Video Production – CA Work Experience Program

LAST DAY!!

For the past two days, the head of the Audience Development department has been gone for a surgery, so today we started the day off by making a podcast for her to update her on the week. In the podcast, we did a would you rather (live in below 0 temperature of 100 temperature always — sounded like a lose-lose to us)!

After we finished recording we saw the WRAL helicopter land on the nearby roof!

here’s a video of the landing: IMG_1406

Then, I met Jay, who is a part of the documentary team. I got to see the awesome documentary series that he’s working on – I can’t wait until it comes out! Then, we took a break for lunch and I met with Jaida again!

When I returned, I helped film some B-roll for an in-house video project. Finally, I sat down with Katie, who works for WRAL from a more advertising perspective. Overall, I really enjoyed my time at WRAL!

Day Seven: WRAL

Today I started the day with a production meeting, where everyone in our team shared what they were working on for the rest of this week. Then, I spent some time with Anita, who was working on a final edit for a project that is airing in about two weeks. Then, I took a lunch break with Jaida!

Finally, I ended the day by meeting some talent for a potential TV show and helping to give them a tour of WRAL! Overall, it was a pretty chill day because the entire team is doing a night shoot at 9:00 tonight! I’m excited to be back for my last day tomorrow.

Day Six: WRAL

Today I started the day by visiting Mandy Mitchell, who showed me the newsroom and explained to me her job at WRAL. It was really interesting to see the various ways that video is incorporated here at WRAL. For example, Mandy has a two-week turnaround, whereas much of the news team must turn around products the same day.

Then, I did a relatively irregular task: I de-bugged lights… literally. A recent shoot was near a river with a ton of bugs that flew into their lights, so we took the lights apart and cleaned out all the bugs! Then we took a break for lunch, and I ate outside by the gardens!

When we returned, I met with Allison Blevins, who is a local producer who creates commercials for nearby businesses. Finally, I ended the day with a tour of MIX 101.5, the radio station (which is in a nearby facility).

Day Five: WRAL

Today was my first day at WRAL! I started the day with a tour of WRAL – which took a while because the entire studio is huge! On my tour, I saw Jaida Jett which was super fun because we had no idea that we were both at WRAL for the week! We settled in Cliff’s office space in the more digital side of WRAL and I was able to meet the rest of his team.

Then, he went into a meeting to get one of his commercials approved, and we went to make editing changed to the same commercial. After that, we loaded some equipment into a car (which was more challenging than you would think because video equipment is huge)!

Then we went out to lunch – there are a lot of restaurants that are walking distance from WRAL so we were able to walk over to Ba Da Wings. Finally, we ended the day with a creative meeting (with all the teams together). Today was really interesting because everyone was really nice to me and really cared about what I was interested in. I talked to one of the interns at WRAL and talked to him about his college search/process which was very helpful since I’m in the middle of that same process!

Day 4

Today at SAS all of the Cary Academy students got together to receive a presentation on SAS’s app GatherIQ, an app that connects the user to some of the most pressing issues in the world and gives them the ability to educate themselves while contributing to the causes. For the first half of the day, we acted as functional testers- judging the application based on appearance, functionality, and how easy it was to use. We filled out surveys and were able to communicate directly with those in charge of the product.

We ate lunch in building R, where the presentations were being held- and it was also my first day in building R, which is used primarily for research and development. It had a very nice open plan with an enormous lobby- different from other buildings we’ve seen at SAS.

After lunch, we reconvened and started our next project- the development of a video in order to spread awareness about a certain issue. We split up into three teams and began brainstorming for what we could do to help get the message “out there”. On Monday we will continue and hopefully finish this video and see what it can accomplish.

Day Four: Trailblazer Studios

My final day at Trailblazer did not disappoint! I started the day off with a similar review from yesterday, but with a different TV show on the audio only. Here I was able to meet some new faces and watch a new TV show (my favorite that I’ve seen at Trailblazer so far). Then, I worked with Michel, who showed me how to use their go-to editing software: Pro-Tools. Then, she set me on a project to work on editing to get a feel for the software.

I spent my lunch break chatting with a bunch of employees from Trailblazer, before settling in my last place for the day. I ended the day with Willie, who explained to me his journey to get to this job. He showed me the in-depth process involved in editing the sound for a movie or TV show. Most importantly, he gave me some tips and tricks about the industry and my work that I was able to show him.

