I thought my first show as an AP of Mountaineer Playbook went well. I was excited to get the opportunity to be in the anchor's ear during the 3rd take, which was ultimately the take we ended up using. I enjoyed talking the anchors through the show, and I feel like I did a good job keeping them loose, locked in, and comfortable. Personally, I would have done a fourth take simply because at one point we had an audio issue, but otherwise I thought the Anchors did a great job.
As far as the packages are concerned, there is room for improvement. More specifically I think our reporters need to do as many takes as possible for their standups. One student didn’t make the show, but still had a very strong stand-up in his package, and he talked about how it took him close to 20 takes. I also would like to see reporters get more creative, and think outside of the box during their standups as well. They overall seemed boring, and was the difference between the first show being good and great. All that being said for our first set of packages I can understand why my fellow classmates were hesitant to take risks. I just hope that now everyone is more comfortable with how things work we can all step it up a little, and grab the bull by the horns.
Deciding the packages was a mess from POV simply because I had to work during the
production meeting on Friday, so I tried to tune in the best I could on Zoom. This
was not ideal. Battling through poor connection, and technical difficulties with
my air-pods, the little say I did have was reduced to no say. The next production
has to be different.
I think it is very important a producer goes into the field to help gather content, not only to provide insight and advice, but so that they understand just how hard it is what our reporters are doing. Devin Anderson
Producers should understand the trials, tribulations, and technical difficulties that go into gathering content in the field. This way they can relate to the reporters, and be more understanding. If I was a reporter and a producer tried telling me about my package, but has no experience actually gathering content, it could rub me the wrong way. So I hope I have other opportunities to help my classmates out in the future.