So far, I have been doing so many different things during my internship. A few of those things include helping the 5 o'clock producer, Janelle Haible, write and edit stories for the 5 o'clock show and writing stories for web. The first few stories I wrote got completely torn apart by Janelle haha I think I was trying too hard! POA: When writing stories for broadcast, make them conversational, they are understood by all audiences and are much more fun to listen to. I wasn't making them conversational enough but I have gotten much better :). The corrections now are very minor and subject to personal preference. 

I was trained on the news room's camera and audio equipment and the following week was asked to go out on my own for the first time to Vinton, IA to get footage for a VO SOT on their new mammography unit. This was going to be a lot of firsts and I will admit I was a little overwhelmed. My initial reaction was "uhhh I have no idea how to get there" haha I am directionally challenged at times and am very bad with highway names. Eric, the News Director, was very helpful with helping me with directions and I made it there just fine. Driving one of the company's Ford Escapes was fun too! I have to drive really well though because it is basically a KWWL billboard. 
 
Once I got there, a very nice staffer helped me find everything and volunteered people I could interview. I needed just a few minutes to get everything set up and make sure I am doing everything right and in the right order but that man would not leave me alone haha! I forgot something every time I shot. If it wasn't hooking up the mics for interviews, it was forgetting to turn on the light or changing the filter before I white balanced. 

I turned out with only one quality shot for the show but that was alright because for the first few times, Eric has sent me out to cover stories that are not too important to them. If they have footage, great, if not they were just happy that I was out there learning. I learned more doing that than anything else, they can train me all they want, but getting out and doing it is what counts. After I returned Jenn, our Internet Director, went over everything with me and there were a few mistakes I know I will never make again. 

I went out one more time after that so far and did everything right! I took the new intern with me and gave her an intro to the camera and audio equipment and we felt really good with what we did. But as soon as I put the tape in to edit it for the show...there was nothing there! Greeeaat haha. We troubleshooted and found that somehow the tape got fast forwarded to the end. Again, it was a learning experience and practice makes perfect! 

I am also continuing to learn a new editing system, Avid. At UNI we primarily used Premiere for editing our news stories which is much like Avid but getting familiar with a new system just takes some time. I think I might end up preferring Avid because of the fast keyboard shortcuts. 
Thanks for reading and have a great day! 

An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of       preaching.- Mahatma Gandhi



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