Gotta' Get That Story

Here's my journal entry to my most recent evening of adventure at News 10 Now. Enjoy!

In a message dated 2-24-10:

Gotta' Get That Story

Tonight, Kat and I were sent out on a story that The Post-Standard mentioned about a Syracuse University alum and former football player who was coming to the Syracuse Boys and Girls Club to conduct a forum on sports ethics.

It sounded like an easy tie-in because of the latest news with the Camillus Youth Basketball Association and their brawl, but this forum was not newsworthy. The football player was not there. He's attending another forum next month supposedly, so then we went downtown to cover a story about the plans for a new Centro bus station downtown.

We tried interviewing business owners of stores that are centered in the area where all the current bus stops are located, but by 6:15, very few businesses were still open. If they were, their owners/managers were no longer there. We eventually found a great guy who spoke to us, but refused to do so on camera.

Eventually, we left and decided to do a story on the SU students camping out at the Dome for seats to Saturday's Villanova game. So we headed over to the Dome, but didn't see anyone there.

We finally learned that to be a part of Otto's Army and get the best seats, you had to enter a lottery inside the Dome before the women's basketball game. The camp-out starting then, forcing students to go to the women's game...which wouldn't be over until about 9pm.

Knowing there was no way we could produce a package by 10pm if we were starting at 9pm, we did a live hit! Well, Kat did. She did a live interview with one of the students in the group who drew the number one slot in the lottery. It wound up being a pretty fun story, and afterward, the photog shot a fake live tag of me that I plan to use on my resume reel.

Kat quickly edited a VOSOT in the live truck, sent it to our producer, and dictated the script over the phone so it could air at 11pm. Overall, it was a very long, crazy night, but we finally found our story. Finding that story and making the deadline is really all that matters.

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.