report of the situation.

Because of a bad experience in the 90s, Todd and the crew wanted to get out of the neighborhood. We packed up and headed back to the station.

We were back in the garage by 10:10pm. That’s the exciting part – we left, did a live shot, and got back in no more than 15 minutes! Crazy.

So it was an exciting end to what could have otherwise been a dull Monday.

Sunday, May 23

Sundays are quite a bit different than other days of the week in the newsroom.

There’s only one reporter who comes in for dayside, Molly Nelson. I went with her and Donna to Elkhart to talk to a family who makes eco-friendly clothing inspired by their daughters.

I got to talk to Molly and Donna about reporting and the industry. Molly is a graduate of Fort Dodge High School, which is only about 30 minutes from where I grew up. Donna has been doing this for longer than I’ve been alive, so both were pretty helpful.

After I got back to the station, I went out with Donna again to go monitor a DOA situation. DOA, or dead on arrival, is when a body is found dead. The fire department investigates, and if more police show up, you know foul play may be suspected.

However, nobody showed up beside the Medical Examiner, so we went back to the station.

I wasn’t done yet, though. I hopped in the car with photographer Jeremy and went to a Vander Plaats endorsement gathering. Bill Salier, a marine and former candidate for the U.S. Senate, endorsed Vander Plaats in a park in Des Moines.

Since it was just the photog and me, I got to interview both Vander Plaats and Salier. Though it was just a matter of asking a couple of simple questions, it was kind of cool.

I went back and logged a SOT of Salier which was used on the 5pm.

I was photography today, but I did more in-house stuff.

KCCI News Director Dave Busiek and Kevin Cooney looked at the stories Addison and I had edited the night before. It’s amazing how much is learned from listening to Dave for five minutes (he’s been a news director for a long time).

For my story about Angie’s Cantina, I could have used several more interviews, and Dave suggested I set up the interview in a more interesting location (rather than up against a wall). All good points. I could have used more B-roll, too.

Hopefully more opportunities arise to work with Dave and Kevin on making my stories better.

Later, I worked with Jon Lemons (a recent ISU grad and tape editor for KCCI) to learn more tape-to-tape editing. I’m starting to get the hang of it – I just need a little bit more practice and then I can work on speed increase.

Linear, or tape-to-tape, editing is what has been used until computers hit the editing scene a few years ago. It’s basically like an advanced dubbing rack – you can pick time codes, in points, and out points. And that’s it. As old as it may seem, the basics of video storytelling and editing are the same – so my practice on Final Cut Pro and Premiere does, in fact, pay off when I edit on linear systems.

I’m done for the week. I may go film a story about the Girl Scout Camp Lakota’s nostalgic closing ceremony on Friday night and see if anything good comes of that.

Thanks for reading!

Wednesday, May 19

Producing again today – but I didn’t do a whole lot with that.

Instead, Addison and I decided to go shoot a package about Angie’s Cantina, a newly renovated restaurant in Campustown Ames.

We interviewed the owner and shot B-roll, followed by several hours of editing. Addison edited and narrated the Iowa Thunder women’s football team story we shot last weekend, and I edited and narrated the story about the Cantina.

I really enjoy enterprising and writing my own stories, though it’s sometimes frustrating coming up with all the resources (and dealing with the problems) that I encounter while shooting and editing on my own.

I’ll try to do more with field tape that is shot while reporters are out doing stories by editing it and narrating it a day later on my own.

I also did quite a bit of story idea work today, made some contacts, and planned for the coming weekend.

Tuesday, May 18

Today was the first day being on the Assignment Editor/Executive Producer track.

I came in at 8am (1.5 hours earlier than normal) and watched Tom Torpy, the AE, do his job. He acts as the “hub” of the news room; taking in press releases, making contacts outside of the newsroom.

He also acts as the reporter/photog scheduler. There is a board with each reporter, photographer, his or her assignment for the day, and when that assignment is due.

It seems like it would require having connections with business owners and public officials to make this job run smoothly. From what I overhear, it sounds like the majority of people he calls already know or know of him, which helps reduce the amount of time and effort it takes to get information for a story.

I talked with Heidi G, the executive producer. She acts as the go-to for reporters and producers when they need help with various things. She’s also in charge of making sure shows are “advertising” features like the “Day in the Life” special we’ve been doing.

Definitely an interesting position. It seems like it would take a few years as a producer to handle the responsibilities of the executive producer well.

Monday, May 17

I was on the reporting track again today. I went out with Todd Magel who was doing the story on Governor Culver’s little traffic stop. I learned some lessons regarding talking to stubborn sources and making the most you can out of what may be a crappy situation

Sunday, May 16

The Midnight Shift!

I came in at midnight to help produce the 6-8am Sunday morning show. There are no other local stations doing a news show at this time, so it was not as fast-paced and news filled.

