Night four... Point After (Sunday)

The night begins at 9pm with a little sports editing. After a panthers loss, the station is pretty quiet but games continue. However, the entire broadcast is delayed tonight waiting on womens tennis to finish.

I edited the Final Round of the BMW Championship where Rory Mcllroy won with three birdies. That footage will air at 11:35 (delayed) during the Point After broadcast.

The night ends with a little phone screening. It was my first night screening calls and first experience with the "Point After" broadcast. I had the priveledge of sitting in the control room beside our sports producer, Nate. During the broadcast, viewers were asked to call in and comment on the weekly sporting events. When they called, I answered and recorded their name and topic on a piece of paper that I handed to Nate. Nate would then tell Delano (who was live) via ear piece, their name and Delano would take their call live. I also had control of the button that dropped their live call if they were to start rambling or worse, use foul lanuage. The whole experience was a lot of fun. The control room atmosphere was very different than I imagined. I thought adrenaline would be flowing strong, causing it to be extremely silent and feel nervewracking. However, the room was loud and felt comfortable. All of the other people in the room were men and they were all talking right along with the show about how they felt about the weekly sporting events. They seemed to be pros at running the show, as if they were doing it subcontiously as they focused on the callers comments about how badly the panthers played. I loved it. It felt like being in a locker room.

I am really starting to understand the quote "find a job you love doing and you will never work a day in your life". I still have butterflies in my stomach each night as I drive to WBTV with anticipation on what I will learn and how much fun I will have.

Below you can view the eidting set up... two computers joined together with one keyboard and one mouse and me catching the PIT vs DEN game as we wait for our turn to go OnAir.

ABSENT... 9/7/12

This week I am at the beach on vacation, but I want to make sure you still know who the winning teams are. Catch me Sunday as I let you know how my first experience with "Point After" goes!

Winning Teams: Porter Ridge, Mount Pleasant, Forestview, Boiling Springs, South Point, Brynes, West Columbus, Central Cabarrus, Charlotte Catholic, Chase, Fairfield Central, Anson Senior, Concord, TC Roberson, Rocky River, Hickory Ridge, East Rutherford, Fort Mill, Bunker Hill, Freedom, York, Great Falls, Hickory, Metrolina Christian, Lewisville, Kinds Mountain, Lake Norman Charter, Central Pageland, Shelby, Marvin Ridge, Moresville, Newton Conover, North Davidson, Bandys, West Rowan, South Stanly, Forest Hills, Cox Mill, Richard Senior, Robinson, Dutch Fork, South Caldwell, South Iredell, Salisbury, South Pointe, Maiden, Sun Valley, Watauga, Lake Norman, Charlotte Latin, Davidson Day, Harrells Christian, South Lake Christian, Providence Day, Christ School.

I'll be back next Friday Night with more FFN via WBTV!! Good luck high school football!! Don't forget to tweet all high school FINAL football scores to @FFNintern

Night Three... Editing 101

Tonight was WONDERFUL!

First- I arrived early, around 4pm, to "shadow" Sammi Jo as she edited sports clips for all of the nightly news broadcasts. Little did I know-- I would get to learn how to edit! Who knew that N, I O and X had alternate personalitites :). I found that WBTV stores all of the footage ever shot and is able to borrow footage from other Raycom affiliates. To get the footage- you search one of two different programs, as if you were doing a google search... via keywords and imagination! After you find the footage, you send it to the editing bay computers and start cuting out what you want. In some cases, you stretch or slow film, and in other cases you only keep a quick airing of your highlight. I was able to help edit Tiger Woods amazing three birdie streak, a little NASCAR coverage of the NAPA driver and two different UNC Charlotte (MY ALMUNI) clips- basketball and football. SPECIAL NOTE: UNC Charlotte football team marked a one year count down to their kickoff August 31, 2013 to Campbell.


