The Count Order Words Of: What?

The order of your words count is what the title of this blog is supposed to say. That should be obvious but so many times we do not say what we mean but something else.

The reason why I thought of this happened when I tripped over a drum set. I was walking, my pant leg caught the edge of the drum set, and I blurt out, "Stupid Mike's drum set." I meant to say the stupid drum set but called Mike stupid instead. I should have said "Mike's stupid drum set." Nobody caught my mistake but myself because they implied what I meant. But it called my attention to words can hurt and the order matters.

Be especially careful with adjectives and complex sentences. Make sure the adjectives describe the correct thing in the sentence. The red dog ran over the blue raggedy carpet. Don't say the blue dog raggedly ran over the red carpet if it's not what you mean. Try to change complex wording into simple phrases as people are more likely to understand. And take time to think about what you say and fix it if you phrased it wrong.

And lastly words hurt. Remember that what you say may not be meant meanly but that your word choice should be carefully considered.

KOMU Reporter Shadow Experience

For my reporting shift, I shadowed Jamal Andress. Upon arriving at the station, I was greeted by Jen Reeves who held a story meeting to discuss potential stories in the coverage area. Jamal came prepared with several story ideas but we were ultimately sent to cover a press conference from Govenor Jay Nixon in California, Missouri (Maniteau County). Nixon was covering his plan for creating jobs in Missouri. After creating a story map, Jamal decided to approach the story using unemployment data to analyze how this plan may / may not help the economy.

Jamal immediately emphasized the importance of time management as the most valuable thing he has learned at the station. It is important to immediately begin thinking about the story, making phone calls and leaving messages if you cannot get a hold of anyone, and know what shots you may need. At the end of the day, you need to have a VOSOT done for the 5 newscast and a package for the 6 newscast. You need to watch interview times, travel times, editing time, writing time, and remember to leave room for error. Computers only capture and import at one speed and you need to think about the time it takes to do this.

Before we left the newsroom, we filled out the assignment form. Regularly you would fill it out on the computer in the room where you checkout equipment but Stacey and Jen were working on creating a new form that they had Jamal fill it out by hand. The assignment form helps keep track of what stories people are doing, allows the producers to know what people are out on assignments, and keep track of equipment. If something is lost or broken, the assignment form allows the newsroom to track who had what last. If you have any problems, you should always call and talk to producers.

Jamal also took time to research before we left. He was even was meticulous about fact checking by calling contacts from websites to ask where the information came from. Once we got background information, we left early to California Missouri, interviewing the local mayor about job economy in the city who gave us other contacts to reach. We got b-roll and used the time before Nixon's speech to get some video and local opinions for the story. Since Jamal narrowed his focus, it was easier to know what he wanted to film.

Once we got back, Jamal immediately notified the producers and began getting his video from the camera to Avid as it takes time to import. He used sub-clipping to select pieces from Nixon's Speech rather than taking time to import it all as it saved time to convert the video. To subclip, you mark your in and out points in the source video and use the clip browser to create a new clip with just that portion of video. While the video was importing, Jamal then wrote a web story.
            Although Jamal did not use a graphic for his story, he showed me how to request one in iNews. The producers have to create one and it is important to do it early so they have time to do it. It is important to write what you exactly want. They will create a video and put it in a bin in Media Management. You can then use the video to insert into your story.

If you are covering a complicated story, it is important to use the web story as a way to provide the accurate depth for people to understand. You can clear up stories aired using the online site. And whenever possible Jamal prefers to use face-to-face conversation as you can ask people to demonstrate what they mean to clear up confusion. Whenever someone seems to be talking at a complex level, he always stops and tells the person to explain slowly and so anybody can understand.

Working in Avid is simple but you need to always check in your bins and work. Under file while in Avid, click on “check in open bins.” If you click "check in all bins" it will check in every bin in the day folder and take awhile.

