NCAA Mens Lacrosse Championship

Hi guys,
Sorry I haven't updated this in a week but I was ridiculously sick and spent last week trying to get better. I'm feeling much better now, and yesterday the station sent me and another intern, Brian, with Walt (the official sports camera-guy for Fox 25) to the NCAA mens lacrosse championship. Let me start off by saying that it was incredible to be strolling around Gillette Stadium (where the Patriots and New England Revolution play football/soccer).

Despite the fact that it started off rocky, Walt didn't know he was supposed to meet us at the station first, so instead of getting there at 11, we didn't arrive until just before the game started at one, it ended well. When we got there Brian and I had to get credentials to have access to the press boxes and different restricted areas. So I got a sweet press badge and goodies they had for the press, which felt pretty cool.

Then we went up to the press hospitality room, which is basically a press box that has the perfect view of the field and a bunch of different types of food and drinks. So naturally we got some food and watched the first quarter of the game. Cornell (the underdog) and Syracuse (the defending champions) were playing, and Cornell was clearly playing better and was in the lead. After the first quarter we went down to the stands and took a bunch of fan pictures, then down closer to the field to take some in-game shots. After snapping a ton of photos we decided to head back to the press box and enjoy the game. Here is a picture I took from where we watched the 1st and 3rd quarters:

It seemed like Cornell was going to win for sure with just a few minutes left in the 3rd quarter, so my boss wanted to head down to the after-game press conference room to get a good spot to film from. It was thrilling to walk there, because we walked through the tunnel in Gillette and we walked past both the Revolution and Patriots locker rooms. While in the conference room you can't see the game or hear the announcers, but you can hear the crowd. We kept hearing the crowd go wild and figured out that Syracuse was making a run in the final minutes. As it turned out, Syracuse made a goal to tie the game with just four seconds left, and the two teams were forced to battle it out in overtime. Syracuse ended up pulling it out to win their 10th national championship.

The Cornell coach and two of their star players came in for the press conference a few minutes after entering the locker room. It was heartbreaking to watch those players (who were both seniors) talk about how the game spiraled out of their control in the last few minutes. Tears had to be wiped away as they answered questions about how it happened, and how they felt knowing their days of playing lacrosse at Cornell were over. After the Cornell press conference was over, the Syracuse coach and players came in for theirs. Clearly it was a much more excited and happy environment during the Syracuse press conference. It was quite the experience, and I can't wait to go to more events like this in the future.

-Brittini

PS- Here is a link to the game story http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/052509_PHOTOS_Cuse_wins_2nd_straight_title I took the two pictures that show up with the story, but not the ones in the gallery of the tailgaters.

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures...

Hi everybody,
Day two "in the field" was also a success. Yesterday I went to the girls lacrosse game at Norwell High to watch them take on Notre Dame Academy. The game was pretty exciting, at half-time the score was NDA 9 - Norwell 2 but the Norwell girls had a great comeback thanks to some stellar defense and the game ended up tied 11-11. My job at the game was to get copies of the rosters for Ryan Asselta (the sports reporter) in addition to taking as many pictures as possible. The pictures go up on the "High School Fridays" section of the website, and were supposed to be mostly of the families and fans at the game. The news station uses the pictures as a way to get people to go and look at the website. It was fun taking pictures all afternoon and publicizing for the station, and even though some of the pictures weren't that great, I don't think I'm horrible with a camera. After the game Ryan interviewed the teams for the 5 and 10 o'clock sports segments, and they were certainly thrilled to be on the news. Here is the link to all the pictures I took: http://media2.myfoxboston.com/galleries/09/hsf/HSF-Norwell/indexGallery.htm
Enjoy your weekend everyone!
-Brittini

First Assignment!

