Producer's Blog

Creating episode three for Mountaineer Playbook was an incredible experience. After our second episode, my professors gave me valuable feedback on my scriptwriting. I learned that I needed to structure the script in a way that allowed my main anchors to provide more information while seamlessly setting up upcoming stories. With this new understanding, I approached episode three with a fresh perspective. I felt like I had a much better understanding of scriptwriting and consequently felt more confident in producing the show. For this episode, I had a much deeper connection to the development and preparation of the show.

Over the course of the semester, directing has become something I genuinely enjoy. During our producer meetings on Thursday nights, when we review packages and decide who makes the show, the first thing that pops into my head is how I want to present it. I think through camera cues, angles, effects, and more because I want our shows to be the best they can possibly be. My goal for each show this semester is to become more and more technical. We’re all in college, and this is the time to push ourselves before we graduate in a month and a half.

The second episode of Mountaineer Playbook has been incredibly beneficial for my growth as a producer. The Monday after taping episode one, our entire team gathered to review the broadcast and receive feedback from our professors on areas for improvement. One of the biggest takeaways for me was the importance of properly framing the anchors on set. This was an area I wanted to address for recording days in the future. I made sure to prioritize this by adding it as the first note in my ever-growing to-do list.

My experience directing the first show of Mountaineer Playbook was nothing short of amazing. Serving as both director and associate producer gave me a well-rounded understanding of the show, especially since I was involved in writing it. Once our producer, Sam Nichols, finalized the script, it was go time for me on the director side of things—I had to bring his vision to life.

 The Mountaineer Playbook crew received their roles for the show in late January. I was thrilled to learn that I had been selected as the producer and would be working alongside my friend Tyler Carlbon, the associate producer and director of Mountaineer Playbook. As soon as our positions were announced, everyone got to work on their stories for the first show. While my classmates secured interviews, captured footage, and edited their segments, I reviewed scripts from previous Playbook episodes and prepared for my first producer’s assignment. In the days leading up to our first show, I had several tasks and meetings to complete, including attending writing conferences and production meetings, scriptwriting, making last-minute fixes, and rehearsing with the show’s anchors.

This week, we wrapped taping our class’s final Mountaineer Playbook Show of the semester. It was a very bittersweet feeling because my feelings towards this class changed as the course went on. At the beginning, I was incredibly frustrated at the fact that this was the only option that we had as a capstone class. Throughout the semester, though, I learned some key lessons that I feel served me well and taught me a lot.

For our fourth show this semester, it was a little bit of a different experience for me on taping day. Earlier in the week, I had been approached by Prof. Marra and Prof. Scatterday asking if I would be willing to go on set and produce there.

While this is our class’s third show, this was my first show getting to lead produce. I was really excited when I found out I was the Associate Producer and have enjoyed assisting in the control room the past two shows, but I spent these past two weeks ecstatic about getting to write the script for the show and knowing I would actually get to booth the show on our day in the studio.

Cut to Wednesday with the reporter writing conferences, and it was a rinse and repeat of the previous conferences. However, it was a lot smoother because this was the second time the conferences were done, and a lot of the reporters knew what they were doing and should be on the lookout for specifically this time around.

Today was the first real taping day for Mountaineer Playbook, and it went a lot better than I think anyone was anticipating it would. There are many little pieces of the puzzle that need to align perfectly for this show to go the way it does, and much of that work is done behind the scenes, whether that is writing the script, doing writing conferences, fixing packages, or just marking the papers for cues.