And the Beat Goes On

Yesterday, I went out with Joleene Des Rosiers as I usually do on Fridays. This entire week, she's been covering the partially collapsed building on Route 81 as a beat. This way, we make sure to stay on top of the story and find out the latest.

After speaking to the building's owner, Tony, earlier yesterday morning, Joleene knew that the DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation) would be coming to the building during the day to check for toxic waste and materials.

But when we got to the building, Tony didn't have very much to say and wouldn't give us any details as to what the DEC was doing there. As far as we could see, the man from the DEC was just sitting in his truck outside the building.

So we went back to the station, Joleene made some calls, and we waited to hear back from the mayor or the state.

After receiving no word, Joleene decided she needed to get something. So we drove to South Salina Street, one of the few streets suffering from a lot of traffic congestion due to the detours from Rt. 81 near the building.

We interviewed two business owners. The owner of Rocky's said because the traffic was so bad, people were no longer willing to stop at his store during their drive if it meant giving up a spot in the line of traffic. But the owner of Vinomania told us that people are avoiding his end of the road altogether because they fear how bad the traffic will be.

We went back to the station, and quickly wrote and edited a nice little package about the business owners' perspectives about this collapsed building, Route 81, and the traffic brought on by all of it.

I also edited the majority of my package from Wednesday. Unfortunately, I couldn't finish it since the tape with all the interviews and soundbites went "missing." I'm hoping that'll turn up soon though.

After all this editing, Joleene, Ben (the photog) and I went back out in the field to shoot a live hit on the other side of 81 so viewers could see the collapsed building in the background. Joleene went live at 4:30, and I shot a live tag out that I edited into my package when we got back to the station. Joleene helped me fix a few parts of it, but other than that, it was pretty good.

I'd say it was an overall successful day, with lots of editing, writing, and shooting. I love going out with Joleene also. She always helps me and makes me feel really good and skilled about what I'm doing.

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.