Hey guys,
So yesterday was my first on-site assignment, and it was really fun. I got to "play reporter" at a high school girls lacrosse practice. It was just a camera-man and myself, it was fun to drive out there in the news van with all the cameras and equipment. I did a little research before I went out to the school; as it turns out Notre Dame Academy is a D1 school and their opponent (and rival) Norwell is a D2 school, so that was the "spin" that the station wanted to put on the story. Both teams have had great seasons so far going 9-2-1 and 11-3-0 so far. It was really fun to interview them. I had a legitimate Fox 25 microphone with the logo plastered all over it and everything. I wasn't nervous, which surprised me; and I think I did pretty well, I had already planned some questions to ask the Coach and the girls. The cameraman gave me some pointers and I definitely learned a lot from the experience and I can't wait to go out and do it again.
The interviews are in the second video at this link: http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/sports/hs_friday/HS_Friday_Norwell_vs_Notre_Dame_051309
You can't see me or anything, nor can you hear me ask the questions; so it isn't that exciting for anyone but me, but I know I was the one asking the questions. First day of being a quasi-reporter was a success.
Today I head out in about an hour to go to the game and take pictures of the game and the fans for the website. Once the pictures from the game are posted I will post the link to those as well. Hope everyone is having a good day!
--Brittini

Belated Post # 1

Hi Everyone,
As you probably know, I got an internship at the Sports Desk at Fox 25 in Boston. I'm going to be up here all summer learning how to produce a Sports new show. Both my boss and my professor (this counts as a summer school class too!) suggested that I either write a blog or keep a journal of my experiences, and I also want to be able to tell you all about what I'm up to while I'm here, so the obvious choice was a blog.
My first day was Monday, I worked from 3:30 to midnight, which may seem odd, but there is only a sports segment during the night news broadcasts. My boss is awesome, and so is everyone else in the department. I'm the first intern to start, so I haven't met any of the others yet. The whole department just jokes around and taunts one another all night, it's a great environment. When I got to the studio (which is a HUGE building in Dedham, MA) I wasn't nervous or scared, as surprising as that is. I was just ready to start, and excited more than anything. Jay gave me a tour of the studio when I got there, and let me tell you, it is gorgeous. There are two levels, the bottom floor is a gigantic open room where all the producers and editors and writers work. In the center of the room is the main news desk, with all the lights and cameras. All around the room there are winding metal staircases that lead to the second flood. The second floor is open, and looks over the news room; its also where my desk is. The sports department is in the back right of the upper floor. There is a huge montage of Bruins, Celtics, Red Sox, and Revolution pictures behind a plasma screen where the broadcast is sometimes done.
After my tour, I learned how to set games to record so that they would be in the server for highlights during the broadcast. I was then shown how to log games the way that Fox does it, which is basically watching all the games and marking all of the "important" or "exciting" points in the game, and writing a description of what happened. They will use my marks to choose which highlights to use in the show, which I thought was pretty cool. Then it was nearly time for the broadcast, so everyone was busy rushing around to get everything set for the show and I shadowed my boss and watched the anchor from the control room. All in all the first night of interning was extremely eye-opening and really fun. I feel like by the end of this I will definitely know what I want to do with my life, and how to start off.
Jay explained the rest of my job duties to me, which are to go to events with different members of the department and help them (the photographer, the anchor, etc.) which means I will be taking pictures, and holding microphones during interviews, and maybe even interviewing a bit myself. There's a lot more little things that I will be doing, but I haven't yet and so I'm sure I will write about them at some point. One thing that sticks out to me from the night is that Jay said something along the lines of "yeah, so sometimes you'll be in the locker room holding the mic while Brian interviews Josh Beckett. Things like that. You're definitely going to get a hands on experience here, you won't be getting anyone coffee." Which raised my level of excitement exponentially.
Today I have my first assignment. In about an hour I am going to drive to the studio to shadow/help the photographer with what they call "High School Fridays." They cover one high school sporting event a week, until school is out (June 26th). This week is my turn to cover one, as the first intern. I'll be going to Notre Dame Academy to interview the Girls Lacrosse coach and important players. Tomorrow I'll actually go to the game and take pictures, and then interview the winning coach and team. It may not seem that cool since its a high school event, but I get to interview them myself! I'm excited to actually be out there, and have my interview used in an article/in the anchors nightly report.
I know this post was pretty long, but it was the first one. I'm sure the others will be much shorter. I'm going to try and post every time I get an assignment and go into the studio to work. I hope you all are having a fantastic summer, wherever you may be.
--Brittini