Secondly- Sammi Jo and I grabbed a camera and headed off in the WBTV car to cover the Boiling Springs at York game. WHAT AN AMAZING STADIUM. York received funding years ago from the Carolina Panthers to build their stadium, and it surely showed! Covering the game went the same- Sammi Jo filmed and I followed her around... which I love doing because she teaches me how to shoot certain aspects of the game according to how WBTV wants it done. While I follow- I write down the plays and different comments about the game to help prep Sammi in writing her script for her OnAir clip. Again, on the way home Sammi talked through her script and I wrote it down for her so she could easily go back to the station and start recording the voice part. For the record: York won 34-16.


Then- Back at the station, running later than normal, I quickly jumped on the computer to record scores into the broadcast system. Also, into the online site for highschool scores- football.tvstats.com.. check it out! I WAS THRILLED: come 11:36 (one minute after airing for FFN started) I had ALL THE SCORES and ALL THE SCORES IN THE SYSTEM!! Yay-- I jumped for joy and then went and watched the airing of the show live! How satisfying and relaxing!

P.S. Did I mention last week that I got an official WBTV FFN teeshirt? See below... worn as I practice being anchor-- a girl can dream :)

LAST- After the airing, Sammi Jo took me into the control room (awesome environment!) and showed me how to take incoming calls (potential LIVE calls) for the Sunday "Point After" show that WBTV puts on. [The show is a way for fans of any sport to call in and comment on the weekly sports]. Guess what... next Sunday I will get to help with this too! Sammi will be out of town, so I will fill in and screen calls... hopefully no drunks or sailors call ;).

Winning Teams: AL Brown, Albermarle, Davie County, East Lincoln, Bunker Hill, Hickory Ridge, Charlotte Country Day, Chase, Spring Valley, Concord, Rock Hill, Pinecrest, Draughn, Dutch Fork, Freedom, East Rutherford, Fred T Foard, Hiberten, Hickory, Village Christian, Hunter Huss, Lake Norman Charter, Forestview, Nation Ford, Marvin Ridge, Chesterfield, Mooresville, Mount Pleasant, North Rowan, North Stokes, Northwest Cabarrus, Parkwood, South Caldwell, Piedmont, Porter Ridge, Richmond Senior, Ridge View, Crest, Northwestern, South Point, South Pointe, Newton-Conover, Statesville, Sun Valley, Watauga, Weddington, South Iredell, West Rowan, York, Cannon School, Liberty Christian, Charlotte Latin, Providence Day, North Raleigh Christian, High Point Christian, SouthLake Christian.

Night Two... Filming with Sammi Jo

I arrived at the station to learn a little about editing, before heading out with Sammi Jo and her camera. We covered the Ardrey Kell win against Marvin Ridge. The game was actually held on Marvin Ridge territory which was exciting-- their fans really dig in to school spirit and supported their team the entire game, despite the loss.

Upon arriving to Marvin Ridge, I took off to the press box to get the team rosters and have the coaches announce to the fans that WBTV would be airing the live footage of the game at 11:35 on channel three. Then, I met Sammi Jo on the field to begin shadowing her as we shot the cheerleaders, fans, mascots and team entrances. Once the game started, our feet never stopped moving. We traveled from one end of the end zone to another, in order to catch footage of the game with the ball coming toward us. When opportunity presented itself, we interviewed an Ardrey Kell coach and filmed things like fan signs and spirit flags. However, duty at the station called and we left at halftime to return to the station for more score reporting.

Similar to my first evening, score reporting involved collecting the scores and inputting them into the WBTV broadcast prior to 11:35 when it aired. However, the show got off to a late start tonight so we had a little bit longer than normal. The only new task was to delete four games out of the broadcast because we did not have scores reported for them. Those four games included Union Academy vs. Christ School, R.S. Central vs. East Henderson, Buford vs. Indian Land, and Westminster Catawba vs. Lake Norman Home School.

