I can’t believe this is it. Its over.  I feel so blessed to have been a part of this internship and to have met so many wonderful people. Thank you  everyone for being so welcoming and kind to me throughout all of my rotations, it really means a lot!

My last week couldn’t have been better the two highlights would definitely have to be the puppy story in Portsmouth ( if you go to the SPCA there and it’s raining you get a free dog!) and the jail story I did today where Jason dealt with a neighborhood confrontation which was interesting to say the least. This week highlighted the variety of stories that reporters deal with on a daily basis. I loved every moment of this week, so it really is bittersweet leaving.

Coming into those gates after we finished the story was actually kinda sad because that’ll be the last time. I don’t think its really hit me yet, maybe it will when I get up on Monday and realize that I don’t have anywhere to be since I won’t be at work or at WAVY.

Guess I’ll end it.

Quote of the day:  ” If your going to be a fuse, then I’m going to fan the fire” – Jason

Oprah aha moment of the internship:  This internship has been the highlight of summer and I’ve learned more than I could’ve ever imagined.  This internship has helped me to get one step closer to my dream. Thank you!

&& of course something positive, cheery and slightly cheesy to end my last blog

Hey I just met you.
and this is crazy
who would have thought, I’d be at WAVY?
The summer blazed by, no room for lazy
For me this was a dream, Thank you WAVY!

Today I got to wear the headset again… and it’s getting less and less intimidating, I haven’t gotten to the point where I can completely multitask..but I’m getting there. The chefs today made this AHMAZING strawberry shortcake- as much as my mind was saying avoid it, it was just too good to pass up! Cyprus Grille in Embassy Suites will definitely be a place that my mom and I go before I head back to school!

After the show rapped and Tracey and I cleaned up the set I headed to the newsroom to help Susan…but then…

Aaron said he was going to the new Urban Outfitters…I said I wanted to go and Susan graciously let me go! I had so much fun..first off the store is amazing…three stories with a really cool city vibe. Aaron let me interview a few people and then we went back to get Melanie in order to develop the story a little bit further. Melanie made the story more about the economic impact of the store and what that meant for Grandby Street. She also did a package on the heat because it was so hot outside today.  I know I was burning up, black pants was not the way to go..times like that I really wish someone would bring back those ugly zip-off pants where you could change your pants length with one zip (I know they were ugly..but I’m talking about for convenience).

Since one of the packages was about  Urban Outfitters, Melanie decided to experience it herself (SHOPPING). She ended up getting this really cute, simple dress!
After we shot Melanie’st packages, I got to step in front of the camera which I enjoyed. Melanie and Aaron were great about constructive criticism and tips!

Quotes of the day: ” This is a yoga lesson” – Melanie’s response to losing a hairband

-”You know you live in a small city when people get excited about the opening of an Urban Outfitters” – Melanie

Quote of the day: “You’ve NEVER heard of a TWG ?!” – Susan

So my producing debut in the control room was not disastrous, thank you Jesus and Susan for remaining calm when I thought I was going to have a heartattack. I’ve never been so intrigued by a timer until I had the headset on and was in charge of making sure that the hosts heard the information that I was providing. Part of me wishes I could film the control room during tapings just because of the some of the comments made- they could totally give The Office a run for their money.

Afterward I did some administration stuff before I left. I’m getting better at setting up and breaking down The Hampton Roads Show set and setting up the mics BUT only because of the great people that work on the show. Everyone has been really welcoming and willing to include me which is a nice feeling.  Not to mention these are possibly the most enthusiastic people that I’ve seen at the crack of the dawn and their energy is contagious!

Today’s Hampton Roads Show was definitely entertaining! The Hurrah Players performed on the show with so much energy at 8 in the morning- just kicking their feet and snappin their fingers to the beat like it was nothing. It almost felt like they had come straight out of High School Musical or a Kidz Bop commercial because they had rhythm and were just singing along  with huge smiles!

After setting up I followed Susan to the control room and watched her do her thing…until she slyly rolled her chair to the side and said.. ” your turn”…now Susan makes her job look really easy but I knew it wasn’t so the nerves started kicking in. She walked me through everything but made sure that I was still the only one doing it… AH! Nerve racking.. I have never been so nervous to touch three buttons before.. but I didn’t fail or ruin the show and that was definitely a relief!

After the show there was an interview for the show tomorrow which needed to be filmed. Susan needed me to run prompter because noone else was there, it put me on the spot but I was glad I had already done my rotation in production ( Thanks Justin!)

