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115 comments:
WELCOME TO BALL STATE SPORTS LINK!
Ball State Sports Link is the latest immersive learning program offered by the Dept. of Telecommunications at Ball State University. Within this program, student participants produce sports-related entertainment and news programming to be distributed via television, radio, and the Internet. Partnering with the Ball State University Teleplex, the students will produce live remotes using the department's 40-foot live event production truck. The live events will cover both live sporting events and pregame/preview programming.
This Blog is designed to serve as a production diary for the crew. Here they will describe for you the experiences gained through the project. If you have questions regarding Ball State Sports Link or the various immersion programs offered through the Dept. of Telecommunications, please contact our office at 765-285-1480.
Thank you--
The Ball State Sports Link faculty:
Bill Bryant
Tim Pollard
Suzy Smith
Rich Swingley
What a day! Today we had our first studio show. It was an up and down... and down experience. The positives are: content was better than the show from Worthen (at least I thought so), we learned a lot about what it takes to prepare, and nobody got hurt. The negatives are: package times were off, audio was all over the place, we didn't have all the content together when we needed it, and I really had to go to the bathroom and had to hold it until we were done. Overall... we struggled.
To be fair, many of the problems stemmed from almost every station being manned by someone who had little to no experience in that area. However, there were some things that went wrong that had nothing to do with inexperience. Packages and scripts were in late, and some of us didn't ask for more time to be trained on our tasks for the show.
I really don't know whether to be discouraged or not. Is that type struggle to be expected on the first studio effort or are we way behind pace? I guess since this type of project is unprecedented we actually set the pace. I'll go with that. All we can do now is learn from our mistakes and hopefully make the pace we set a little faster.
BC
I feel our first studio show went well. I think the biggest problem was not getting into the studio earlier, which I think we have already solved that problem and we are going to go in at 11am next time. As for the CG's I think we should add them in with final cut. This makes it easier on everyone. We can have two versions of all the packages on sulley, one with the CG's and one with out. It is a lot less work to make two packages than putting the CG's in live.
I also thing there is still some confusion on how the packages are suppose to be done. We need to sit down as a class and make sure everyone is doing the same things with packs so that they look better when they are all together. Overall I feel we are off to a good start and things are only going to get better.
Jason Ashmawi
The first studio show was definitely a new experience for everyone, myself included. I think alot of us found out that we still need to step it up when it comes to the time we have to put in. Overall, I must agree that the show turned out better than our Worthen Arena show, however, as always, there is still alot to improve upon. Tomorrow (Friday) we are going to go through and critique the show piece by piece, just like we did with the first show. We definitely have alot to talk about, and it will be good to discuss as a group both the good and bad points in the show. Our critique sessions really help us build a better show. Some of the flaws of our first show were definitely fixed for this one. Much of the package video and audio quality was much improved from the Worthen show to this. Also, the crew improved tremendously. I think that first show served as a wake up call to many, and everyone took this show even more seriously, which is good.
Personally, Producing this show was a totally new experience. I've produced shows in the past, but the quality, strict timing, and scripting were on a completely new level. Packages had to be specific, talent had to know what to say at the right times, and the entire show has to run exactly 26 minutes, and 46 seconds. Now granted, we ended up shorting the runtime (after some show editing) but I'd say thats not the worst thing that could have happened on our first show. At least we got all the way through it, and are starting on the next one.
Wednesday we taped our first studio show. It was a new experience for all of us. I found myself in the director’s seat, with no experience. I have watched other people direct shows, but never been on the spot myself. I feel like I was not adequately prepared to direct the show. I did not ask enough questions in advance of the show. I think a good number of us felt that way, and after going through the show setup and taping yesterday, we learned a great deal about the preparation that this is going to take, especially to produce a good show.
Today I had to go back to campus to clean up the show and fix some of my mistakes from during the taping. It took a few hours but it got done, and looks pretty good now. For the first show, I am pretty happy with it, but I am expecting it to only get better as the semester goes on. I think everyone realizes now what we need to do so we do not come into the studio unprepared to get started.
- Aaron Scheibelhut
I had an easy job for the first show, I was a camera operator. I'm sure some of my coworkers would have loved to trade me for that position for me it was frustrating. I was the producer for the first how in Worthen so I was, for lack of a better term, the boss. But for this show I was just another member of the team...certainly a different experience and one that I learned from. It was frustrating however, to be basically left in the dark. Those of us in the studio were ready to go for nearly two hours and we only knew that something was still not ready in the control room. It turned out to be the packages, which had to be taken off a tape and put into the system, were not ready and were taking longer than expected. It was still frustrating to feel like I couldn't help. All in all though, it was a pretty good effort for a bunch of rookies. I think we should be excited that we get another shot in two weeks and I'm looking forward to seeing how much better our next show is. If the show progresses as much as our packages did from the first try to the second try then we'll be fine.
With two shows under our belt it is clear that we are still in college and not professionals getting paid to do this. I think this gives us a launching point and we now know what we must improve on.
We are trying to get an overview of all the different jobs, however, I think it is more beneficial for the people who want to do one or two things to do that numerous times. For those interested in audio, they should do a lot of work with audio, but it is still good to get experience directing.
I think some of our issues have come from people trying things that they have little interest in pursuing as a career, so they are not familiar or comfortable with.
All that being said, this is a period of time in which we will figure out what works and what doesn't. There is no doubt in my mind that this group will improve by a great margin. When we look back we will realize that we all have come a long way. We will all prepare and execute our plans properly. By the end of October we will be a finely tune machine and we will click on all cylinders.
First of all, I'm not normally a blogger so I just hope this looks ok. To be quite honest, the first couple shows have gone about the way I pictured them going. That was our first studio show and remote. That is the first remote some of us had ever done. I know it was mine. I think everybody is going into it with the right mind set though. I know we have had some setbacks and other things haven't gone the way we hoped they would, but things should only get better with time. I agree with Brandon about the content of the second show. it was far, far better in my opinion. As far as a few things going wrong with the studio show... how many people were doing there job for the first time? I even was. I had never hosted a studio show before. I thought everybody did fine for there first time doing some things.
It also seems that most people aren't upset about having to try different jobs durring the shows. Cam is a news guy doing audio stuff in back to back shows. I think thats awesome. I know I'm running EVS in the first soccer.
