Art Show Poster

The end is coming soon. My final presentation is April 25th in the Art show at patterson hall. Right now I have been trying to finish up my poster for the presentation that shows what I have been doing for the last two semesters. The poster so far has turned out great. The backround is a bunch of sporting event pictures from this past year such as a basketballplayer slam dunkin and a girl spiking a volleyball. I turned down the opasity level so its not to distracting and you can still read what I wrote. The hardest thing about making this poster has been that I had to do it in photoshop. I took digital photography four semesters ago and I know how to use it. Its just I forgot what some of the special functions are and I have been spending more time learning the program than actually working on the poster. I'm also building a poster in a power point presentation but its not nearlly as artistic as doing it in photoshop. The easiest part for me was writing out the description of my project and explaining what I did. That makes me feel very comfortable about presenting this project because if a proffesor drills me with a question about the project I feel I will be able to fire right back at them with an educated response. This might be the first time in my academic career that I'm passionate about what I am presenting. So bring it on I'm ready.

So far this semester Titan Town Sports has been flawless other than a few mistakes here and there. Each week Dave and my self have been extremely ecstatic at how well the show has done. In four weeks we have only had one tape play wrong. I don't mean to toot my own horn but I have been impressed with my self too. What I mean is I have been working six days a week for WKBN and I have been basically putting the show together on Thursday afternoon. Last semester I would start putting the show together earlier in the week and I know that if I was to get a Producing job I would do the same thing and put a show together in a couple of hours. The other difference between this semester and last is that I sports shooters now. Last semester I was shooting my own highlights and PKG's and editing them all. Now I usually have one to two shooters and they are making my life a lot easier. I have only shot a few things this semester and I still do the majority of editing but there is usually two stories that I don't have to shoot or edit. At first my shooters put me in a rough spot by not making the deadline or not doing what I suggested to them. But after I made it clear that I'm depending on them when their to shoot for me they have really picked up their game. Another aspect of the show that I think has really improved is the graphics. Since I talked to Bob Hannon and he said if you don't have any video for your topic throw in a graphic so it's not just Dave standing there talking. Katie Hillard and my self have been communicating better and have been sharing ideas with each other and our final product has emensley improved because of it.

Busy busy busy!!!!

Back to tape to tape editing. I went on a trip to Columbus with Peggy Sincovich for a 911 dispatch meeting. A few police chiefs and a dispatcher were unhappy with how their trustees were running things and they went to Columbus to plead their case with the 911 dispatch board. Peggy and I started our trip at 8 in the morning and followed the chiefs to Columbus. Once we got there we only had 20 minutes to get our interviews and then the meeting began. I shot the meeting and we only stayed for a half hour. We left during the meeting because we had to drive back for the 6. Here is where it got a little crazy because while I'm driving back Peggy is in the back seat looking through the viewfinder of the camera and listening through head phones to the interviews we did. She was finding the time codes of the soundbites so I knew where they were. After she finished writing the script for the package we pulled over and she voiced her package into the camera. Then we switched spots and she drove while I was in the backseat editing the package on a tape to tape suitcase editor. Now I have done tape to tape but it had been a year or two since. I practice the day before but you never know how stuff like that is going to work until you start doing it. It took me about 45 minutes to cut the package but the real kicker was having this suitcase editor on my lap that weighs about 30 to 40 pounds with two ten pound batteries on top of it. So it got kind of heavy and very awkward. We got back to the station about 40 minutes before the 6 so I ingested the package cleaned it up a bit sent to the sever for the 6. It was definitely a great experience but it was crazy because Peggy and I were flying by the seat of our paints. Well I was she knew what she had to do.

Making connections!

