Newscast #4- Macy Senge- Spring 2018

Newscast 4 was our special edition show. We decided to cover stories only focusing on gun control. It was an obvious choice because of the national debate currently going on, as well as the recent shooting incidents.

All of the reporters came up with great ideas to cover. Again, there were a ton of great packages for us to pick from, which made my job harder. I did much better with the critiques. This is an area I wanted to improve at the beginning of the semester, and I’m proud to say that I achieved that. 

Professor Dahlia was out of town, so I sat in on the conferences with Kassy Taylor. I also helped Megan Guerra film Studio B. It was my first time filming this shot, but I picked up on it quickly. Megan’s script she has to memorize was pretty long, but she did a fabulous job. 

Gianna Gotterba was another reporter that stood out this week. She made show for the first time and her growth throughout the semester really showed. I was very happy for her.

Writing the script for this show took me a whole day. It was a 25-minute show, plus I wanted it to be as perfect as I could make it since it was special edition and it was going to be submitted in a competition. This script really helped me to improve as a producer. It was all on the same subject, so I had to get creative and research different things to include so it wasn’t repetitive. 

Finally, it was show day. The first time around, we had technical difficulties which were beyond our control, but the team stayed positive and came together to find another time to film. The second show day, everyone came prepared to nail it. There were some adjustments to our system in the control room, so everyone working on cameras was on their own and they did a great job. The anchors rarely made a mistake.

Being on a time limit and having problem with our system for the second time could have led to chaos and everybody being stressed. Instead, the opposite happened. The team remained calm, and kept their enthusiasm going. The final take was exactly what we needed – great content, visuals and energy. This newscast is one that we are all proud to submit and have represent WVU News!