Practicum Final Exam Paper

                                                                                            Austen Snodgrass

                                                            Practicum Final Paper

            So far this semester, I have become very involved with the Interlachen staff at the college, specifically in the video department. I am the video yearbook editor for the 2010-2011 yearbook.  At the beginning of the year, Justin asked me if I would be interesting in becoming the video editor of this year’s yearbook, and I readily agreed.  It is my responsibility to film various events that take place at the college, both athletic and academic, import them to the computer, edit them in Final Cut Pro, and eventually create the video yearbook by the end of the school year.  This gives me the opportunity to both shoot and edit video, which I have had experience with in the past.  So far, I have received a lot of help from Cynthia and Mandy, who have filmed events for me and have helped with any questions I have had.  I personally have filmed both sporting events at the college, such as soccer and swimming, and the opening of the Christoverson Humanities Building.  A lot of the work and time that I have put in so far has been capturing and editing footage.  I try to get as much footage as possible at the various events, so the capturing process can take quite a while at times.  It has been somewhat of a challenge so far determining which shots to use, but I have gotten the hang of it pretty well the more I have worked on it.  At this point, we have a good amount of sports footage, but we are in need of more footage of events around campus.  That will be my main focus next semester.  Talking with Justin, I have already decided that it would be best if this year’s yearbook have tow separate parts: one part for athletic and one part for student life.  In order to achieve that goal, there needs to be a sufficient amount of footage to make each section long enough.  The Interlachen video camera is a Canon HD, which I have used before, so getting fully acquainted with that piece of equipment did not take very long. 

            In terms of working in the broadcast industry, I still hope to find a career within the industry in the future.  Obviously the industry is constantly changing and evolving and implementing more and more internet technology into broadcasts.  Seemingly anyone on the street can become a “journalist” by shooting video with a handheld camera and sending it to CNN.  Many of the presentations in class focused on how a lot of people are getting their news from online sources, and not even focusing on television news broadcasts as much. However, I still believe that there will always be room for good journalism and reporting on television, which is what I am hoping to do.  I have also done some voice over work on the radio this year for Hall Communication and Lakeland Regional Medical Center.  I have enjoyed doing it, and am certainly open to having a career in voice over work.  There is certainly always a need for that.

Practicum Hours

December 7- Learned that the Interlachen's video camera memory card was full.  Went through the footage on the camera and deleted footage that was no longer necessary.  12:00-2:00.

December 8- Imported footage from the Comm Open House and the Christmas Gala, shot by Lauren Lundell.  1:00-4:00.

5 hours

Practicum Hours

December 1- Interlachen Meeting.  Discussed video projects.  12:00-1:00.

December 1- Imported and edited footage from the recent swim meet at Florida Southern.  Had a slight problem with the audio that I managed to fix.  It turned out that the a setting was changed on the computer which caused the audio to become distorted.  1:00-4:00.

4 hours.

Practicum Hours

November 17- Interlachen meeting.  Discussed video projects.  12:00-1:00

November 17- Imported footage taken at the Christoverson Humanities Building dedication.  Spent some time going through and editing the footage.  1:00-3:00.

November 22/23- Before leaving for break, I organized all of the footage shot so far this year on one timeline, watched all of it, and deleted any shots that were either too shaky or had bad lighting.  This turned out to be a fairly lengthy process, as there had been over one hour of total footage shot so far this year.
1:00-3:00, 4:00-6:00

7 hours

Practicum Hours

November 10- Interlachen meeting.  Discussed video projects.  12:00-1:00.

November 10- Helped set up for yearbook photos in the collegiate room.  Worked with Jessica Kaepernik,
Victoria Garren.  1:00-4:00.

November 12- Shot video of the Christoverson Humanities Building dedication.  After the dedication, I got further footage of just the building itself for the video yearbook.  4 hours.

8 hours.