Today I spent a lot more time with Susan and her personality and sense of humor definitely keep you on your toes, because you never know what she’s going to say next..like when I was leaving today and she told me I was going to have to do the show all by myself tomorrow : 0

Keep you posted on that one

Oprah aha Moment of the Day: Don’t take things to seriously. I know I’ve said this before but it’s really true, as I was in mid freakout when Susan handed over the headset she told me the same thing. A lot of the time I want to do things perfectly the first time and when your learning that won’t always happen, I’m learning/ trying to accept that, I think my tendency to want to control things and be a perfectionist make it a little more difficult. Baby steps…

Quote of the day : ” I’m just talking to myself, I do it all the time” - Susan

So back to the morning grind this week for The Hampton Roads Show. Somehow waking up at 5 am in the morning didn’t seem that bad this time around.. I hope that doesn’t mean I’m getting old.

Anyways  so I helped do some of the things that go on before the show comes on like delivering the rundown and scripts to people. Craig showed me where each script and rundown go and provided reasoning which was very helpful!

Then I went to back with Susan and watched her direct it. She is the queen of multitasking and has a sense of humor at the crack of dawn which is rare.

After the show wrapped she went to catch up on admin stuff since she was out the office on Friday and I went with Stephanie.

I think I’m going to dub Stephanie the white Oprah because she has so much good advice AND she’s hilarious! && to be honest she actually could relate to an audience, you know how Oprah goes on her rants but doesn’t really have knowledge about the topic.. like when she tells people how to raise their kids but she doesnt have any.. or marriage advice when shes not married ( although Stedman’s been around for awhile). No disrespect to Oprah of course shes AMAZING but what Oprah lacks Stephanie could contribute

Stephanie had me write a few teases for The Hampton Roads Show which was fun! I think I may have over thought it a little bit but it was a learning experience and I know I’ll do better if I have to write them again.

Quote of the Day: ” If you wan’t something in life you have to live it, name it and claim it” – Stephanie Cooke

Oprah aha Moment of the Day:  Make time for others even when you have a lot going on. Stephanie made time for everyone that came in her office for a little bit even though she had 700 emails in her inbox and many things on her to-do list. Sometimes I get so focused on the things that I need to do in a day that I do forget to take time to enjoy life and my friends and family this summer. Ive  still got some summer left.. I need to make up for lost time!

My time in Promotions is coming to a close and my last two days provided a change of pace from my field trip earlier during the week.

On Thursday I gave a tour around the building to Primose Summer Camp. Tracey gave me a brief tour (which I really appreciated) and then I was on my own! The kids were really enthusiastic about walking around the station and Andy Fox even came out and shook all their hands. They loved the green screen on the weather set and the helicopter the most. It was fun to be surrounded my a bunch of enthusiastic kids with lots of questions and I liked that I actually knew the answers to a lot of the questions because I learned various things when I spent time interning the different departments.

On Friday Alyson and I worked on a project she had received in Sales, they had data on the demographics of the people that watch Wavy and Fox news as well as the people that view the website. We were supposed to come up with what we thought that person would look like if they were real (so their ethnicity, age, education background…etc. )

We probably got a little too into the project but it was entertaining, definitely a good way to end the week!

It’s been fun promotions!

Quote of the day: “Look outside…those are our Wavy viewers” – Eric

Today I thought I would be going on a simple meteorologist promo shoot, but instead I got an adventure that definitely made my time in Promotions one that I won’t forget.

First, I’ll brief you on the original plan- Take Jeff to shoot his portion of the promo in Hampton in the morning, then come back and shoot all of the meteorologists together in the afternoon.

& Here’s what really happened-  We get to the site and Mike and Eric begin setting up which I can normally take a little while. I helped with what I could but when it got to setting up the camera there wasn’t much I could do. Everything seemed set after about 10 minutes (which was a relief because it was about 95 degrees outside and all three of us are sweating, Eric was the only smart one that had a cloth to wipe his face) but then the camera cut off. Mike and Eric tried to figure out why for another 10 minutes and Jeff even got out of the air conditioned car to figure out what was going on, but no one could find a solution to the problem. The camera was broken.

Mike was googling stuff on his iPhone and found that there was a Canon in Newport News that we could take the camera too, so we packed everything up and headed there.

This seriously isn’t a plug for Canon, but they were AMAZING.  I met Mr. Canon himself.. just kidding but seriously they were great! They were able to fix the camera in two hours and let us take a tour of their show room while we waited.

Since the show room tour didn’t take very long we killed some time and had lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings, where Jeff had to wear a bib napkin so he wouldn’t stain his shirt as he chowed down on endless wings.