Tonight's winning teams: A.L. Brown, Central Pageland, Ashbrook, Berry Academy, South Pointe, Boiling Springs, Bunker Hill, Burns, Butler, Central Cabarrus, Chesterfield, Concord, Cox Mill, Crest, West Rowan, East Lincoln, Weddington, Forestview, Fort Mill, Bandys, Freedom, Cuthbertson, Hough, Hunter Huss, Independence, Lake Norman, Lancaster, Richmond Senior, Chester, Maiden, Mallard Creek, Ardrey Kell, McDowell, Hickory, Draughn, North Gaston, Lexington, Carson, Vance, East Burke, Porter Ridge, Charlotte Catholic, Monroe, Dorman, Rocky River, Salisbury, Statesville, Mooresville, South Point, South Stanly, Hibriten, Watauga, South Caldwell, West Mecklenburg, West Lincoln, Albemarle, Great Falls, West Iredell, First Assembly, Charlotte Latin, Hammond School, Hickory Grove, Davidson Day, SouthLake Christian, Providence Day, and Lake Norman Charter.

Don't forget to tweet scores @FFNintern so that I can report them for the show. Also, go to WBTV to VOTE FOR YOUR TEAM so that your team can become #1 on the Speedee Oil Top 10 list... Richmond Senior won for week one!

Night One... Scores

Tonight I learned how to operate the software WBTV uses to record FootballFriday Night scores. The entire process was an intense few hours of waiting onphone calls or checking tweeter to collect all 63 final scores we needed toreport. I enjoyed every minute of it. From fans to head football coaches toeven other local news stations, people called in with adrenaline still flowingfrom the games; excited to tell us about their team. Simultaneously, Icontinued to refresh my twitter feed to see score reports from more coaches,fans and reporters from the Charlotte Observer. It seemed that from 9pm untilwe finished airing the reports at 12:35am, the whole town was connected andfocused on high school football.

Score Reporting: Gathering the scores then entering them into three differentplaces. First, we update paper copies of the nightly scoreboard. These copiesserve as a reference for the anchors broadcasting the FFN show and as a way forus to keep a list of what scores we have and don't have. Secondly, I enteredeach score onto football.tvstats.com so that those who wanted to look onlinecould do so to view the scores. That website also gives an update on if thescores are final, overtime or due to a forfeit. Last and most importantly, Ilearned how to enter the scores right into the broadcast feed. As nerve-wrackingas it was knowing that I was editing information that would be directly viewedon TV, it was motivating to know that I was given that responsibility. The onlyother task of score reporting is to keep a running tally of which scores we didn’thave, a list on a scrap piece of paper, so that Delano Little can read it atdifferent points during the FFN broadcast and ask viewers to call in and reporttheir scores!

In all honesty- I left the night thinking, "I could do that everyday forthe rest of my life".

Winning Teams: A.C. Reynolds, Bandy's, Bishop McGuinness, Butler, North Rowan, Central Academy, Bunker Hill, York Comprehensive, South Florence, Crest, Dillon, Draughn, Hibriten, Hunter Huss, Marvin Ridge, East Surry, Forest Hills, Northwestern, Cox Mill, Hickory Ridge, Victory Christian, Independence, Kinds Mountain, South Iredell, Lewisville, Lincolnton, McDowell, Porter Ridge, Myers Park, Nation Ford, East Lincoln, Asheville, Alexander Central, Fred T. Foard, Mount Pleasant, Ashbrook, Providence, Robinson, East Rowan, South Caldwell, Charlotte Catholic, South Point, South Pointe, Central Cabarrus, South Stanly, Statesville, Richmond Senior, Union Academy, Vance, Ashe County, Concord, West Lincoln, Rocky River, West Rowan, Albermarle, North Raleigh Christian, Charlotte Christian, Davidson Day, First Assembly, Hickory Grove, South Lake Christian, Lake Norman Charter.

Paperwork Complete

Today I met with Delano Little and completed the paperwork for my internship. While doing so, I found out my job duties and agreed to start this Friday night at 7:15pm. You may even see me on TV a Friday night later in the season! Check out my ID Badge: