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