I guess I just hope that everybody keeps it up with the enthusiasm and work ethic.
So I was tape operator for our first studio show and the biggest thing I learned is that I don't really like being the tape op. If I come across a problem I have no time to try and trouble shoot a problem. I am pretty good about solving tech problems but when I have 20 minutes to do it the stress seems to run wild. During the show was a lot better on my part, I didn't make any horrible mistakes and I feel like I helped smooth the process a bit. I think once we all get a few shows under our belt we will be able to crank these out in no time.
The first remote went well. Overall we came together as a team and created content and a show. I was the sideline reporter for the show and my role was to interview the color analyst for BSSN (Ball State Sports Network), and the football beat reporter from the daily news. I prepared questions and was ready to go on air for my role in the shot. The crew, or rather the twelve immersion students, arrived hours before the show to setup cameras, graphics and audio. There are so many things that go into a live broadcast. So many things that have to be planned out and because it was our first broadcast we forgot quite a few things that we needed to make our show look over the top.
I said earlier we did a good job, for the first show. It was not great but we got through it and each member of Sports Link learned how to improve it for the next show. After reviewing the show and each package that aired I felt that as a group our next show, a studio show that will air tonight at 6pm, would be tenfold better.
I was disappointed. The packages improved dramatically, and everyone even wrote the in and outs of their packages into the rundown but the show was still filled with mistakes. Most of the mistakes were a result of poor planning.
I’ve thought about this and it’s my opinion this may be a good point for all members of the immersion program to sit down, discuss and maybe re-evaluate the way things are going. Sports Link is one month in and honestly I have gotten a ton out of the experience. I feel, though, that we could be even more successful if we change our approach. I’ll start by sharing my thoughts here.
The biggest problem I see with Sports Link is that we are spreading ourselves too thin with each show using a completely new crew. I understand that it is good to have knowledge of each position in the remote truck or in the studio. But we signed up for positions we were interested in. In order for the quality to improve we have to limit the amount of rotation of positions so that we can truly master tasks, like being the switcher if you are the TD or learning exactly how to call out commends from a run down if you are the director. I like the opportunity but if we really want to create a quality product we must master certain positions.
We need to create precedents and standards for graphics. Maybe the next time Sports Link comes around it needs to have one graphic design student on the team who can create graphics for each show and for each remote. This will benefit them and it will alleviate the stress of stretching producers too thin, or limiting their vision because they are not a graphics design expert.
Standards need to be created for sot’s: how much pad in front, how much pad in back and the pad should not have audio on it so the director can take it down late and the video will not freeze. With packages, we need a standard front graphic with time, names of producers, slug and date. The time should not include the pad but rather the actual length of the package.
Finally, the biggest change that I would like to propose is around content area. When I envisioned Sports Link I assumed each reporter would be assigned a beat, like a newspaper, or NewsLink Indiana. This way each of us could be come experts on a particular team, and find the truly amazing stories that we have not even begun to scratch the surface of. If each “news option” was assigned a beat we could write blogs about the sport, make highlights for the sport, because we would attend all of the team’s games.
This would make us very knowledgeable about the team and perfect candidates to broadcast the game as a play by play announcer or color announcer. We can have different hosts every week of the studio show. But for quality remotes, they should be called by someone who is embedded with the team. For example, we have a soccer announcer for radio in Sports Link and he is only broadcasting one of the soccer games.
This profession is so competitive, that you need to have depth in some area. It makes a lot of sense to have a general understanding of everything, but you need to have deep skills in at least one area.
This immersion program is one of our best opportunities for experience and I, personally, would like to go deeper in my chosen area. A sports analogy would be that most athletes who make it to the pros only played one sport in college. They realized they had to home their skills so that they could compete at the next level.
If we really want to create a quality product we should work on improving our skills, and learning about one or two things rather than 12 positions on a broadcast.
Overall the experience has been great, but I feel we should evaluate our progress before we get stuck ramble shambling mediocre shows for the rest of the time we have in sports immersion. I know as a group we have a lot of talent and we want to produce a great product.
Let’s get together and see how we all feel about the Immersion program and share ideas about how to make it better.
I hate blogging because as all the posts so far have shown, and mine will sorta correspond also, they will always have their negative comments in them. My thoughts in no real order...
- I know the fact that all the Ball State sports need their hub and all, but when the football team could have a good chance at going undefeated, they should be the focal point of our coverage, and I feel as if so far we've dropped the ball with that.
That football DVD we could've made, based off of B-Roll from games with at least three cameras a game with melts, press conferences, packages (why couldn't one team a week do a different story? That would've been 20 packages to choose from!), and other ideas for it would've been insane.
Yes, we did a really good job responding to the Dante Love situation, but we aren't capitalizing on a great oppurtunity.
- So far the faculty have been rather lenient with us on deadlines, which is something I hope they continue to do because the athletic department at times can be very hard to work with when we have a set deadline for packages on Friday at 6:00 p.m.
For example, BC and myself were informed we would do a women's field hockey package last Friday. We weren't allowed to shoot their practice until the following Thursday, when the deadline was the following day. What if something went wrong at the shoot, or that day my athlete sat out of practice due to being sick?
It just has to be understood that we are at their mercy, and not all the time can we be working on our packages all week long because they won't allow us too.
- I don't neccessarily understand the whole idea about writing web stories when we don't have an internet site for the web stories to run. And speaking of web...
Why can a kid put together highlight reels on Ballstatesports.com with frazzle dazzle cube spins, and we don't have a single package up yet? Really? After Monday morning we will have at least 20 packages turned in, and at least half of them should be on that web site.
- I'm indifferent about how the whole studio show went. Looking at it as a person who gets to produce two student shows a week, I don't neccessarily think anybody should be dissappointed at all with the final version of the show. It was our first show anyways, I'd probably give it a 6.8 out of 10 (it wasn't that bad at all), and it's only going to get better as the year goes on. Kobe was awful during his rookie year, remember that.
At the same time though, if we were going to set the tone for higher quality, we should've put people at their normal respective positions that they know, and then starting the next show move people around once they saw the effort that was required of them. I'm all up for trying different things, but if I don't know something, and have never seen somebody do that for a live show before, I'd probably be lost too.
