Start to engines...

The debut of the 2012 Philadelphia Auto Show! I haven't been to the car show (since I've been in Pittsburgh for the past 3 years) so its cool to be on the other side of the fence and work as a media representative for one of the most anticipated events in Philadelphia.

Katelyn and I carpooled to the Philadelphia Convention Center where we joined Mara, Evan and Diane who were preparing to set up the booth and free giveaways. They all warned me that I'd be in for a rude awakening since this was my first event like this.

I must say, it definitely was a whirlwind of a day. Ever since the first group of talent arrived, there was a steady line of fans who awaited autographs from their favorite newscasters. Thousands of people lined up throughout the day and it was my job to film them getting excited and meeting their favorite news personalities.

I had so much fun interacting with our fans and getting an idea of what our fans look like. We spend so much time interacting with them online, its cool to put a face on them as they came and went throughout the day. In the process, we got some amazing footage to compile into another behind the scenes vid.

As discussed last week, I was in a commercial for the Philadelphia Auto Show that aired from Tuesday-Saturday night.

Here it is:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=2677004647750

Everybody thought it was funny and it was pretty fun to make.

Another topical from this past week for your reading pleasure:

Tonight at 11-

The search is on for the killer of a local grocery store clerk. Action News brings you an exclusive interview from the victims family.

Then-

A serial arsonist in NJ caught on tape! We have the surveillance footage of the criminal in action.

Plus-

Yesterday a 62-foot whale washes up along a New Jersey beach. Why the mammal is attracting such big crowds.

AND-

President Obama delivers his third state of the union address. Monica Malpass has the latest report live from the nations capital.

Tonight on Action News at 11.

What a week it's been..

Its Friday, the end of my fourth week at ABC, and I can't believe all of the things I've learned over the course of just one month. Week 1: Working as a Production Assistant for the highly anticipated promo of the Big Board. Week 2: Working with the Philadelphia Flyers for Good Morning America Week 3: Being in a full length commercial, participating in the Philadelphia Auto Show and producing my first project that debuted on the 6ABC website. I'm moving right along!

Today, I had a goal in mind. I wanted to finish up the Behind the Scenes video that I reported, shot and edited (all by myself) with some guidance from the Creative Service department. The department has been getting antsy over it so I wanted to finish up some editing a post it online by 5pm.



I showed the video to the assistant director who gave me some last minute pointers on how to make the video pop! I've attached the video (which already has almost 800 views on Youtube) of the project I've been working on for 3 whole weeks. My bosses and supervisors thought I did a terrific job which put me in a good mood for the weekend!


I'm working another Saturday to help out for the Philadelphia Auto Show. 16 of our talent have volunteered to sign autographs at a booth in front of our news vans. This could be verryyyy interesting...

Ohh.. and here's another topical from today...

Today at 4--

A 3-day memorial service is planned for Joe Paterno. We're live on campus with all the details.

Then--

Four people have been arrested in the murder of a local pizza driver. We have the latest details on the suspects.

Plus--

Snow has moved out. Mild weather has moved in. I'm meteorologist, Adam Joseph. How long will these temperatures last? Find out in the Accu Weather forecast.

AND--

How can you entertain your kids without spending a ton of money? We'll take you to a new toy store that your kids and your bank account may love.

Today on Action News at 4.

I personally love doing these! So fun.

Oscar noms anyone?

As I mentioned yesterday, our department is busy with another promotion shoot for the Philadelphia Auto Show premiering next Saturday. Action News hosts several promotional events and signs autographs on the first day of the auto show, which brings a lot of people to the show. The Creative Services department is producing a promo and I was selected to participate in a small role for the shoot. As always, I can’t discuss much of the details behind the shoot before it airs on television, but I will say that the promo is very entertaining! I love being on camera and will continue to participate in video shoots as needed. Stay tuned for the final product when it debuts on Wednesday!

