Intensity in a Newsroom.

I arrived to the station at 9 o clock, and while I walked in the front lobby I kept it casual. The receptionist in the front recognized me from last Monday's encounter and I quickly made a joke about "this time its for real" that my internship is officially starting. She went with my joke, making the Monday morning a great start.

So without wasting time, she dialed in the internal phone system to call out the internship coordinator. As I waited for my start, I went ahead to look at the lobby TV and saw some pretty lame TV shows. I figured, its a Monday, and its morning so theres a guarentee that the shows are going to be dope. So she finished the phone call, and the intern coordinator Sara, wasn't in yet. So I was instructed to wait in the lobby for a bit until I am sent in the studio.

I thought to myself, "this is dope, I get to chill a bit before this intern adventure starts" so I went ahead and sat on the couches took a magazine off the coffee table and went ahead to read anything interesting. Of course this wasn't possible, I happen to be in a CBS station so the materials they provide will be about their network.

I did notice something real interesting in all the mainstream American television networks from looking at one of these CBS mags. Within NBC, ABC, CBS, and FOX, CBS has shows that look like they cater towards elder folk. And I don't mean the senior old folk, but any body but 1-24. The actors and actresses have a certain look. Well this is just a hypothesis that the network executives have the most power but have the worst choices.

So before I got to finish the magazine, the intern coordinator was ready and waiting to get me started.

I walked in past the security door and followed the coordinator to the "newsroom". As I was breezing through the hallways, I noticed more promo stuff; posters of tv dramas , sitcoms, and future shows. So the last poster I saw was an upcoming show called Flashpoint which looked like an action drama.

So the beginning door of my career path has opened, almost like the first level of a video game. I walked in glancing at all I can in a blink of an eye noticing the setup. It was awesome, exactly as it is in the movies, or how a newsroom is. Cool electronical equipment, computers, and televisions that are tuned in to every channel that has news coverage. So Sarah the coordinator led me to me mentor, who happened to be in the News production department Simone. After the introductions to the mentor and her employees, Sara wished me good luck and there it was... Intensity in a Newsroom.

The story of today doesn't end here, as soon as Sara left back to her area the intensity had started. ON THE FIRST DAY!

At first, Simone seemed kind of a hard ass, since she got me introduced to so many procedures of an intern. It was like throwing a kid who didn't know how to swim in a deep pool. But this kid Garvin, likes the pool or the ocean, so I went ahead and swam right along. She brought me to the office supplies room, grabing the most important tools for the intern; a notepad and pen. What was real unusual was that the pen was all not ball point pens. It was the same type of pen as markers. She said it had drove her crazy, but I thought to myself, I could get used to this or bring a ball point pen next time im here.

So we went back to the newsroom area, and I swear she spit information that would take a whole day to explain in 5 minutes. Basically I was to learn how to write news stories for anchors and produce a newsshow. In addition to my introduction, she wanted to find out what I really wanted to do in the newsroom.

Here was my excited answer: "Well, since I studied film, video, theater, photography, and graphic design I would love to do the technical stuff. Anything with cameras, control boards, anything techinical, even if I have to setup wires for the studio I am more than willing to."

Her reply was: "Oh good, I'm surprised, usually all our interns want to become reporters or anchors, thank goodness."

I thought in my head: "Whoa, this is gonna be sick, I'll really get to do a lot more with my career now. Now with broadcast TV journalism, I can fill my empty cup with more dope knowledge."

But before all that, I must learn what is on the intern agreement, I must learn to write shows or segment stories in a given time by the show producer, run the teleprompter and assist the directors and anchors.

It was on. By the first hour, I was instructed to write 3 test stories from other news sources. Basically I was to write about stories as I would tell to my friend but in something appropriate for TV. This I thought was a good way to work on my writing skills for film. But I have to understand that this is a different style of writing, its journalism. Still, I believe that this is a form of storytelling which film is a form of doing.

So towards the end of the first day, I had been asked to check out a LIVE NEWS SHOW. It was like theater, but catered towards a wider audience and the atmosphere was do good or mess up. Sucks to mess up, but it happens. Any ways I was introduced to the control room, with the craziest equipment and procedures for a show. There's a technical director, a show director, and a producer. It was like an action movie, so exciting and things weren't too foriegn to me. The video terms, graphics were all like the back of my hand, all recognizable.

Well that ends the first day, I might not write this much, it was just a really cool fun first day at my internship.