- Other then that, my last gripe would be would be that sometimes some people spread themselves too thin, taking away oppurtunities for other people, and occasionally it shows in their work.
_______________________________
The positives of Sports Link so far:
- I think everyone is finally understanding how much work it truly does take to put together a full production. This experience can not be taught in the normal classroom, and no offense to some other immersion programs, but I'm happy I get to go to "class" in Bloomington to see BSU win from the field rather then covering the mold growing in the courthouse.
- The knowledge that the faculty has is rather incredible, and at this point I feel that after three years of getting shafted by some of the faculty I've had at Ball State, I've finally have found people a full semester's worth of faculty that want us to learn, and have no problem giving 120% when we ask them too.
And as much as I hate to say it, I love the fact they're allowing us to screw stuff up first, and then criticize us hard so we fix it the next time.
- I'm happy to say that not only am I learning from the faculty, but at the same time the students are learning from each other so much through osmosis. I hope this trend continues...
But more importantly, I think after a month we really do have that "team" feeling. In the little free time I have, I can say I get to hang out with about nine of the Sports Link students, and as we all become better friends, the quality of our work will improve tremendously.
- Sports Link has allowed us to become much more creative, and I think the news kids are finally able to break out of the boring news package shells, and understand all the incredibly sweet stuff the production kids have been able to play with the past three years. I just wish we had some reason to ADR stuff...
- My final thoughts are that in one month, this board is going to have a completely different tone. We are going to be much more excited about the work going on, we're all going to be much better, we'll be able to run laps around every Ball State studio show (watch out Connections/CSL, which is way too weird to say), and everybody will be much happier.
I just want to win an Emmy, because I'm starting to think even though I have a lot of stuff on my resume, I still have a long way to go before I'm at my dream job of producing DVD's for NFL Films...
Well I guess it's my turn to jump in and talk about our productions so far.
I'm definitely enjoying the experience thus far. We've produced two solid shows that really show the talent we have. But I'm still not happy with just "solid." These next few weeks are really going show whether we all step up to a new level or just get comfortable with where we are. Personally, I know we'll step up and produce hopefully Emmy award winning material.
The studio show the other day was a good example of a solid show but underneath the show it was 12 guys who really weren't ready for it. We had our stories done and everything on tape but it was the small things we missed. Terry Heifetz told me last semester that it's the details that will always get you in a show. And the first show we did with him proved it, and this show we just did proved it even more. We were an hour past when we should have left when we finally did. But it is a learning process and indeed we are trying to absorb tons of info all at once.
My comfort zone is definitely in front of the camera. But I have enjoyed my time behind it. I was the technical director for our studio show, and although I wasn't able to get the proper training I was able to get through it ok and enjoy it to a degree.
Everyone in our group has been working very hard but one thing I think we need to stress more is how we produce our packages. I think as a whole we might be getting lazy as far as lighting, interviewee placement, shot selection and especially writing. As video journalists, the root of our job is being journalists; writing came first then the video came later on. I feel that all of us need to work on writing better packages and making sure we deliver the story in an unbiased way.
The future is bright for us and I'm definitely looking forward to our future shows!
This week was interesting one. We had our first studio show and there were a few hitches getting the show together. I got to the studio a little before noon and knew that I wouldn't have that much setup to do getting a studio camera in place and setup. Once I had that done I observed the audio people doing there jobs and getting the IFB's together, because I am pretty sure I could get it all to work on a remote, but the more that you can practice something the more you can get a grasp of what you need to do to get everything together, and then learn the quirks of the machine and things that might need to be done to troubleshoot the receiver. I knew that there were things that needed to be done, but to get ready for the show, but there wasn't much that I could do to help out. The taping of the show went alright, but it could have been much better. I feel that our next studio show will be much better because we will know that organization that is need to get every last detail correct to make the show perfect. Now just because we have the knowledge that we need to make the show perfect, all of us as a team have to execute to make the show the best we can.
After the show the producer, director, and others got together with Bill and made the plans to correct the things that needed to be corrected in post-production to make sure that the show would air on Friday night. I felt that even after post-production there were a lot of things that can be improved upon, but the show didn't look too bad for being our first.
I have had my first experience preparing to produce a live remote broadcast. I have produced studio shows before that I had to select and write stories for the show. However, this experience is vastly different. There is a lot of work that I did not think of for preparing the broadcast.
I think that if I would have had a chance to observe another production before mine I would have prepared better than I have. I like to prepare and over prepare when I do a broadcast, however, I did not know what to prepare. I now know what goes into a live remote truck production.
I think with the more experience that we get the better our productions will be.
O boy! O boy! O boy! It is time for our first remote tomorrow! I personally am very very pumped about it but just a little timid about what's going to happen. There are so many things that we have to have done. Then after that we have to double and triple check to make sure it’s ok. And that's just today!
Tomorrow my alarm clock will be going off at 8:15am and our crew call will be at 9am. It will be a loooooong day for us all. We have to run cables, build cameras, set up audio, and then make sure everything is plugged in right so we don't burn the truck down. Then we go live just before 4pm hoping we put it all together right. We'll do a couple run-throughs to check things out but it’s still going to be our first time.
Our first remote... It's a daunting task but we are up for it. I think the biggest challenge will be not just this tomorrow, but turning around learning from our mistakes and going out to do a field hockey game SUNDAY! 1 day off and we're right back at it! It's going to be crazy! Check back later because I'm sure there will be plenty of posts from how our first 2 remotes went!
Like Steve said, our first live broadcast of a game will occur tomorrow, so it will be a long day for everyone. This time around, I will be directing the show, so it has meant alot of preparation and planning.
Most people dont realize how much more work goes into producing or directing a live remote. First of all, the show itself is alot longer. In the studio, our total show time is 26 minutes and 46 seconds. However, for our remote, the show will last at least 2 hours, and maybe more, depending on how the game goes. That means that me and the producer must find a way to not only shoot the game in a correct manner, but also fill content into the time before, during halftime, and after the game.