            For the remainder of the day, I wrote another topical for the 4pm news. Here it is:

Today at 4—

Bundle up and get those shovels ready. I’m Meteorologist Adam Joseph. Snow is approaching fast! Find out when in the ACCU weather forecast.

Then—

An arrest has been made in connection to a suspicious Montgomery County burglary. The odd details that may shock you.

Plus---

New exclusive team coverage at the South Carolina primary. Stick around for Rick Williams’ live updates at the polls.

AND---

McDonalds reinvents their famous Happy Meal. Find out what’s new for the popular menu item.

Today on Action News at 4.

After topical time, Maria (Social Media Producer) allowed me to write and hyperlink some news clips for our Facebook page. It felt great to have the power of facilitating web content on behalf of the entire station. Baby steps to my dream….

Partner in crime...

Another day at good ol’ 6ABC. I began my day, like everyday, updating the daily twitter counts for all of the news personalities at the station. I get faster and faster each day. Afterwards, I spent some time in the production suite putting some final touches on the Behind the Scenes Big Board video. There are a lot of minor details like audio, color consistency, but Mike (VP of Creative Services) thought it was very funny.

            I showed Katelyn (the new intern), some of the things I was working on and she began to help me out with the editing process. The next phase of the project is getting graphics and rolling credits together. I think this will tie everything together.

            In addition to my time editing, I met with Renee Washington (Executive Producer of the 11pm news), to get a run down on todays news stories for the 11pm topical. There were many stories to choose from including the main story: 4 Philadelphian teens who attacked and assaulted a 64-year-old war veteran. Today’s topical went smoothly since there were a lot of breaking details to tease.

            Tomorrow, I’ll be in my second promo shoot for the Philadelphia Auto Show. Super excited! 

GMA Flyers Shoot!

Today Mara, Maria and I were put on assignment to do a promo shoot for Good Morning America with the Philadelphia Flyers. Last year, Good Morning America did a special promotion with the Philadelphia Phillies where Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos would shout out a different city every week and ask how each city says “Good Morning America.” Philadelphia was chosen again for 2012 so the department was asked to team up with the Creative Services team from Good Morning America, to get film shots of the Philadelphia Flyers saying “Good Morning America.”

            We arrived at the Flyers practice stadium and waited patiently for the team to finish practice so we could film our morning news team interacting with the Flyers. We had a limited amount of time with two of the Flyers players so we had to film fast. I can’t give two many details out (for confidential reasons) but the shoot went well! I can’t wait for the finish project.

            Throughout the day, my tasks were to film the Behind the Scenes footage of the shoot and assist the production staff on set. I got some really funny footage of the news anchors and Flyers that I’m excited to begin editing. Hopefully, as the internship moves forward, I’ll have the opportunity to write scripts and generate ideas as I become more familiar with the types of projects that the department produces. Loving my journey so far!

This is BIG!

Whew, what a day! I am so exhausted.

Today was the big day. After a year of orchestration, the BIG BOARD promo shoot finally came true. I arrived on set ready to film some behind the scenes footage which will debut on the 6ABC website after the actual promo airs on channel 6. I will film, log, edit and produce everything from choosing music to deciding which moments are most entertaining from todays shoot.

News personalities Nydia Han, Melissa Magee, Karen Rogers, Cecily Tynan, Matt O'Donnell, Alicia Vitarelli and Adam Joseph were all in good spirits and ready to film. Throughout the day, it was my job to catch the talent during brief moments of off time and get them to interact with the camera. In a way, it helped make the day last a bit more fun and lively. The commercial process is very tedious! Patience is definitely required.

After the long process of rehearsing and filming to perfection, I sat down and had lunch with Meteorologist Melissa Magee who was kind enough to snap this photo with me. As a young broadcaster herself, she shared a lot of advise with me about finding a job and discovering your niche/ultimate passion in the journalistic world. Starting out in a small market in Nebraska, Melissa became interested in meteorology after she discovered 'News' wasn't for her. It was like having lunch with a celeb!