We headed back to Canon to pick up the camera after they called us to let us know it was ready. Can I add that in order to even get in the facility you have to check in, provide proper ID at the gate and then get a visitors badge..yes it’s that serious!

After getting the camera we headed back to Hampton to finally get Jeff’s promo done. Thank God for Eric who picked a cooler location so none of us were sweating as badly. Jeff pretty much nailed his lines so we weren’t out there forever and a day which was great!

As we headed back to the car we tried to pay for our ticket to get into the parking garage but the machine was broken (of course) but Eric and Mike figured it out and we were on our way!

It was definitely an adventure and I learned that in order to work in this business no matter the department you ALWAYS have to think on your toes! Mike and Eric didn’t get discouraged when the camera stopped working (well they may have but they didn’t act like it) and they didn’t complain when they were drenched in sweat from the scorching heat (I’m not over exaggerating, it really was hot). Jeff didn’t complain even when I was shining a reflector in his eyes and he was just a lot of fun to be around. Even when everything was going wrong, he still managed to crack a joke or recite some odd fact or opinion that no one had ever heard before ( like if a dragon fly lands on you its good luck).

Quote of the day (there seriously were so many): ” A Lexus is like a woman with too much Botox, it tries hard to look good..but it just doesn’t” – Jeff

Today I headed upstairs to attend a shoot for one of Wavy’s new promos that will begin airing on July 27th (the start of the Olympics).  It was interesting to see how much set up and work is required to make a two second shot look good.  They transformed the office just by changing the lighting and focus. 

Oddly enough they don’t use a video camera during shooting they just a Canon camera with a lot of extra attachments that kind of make it look like a monster, but the video looked great!

Later I got to meet the Top 5 for the Face of Fox. They shot promos and did a photo shoot for the live event which will be on August 6th. It was nice to interact with them and learn their different personalities… it should be interesting to see who wins!

Oprah aha Moment of the Day: Eric and Mike were setting things up so quickly I was wondering if they both majored in photography but Eric was a Communication major and Mark was more focused on film. However Eric was saying its important to make the most out of your degree, because thats what he did (and it obviously worked!).

Quote of the day: “Keep it simple, let your video tell the story” – Mike

Before I even start about my time in promos, I have a funny story (ok maybe not funny but still)

So I went out for a friends birthday on Saturday to a place in Hampton and I’m standing around with some friends when I receive a text from my mom, telling me they’ve found a body that could be linked to the Lynn Jackenheimer case. Now if I hadn’t been interning at WAVY / just left the web department I really don’t know if I would have been as excited. But I literally turned to my friend and starting telling him about it, but he had no clue who she even was or why I was so excited.  But long story short (or long story long since I basically told the whole story) I had to check myself after because it was a huge deal to me because I’ve been there every day when there’s been news about it and the web has updated the story, I feel so invested in it still. I really do have a heart for news and I think being in web and watching how they write the stories and how much work they put into getting information has really helped me realize that more.

Okay now that I’m off that rant.

Today I shadowed Mike Booth and got to learn about his daily routine. He does a lot of the topicals for The Hampton Roads Show and the news. He came up with a 10 second topical in about 10 minutes which is crazy! But he said some of mine were pretty good which made me feel a little bit better : ) . Topicals really force you to condense your words so you can get the important stuff out there to the public. I’m really interested to learn more about the editing process in producing a topical.

I’ll let you know how that goes!

Quote of the day: “As long as you pay your dues in the smaller markets it’ll pay off in the long run” – Mike Booth

Oprah Aha Moment of the Day:  Mike really had some good advice to give before we started working on topicals and I guess the one piece that I really liked was about making sure you keep your priorities in check. He told me that news can become a person’s life and that’s fine while your young, you should go to different places and learn as much as you can; but when you older if you want that family aspect you have to make time for that. He said that the news business can become obsessive and sometimes you have to take a step back and remember whats important.

Today was my last day in web and I’m sad to see it go! I’ve loved working with Mila and Jane the past week. They’ve made the time go so quickly and have been so willing to teach me which has been great!  Jane made everything she did look easy and still shared teachable moments with me and I really appreciated that . Mila was always willing to spend a few seconds to talk to me even if her long to-do list was growing which was really sweet of her! I really will miss that little cubicle

 I cut a lot of video about Obama coming to Hampton Roads. I also got to watch a bit of it while it was happening which was pretty cool. The news on the Lynn Jackenheimer  has slowly dwindled which is slightly disheartening but I really do hope they find her.

Quote of the day: “3G…more like zero G”