I had a great oppurtunity to make a connection with an amazing woman and also a very motivated sports Anchor\Reporter Tara Pachmayer. I was on a trip to visit my sister who works at Miami University and is the Associate Sports Information Director. Her main sports are Men's Basketball and Football although she pretty much works with every sport. They had a game the night against Akron University. Thats when I came in contact with the best contact every. Tara was also at the game covering them for her station WKRC Local 12. My sister introduced me to Tara and after that we talked for the entire game about sports. She told me about her station and what all the responsibiltes of a Sports Anchor/Reporter are. Through conversation I told her about myself and how I work in youngstown shooting news but also that I'm the Sports Producer of my own show Titan Town Sports. For a while I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue to do news or if I wanted to take the sports route and after talking to Tara for hours on end I feel I want to get back into to the sport side of news. Even though there are no positions open at Local 12, I met an awsome and extremly driven woman in the Sports department. I had a great oppurtunity that fell into my lap to make a new connection with someone six hours away. I hope that in the futue Local 12 will have an oppening but until then I will continue to stay in touch with Tara.

Long but fun day!!!

I had a great opputunity to go out with two verteran anchors, Ryan Allison and Bill Castroviche. We started our day at seven o'clock at the station and traveled to springfield high school. The reason we were there was because it was High school letter of intent day which means all the football high school allstars were giving up their John Hancock to whatever school they would be attending and be continuing their collegic career playing football. We went to 10 different high schools, putting 159 miles on our vehichle and also getting over 20 some different interviews with about a hunderd different cutaways. When I was told that I was going to be shooting this I didn't know what to expect but everyone said have fun with it and make it look MTV'ish. So I would go from a tight shot on the kid to a fast movement of him signing, to a logo of what school they were going to. We ended our day around 3 and I then traveled to YSU for a press conference with the Head football coach. It was a great day of experience and just a fun day in general. Not only did I get more shooting experience but I never knew that this day was as big as it is.

It's just how the business is!

You can either run with the flow of life or get left behind in the dust. That is how the business is and you better be able to accept that or get out while you still can. It's true that my company has called me in to work some odd hours and be in a stress induced environment but hey like my title says "It's just how the business is!". Ever since I started I've have come to realize that some people are just not cut out for the business. I feel so far that I am and I also feel that I have done what has been necarssy to get the job done. Yeah, I dont go out like I used and party with my friends but hey you got to grow up and respect your priortys and for me that is going to work when they call me in and missing out on all the sweet partys. The other day I was called in again to work an earlier shift than I was schuduled and that was fine with me. I ended up going out with a well respected reporter and it was a great experience. I shot a package and some vo/sots. When it came time to edit them it was crazy because I had the package which was really two packages because we have two stations instead of one and then a couple vo/sots plus one of the producers gave me a list of a bunch of national stories to cut. I didn't cut every story but I did a bunch. I was in the middle of cutting the one package and I realized I didnt have two of the reporter sound bites so while our 5 o'clock news was going on I had to have this person redo them and then finishing cutting the first package. Well it was really coming down to crunch time and I didn't get my one vo/sot in and some of the producers weren't thrilled with me but they said if you need help cutting stuff just say so. I thought that I would have been able to get it done in time but I didn't and I have to learn from my mistakes.

Inspiration

On Tuesday and Wednesday I had a chance to meet the most inspirational people I have ever met. These extrodinary men and women are blind and go through life just like any one else would. Myself and Paul Wetzel interviewed a married couple that was blind on Tuesday and another blind man who worked at the GoodWill in youngstown. The men worked in a radio news department while the woman worked in another department putting clothes on hangers. It was amazing filming them while they worked because you would have no idea they were blind. The next day Paul and myself headed to Akron to a Vision center to meet another blind woman and a blind def man. It was truly amazing to watch this blind and def man with his interperter. The first thing he said was that he was happy. I then also filmed him working, he put rubber malet's together and he was fast at what he did. He also found his own locker and hung up his coat. After meeting with these amazing people Paul and I were so happy that we had a chance to meet them and interview and also see what they do. They are just like anyone else and can do pretty much everything that you and I can do. These stories I did made me realize why I shouldnt take anything for granted and they truely inspired me to go out and appreciate all the good things of life.