Not looking forward to the real world

So this year has flown by faster than usual it seems. It doesn’t seem like long ago that we were just starting the new school year and meeting all the Laurier people. We’ve all been through a lot together (inside of school and out) that we’ve grown very close so quickly.

Everyone’s run into their issues this year. I can remember pretty clearly at the end of first semester when our three minute feature stories were due. The majority of the class was at the school all night freaking out over their projects (reminded me a lot of our first two years in television broadcasting). I feel like as an entire class, this years crop is closer than that of the television kids. Don’t get me wrong, there are friends that I made in TV that will last for a long time hopefully, but it seems like this years class is closer as a whole.

After this year, some of us will have to start looking for jobs. Personally I’m not looking forward to this as I love being a student. It’s all coming to an end unfortunately and it will be out into the real world.

My gameplan when (and if) I graduate is to basically just apply wherever is hiring. I know a couple of television graduates who are having success in the industry, with similar resumes to mine, so that gives me some hope.

Overall, it’s been a great year, there have been some highs and lows (more lows it seems like unfortunately).  I’m not sure if I’m going to miss Conestoga specifically of just being a student in general, but overall it has been a great experience and hopefully some of us will be working together in the industry some day.

Street art story

So my first story for Inside Angle is almost done and I’m really happy with how it’s turning out. I chose to focus on street art/grafitti and whether it is a real form of art or just vandalism. I interviewed Ean Kools who is a Street Artist from Cambridge, Chris Austin who is an acrylic/spraypaint artist from Kitchener and  Sandu Sindile who is the cururator  at the Homer Watson Art Gallery.

When I went to start editing I ran into some issues. I found that my SD card that had two of my interviews along with some broll was corrupt and I lost all of that footage. Fortunately my interviewees were very cooperative and I was able to re-film them.

One of the requirements for our stories is that we have to tell both sides of a controversial subject. I have not been able to find an interview who is strongly opposed to graffiti. All of my interviews talk about how they understand how people could see graffiti/streetart as a negative thing though so it should still turn out well.

Overall I’ve had a really great time filming this story, even with all the difficulties I’ve had. I had really high hopes while planning this story, and I hope it turns out as good as I imagined.

Inside Angle

When we started Inside Angle, I was really hoping that it would not be a repeat of last year with Conestoga Connected, the long hours into the nights  and going on three to five shoots a week. Thankfully, it hasn’t been nearly as stressful as Conestoga Connected was, the main difference I think is the crew size. This time around we have close to fifteen people as opposed to the five we had last year for Conestoga Connected.

That being said, the shows have not been without their issues. Deadlines have been a bit of an issue, with this past week mainly. People’s documentary ideas were constantly changing, there was one documentary that actually wasn’t started until the day before it was due. It ended up turning out really well though and it ended up leading our show. One stories standup had to be re-filmed a couple of hours before the show was due to Rogers. Luckily Rogers is very patient with us and we were able to hand it in a couple of hours later than usual. There haven’t been any issues that have been overwhelming and our entire crew has been doing great.

It’s been a great experience so far, and hopefully each episode will continue to get better and better.

Kitchener Ranger games

I’ve never been a huge hockey fan, in fact I’ve never even put on a pair of skates, so when I found out that my best option for my internship was The Kitchener Ranger games I wasn’t overly excited. After interning at 3 games though I can say that it has been a great experience (so far).

The first two times I went was just training. This consisted of basic things like camera and audio setup and wrapping cables, not very interesting stuff. After these first two sessions I wasn’t looking forward to going every week. That all changed however after I got to film an actual Rangers game.

What surprised me the most was how relaxed the entire crew was. During the game there was very little stress and some people were even having casual conversations over the intercom system (something we were always never taught to do at Conestoga). I’m sure this is not how all television stations work, especially because Rogers relies heavily on their volunteers, but it is nice that it is not overly stressful.

I have done 3 games so far. My first game I was on camera three which is the far corner camera and for my second and third games I was camera 4 which is essentially the same, just at the other end. The main hurdle was keeping the heavy camera steady on my shoulder for the entire game. By the time the third period came around I could barely stand up straight, praying that overtime wouldn’t happen. Fortunately it didn’t and I escaped with no major spinal issues. Other than the physical endurance aspect, it was just remembering all the little things, such as when a goal happens at the opposite end of you, be sure to get crowd shots and just smoothly following the puck.

Overall it’s been a great experience. It’s great to actually go out into a real world situation and get some actual knowledge about the industry.