I can barely believe that the halfway mark of this exciting
experience is approaching. The time seems to be speeding by. As I think about
the past few weeks, I realize I have had so many unique opportunties but there
is still much room for improvement. One of the first stories I helped film was
one on Homes Eyewear, the eyewear company that makes wooden glasses frames out
of razed Detroit houses. The turnaround time of our prerecorded pieces is about
2-3 weeks so last week I was given the opportunity to help write it with on of
our anchors, Guy Gordon. He was so happy with my work that he did not even feel
the need to change it and I was offered to opportunity to script for future
stories. This was incredibly fulfilling to see that a task I had taken with not
much previous knowledge turned out to be one that I could not only satisfy, but
do well enough to be read by our anchors on air. To hear my own writing read by
Karen and Guy was such a rewarding, surreal experience. Writing has always been
something I enjoyed and consider a strength of mine so to see that I could also
put together a live TV script was incredibly encouraging.
My on-air experience is still something I need to work on. I
have been practicing my stand-ups, which is the way you open, bridge or close a
piece. As most people often are, I am very critical of myself on camera. While
this is something I thought I was relatively experienced at through my
experiences through WOLV and The Michigan Daily's video department, I
still have a lot of room for improvement. Learning and taking tips from the
anchors, reporters, video journalists and photogs at WDIV has taught me so much
even in this short time. I've taken away two simple, essential pieces of advice
from all of the suggestions I am receiving. Firstly, it is important to be
natural yet poised on camera. While this seems easy it is sometimes reflexive
to slip into either a completely colloquial or utterly cliché and seemingly
fake persona on camera, neither of which will appeal to viewers. Secondly, even
though each reporter, anchor and photog will have a suggestion for you to
improve your on-air presence, it is necessary to follow your instinct and find
your own balance.
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| Some look-lives we shot for our weatherman |
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| Wish Upon a Teen shoot |
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| One of our vans |
sounds like you learned a lot and are coming out with a great understanding of what else you need to learn -- awesome!
ReplyDeleteThat eyewear company you described sounds amazing! Glad everything is going so well for you, especially with something as difficult (to me, anyway) as being on camera.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds really cool and like you are gaining a lot of experience! Though you have been on camera before, I'm excited to see what skills you pick up from this first hand experience!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a really awesome experience! Its nice that you get to experience many different aspects, like helping write scripts. I also like how you have made the connections between Umich and your internship :)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much! I'm really enjoying reading about all of your internships as well, excited to hear more about each of your experiences!
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