Team C 4:20 Newscast

Today was my first shot at being a producer, and honestly I thought I was going to crash and burn. But, my team and I worked so well together, and I really think our product came out pretty good.

I got in contact with Greg, Ivory, and Allie last night about story ideas, and Allie and Ivory got back to me quickly about their approved stories. Ivory went to the Common Council study session, and Allie went to the four hotels hosting teams for the NCAA East Regionals. Both kept me updated today while they were in the field. Allie and Ivory came back, finished quickly, which helped my stress level a lot. Allie's wrap was pre-recorded and ran a little long (about :45). She cut it down, and re-did her anchor intro to keep us on time. She kept me in the loop about all the changes, and gave Greg the appropriate scripts. It was a huge help to me as I was running around making sure all the stories were written and everyone had the scripts. Ivory did her wrap in studio and did a great job. It ran a little long, but in the end it worked out because we were light on time.

Greg did a fantastic job as anchor, and we worked together swimmingly. He helped in the writing of all the stories, and with the rundown. He initially tried a phoner with someone from WAER in Salt Lake City, but when Ivory came back with sound for two stories we decided to use one as an anchor act. We finished writing early enough for Greg to go through all his scripts, and I think that helped with our timing before the break and Greg with his reading.

We went into the break about 5 seconds over, and I told Greg to read the kicker, the longer version of the weather, and the short goodbye. But, we came out of the weather at 4:25:36 for some reason, and Greg had to do an extended goodbye. He improvised really well under the circumstances and we only had the music playing for about 4 seconds.

All in all, I think we had a fabulous team and put together a really good newscast. I probably should have pulled a floater because we were so light, but it was a learning experience. While reporting and anchoring, all 3 of my newscasts were heavy and we had to pull the kicker so I wasn't really ready for what to do if we needed more content. But, next time, I'll put in the floater. But again, I think this has been the best newscast I've been a part of and I'm looking forward to producing again.