Criminal Minds: A Day of Attempted Murderers & Rapists

I was going to post my last two and most recent entries about my internship together, but these past few days have been so crazy, I'd rather post one at a time. So here's my entry from last Friday:

In an entry dated 2-19-10:

Criminal Minds: A Day of Attempted Murderers and Rapists

Yesterday, the reporter Joleene had gone out to cover a murder for hire story about a CNY native who offered to pay his friend $15,000 to kill his grandparents in Liverpool, NY. Today we would be doing a follow-up story, trying to get sound from the grandparents and/or their neighbors.

Once we started putting together/setting up interviews, Joleene listened to a message she had received last night from an angry relative of the grandparents. Since she had used the grandparents' names in her story the night before, this relative felt she was defaming them.

This made Joleene pretty uncomfortable about going back to their neighborhood, so instead we interviewed Onondaga County Sheriff Kevin Walsh. We got some decent bites from him, and then he started talking about a completely different story.

Walsh mentioned one of the county's most wanted criminals who was captured earlier that morning in New Jersey. We wound up killing two birds with one stone and interviewing him about that too. When we got back to the station, a VO was already written about the most wanted suspect, but I pulled a SOT from Walsh to make the story a VOSOT.

I spent the rest of the day putting together the package on the murder for hire case. There wasn't much footage to use, but I made it work, and Joleene told me she was impressed with my writing of the story...especially with the lead sentence.

We watched the other stations air pretty much the same murder for hire package that we did, except they had the neighbor reactions that Joleene decided not to do. But we know we had done good work, and I left the station feeling pretty accomplished.

A Little Less Reporting, A Little Less Fun

Once again, here's another update from my internship at News 10 Now.

In an entry dated 2-17-10:

A Little Less Reporting, A Little Less Fun

Before arriving to News 10 Now, I dressed up with every intention of shooting a standup for my next package and looking extremely professional.

I arrived exactly at 3:00pm for the nightside shift to learn that Kat -- who I normally shadow on Wednesday -- had already left to cover a story about the National Grid. Amanda was about to give me the option of going out with a photog (photographer) who was getting footage for a feature story, but realized eh had left already too.

This led me to spending my shift in the station. I spent a little more than an hour in the traffic room with Brad until I got bored. I learned the ropes of traffic, but reporting on it ever 15 minutes -- even though it's live -- gets pretty repetitive.

So I spent the rest of the night with an AP (Associate Producer), Courtney. She produced the Binghamton news for each hours, putting together the rundown and writing the News Minute for each hour, based on the latest news that came in.

I was able to take a break to eat and check my email, but like I said, the majority of the night was spent watching the AP write. The good news was that I did add some effects to my package from last week (the budget package) and dub it to tape. Success!

NY Driving Law Change

As part of my TV Producing and Reporting class, I put together a news package today. Technical difficulties prevented my package from airing, but here's the link to our class site with my package.

Check it out!

Reporting from a Different Angle

Still playing catch-up on blogging my journal entries about my News 10 Now internship. Here's the next one:

In a message dated 2-12-10:

Reporting from a Different Angle

Well this morning's news meeting made it pretty clear that today was a light news day. Story ideas revolved around going to a flower shop to see how it prepares for Valentine's Day and another piece on the Great Appliance Swap Out, which had been covered earlier in the week but didn't officially start until today.

Ultimately, I went out with Joleene to do a follow-up Swap Out package at Olum's Appliances to see if many shoppers were coming in to take advantage of the Swap Out rebates. I had never gone out with Joleene and was looking forward to it because she seemed funny and smart and acted like she knew what she was doing.

I worked on Wednesday's budget package I hadn't finished until we left the station. The people at Olum's were really friendly and amenable to interviews, and Joleene let me do a lot of work. I found a woman to interview and conducted the on-camera interview myself. Besides shooting, Joleene and I participated equally on the story, talking to people and shooting out own standups.

I wrote my story easily when we got back to the station, and Joleene and I discussed different angles of the story. We realized that the story here wasn't just how many people were coming in these next 10 days to save money on washers, refrigerators, and freezers through rebates. No, this was a story about the busy phone lines and incredibly slow web site that are making it difficult for people to apply for the rebates.

We reported on the story from a new, original angle. One that said while New Yorkers have waited months to purchase these appliances so they could save up to $105 with trade-ins and Swap out rebates, they are now learning that they must apply for the rebates online after they've purchased the item(s). With so many people logging on, often times they can't get through at all. Since New York state only gave $17 million for the first come first serve program, there's no telling who will save money and who won't.