Here's meteorologist Cecily Tynan and Special Reports reporter Nydia Han shooting a spot in front of the Big Board.

After shooting an hour and half worth of footage over a six hour time frame, I managed to get some really funny behind the scenes footage of the shoot. 

Can't wait to put it all together and begin to edit on Monday!

Lights, Camera, Action!

I arrived a bit early to the station today because we are beginning the first day of the "Big Board" promo shoot. After Bruce showed me how to operate the camera used for the Behind the Scenes footage, I was off on my own. I began interviewing the crew as they set up a scene for the promo. As I learned throughout the day, we were shooting the last scene of the promo, first! It was my job to capture behind the scenes footage of the crew setting up and rehearsing before Jim Gardner arrived on set.

Jim Gardner, for those who don't know, is the face of journalism in all of Philadelphia. He has been will 6ABC for more than 30 years and is very well respected. After Jim arrived on set, Evan (the producer) wanted me to pose as a worker in the newsroom. So, instead of shooting the remainder of the behind the scenes footage, I got a brief cameo in the promo shoot with Jim. Very very exciting!

After the shoot ended, I helped Evan with 11pm topical writing. I'm actually getting the hang of writing topicals. They are getting better and better! Here's a look at today's topical:

Tonight at 11--

A Delaware blaze destroys close to 20 apartment units. New details on what caused that 2-alarm fire costing residents their homes.

Then--

A woman in a wheelchair struck and killed by 3 hit-and-run drivers. The haunting details that make this accident even more tragic.

Plus--

We made it through the coldest day of the season. Meteorologist Cecily Tynan is tracking how things may be looking up in your ACCU WEATHER forecast.

AND--

A suspicious device found at the King of Prussia Mall. Find out what has police and emergency units raising their brows.

Tonight at 11.

By the time topical time ended, I occupied the remainder of the day by viewing some more of the archived footage of old topicals, behind the scenes footage and bloopers. There's a big day ahead so I want to be prepared for our big photo shoot tomorrow. My call time is 8 a.m.

Time to get some sleep.

Becoming a Final Cut Pro

The Creative Services Department uses a Macintosh program, Final Cut Pro, to produce their promotions content for commercials, teasers and other special promotions projects for the station. As apart of my responsibility, the department wants me to master the program because its the primary tool we use to produce edit our content.

Today was all about getting familiar with Final Cut Pro. Bruce (Photography producer) and Tim (Asst. Director) gave me the run down on the program which seemed pretty easy to work. I've worked with iMovie in the past and they seem to be similar. Next week's assignment will be the ultimate test as I am responsible for producing the Behind the Scenes content for this big (and expensive) promotions shoot on Saturday. The idea for the Behind the Scenes segment is to film how things operate behind the scenes while focusing on how silly the anchors/crew members are. I'm really excited about it!

After receiving a crash course on Final Cut Pro, I sat and looked through hundreds of archives of teasers, Behind the Scenes footage and final projects. I thought it was very important to study how these videos are produced because I will be responsible for producing them in the future. It was very helpful to look through the archives and get some ideas for the upcoming shoot.

Lastly, Maria (Social Media Producer) gave me a small project to end the day. ABC pays out a lot of money for radio stations to link wpvi.com from their online pages. The promotions department uses a program called, Omniture, which tracks and displays how many people click on the wpvi.com link. This program also helps ABC determine whether the radio station is worth keeping around. If only two people are clicking on the link per month, it is not worth it to us. My job was to pull up the reports via Omniture and record the figures in an Excel spreadsheet. It took a few hours but it wasn't too hard.

Overall, I had another great day! Continuing to learn so much....

Survived to stay another day!

Day Two is complete! Similar to yesterday, it hit me today. I'm working for ABC News. I'm so excited for these next few months. I'm already on board for a major commercial shoot for Saturday and this is only my second day of work.