Overall, this day was beyond helpful, and I’m so thankful for Trailblazer Studios for giving me this opportunity to shadow and experience what this field can look like! Onto WRAL next week 🙂

SAS Day 3

Day 3 at SAS included more in-depth interviews within the marketing field as well as exploration of other fields relating to marketing. I first met with designers that created the booths for the SAS Global Forum conference, which included several hubs where SAS could display their work and products to potential clients. Each hub has a booth that had to be coherent with each other and look unified. The designers ran me through their design process from start to finish; starting off in creating visuals in Adobe Illustrator, putting the panels together I’m Adobe InDesign, and making a 3D model of each booth in SolidWorks. Meeting with more than one designer that had the same job gave me a good idea of how individual style affects a given task. After that, we went to a meeting room where we met many creators and designers that showed us posters, mugs, T-shirts, stickers, and anything that contained a SAS logo or a clever catchphrase. We all discussed each piece of artwork and said what we thought of each one. For the past two days, I have gone to a different building to eat lunch, and today was no different. We ate lunch at the beautiful building R which had a completely different set of foods, including rice and refried beans, burgers, pizza, and an assortment of desserts. At SAS any employee can go to any of the massive and diverse dining halls and get completely different meals and environments.

After lunch, we explored other buildings outside marketing, starting with the Film production building. First, we went to the theater where we saw all the behind-the-scenes technology that went into a live panel in front of an audience. We then went to a soundproof movie studio, which was among the only 3 studios of its kind in North Carolina. Instead of working with a private company to shoot ads or make videos, SAS has a profesional-grade movie studio comparable to those at Hollywood. After, we went to the sound branch, where there were several employees that worked only on perfecting the sound on the countless voice-overs and videos that SAS shoot. Even though SAS has nothing to do with audio and video, they have a complete, professional-grade audio and video branch in their company. Finally, we went to the printing and cutting sector where SAS made all of their premium-grade books, manuals, panels, stickers, shirts, and anything that the designers created. Again, SAS does all the printing through the company itself instead of through an independent company. The printing warehouse included several complex printers and machines that could do anything from printing onto metal sheets to making sculptures and cutouts. The third day at SAS showed me where the designers’ work goes after creating a graphic and how it is developed to the customers’ needs.

Day Three: Trailblazer Studios

Today was my favorite day yet! I spent the day in post, which entails all the editing done for a tv show or movie. Today, I started off the day by watching a 45-minute tv show in a sound office. Along with two other viewers and an editor, everyone made notes about the various issues involving sound. Once we finished viewing, we went to each timestamp to figure out what the problem is, and how to fix it. I got to witness both the process of finding these errors and the process involved in fixing those issues. This accounted for the first two hours of my workday. Then, I moved to another office – coloring. Here, we repeated the same process of observation and noting various issues, then going back to fix them. By this time, it was my second time viewing the episode, so I was able to catch many more issues than I was able to the first time. We sat in comfy recliners and ate our lunch while observing the second time. Then, we went through the episode for the final time to mark any color, crop, or continuity issues. Overall, today was the most fascinating day so far because I never knew that the process could be so intensive. It was also interesting to see the perspective of both the client and the editor. I’m excited to see this process again tomorrow with a different TV show!

(pictures courtesy of Dan Smith from CA!)

Day Two: Trailblazer Studios

Today I spent the day with the production team. The morning started off quickly when they had a quick meeting about the issues they faced with a recent shoot. After 15 minutes of discussing issues with memory, storage, and random flukes with the hard drives, one member of the team turned to me and promised that they would start speaking English soon! After that, we took a walk to the kitchen where I tried out the coffee machine, very useful!

Then, I was put to work to try to track down the artists behind several pieces that were featured in one of their shows. They wanted to ensure that there weren’t any copyrights or legal red tape. This sounds like an easy task, but after two hours of searching, I had only found 2 of the 8 photographs. I took a break for lunch, and had a veggie burger from BurgerFi! When I returned, I helped research the price points of various items to help finalize the budget for a show that will be filming soon! Overall, I learned that production is much more about planning and working with various companies than it is hands-on. However, each person within the team plays an important role, and they all have to work together to produce a show or docu-series.

I ended the day by learning more about the various journeys that everyone on this team took to get here. I discovered that a lot of people at Trailblazer had journalism degrees as opposed to film studies. My mentor for the day, Rebecca Moore, helped explain the process of documentary work and what makes it so difficult. Ultimately, I gained a better knowledge of how complicated it is to create a show, and how important it is to communicate between departments.

Day One: Trailblazer Studios

Today was the first day of the work experience program! I started the day off with a tour of the studios – it’s so big, it’s like a maze.

Then I spent the day with Sydney Fedora, the head and sole member of the development department at Trailblazer studios. I spent the day learning about what she does in her department and helping her brainstorm for various show ideas. One method of brainstorming we used was to think of show titles and then the other person would think of what that show could be, ie. a show called mama bear could be about teen moms or celebrity moms.

We also discussed how different platforms can use different mediums and the role of a bunch of channels like NBC and PBS. At lunch, they ordered for me from a nearby restaurant – the same treatment that the clients at trailblazer receive! We ended the day with a conference call with the development teams in two other cities. Overall, it was an interesting way to see the beginning steps in the video production process.