With show 3 wrapped, we are officially halfway through the semester! Looking back at the start of this journey, I can already see so much growth in not only my work but also my confidence with my craft. Each week, I build upon skills I’ve written about in the past, such as communication, adaptability, and networking with peers, as well as people I met while filming. Tagging along and helping ENG for my classmates has also just made me feel more connected to them as people within this career. You never know who you’ll meet or who THEY will know. Connections are so important, especially in this field! With that being said, the two themes that really applied to show 3 were making connections and seeking adventure.
For this show, my main ENG-ing came from taking a trip down to cover Bridge Day in Fayetteville, WV. We had a group with us, but from my class, we had two reporters and one other videographer alongside me. I have helped with a wide variety of stories over the semester, but I was so excited about getting to go help cover Bridge Day! Being a WV native, I had never attended, but I’ve always wanted to, so it was nice to get to cross that off my bucket list!
While fulfilling, Bridge Day, as you can probably imagine, was a long day. We woke up and arrived at the New River Gorge Bridge just as the 5k race began. We filmed some clips of that, and as soon as we were able, we caught a ride down to the gorge where jumpers were landing. On the drive down to Fayetteville, I was talking to one of my friends who informed me that one of our other friends actually helps organize Bridge Day! Which I thought was so cool but also crazy that I had no idea. Once I connected with him and told him what I was there doing, he was a big help and eager to help me and any of my fellow classmates with anything we needed, from securing interviews to making sure we got enough footage. He pointed out a few people who would be good for my reporter, Riley, to interview and found out that the woman we planned to interview later that day was our shuttle driver’s wife. What a small world! This is a perfect example of what I was talking about when I said connections come in handy! Like c’mon, what are the odds that our shuttle driver and the woman we wanted to interview were married? Our professors really weren’t kidding when they said that this is how this business works.
Once we got down into the gorge, I began collecting b-roll of everything that I could, from people being catapulted off the bridge to people landing, or attempting to land, on the targets below. It was such a good spot for footage, and there were sectioned-off places for press/media to stand that weren’t as crowded, which was nice. After we got footage from the shoreline, we boarded up on the press boat and got to go on the water. It was cool to get this vantage point of getting to see them jump right above us and seeing them land a few feet from our boat. Luckily no one landed ON our boat although we had to be vigilant as that was always a possibility. We were also on the boat with a few other people. After chatting with the man beside me, I found out that not only was he a WVU graduate (on a boat with us, being current WVU students), but his name is Rick Loughery. After telling our professor this, he tells us that he actually knows him and met up with him the day before. Turns out Rick is the Senior Vice President of Global Marketing and Digital Commerce for GoPro. Like!! That’s so cool!! What are the odds we ended up on the same media boat at the same time out of all the people attending and covering Bridge Day? Connections just kept popping up everywhere.
After collecting b-roll from down in the gorge, we shuttled back up to get some footage of the vendors lined up along the length of the bridge. Once we did that, we walked all the way to the end, where the jumping was happening. This was a surreal moment because once we got to where people were jumping, we were able to look over the bridge to the water below and have a “wow, we were just down there” moment. It really put into perspective how far down it was and how afraid of heights I am! Once we felt like we got enough footage of the jumpers from on the bridge pre-jump, we made our way back to the van to head back to Morgantown, but not before stopping for a lemonade and kettle corn on the way out.
Bridge Day all in all was an amazing experience and opportunity to get to not only attend but cover as an event. We were exposed to so many different scenarios as well as people, I feel like now we can truly tackle anything. It was also a cool thing to not only say I’ve attended, but I also am walking away with some amazing memories made with my classmates and professors that I didn’t have prior to this trip.