I edited this piece and had Joleene add a few effects so it looked good. Then I had enough time to finish my budget piece.

At the end of the day, Joleene told me I was impressive and would be a great reporter someday, and that made all my hard work worth it.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Syracuse Superintendent Announces Budget

By next week, I will be completely caught up with all my journal entries. Until then, here's another entry about my internship with News 10 Now.

In an entry dated 2-10-10:

Syracuse Superintendent Announces Budget

I knew that based on last Wednesday's date mix-up, tonight I would be going with Kat to the hydrofracking meeting at Nottingham High School. But instead we were sent out on two stories: one was the Syracuse City Board of Ed meeting, and the other was the hydrofracking meeting.

But when we got to the Board of Education meeting and learned that it would be the meeting in which superintendent Dan Lowengard would propose his 2010-2011 budget, we stayed and had someone else cover the fracking meeting.

Lowengard proposed a budget that called for using half of the district's "rainy day fund" and cutting at least 150 teachers and aids. Even after all this, there would still be an $18 million gap in the budget, and Lowengard hoped to close that by cutting an addition 270 teachers and/or lobbying for more money in Albany and Washington.

There was some heat coming from other board members who thought that lobbying does not necessarily mean receiving more money. Anne Marie Voutsinas, the president of the Syracuse Teachers Association, was also really disappointed over talks about all the teacher job cuts.

Kat and I interviewed both Lowengard and Voutsinas before and after the meeting alongside reporters from Channels 3 and 9. The budget was pretty confusing to us, so we all worked together to understand what it said.

In the end, Kat and I figured it all out and took our time shooting standups until we got back to the studio. I stayed an hour later than normal Wednesday night to finish writing my story and have Kat copyedit it. I pulled a few bites, but other than that, I didn't complete the package.

I left it, hoping I would have time to finish it Friday. After all, I did have enought time before we left for the Board meeting to finish my "Beat 'Nova" T-shirt package from teh previous Friday!

*Sidenote: Kat and I wrote the same stories from two different angles. She focused on Lowengard's plans to lobby, and I focused on teacher cuts and how they would affect Syracuse education.

For a more simplified summary of the budget, click here.

Stay tuned for more News 10 Now internship updates.

Local Business Prepares for Nova Game

I completed my first news package at News 10 Now with the following story:

In an entry dated 2-5-10:

Local Business Prepares for 'Nova Game

Today was my first time doing the dayside shift. Amanda wasn't there because she works nightside, but GM (General Manager) Ron Lombard and reporter Brad Vivacqua helped me get settled. I attended the morning news meeting, which showed me that there really wasn't much going on...probably because it's a Friday.

Regardless, Brad, an S.U. alum, invited me out on his story about the "Beat 'Nova" T-shirts that Holy Shirt! has already started printing even though the game is not happening for another three weeks. Another reporter, Karen Lee, came with us to help Brad shoot.

Holy Shirt! owner John Groat was super nice and accommodating. I think he was a little starstruck by Brad, who he said he's seen on News 10 Now before. But Groat was a broadcast major at S.U. and is also the song of Channel 9 anchorman Rod Wood, so he was very amenable to working with us and gave great bites. Brad helped me shoot my own standup.

Both Brad and Karen gave me advice on it. When we got back to the station, I took notes on the footage including its bites and timecodes as Brad ingested everything. We both worked on writing a VOSOT (voiceover sound on tape; this is a short version of a story that includes the anchor reading over video footage, followed by a soundbite from an interviewee) and package (a longer version of the story in which the anchor refers to a reporter's piece and rolls video of the reporter's story) version of the story, since each New 10 Now reporter does two for every story they report on.

Brad helped me edit my stories, but there were very few changes I had to make to the package, which is really exciting. I didn't finish editing the package because I had issues with Vortex, which I'm simply unaccustomed to. I got help from Brad though and from Lori, another woman who works at the station who is apparently the Vortex guru.

I left the station at 6pm, and only had some B-roll and CG's to add. Other than that, I completed my first package!

By that time, Amanda had also arrived and gave me my own tape to hold onto all the packages I put together throughout the course of the semester.

*Other free things I got today: my own "Beat 'Nova" T-shirt! Groat generously gave Brad, Karen, and I fifteen shirts for ourselves and the rest of the people at the station. Overall, it was a pretty sweet and productive day.

