It’s crazy to think that we just wrapped show 4 and only have one more show of the semester! I think show 4 in particular is really where it became evident to me how we all have grown over the semester and continue to improve! From pre-planning, to getting creative shots, to edit lab, I just feel like as a class we have improved so much, and it really shows with show 4.
But it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, though. The week started off a bit rocky, but that was mainly me worrying about not being available to help my classmates. We left show 3, and I only had one reporter ask for my help, and by Friday, I was starting to worry, but Sunday, the requests came flying in asking for assistance in filming where I could. I was happy to offer my ENG skills and even happier to be able to make it work in helping as many of my classmates as I did for that show.
The first classmate that I helped was Riley, we have created a good friendship over the semester, so I’m always eager to help her when I can! We had originally planned to go collect b-roll at Dorsey’s Knob on Friday, but we woke up and it was cold and rainy all day, so we decided to go scope out the location instead. We drove around the park and found places that we thought would be interesting to return to for b-roll on a later date. We also finalized plans for what she wanted for her stand-up and teases. I feel like doing this pre-planning before helped a lot! We felt a lot more prepared on Tuesday when we went to film and had more of a game plan than in the past. Riley also had a lot more interactive and creative ideas for her stand ups and teases which were fun to try and execute! For her stand-up up we filmed it on top of the sky rock in Dorsey’s Knob and then we did a zoom in of her phone, which showed the WV tourism website of a map that showed where leaves were the most colorful throughout the state. For her teases, we started zoomed in on a leaf we found and then zoomed out to show Riley talking in front of trees that showed the fall foliage behind her. As an ENG, these were both a bit new to me, but were fun to try and figure out how to bring her vision to life!
Another person that I helped this week was Parker. I helped him film his stand-up and teases and his stand-up was probably the most challenging but rewarding to see come to life. I say that because it took me a minute to understand his vision for it, and then it took a few reshoots to get it exactly how he wanted. As he would piece it together and want to change something, but all in all it was cool to watch the finished product in the show. It was an interactive stand-up of him placing pins with a string on a map to show two athletes’ journey to Morgantown, which I thought tied his story together very well.
This week, I also helped Dax with an interview at Gold and Blue Nation. This was a cool opportunity as we got to film his interview in their actual studio! It was interesting to see an actual news studio and how it compares to the one we film our shows in for class. I think as a student I was able to appreciate this experience of us being student journalists ourselves, getting the opportunity to be able to go into an actual news studio and interview a reporter. It was inspiring to think that’s where we could end up one day.
For edit day, this show, I actually didn’t help people edit as much as I helped them go out and reshoot some of their clips. I had never done this before, but it really helped me appreciate all the hard work our reporters put into their packages to put their best work on display. Show day came around on Wednesday, and I think it was some of our best work yet. I’m finally starting to get more comfortable working with the cameras, and therefore faster and just more confident in my role.
We only have one show left, which is bittersweet but exciting, as I’m just that much more excited to see the kind of content we put out for the last one! As the saying goes, go big or go home! We must make our last show count and leave a lasting impression!