After show three, we were all very excited to see what our reporters could put together for show four. However, we forgot about one thing: Spring Break. It’s safe to say our reporters took their pedal off the gas due to the 11-day break where most college students forget about any responsibility they have – which is fair. But once we the production team sat down to watch these packages, we could tell our reporter's hearts were not in it.
Since we saw what they could do in show three and the episode was so strong, it was disappointing to see the level drop for show four. However, I have no doubt they will turn it up a notch for show five since it’s their last package of the semester, and they can be done stressing out about this class.
As far as producing goes, this was the quickest I ever wrote my part of the script because finding stats about mental health and men making women uncomfortable while exercising is terrifyingly easy nowadays. Not only that, but I also feel I have grown a lot since the first script. I know my anchors, and I know what our executive producers are looking for.
That being said there is always room for improvement. My grammar still needs work, and sleeping through my English classes throughout high school and middle school will forever haunt me and my editors. That is something I still need to pay closer attention to when proofreading. I also need to find ways to incorporate banter between anchors that seems natural between them and not unbearable levels of cringe. On the day of recording the show, the first take was the worst take we have ever recorded out of all four shows. Alanna said to me before we started shooting that something felt off, and I agreed, but I didn’t want to freak her out and said, “Noooo, we will be fine.”
But something was definitely in the air and everyone was a little frantic. It might have been that we had guests in the studio this week watching us. However, after the first take, we talked to the anchors, and they read very well on the next two takes. We ended up taking the third take, however, because it was their best read, and we had some technical difficulties while shooting the second take.