Practicum Hours

November 1- Logged footage into the Interlachen's video computer.  1:00-2:00

November 2- Helped set up the equipment for yearbook portraits in the Collegiate room.  Worked with Bob Drake, Jessica Kaepernik, and Dalton Davis.  12:00-2:00

November 3- Worked in Final Cut Pro on the video yearbook.  In the Interlachen lab with Cynthia Navarro, Patrick Rice.  12:30-1:30

4 Hours

Practicum Hours

October 25-  Watched the last 2 video yearbooks in the Interlachen office.  Spent some time afterwords laying out a plan for this year's video yearbook.  12:00-2:00.

October 27- Interlachen staff meeting.  Discussed personality types, how to work better in concert with each other, and how understanding each person's personality type will make working on the yearbook easier.  10:00-12:00.

October 27- Interlachen meeting.  Discussed the video assignments for the upcoming week.  12:00-1:00.

5 hours

Practicum Hours

October 20-  Interlachen meeting, 12:00-1:00.
October 20-  Edited photos from last year's yearbook for completion by Friday.  Worked with Patrick Rice.
1:00-4:00.
October 21-  Reviewed video footage shot at the Pink Party and the last comedian show.  Imported into the Interlachen video computer.  12:00-2:00.

7 Hours.

Midterm Report

Austen Snodgrass

10-6-10

Practicum Midterm Report

For my career outlook, I chose to examine the career path of a news anchor for one of the many news channels on television today, be it NBC, CBS, ABC, or CNN. Because news has shifted to a more constant 24 hour nature recently, particularly on stations devoted entirely to news such as CNN or FOXNEWS, there are more opportunities for jobs as anchors or reporters now than there were in the old days, when only the major networks were on TV. Current NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams has an annual salary of ten million dollars. CBS anchor Katie Couric's salary is reportedly as high as twenty million dollars. CNN's Anderson Cooper has a salary of five million dollars a year, as of 2009. Obviously it would be incorrect to assume that I could immediately start to work for one of these stations out of college or receive anywhere near that amount of compensation. Each of those three anchors had to start their careers in a much smaller market, with a significantly lower salary, and work their ways up the corporate ladder. In this case, entry level positions are generally found at local news stations. Brian Williams began his career in 1981 at KOAM-TV in Pittsburg, Kansas, before moving to WTTG-TV in Washington as a general assignment reporter. Anderson Cooper got his start at Channel One news, before becoming a correspondent for ABC news. Perhaps these are not the most exciting situations to begin working in, but they are essential steps in the process of moving up in the business. In almost all cases, you have to start small, make a name for yourself, and work your way up. The salary for these entry level positions range anywhere from $33,000 in the smaller markets, to $100,000 in the larger markets, such as Seattle or New York. However, those numbers also take into account the amount of experience the anchors have, which in my case would be limited. In a lot of cases, newly hired people, especially those right out of college, would do fairly remedial tasks at first, such as running the teleprompter or sitting in the news van watching the reporters. It is crucial to perform these tasks adeptly in order to gain more responsibilities. It seems that a Bachelor of Arts in Broadcast Journalism is basically expected for anyone who wants a job in this field. It is seemingly a prerequisite. Since the economic outlook of the country has been down for some time, there has been an increased focus on reporters and anchors editing their own packages and reports, so that the station does not have to hire additional people to perform that job. Knowledge of Final Cut Pro and other editing softwares are also needed. Currently at Florida Southern, the most important things I can be doing are to increase my knowledge of editing and filming, as well as continuing to get better and broadcast writing. The courses I am taking are doing an excellent job of preparing me for a future in the industry. As video editor of this year's college yearbook, I am expected to do a lot of filming and editing In addition, as soon as the studio is completed, I will be working on a news show with Justin Bivens, to continue to gain more experience at anchoring. Hopefully these responsibilities and eventually the final products will help me get a job at a local station in the future.

Practicum Hours

Wednesday October 6-  Attended the Interlachen meeting.  Went over the specific events that need to be recorded this week.  1 hour.

Practicum Hours

September 15- Interlachen meeting 12:00-1:00
Interlachen staff meeting.  Discussed keys to a successful working environment, and the vision for this year's yearbook. 6:30-8:30.

3 hours.

Practicum Hours

September 1- Interlachen meeting- 1 hour

September 8- Interlachen meeting/camera workshop- 2 hours