Live nerves, Real growth
By Harley Cochran
As a senior, this is my third time taking a television broadcast capstone course. Because of this, I have some experience in producing a television newscast, but this was the first time I have worked on a show that interviewed a guest in the studio live.
Producer Harley Cochran works with her professors and anchoring crew before a taping of West Virginia Today.
We had a live interview producer who prepared the interview questions, but I was still the one to decide the order in which the questions would be asked and to make sure the timing of the segment was still on track. Since this was completely new to me, I was a little nervous about it, but I think the interview went really well.
To prepare for the segment, we met two weeks before the show to decide who would be the best choice to interview on set. We discussed the nuances of the story we wanted to tell and decided that a focus on the children impacted by legislative changes would fit best with the show’s theme.
On the Monday before we filmed, we discussed the questions we were the most interested in asking, but left the exact order to be determined during the segment. I went home and reviewed the show script one more time to get a better feel for how the questions would fit into the context of the show.
On show day, Ty - our main anchor who was conducting the live interview - was a little nervous since it was also completely new to him, so I couldn’t let on that I, too, didn’t know what to expect. I stayed calm and reminded him of the work we did to prepare for the segment. We both knew we had the ability to produce a great interview and that we had the resources of our professors to help us if needed. Still, we didn’t know if we were truly prepared until we were in the interview.
The first take went well; I got a feel for the time it took for a question to be asked and answered. Ty was able to ask all the questions I wanted, but we still both felt rushed. This sense of being rushed wasn’t because we were super tight on time, but because we both perceived that we were. I knew we structured the show to have extra time for the interview if needed, but when I saw the timer go past the 7:00 minute mark, I was a little stressed. By the end of the show, we evened out and ended up perfectly on time. That is really when I felt a sense of relief! The first take turned out well, but now we had the opportunity to do another take with more confidence than the previous one.
Ty and I discussed what communications worked during the interview and what I could improve on. Professor Ashton Marra and Dean Gina Dahlia, our professors who were in the studio with us, also spoke with me on tips for what to tell Ty during the end so he doesn’t feel too rushed while also maintaining the proper timing of the show. The second take went even better, and I felt really accomplished with the quality of the interview.
Now that I understand what is required from me to produce the segment, I know I need to be as calm as possible so that anxiety does not reflect in the anchor’s reads.
Producer Harley Cochran sits at the producer desk in the control room of the Waterfront Studio with her classmates during a taping of West Virginia Today.