Wednesday, June 9, 2010

View From the Prompter


Yup. 9am-12p...3 days a week, for now at least.
It's funny, because I've been on TV a bunch of times already--yet no one notices me! haha! When the anchors do the show opens, closes, and interviews in front of the huge monitor, I'm definitely behind the wall next to it. They're see-through, you just have to look for the computer screen and a person beside it!
Most people don't prefer prompting...but I actually don't mind doing it. For morning SC, I get to the newsroom at 7, drink my coffee, check e-mail/ENPS--basically just sit there and listen to the producer talk about what's going in the show--until it's time to print scripts. I'm pretty much left alone to observe what's going on around me--which is awesome, b/c if you know me, you know I'm not such a chatty cathy at 7am.
Scripts are the trickiest part. I have to sort them--which I explained in a previous post. Its not bad, unless we print late...then it sucks. The stacks of yellow and pink paper are each like 2 1/2 inches thick.
But anyway, once the Josh and Sage (or whoever it may be) have their scripts...I just sit and listen to the producer and scroll along with the show. I get to see how and why the producer makes the decisions he/she does...what goes down when there's breaking news...etc. It's interesting to me. Mostly because it's along the route of what I want to do. Not to mention my job is to follow along/PAY ATTENTION to SportsCenter. Torture I tell you... haaaaa. As IF! :)

Speaking of what I want to do...
I attended a Features Workshop on Tuesday (yes, my "Sunday") which demonstrated different types of lighting used in feature interviews. SO cool. I knew that lighting and natural sound added emotion to a piece, but I had forgotten how intense and dramatic lighting can be!! Shadows and colors in an interview shot can dictate the feeling of your interview. It's insane. We made this conference room we were go from bland white, to black, to a textured blue, to being outside in the sunlight, to a "living room" setting. These camera guys and lighting crews can make almost any room change into whatever the producer wants. I can't wait to get started on stuff like that. Stuff that I can actually invest my time in, day after day, and be proud of.
One day...

On a brighter note (pun intended)...the weather was GORGEOUS for my Monday/Tuesday weekend!!
My roomie Lauren and I got to the beach on Monday. It's nothing like being at home...but it's a beach with sand and water...and luckily on Monday, sun and 75 degree weather.

This cute kid was flying his kite next to us. :)
The beach we found is only about an hour away in Madison, CT. It's called Hammonasset State Park...and it's definitely on the Long Island Sound. Not the Atlantic Ocean. Weird.
There were no waves.
Oh well, I'll take what I can get. Closing my eyes and imagining being in Hilton Head or IOP will be fine for now! :)

I have an exciting next few weeks!!!! Starting Saturday I'm going to have visitors here through the end of June! :) Hobie is finally able to come visit.--Not only to see me, but to chat with his former employers at ESPN and meet with some Sports Directors at the local stations around here. It'd sure be nice to have him near by. :) :) :)
The day after Hobe leaves me...MY BOYS ARE COMING!!!!!!! I miss friends from home SO SO much. Even though it will only be for 4 days, it will be nice to GETTT WETTTT and RAGE with my boys. haha :)
But seriously...so excited about all of them coming. I'm glad I'll have the chance to show them my awesome "office" and give them a first hand understanding of why I moved 14 hours away to middle of nowhere Connecticut. Although, I know they already know why. haha... It's gonna go by too fast!

At least I get to come home for a game this season! Have your tailgates and kegs ready! :)

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Not QUITE Chucktown...but I'll take it.

A couple of insignificant, but cool things happened this week. As I have been prompting a lot, I spend a ton of time sitting in the news room watching games. Of course on Saturday night, I had the West Conference Finals on one TV, the Stanley Cup Finals on another...and wouldn't ya know it, Roy Halladay has a perfect game going into the 7th. Time to tune in to that too! The entire news room (which consists of Talent--11p SC and 11-cl News guys at that point, producers, CPs, News Editors, etc...) was watching and debating and cheering as something happened. It's SO cool to be in a place where I'm not only watching history being made in sports--but sometimes I'm actually MONITORING for it! It was also just neat to be able to watch Roy pitch that perfect game--and see how my producer changed the run down to fit the breaking news. Talk about a learning experience!

As I was watching him finish out the game, I began to wonder--how close have any two perfect games ever been to each other? Dallas Braden JUST threw a perfect game like 2 weeks ago--so I'm thinking this has to be the closest ever. Wrong! The closest perfect games were the first two in 1880, 5 days apart from each other. The closest before this one in the "modern era" was in 1998 and 1999--a year and 3 months a part. Neat, huh? 20 Perfect games in the history of baseball.

Now, am I sad that I don't get to watch Steve Nash and the Suns anymore? You bet.

What a crazy f-ing white dude.


ANYWAY...
Memorial Day was a BEAUTIFUL day for a game at Yankee Stadium! :) So thankful I have Mondays and Tuesdays off right now so that I could spend the day outside in the sun--and actually get a little bit on my skin! haha
I'm not a Yankees fan at all--but I enjoyed their awesome new park, seeing A-Rod hit a Grand Slam, and hey--if I couldn't be in Charleston with all my best friends, at least I could get out of Bristol with some pretty cool people! :)

Did you know that A-Rod is now 5 for 5 in hitting Grand Slams after the opposing team intentionally walks Mark Teixeira to load the bases? Hilarious!

One more quick cool thing:
As I was waiting to print the scripts for OTL, they set up a flip cam interview for Colin Cowherd right in front of my computer....watch SportsNation (I don't know when this particular one airs) but I'm definitely in the background of this interview. hahahaha

PS--Happy Anniversary to all my fellow Summer 09 interns!!! Can't believe it's been a YEAR! I miss you all and the interns that started today will be hard pressed to live up to our amazing-ness. ;)