Anytime you interview someone, go somewhere, or reference a specific link on our website, you need to use a super. In our case, we were told the governor did not need a super, as people knew who he was. But to create a super, you do it in iNews at the beginning of what you need supered. You use Deko Select to fill out the information. Unless your clip is shorter than 5 seconds, a super should at least remain up for that amount of time.

Other forms useful that students may need to use are the gas reimbursement forms and the hotel forms. If you go somewhere with your own car for the station, keep all receipts and you will get reimbursed. If you need to travel overnight, you can also get reimbursed for travel expenses. This was especially useful to cover the Joplin tornado.

At the end of the day, Jamal told me he wished he would have known the importance of knowing that you will never be perfect in this job. You can get ahead by staying at the station over breaks. He noted David Earl. He is a student like us, but chose to stay over summers and breaks and has been able to get the best experience out of KOMU by effort, passion, and dedication. Now, while in school, he is a co-anchor known by the community.

This shift is what we are training to do at Mizzou. It is the basis and fundlemental shift to test what this career is all about.

KOMU PA Shadow Experience

I worked as the production assistant for the Friday morning shows 2:30am to 7am during the Fall 2011 semester.

While working at KOMU, I cut the international, national, NBC show promos (i.e Today Show, Bloomberg Business Report, and CNBC News), medical, and political segments. The job was very simple but detail oriented and crucial to making sure the show was a success.   Upon arriving every morning, I would always check in with the producer(s) to let them know I was there, ask if they had any specific instructions, and figure out the video that needed to be cut.

There are two PA computers in the newsroom and often two people editing and cutting video. The overall job is to import video either from the NBC channel server or CNN for use on the KOMU server.  In order to find what stories I needed to cut, I would always log into iNews and look at the run down for videos that had a Vidsource ID and offline media. The Vidsource ID is the way the NBC labels and organizes their video online. The column in iNews that tells if the video is offline is crucial as it tells whether the video is uploaded into the server for the newscast. If I had questions about a specific task, I would ask the producer who would often write special notes within the story if they were looking for specific video or requests with the story. Some video took longer to edit, as they required resizing, adding KOMU curtains, and adjusting audio levels. Video always needed to be in 16:9 and depending on whether it was a tease, package, VO, or SOT, the audio levels would need adjusted accordingly.

The NRCS tool is how the station gets video onto its server for use elsewhere in the station. Once entering the NRCS, you drag the specific sequence into the bin you’re working on, cut the video, and then upload the video using "Quickdub". The PA is responsible for making sure that the video is routed to the correct place by checking the ID numbers in iNews and Avid. You should always double check that it uploaded correctly as wrong video.

The hardest parts are making sure everything is done on time, correctly, and look good with the video provided. If you feel like you are behind or need help, it is crucial to communicate to the producer immediately. Do not wait until the last minute. If the producer is busy, many other students and staff in the newsroom can help cut video and make sure you are doing everything correctly.

The computer system at KOMU is usually reliable and usually never fails. If for some reason the system is not working correctly, you should always restart the computer. But if a compute restart does not immediately work, tell a producer who can then investigate the issue. The sooner you tell them the easier it will be as you may have more time to edit the show and they can solve the problem. The last time I worked as a PA I actually had an error message saying, “Server drive full”. And had to have Stacey delete old video from the server as I did not have the correct access to solve the issue myself. I immediately told Stacey and it was an easy solution.

The best way to get along with reporters and producers is by introducing yourself, making sure you understand the assigned tasks, and asking for help. There is room for side conversation but it is usual minimal as everyone is usually busy and working for the next cast.

The other role of the production assistant is running prompter. While this should be easy and can get boring during the long morning shows, it is important you keep up with the people speaking so the newscast runs smoothly and the reporters and anchors do not have to read off of their scripts. You can look at iNews while doing prompter and can listen to what’s being read to know if you are following along. If all else fails, the onset people do have their scripts but they are backups.

The production assistant is a vital role and is the backbone to a smooth show. It is a great introduction to learning the basics of video editing in Avid at KOMU.