I learned that quite a few of the things are pre-recorded (including “Newsmaker” series interviews by Kevin Cooney and several Mollie Cooney features). I mean, what else can you do with no reporter at 2am?

I got to write a few stories to accompany VOs and SOTs, and I learned how to navigate the CBS Newspath and CNN Oasis online video servers. Basically, content can be downloaded to a tape from a satellite. All we have to do is set up a playlist through the online interface. Then, a tape editor will find the clips requested by the producer and put them onto a format that is used by the tape operator during the newscast.

I got to “booth,” which entails sitting in the control room with a headset and communicating with people like the show director, anchors through IFB, and master control. I had master control set up different skycam shots, and I inserted the skycam shot commands into the rundown for the show.

It’s amazing to see how quickly graphic and video changes can be made through the ENPS rundown – if I wanted to change a lower third or a skycam input, all I’d have to do is change it in ENPS and the switcher would pull up the updated version when it came in the rundown. This is something that would require a full edit-resave-transfer in an older newsroom (not to mention a crew member to do so).

I hope to do more morning shifts (probably during the week), so I’ll keep you updated as they come.

Thursday was Internet day. I hung out with Tad, the Internet specialist (he has an official name which escapes me right now). Tad spends all day at the systems updating the web with stories.

As a web developer, I took a lot of interest in what was involved with updating the KCCI website. I was (kind of) surprised to find out that everything is managed with a CMS provided by Hearst, and not many design-oriented options are available. The main publishing company takes care of all the devel0pment, and the individual station takes care of adding the content.

I don’t want to reveal too many trade secrets, but KCCI is, on average, the leading station in the group of 27 Hearst broadcast stations for Internet hits and page views. Tad does a great job constantly updating, and it makes KCCI a powerful online news source.

I got to publish a couple stories from the AP Wire, so that was cool.

End of the week – it was a great first week!

Wednesday, May 12

Today, I learned the most I’ve learned so far. I was on the photography track, so I went out with Glen and Steve Karlin to get a VOSOT and a package

Fred, CEO, Locally Grown Clothing Company

We started by visiting the radio station of the lady whose flag allegedly got taken down and cut up. Her station CEO presented her with a new flag and we filmed that; it was a basic shoot.

We then went to talk to some guys who had just launched a clothing company promoting locally-produced goods. Steve interviewed the CEO and the President of the company in a market before visiting a couple other Des Moines locations selling the clothing line.

Steve did a standup, a tease for a bump, and a whip (which I’ll explain later). We got back to the station around 1pm, and I watched Glen and Steve put together the story, from start to finish.

The great thing about today was seeing a package made from start to finish and really observing how a reporter like Steve Karlin puts together his stories.

Interviewing Fred

Just the day before (Tuesday), Steve had put together package about a 100 year old woman in a care center who played the drum for the residents. That story really exemplifies his style: short, sweet cuts that let the video and people in the video tell the story.

You don’t see very much of Steve’s face because he lets Edna (the drummer) tell the story. And telling the story in this case doesn’t mean her talking the whole time on camera – her drum-playing and reactions help give the viewer a sense of what is going on.

Steve told me that he makes all his stories in this short, attention-grabbing manner – whether it be a murder, a soft feature, or any story that could have potentially been a boring grab-and-go story. Glen the photographer shot A LOT of t-shirt B-roll.

He also told me rules for his own standups (when and where they’re used in the story). Most importantly (to me, at least), I noticed how Steve was planning his package from the moment he started the interview.

He told me (and I’ve experienced this, too) how you can “catch” sound bytes as they’re said during the interview – so when someone says something that sounds like it could go into the story well, it’ll be noted in Steve’s head and he’ll later write it down and use it in the story.

Next Gen News

Filming a Whip

I saw what Heart Corporation has called Next Generation News in action today. Reporters are asked to create “whips,” or short, less than 30 second clips they can send to the newsroom on their BlackBerry phones and get on the web. They basically act as a tease to watch the newscast later that night. Steve made one where he showed the clothing stand and spoke about how Iowans are latching onto a new trend and expressing themselves in a movement for locally-grown goods.

He also sent a few photos with his phone (they have a pretty decent photo quality).

This process is what I assume to be an effort to get news out there more quickly. The KCCI website is the most visited website of the entire group of Hearst broadcast stations, with the Boston market coming in at a close second. If reporters can send in pictures and whips, in addition to having a staff member update the web all day, it keeps viewers engaged and creates a whole new medium for news interaction.

Why We Do What We Do

Steve also talked to me about why we, as journalists, do what we do. Putting reasons like the “fourth estate” and informing the public aside, it really comes down to the fact: we love what we do. If you have a job where you make a ton of money but have to sit in an office building all day, eagerly anticipating the day you retire – what’s the point?

Today reaffirmed my decision to be a journalist: I get to utilize my creative abilities with writing and photography while visiting interesting people and learning new things everyday. Today was a good day.