This also means that we have to test out alot of new items in our show. So far, we havent been using our entire graphics package, instead just a small portion. This friday, we will utilize the rest of it, to new levels. We will also be using the new transitions that we've never actually used live before. We will also include live trivia, and some Soccer 101 featurettes that me and James Rider produced, featuring a new front-end animation. All-in-all, this will be a new chance for us to utilize some of the other talent, that we have yet to see to its fullest extent. Steve Amburn build the transitions, and I think he did a tremendous job.
Me and Ken Sothman have been working round the clock for the past week and a half, making sure that we were going to run the best show we possibly could. We both have been trying to figure out what we wanted to show to look like, what we wanted to include, etc. From there, it became chances for others to help contribute to the holes that we needed to fill. Especially halftime, where we need to fill 15 minutes.
Its going to be a challenge, but I think we will pull through. I'll let you know how it turns out!
After this weekend we are going to have a better understanding of what is to come with the class. I am ready to see what happens. I think everyone is pretty well prepared and the remote should go alright. I'm sure we are going to have some bumps on the way, but it is going to be a learning experience. Hopefully we won’t have the same mistakes on Sunday’s remote, we can learn from the ones we do make.
It was good to get in the truck today. It had been almost a month since we had been in there last, and it was a good refresher. We also got a lot of pre production done for Friday. I am running the switcher for both days and I hope there will be some down time tomorrow so I can get better with it. I know everyone is hoping everything is going to go smooth tomorrow and I’m sure it is going to go better than we are expecting.
Jason Ashmawi
I think the exact words thrown at me today were "If you were the producer for me I would never want to hire or work with you ever again."
Ladies and gentleman, the future of the Ken Sothman era!
Oh boy, nothing gets you more pumped up about your upcoming broadcast that's suppose to be a learning process then getting ripped to absolute shreds. On that note, my thoughts in no order...
- This morning I was put on the spot to determine somebody's grade on a package, somebody's grade on a show, or my grade on this production. I had to do this when Josh asked if he could take time away from helping set-up for the production to go work on his mandatory package that is due on Tuesday night.
This of course took place after the men's volleyball team cancelled workouts earlier in this morning when he was originally suppose to shoot. Because of this, he was forced to schedule for Friday, because it's realistically the last day to shoot because we won't be able to get anything on a Saturday, and we have a field hockey remote on Sunday.
So what do I do? Do I tell Josh, "No Josh, I'm sorry that you're already in a ramble shamble with your hand and all, but we need you to be there"? Because if I do that, he's then running around for a new subject, and the quality of the package would effect both his and Slamburn's grade, because no matter the circumstances these must be high quality packages.
On the other end, if I tell Josh he can't do that, potentially there's a chance he doesn't get a long enough package in for the show on Tuesday, or even worse, doesn't have one. That then effects Slamburn's grade as a producer.
So fingers crossed Joshy that you're back by eleven...
- This past Saturday Slamburn and I went and shot football together, or really, he shot while for the first time I got to relax at a Ball State football game since my freshman year. It was pretty much the best feeling ever, but at the same time, one major learning experience came out of it...
At this point I feel as if I've been able to get pretty good at shooting footage the way that John Duong/Nathan Rausch/Eric Ryan have taught me, but I wanted to see how the creative production student mind would shoot a football game.
There's a few tips from his style of shooting in which I'm going to go ahead and put in my arsenal, such as panning up to the ball as it comes to you instead of catching the whole play (CBS has an amazing shot of this with Randy Moss last year during a Dolphins game), but I think if him and I can ever get on the field at the same time with a camera, we'll do some serious damage.
- So this week I produced a newscast, a sportscast, a sports studio show, and am doing a soccer game tomorrow, have fallen asleep twice in editing booths, have gotten sick, skipped showering for 48 hours, re-edited a package, edited at least 15 b-rolls, helped Cameron voice over our open for a promo, pieced the open together without Dante footage while re-adding the spinning logo, made a word document with the pictures of starting line-ups for two teams, wrote teases, helped Alex make all the graphics for soccer we could possibly make (and there's more) and have eaten way too much Chik-Filet from the Atrium.
Oh yeah, and I have English on the side too. At this point, only Bill Simmons columns from ESPN.com keep me sane.
- I'll be back on Monday with thoughts from the remotes...
As one of the "newsy types" (as Bill Bryant likes to refer to us) wearing make-up was an inevitable reality. Well my first make-up experience came on tuesday. I walked into Macy's to see fellow Sports Linker Cameron Andry already there. They eventually set me in the chair and matched my skin tone to one of the foundations. My color... a number 31... caramel.
Needless to say I was pleased with the name of the product. She put it on me and I felt really awkward. It was such a foreign substance to me, but when I looked in the mirror it looked fantastic! This leads me to believe that there are a large clan of male underground make-up wearers. Men that wear make-up during their everyday lives. I refuse to become a part of this, but after looking at my face with make-up on... I don't blame them.
This weekend is sure to be exciting, thrilling, tiring, and rewarding as we produce the first live sporting event today with women's soccer and our second on Sunday with women's field hockey. I'm very much looking forward to see how this all shakes out. I think it will all go well but I'm sure they'll be glitches and things that we'll need to improve on for next time. This is a very exciting time for sports link!
Last week I wrote about how many things need to change in order to improve
our overall show quality. We addressed each of them last Friday during our
meeting and created standards about how to time a package, graphics,
scripts, slates, and what is required each week.
Package time should not include the pad room at the end of each piece. We
developed the standards for graphics and the procedures for making sure all
of the content we create makes its way to the tape play back.
Taking time to review what we can improve has helped us dramatically.
When the show got critiqued it looked much better than when it was live because
of all the corrections that were made in post production. Packages from sports link have made it on CSL, NewsWatch sports and ballstatesports.com.
We are finally starting to use our packages for more than one platform
allowing them to be viewed by the largest amount of viewers.
This week has been really hectic, we have to create a package, and everyone
has been preparing for our two remotes. Friday's soccer game in which I am running camera and Sundays Field Hockey game where I am the color announcer.
I am really looking forward to the opportunity this weekend brings but
learning its really tough to get a package done when I am trying to prepare for a remote, packages are limited to interview times and I was forced out of two package ideas this week because of time conflicts and no availbity
with athletes.
After the remotes this weekend, I will shot my football interviews Monday turn them into a web story and a package for Tuesday, while simultaneously preparing for Wednesday's studio show, it's a lot of work and I confident
the hard work will payoff.