Executive Producer, Mara Webb gave me some homework for the night. I was assigned to watch the noon news before coming into work and write a few topicals to be reviewed later in the day. I wrote six different topicals covering breaking news stories accumulating from the morning to noon newscasts. It was my first stab at afternoon topicals and I actually did pretty well. Mara gave me a few pointers about writing topicals. Being in school, I typically write in an editorial style. Topicals, as Mara explained, are not editorials. Rather, they are brief 30 second teasers that air at 3:30pm and 7:00pm everyday to get viewers interested in the upcoming newscast. Its almost like writing mini commercials. After writing the scripts, we get them approved by the news department and film them about a half hour before they air.

In addition to learning the process of topicals, I met Monica Malpass (5pm anchor), Kenneth Moton (General Assignment reporter), engineers in Master Control and Bernie P. (the stations general manager). Super exciting. I definitely plan on building relationships with these people. NETWORKING !!!!

Start to a New Beginning

Today was the beginning of the rest of my life! I really cannot believe I'm an intern for 6ABC. I've been watching this station since I was in elementary school. Now, I'm sitting next to award-winning journalists, directors, producers who've been doing this for longer than I've been alive. It's quite surreal.

Prior to entering the newly built 6ABC building, I didn't know what to expect. Security made my ID badge which will grant me access to every door in the building. The assistant director of Creative Services (Tim Fenstermacher) came and welcomed me to the department. Thereafter, he showed me to my desk and the producers and coordinators I'd be working with over the next four months. Maria, the Social Media producer (who sits directly behind me) is very bubbly and pleasant. Diane, the Creative Services coordinator is also very nice and welcomed me to the department!

Tim explained that I'd be working closely with Maria to facilitate the station's growing social media pages. She gave me access to all of the anchors' professional Facebook sites as well as the general Facebook page for the department of meteorology and a few popular newscasts such as "6at4" and "The Thanksgiving Day Parade."I was surprised that Maria gave me access so quickly. It made me feel powerful.

I also met the VP of Creative Services, Mike Monsell, who is a bit intimidating. I've dealt with worse so I'm not complaining. Right away, he gave me an assignment. He showed me an old calendar of 2011 and told me to update it to 2012. All holidays, annual special events and projects were to be transported to the 2012 calendar. It wasn't difficult at first until I realized that different holidays and special events fall on different days in 2012. Google really came in handy today!

Being that I am a perfectionist, the calendar project took an hour. Mike was pleased with my diligence and commitment to the small project so hopefully he'll warm up.

Executive producer, Mara Webb gave me a brief tour of the building. I met tons of producers, anchors and reporters! I was so excited to meet them! Adam Joseph, Alicia Vitarelli, Brian Taff... the list goes on. Today's an exciting day.

Today, I learned the art of writing topicals. Topicals are teasers that the Creative Services (Promotions) Department is responsible for writing for the upcoming newscast. For example, Mara writes a 20-30 sec teaser that airs at 3:30pm everyday for the 4:00pm newscast. Every day she checks in with Matt Dennis, executive producer of the 4pm news, to see what stories are upcoming. He gives us 4-5 stories to choose from and Mara takes them and condenses them into a 30 second teaser. It's definitely harder than it sounds. I practiced writing my first teaser which actually ended up reading more like a newspaper headline. Whoops! I have to remember that I work for Promotions, not News. She reassured that I would get the hang of it soon enough. She said my writing is strong! (Thanks PITT)

As the day wrapped up, I got to sit in on the first department meeting where Mike officially welcomed me to the department. He gave me a couple assignments for the upcoming weeks:

1. Get 100 of my Facebook friends to like the 6ABC Action News Facebook page.
2. Write a haiku for the next meeting.
3. Be prepared to shoot the behind the scenes footage of our big promo video shoot on Saturday.

Thats right! I started just in time to be apart of the first big promotion shoot of the year. This is gonna be BIG!

Overall, today was so exciting. I can actually see myself working here after this experience is over. Round two tomorrow!