Tuesday, May 11

Tuesday was cool! The story idea I suggested (courtesy of my mom) made it as the 6pm lead: How do suspended drivers get their licenses back? Angie Hunt from the Ames Livelink (who also teaches at the Greenlee School at ISU) covered the story. It was pretty cool to think that the idea I proposed became a news story. It was also interesting to see how the producer of the 6pm shaped the newscast to make that story – which would be of lesser importance if there were something more exciting – the lead story.

I was in the “producer” track, so I asked around to see if any producers needed my help. Megan E., the 5pm producer, had me sit down next to her while she put together the 5pm. Structuring the show is much more complex than structuring a show at ISU. The system used is called ENPS and was developed by the AP. It is MUCH easier to use and more functional than EZNews, the software used at ISU. Each block is split into individual segments. For example, a package is surrounded by a “lead” (the intro) and a “tag” (the outro), and makes up one segment. The anchors have built-in anchor cues, and the software translates everything to both the teleprompter and to the closed captioning system.

The graphics are pretty interesting as well: at ISU, we have to make our own graphics in Photoshop using a template which is stored on a server or held on a flash drive. With ENPS, a template is already available within the program. The only thing the reporter or producer has to do is type the textual information, and the CG lower third is produced and pulled up during the newscast. This saves time and effort but probably has eliminated some positions in the newsroom. This is an example, I’ve learned, of how news stations are cutting costs.

I sat next to Megan during the 5pm in the control room. It went as expected; she was able to communicate with the reporter in a live shot and with all other members of the crew through the intercom system. Stories had to be cut to keep time (the 6:30pm CBS Evening News is on immediately after the 5pm newscast ends), and the wrong show was loaded in the very first block (so there were some visual errors).

It was great learning about producing by watching. I hope to learn more by actually getting my hands dirty by writing some stories. I come in at midnight this Sunday to help produce the 5-7am newscast that morning, so hopefully I’ll get a chance to do some real work!

Monday, May 10

Today was my first day at KCCI as a news intern. I started at 9:30am sitting in a news meeting, where everyone present is expected to give a story idea. This is where the assignment editor, reporters, news directors, and some photographers plan their day and who is going to shoot what.

I hung around the newsroom for a while until I went out with Amanda Lewis and photographer Glenn. We went to dig up more facts on the recent Ankeny crash where two children were killed. We started by looking up a prior case involving one of the drivers at the Courthouse. We then went to the house listed on the driver’s license, and talked to his ex-girlfriend. Driving to Ankeny, we visited the courthouse there and spoke to an officer regarding the case. Finally, we talked to a woman in the third car involved in the accident. We got video/sound from both the police officer and the woman.

By this time, it was after 3pm and the story had to be on air by the 5pm newscast. It was crunch time, so Amanda worked on writing the story and logging tape, and Glenn cut the VO and SOTs for the newscast. The story went on as a package for the 5pm wrapped by Amanda sitting on set. She changed it a little bit and used just VOs and SOTs for the 6pm.

Later that night, Todd Magel used the footage when he gave an update to the story on the 10pm. It was interesting to see how much 10 minutes of simple, well-shot interview footage and B-roll can be used on three different newscasts in different ways.

I definitely learned methods of calling and contacting people, as well as asking for information, by listening to Amanda.  I also learned how to handle when someone tells you something in an interview but then is afraid you’ll use it in the story. Technically, you can use anything that is said to you (ethically) as long as they don’t specify that the information is off-the-record beforehand. However, it is good to keep good relationships with your contacts and agree to their wishes (as long as it doesn’t have a massive impact on the story).

I’m sure I have much to learn as this was only the first day, but I look forward to what is to come!

Although I’ve secured a great internship at KCCI-TV this summer in Des Moines, I’ll share with you what ended up (probably) causing the demise of my possible internship with CBS in New York:

I was, at random, asked three different questions by the coordinator:

1. Who is the U.S. Secretary of the State?
2. Describe President Obama’s family
3. Who is the anchor of the CBS Evening News?

Apparently, I was spacing off during the transition between administrations and never noticed that Hillary Clinton had become the U.S. Secretary of State. And during that transition, I didn’t catch the names of Obama’s daughters, Sasha and Malia. Finally, in a final blow to my self-confidence, I didn’t know (or remember, at least) that Katie Couric was the anchor of the CBS Evening News.

Seriously?!? How does someone not know the answers to those three simple questions.

The Lesson to be Learned: No matter where you’re applying, make sure you’ve got a solid grip on who is running our country and what the current political issues are. More importantly, make sure you know the names of the people running the business for which you’re applying.

I’m really looking forward to KCCI this summer, but maybe after I brush up on my U.S. political knowledge (and watch prime time CBS television), I’ll get another shot at being a CBS news intern.

I’ll leave you with a Katie Couric clip discussing unpaid internships (which inspired be to write this post). Enjoy.