I do realize this isn't by the noon deadline, but I was putting together a heck of a soccer broadcast. I thought everyone did good considering this was our first real broadcast of a game. I do think that we will only get better with time.
I do think that no show will be as great as we ever want it to be. If we always have people doing jobs they have never done, or possibly didn't have any interest doing in the first place, then nothing is going to be perfect. It takes more than a few training sessions to make a show look like its supposed to. I personally trained on the EVS on three seperate occasions, but nothing really prepares you for the real game. There were things that I didn't know needed to be done while the game was actually in progress. It's a whole different situation when you practice without an actual event going.
I don't think we did awful by any means. I'm just saying, most shows will probably look a little sloppy at times if new people do a new role every time.
So I just got done with our soccer remote and I was pretty happy with how things turned out on my part. I wasn't able to watch the program feed, but I had a feel everything turned out well. I will admit after having a camera on my shoulders for most of the game my right arm is very sore. Here is a word of advise to anyone doing hand held camera in the future. Use some sort of padding, like a rag or small pillow or something because those cameras are heavy and we only have so much stamina to last the entire game. Its those small things that will make each remote much more comfortable.
Like the two posts before mine, I realize this is past the deadline. Yesterday was our first remote, and I felt pretty good about how it went. I was the A1 for the event, which happens to be my main area of interest. We got onto the truck Thursday to patch it so we would have less to worry about before the remotes on Friday and Sunday. I really am glad we got the chance to do that, since things were pretty hectic right up until the game started.
One of the things that we are told to do for live events is have a spare headset for the color and play by play just in case one of theirs goes out. It took me about 10 to 15 minutes into the game to get a feel for mixing a live game. Of course, as soon as I'm comfortable, the color headset dies. I am sitting at the board trying to figure out what to do while multiple people including myself are talking to BC to tell him to get on the spare. After that there were not really any audio issues during the game. I definitely cannot wait to be the A1 again.
So, another week, another blog.
So, in this past weekend, we had our first 2 real remotes. We broadcasted a soccer and field hockey game that aired on CardinalVision 57 and ballstatesports.com. Needless to say, it was definitely a learning experience for everyone. We learned just how much work goes into producing a full 2 hours of sports event coverage.
The one thing I learned is that we really need to work on who has what job in the truck. Mostly I mean between the producer and director. I know that Ken and myself had the general idea of responsibilities, but it was the details that we were unsure about, and that is where we had the most problems.
Another issue was not having enough time to run through the opening standup. We should have scheduled another half hour to walk through it, and make sure we had plenty of chances to rehearse and record multiple takes. Instead, we were rushed to get it done. In the meantime, the EVS was being "difficult," and wouldn't play out audio sometimes. So, we eventually had to scrap the standup and and do the entire open from the booth. It caused for a rough start of the show.
But that is the point of the early remotes, to make mistakes and to learn from them.
We had our first two game remotes this last weekend. They went alright considering they were our first attempts. However, I'm starting to wonder if we will soon find ourself with an interesting dilemma.
Part of the reason for any of our struggles with the remotes was we didn't know how to prepare. The other part was people were doing jobs they had never done before.
Right now it seems the plan is to rotate everybody around to different positions for each remote. If we do that, then we will continue to have people in positions they've never been in. If we rely strictly on logic as our prediction tool then we will continue to struggle in some capacity. Maybe we should start putting people in semi-permanent areas.
BC
The past 6 or 7 days have been pretty crazy. We had our first two remotes over the weekend and then a studio show 3 days later. We had to have packages for the two remotes and the studio show.
I ran the switcher for both remotes. I was glad to get in the truck last Thursday to get a better understanding of my job. Over all the remotes went pretty good for being the first time most of us had worked on the truck. It is a lot different doing the real thing than just playing around with the equipment.
Our studio show went GREAT!! There were only a couple of little mess ups on the way but nothing to bad. We were also right on time witch was really good. I think it is starting to show that we are learning more and more with every broadcast we do. It is going to be nice to have slower week before everything really starts to pick up.
Jason Ashmawi
I continue to enjoy the experiences that sports link is affording me. This week the crew video conferenced with several people from ESPN in Bristol and it was a helpful time. I think some of us were discouraged because the ESPN guys were very truthful with us about how difficult it is to get to the ESPN level. I too couldn't help but think how difficult it will be to get where I want to go. But ultimately, I drew the same conclusion I've drawn for the past 8+ years...it will be hard to get where I want to go...but I will chase my dream and take my chances. Although the idea of security by way of a sure job straight out of college has always seemed very pleasing to me, the idea of persuing security and looking back in 40 years and regretting not chasing my dreams outwieghts that idea. I don't know what I'll be doing a year from now...but I know I'm chasing my dreams and I'll go where they lead!
On Friday we broadcast the soccer game against Buffalo. The broadcast had a few bumps but it went really well. Two days later we were on our second remote at the Ball State Field Hockey Turf. This time I was broadcasting the color commentary instead of running camera. It was challenging to know where to interject color during the broadcast because field hockey is a sport with constant action and no down time in between plays. I wish I would have more time to work with Steve Albritton, the play-by-play announcer, so we would have had better chemistry during the game. After providing the color I have the opportunity to announce field hockey for radio this Sunday on WCRD. I am really excited for this opportunity, to announce a second game now that I understand it more and know the Ball State players. I will be announcing play-by-play for the radio which is a little easier than color in my opinion. During the TV broadcast it was hard to know where to interject facts.
Steve and I were paired up again for the studio show three days later on Wednesday. The studio show went pretty well, we had a few glitches and the ending was rough. Coming into the show we were two minutes short of an hour before we started recording. Steve and I had good chemistry together. The show airs tonight, and I am excited to see how the show turned out.
Sunday was our second remote. It did not go as smooth as our remote on Friday.
We had our second studio show on Wednesday, and the improvement from the first one was drastic. I was on camera for this show, so I didn't have too much to do. We do not have another remote until October 30.
Random thoughts on a random day...
- I'm really happy with the quality of the packages for the second show, because you can tell that everybody is improving. Yes, there are some things to work with (like the wind problem in my Lewis, some changes in color in video, and too much grainy footage in some), but those are all simple problems that can be taken care of. By late November, we're really going to be rolling along.