There are more posts to come.

To see the full story that Brad did about the Beat 'Nova T-shirts, go to News10Now.com.

Off to a Rough Start

Continuing with my journal entries with my internship at News 10 Now in Syracuse, here is the entry about my first full day at interning....

In an entry dated 2-3-10:

Off to a Rough Start

Initially, I got to the station and was excited to see if I would be going out with a reporter, and if so, what we would be covering. The executive producer, Amanda, introduced me to Kat, the reporter I would be going out with every Wednesday night. The next hour-and-a-half was devoted to some tutorials.

Amanda showed me ENPS, which was set up pretty differently from the way we use it at Newhouse. Their ENPS uses video that's already loaded into teh system, so reporters and producers can just drag B-roll (video footage) and SOT's (Sound On Tape, or soundbites) right into the written version of the story. It's also shared between News 10 Now in Syracuse, Albany, and Binghamton. Therefore, there's an instant messaging system to use. Their ENPS also has CG's (Character Generators, or graphics to explain locations and interviewees' names and titles) and graphics already uploaded.

After the ENPS overview, Kat showed me the video editing system they use: Vortex. It was different from Avid (the one I use at school), but seemed easy enough once I got the hang of it.

At around 6pm, Kat and I left the station for Nottingham High School to report on a protest meeting about hydrofracking, but it turned out we had the wrong date for the meeting.

So instead we met up with Matt White, a News 10 cameraman to cover a meeting with the Congressional Republican candidates for the 25th District. Once we got there, we were informed that this was a meeting for people running for office during which they would learn the process of running.

Unfortunately, it was a small meeting, so none of the candidates showed up. A representative of one of the candidates came, and another "candidate" was there. But we later learned, he was not really an active participant in running for the Congressional seat.

Kat tried to get a SOT (soundbite) from the group's president, but when we got back to the station and explained the situation to Amanda, it was clear that our story was a bust. Amanda scrapped it upon learned that our "story" wasn't much of a story at all.

Kat felt horrible about this happening on my first day, but I still thought it was a good experience. In news, things often fall apart or are different from what they're expected to be.

I spent the rest of the evening playing around with Vortex and hoping Friday would be better.

Stay tuned for more on my News 10 Now adventures!

News 10 Now Orientation

As promised, here is the first entry of the detailed journal I will be keeping about my reporting internship with News 10 Now.

In an entry dated 1-29-10:

News 10 Now Orientation

I drove to the News 10 Now building not knowing what to expect other than what the inside of the newsroom looked like. All I knew was that I was attending intern orientation, and my news supervisor, Executive Producer Amanda Post, would not be there. She was still on vacation.

Arriving exactly on time, I was taken to the conference room where I had my initial interview. There I met the GM (General Manager) Ron Lombard and Sports Manager Adam Goldstein, along with two other interns. John and Jason were both S.U. grad students, on interning for sports and the other, splitting his time between sports and news. The brief meeting (during which we also got chocolate chip and sugar cookies) was led by Michelle Kovelman, who works in the HR department in Albany.

She led the meeting via phone and power point presentation. After listening to and watching the presentation about News 10 Now and Time Warner Cable's affiliates, drug policy, and harassment rules, I just had to fill out some paperwork.

I was only at the station for about 45 minutes, but it was enough time to learn that (a) the sports guys seem pretty nice, (b) three of the four people I met who are fully employed by the station are S.U. alum, and (c) this internship is going to offer me a lot of opportunity.

I know this entry does not give too much, if any, insight to what was to happen in the reporting internship, but I can assure you that the upcoming days spent at the internship and journal entries therein are far more fulfilling and interesting to any up-and-coming reporter.

Stay tuned! I will try to post again tomorrow.

Stay informed

I have not posted recently, and with good reason. In the past several weeks, I have been carefully balancing my life between having fun and relaxing and being particularly productive as well. Since the new semester has started, I have continued with my fashion writing internship with www.LVCMag.com, but have also started a new internship with News 10 Now, the local 24-hour news network in Syracuse, NY.

For the News 10 Now internship, I am required to write a journal entry after each day I spend at the station in order to receive credit. So I figured what better way to keep people informed about the news and what I am doing than to also type my required journal entries in this blog? It will keep people aware of local news and my life.

Over the next few days, I will be posting my entries from last week and this week until I'm all caught up. From then on, you can expect entries every Wednesday and Friday night.