- The soccer remote went well for our first remote in my mind, I just have to keep reminding myself to stay in a complete "Ari Gold" mode as a producer, aka being loud, powerful, quick witted, and to a point it's not too overly obnoxious.
- Running chyron is fun! I did it for the field hockey game, and though there were times when I'm pretty sure I was cussing out loud in front of our professors, overall it's actually pretty cool.
- The next package that Cameron Andry and I are doing is a tennis cook-off. Kangaroo steak anyone?
After a weekend with two remotes, I think that as a group we would be capable of doing more remotes closer together as long as we work on our communication.
That is the one thing that we are lacking is communication from the producer to the director and to everyone else.
At every level communication is lacking. To the camera operators and everything. That is the one thing I think we all need to work on to develop for our productions is communication.
It has been a full week now with no remotes to do and it has kind of been a nice change of pace. It seems that most of our remotes are spaced too close together at times. They are fun to do, and I wouldn't trade these experiences for anything. It is nice though when we have a break between them.
I also still think that we should stick to a few jobs per person. Our productions would look a lot better.
If we do stick to the way we do things though, and I don't know if I'm the only one who feels this way, but I also think if everyone has to do every position on the production side, the production people should have to be on air.
This past week has been really busy. Between directing field hockey and producing the studio show I have had no free time. I am pretty happy with how the studio show turned out. Most of the packages were good and it is just awesome that Ball State is in the top 25. I really enjoyed the ESPN video conference. I found it to be somewhat inspiring. It makes me what to do better work in order to beat out the competition for internships. It is good to know that there is a slim possibility that someone can make a living doing this kind of work. I would like to have another shoot at producing a studio show. With a little bit more time I believe I can produce a really solid show.
This last week I feel that we were pretty successful in our first two real remotes. Each time I feel that by the second half of the game the crew was starting to gel. At the same time the crew had the same kind of trouble getting off the ground because we all switched around positions. I know that the idea is to get everyone in every position, but at the same I don't think that we are going to the great improvements that we want to see until we have someone in each position that feels comfortable.
On another note, I feel that our studio show went really well. I think that every ones packages are getting better and that we know what story we want to tell. Being the producer on the next show this encourages me.
This week seemed like a bit of a grind for me. I've been pretty lucky so far this semester in that the packages I've worked on have come together fairly easily. That was not the case this week as the idea that Ken and I were working on fell through completely. It is frustrating to have to count on someone else to do their job in order that you can do yours. But I know that's the way life is and I'll deal with it.
The football team is off this week so we don't have any football to cover and I'm heading home for a much needed fall break.
This week has been a bit of the calm before the storm. Well, i guess more like being in the eye of a storm.
These past few weeks we have been busy learning new pieces of equipment, working on new styles of packages, becoming more familiar with all of the fall sports, and really just getting used to the work flow that we go through.
Now, starting soon, we will be in a blitz of remote productions, studio shows, and all the while making sure are still getting packages done on time.
We still have another "lite" week, but after that, we will be working non-stop. We have back to back remotes, with studio shows thrown in between. It will be an interesting time. This is the time when we will be truly tested.
Sometimes we all need some form of a pick-me-up from the teammates around you, and for the past two weeks, my fellow members of sports immersion have done exactly that for me.
Twice during the last fourteen days I've had to make an emergency trip home to the family, and twice the members of Sports Immersion have been able to step up and contribute while I haven't been around. I'm very grateful for this, not just for the fact that there's no level of quality drop-off from when I would be helping out my project, but for the fact that members are nice enough to take time from their busy projects to step on my side.
Thank you guys once again, and looking forward to getting back to Muncie soon to finish off the second half of the semester.
Right now we are in the "eye of the storm" as we in Sports Link like to call it. This has actually been one of the more leisurely weeks of the year so far. Next week won't be all that bad either. But once November hits everything will be chaotic. It seems like every week we will be working on either a show or remote... or both.
With that said, I can't help but feel like this inevitable pandemonium will be a useful experience. Sometimes this business just becomes a grind and we are about to learn exactly what that means.
BC
This week was a very calm week for us. One more week like this last one, and then we will be swamped until the end of the semester. This week, since we did not have a remote or studio show, we took some time to discuss some things that we thought would make things run better from here until we are done.
One of the things we discussed was the fact that one some remotes or shows, one of the reasons that we don't put out a high quality product is that some of us do not feel comfortable with our role. Thankfully we are allowed to trade off positions for something we would be more comfortable with.
We also need to start labeling our tapes and start making melt reels. This will probably get started this week.
Another pretty uneventful week without any remotes to do. I am really looking forward to the next soccer broadcast though. I think we can do it well with one already under our belt.
I think it was a great idea to schedule our packages weeks in advance so that we have more time to get things prepared. It was a little harder this week with fall break coming.
Along with what Cam said, it is upsetting when a person doesn't get back to you in time. Me and Kurt had this problem this week as well and it put us behind a little bit. We had to end up getting a package idea at the end of the week and I had to call in a lot of favors to do it.
This week is a slower week. We have a show that will air on Friday that we are preparing for and will shot on Wednesday. It is nice to have a slower week after having two remotes and a studio show in less than the six days. This week has allowed the group to review each of the remote games that we covered, and to critique and review them about how we can improve future remotes. This week has allowed the group to focus on packages and plan ahead to the busy schedule in November where we have multiple remotes, and multiple shows.
I am preparing my production book for the volleyball game. I am producing the first sports link volleyball remote this year, but I was able to ask Bill Bryant for advice because he has produced multiple volleyball games, and he gave me advice on how to step up the cameras, and create an overall vision for the broadcast.
Ken and I working together to create a great broadcast for the volleyball game. I am learning that there is never too much planning that can go into a remote shot, the more planning and scheming about the “what if scenario’s” the better the production.
Hey guys, I'm not from Ball State University -- matter of fact not even from USA -- therefore I've got no comments at all about Ball State sports but I do have a friend with whom I lost contact long ago and I believe he has some posts at this blog. His name is Brandon Clemens. So Brandon, if you see this post please get in touch with me through my e-mail adress: jayernani@hotmail.com.
Thanks everybody, sorry for the disruption.
I just got done producing for the first time ever. It is a lot of responsibility and there is a lot organization that is needed to do this job effectively. I learned that prepration and having everything in order is a key to not only putting a good show on air, but also in improving everytime as a team. It feels like after every show, the group has more of an understanding of the responsibilities of the show and what is expected. I felt like we did a good job with our guest Joe Hernandez. Rich stressed to us that we had to be ready to roll tape when the guest got there so that we were not wasting his time, and I feel that we accomplished that goal. Also, a part of producing that is important is deligation. You have to deligate things that need to be done, because as a producer you have enough to worry about when it comes to putting the show together. Coming out of this experience I know what it feels like to be the one that is in charge of filling 26:46 of a show and how hard it can be to get all the elements that are needed for the show. In the future I will know what the producer is going through as far a filling time and get him the :45 seconds of footage that he needs.
P.S. Thanks to all the crew that helped me get this show ready to air.
We just finished our studio show an I feel it went pretty good. I ran camera and from my spot everything seemed fine. There were a couple of things we had to fix afterwards but they were easy fixes. I felt we were more prepared today than any other show so far, which I guess that is what’s suppose to happen. When Joe got there for his interview we were ready to go and didn’t have to make him wait. We did have to do another take of the open but it was no big deal since it was early on. It also seemed like we had everything on the show more consistent. All the GFX were the same font and spelled correctly. Another thing that helped make the show was the quality of our packs. I feel for the most part everyone is improving on their packages week by week. Things are starting to come along.
Jason Ashmawi
First of all, I actually just learned how to eject the cd drive on this mac computer in the room. I'm really happy about that.
Secondly, we just completed a studio show yesterday and I thought it went well. I really think it was great that we had two guests to help us out. Each of them brought their own little specialty to the table. Tommy had some good things to say about the talent perspective. He also went over a few of our packages before the show and critiqued them. It was good to get the harsh truth from a professional. Joel was awesome too. He helped me out with audio problems which was nice because I had never done it before.
I also think we as a group did a heck of a job for not having a lot of professor supervision. Everyone was in and out and we still kept it together.
I love it when I start getting good at things. But sometimes the learning process sucks. For instance, learning how to edit packages. Most of the time my production partner and I edit the stories together and they turn out pretty good. But one of my recent packages I edited myself... and it stank.
That's just one of many examples but sometimes it just gets discouraging. I guess the real satisfaction comes when I finally get it right. And I might as well get these mistakes out of the way now so when I get a real job I don't have so many growing pains. Gotta love education.
BC
Another week, another dollar, as in dollar I'll hopefully make in the future from doing this. Some random thoughts...
- I had a family emergency that kept me out of Muncie from Tuesday night-Sunday, and when I got back on Monday I jumped back into things full force.
Since my package idea somehow fell apart, Cameron and I were told that we had to put together a five minute "round table" for football, which essentially had four student media members talk BSU football at Scheumann Stadium. Eight hours of editing from two different cameras/all of my football footage later, and 48 hours later in real time, we finally put together something in which we both could be happy with.
And no, it wasn't fun to edit, and yes, I think I screamed about 80 obscenities once the Mac computer restarted randomly on us, and probably yelled "I HATE YOU CAMERON ANDRY!" about ten times, but all was well in the end.
- I feel as if our show product is getting better, but at the same time on Wednesday I left with the feeling that I really didn't have much fun at all from the previous days. Essentially at this point I'm just worried about the grade standpoint of this 12 credit course a little too much, and even though I'm producing alot of high quality work in which I'm happy with/showing up on time to everything, I'm not really where I want to be at this point in time from a grade stand point. So with that in mind, the fact that I'm getting graded for everything I do just puts more pressure, which sorta saps the fun out of things from time to time.
Sometimes, it's just more fun to do things when it's not for grade.
- I guess my final thoughts are just hoping the fact that it doesn't rain tomorrow during the football game, or I'm going to get absolutely soaked...
For this week's studio show I was the technical director. I was a little intimidated by the hundreds of buttons on the switcher when I sat down for my crash course but I soon realized that it really isn't all that complicated. Once we got into the show and Steve, who was directing, and I got into groove. I really enjoyed TDing and I would love to do it again...I can see how some of the other guys love doing it so much. I mean...ultimately you're in control.
Wednesday we taped our third studio show. Most of our faculty advisers were busy, so we were pretty much on our own. Despite that, I felt that the show ran really well. We were ready to go as soon as our guest showed up and didn't make him wait around for us to be ready.
I was on graphics this show. There was not a whole lot that I had to do since all the lower thirds were in the packages. After we taped the show we had to add a few graphics that were not in there originally.
Now with more experience under our belts things are starting to click and things are running smoother. However, with positions being changed around so much some people are not too comfortable in certain positions such as director and technical director.
I am confident though that things will begin to run much smoother in the future. Prepare for perfect shows and Sports Link domination
Our last show was pretty good I thought. Everyone is starting to get into a comfort zone and we are all getting much better in all aspects of the game.
This time around I was directing; a.k.a. calling all the shots for the cameras, graphics, starting packages, and audio. It was AWESOME! I loved being in control of everything happening. Cameron, who was doing the actually button pressing, was great at it. He and I definitely got in a rhythm as the show went on and we both came out feeling great about what we just did.
This is just one of the great things about this immersion experience. One day you might fall in love with something you never thought you would want to be doing. And I just did. I can't wait till I can direct another show at some point down the line.
With another show under our belt, I think it is pretty obvious that we are getting better. This time we had 2 professionals show up and help us by critiquing the way we ran the show, the way it was structured, and how it was written.
Joel was a great help. He told us stories and was willing to answer questions that we had. He really showed us what it is like to work as a professional in television.
Once again, we move onward toward another show. This week is a preparation for the next soccer game, and the next studio show.
Sports link is funny sometimes. Its not very often someone can go from producer to prompter. I was nice having a break from all the stress a producer has. the packages were a lot of fun to do. I got to meet the man behind the mask of charlie cardinal which was a lot of fun. I was kind of bummed because i used the monitor from the studio to check my lighting and it looked great in the studio, but when i went to digitize the footage it was really dark. other than that the package went really well.
Last week I conducted all of the interviews for my package. This week we were able to get a house tour on Wednesday after recording our half hour show. The show went pretty well and now that we have three shows under our belt they seem to be getting progressively better. I ran camera for the show and then my partner and I had to hustle over to the soccer house for a house tour. The tour went pretty well, and the house that the seniors live in is really nice. They soccer players were extremely nice and opened up the entire house for a house tour. Then when we started editing we were faced with a tough choice: do we show it as a house tour or do we focus on the story of athletes living together and playing together. We choose the house tour for the package because it is something completely different and will add something to halftime of the soccer game. For my online story I focused on the connection they have off the field and how it helps them when they play.
Also this week I had to work on my production book for Volleyball. The match is November 5th. I worked on it Thursday night and completed most of it, but I want my director to look over it before I turn it in to Bill Bryant. I hope to get the production book done before noon today.
It has been a crazy week leading up to today. There a lot of stuff I had to get done for today’s remote and thankfully got it all done. I directed today remote and feel that it went really good. Everyone did a GREAT job. The talent had great stuff to talk about and got great interviews. The Cameras got every shot I need and followed the action perfect. Pete was good about getting me the replays and did an amazing job making the highlight reels. The audio sounded amazing and got great Nat sound. Cam was all over the graphics and had them all ready when we needed them and he even got stats. Kurt saved me a couple of times on the switcher and was right there with me when I called shots. And finally Steve did a great job producing. He planed everything to perfection and informed me when all the readers were coming. He also did a great job over keeping everyone in a good mood. Overall every did a great job and it shows on the final product. We can only build of this remote.
Jason Ashmawi
I have the pleasure of producing a studio show that won't be in the studio. More preperation goes into it that way, because you have to get a venue, to host it. Our original plan has already fallen through because the football team is doing a walk through at the same time.
There is a lot more going to plan b when you don't have it in the studio. Me and Pete are going to do some site surveys today so that we can find the best site possible.
However, it looks like this show could be one of the cooler looking things we've done. It's not live so it will be easier to make everything look great. Lets look forward to how this will turn out
We just had our most successful remote. We broadcasted the women's soccer game against Miami. Everything from setting up to tearing down seemed to go much smoother. People are definitely growing more comfortable with the remote process.
I got to be a sideline reporter for the first time. I was kind of nervous at first but it ended up going well and being really fun. I think if we continue to improve at this rate, then by the end of the year we will be putting on amazing broadcasts. I can't wait until the next one.
BC
Another week, another future dollar. Cameron Andry and I are currently throwing what I assume is the first perfect week in Sports Link history. With perfects on a package, web story, and remote, here's to closing it out in the ninth inning...
- As Jason's post suggests, the soccer broadcast went great yesterday. We've gotten better as a group at improving the work on the small intangibles, and I believe as we continue to progress (it didn't go perfect) we'll have a show that can rival that of a Big Ten network broadcast.
- I 100% agree with a past Bill Simmons article ("The Sports Guy" from espn.com) in which he pretty much states that networks think too much when it comes to putting together broadcast "chemistry" in the booth. Realistically, for almost any game all you really need are two people that are friends, these two people must understand the sport they are covering, and take two hours time to do research. I think James and I covered those spots rather well last night, which is why the broadcast on our behalf went decently well.
- It's hard to think that realistically there's only a month and a half left in the semester. These next few weeks are going to fly by too, but realistically, I really don't want this to end. We seem to be at a point where we're all getting so much better from where we were at when we entered this room for the first time, but to think that in January we won't be kept as a team is really a shame. I think we could really do some serious damage we'd be proud of if we stayed as a group through the spring semester...
- I'm really excited for the Doug Coers Invitational for the fact that I know the swim team will be more then helpful on their part to help us out with the broadcasts, especially with sideline interviews/interesting facts that we can talk about.
- Overall, I'm just excited for the month of November!
Yesterday we completed another remote, soccer again. We got to watch the women's soccer team secure a spot in the MAC Tournament.
I got the chance to Technical Direct a SportsLink show for the first time. Since most of the replay effects we're pre-built and loaded into the switcher, I spent most of my time building all of the effects into Macros. The Macros on the switcher help the TD punch multiple buttons at the same time. One of my Macro buttons is built to select my replay source, make sure I am transitioning to the correct ME bank, and selects the replay effect that I want to use. It really makes a TD's job go a whole lot smoother.
We had our third remote yesterday at the soccer game. It went really well. By far the best overall remote we have done all semester. I think the reason that we are improving so much is because now we finally understand what is expected by each position during the remote.
For the remote I ran EVS or, as it is known by its simpler name, instant replay. I went through a crash course in the beginning of the semester on EVS, and I received more training before the game thanks to Josh Clark. I learned how to build a play list and edit highlights while putting up replays during the game. It is a lot of multi-tasking in the back of truck.
The best way to describe the atmosphere behind the scenes is controlled chaos, a lot is always going on but we worked together and it all worked out. For the first time we were able to run the pregame show and then run breaks and then replay the recorded open before we started the show. It was cool to see all our planning pay off and that the EVS is able to record the pregame show and then play it back live as our intro during the starting lineups and national anthem. I really had a good time running EVS and I hope to have another opportunity to run it again this semester. It was exciting when a replay would get used and when my highlight list played. Sometimes I cut the replay too short to the animation for the replay, but it was exciting to use replays during the game.
Wow, yesterday was something to remember! Another remote checked off the list and it was amazing. Everyone pulled their weight and really put together a great show for people to watch. My guys in the truck were putting on a show. Pete on the EVS, Slamburn on audio, Cam on graphics, and Kurt on the Switcher; these guys were working seamlessly the whole show. Everything I needed they were on top of. Jason was my director and he did an amazing job of calling up cameras and directing the show. Out on the field my camera folks were working hard getting us some great shots to use. My talent was awesome! Rider, Sothman, and Clemens were an amazing trio that glued the broadcast together. Special shout outs to my man BC, some of the best sideline reporting I've seen. BIG UPS TO SPORTS LINK!
Yesterday's live remote broadcast of the Ball State vs. Miami soccer game went very well. I was the graphics person which was a fun job really once the broadcast started I had the opportunity to kind of watch the broadcast and it was really cool to see the team come together and put out a good product. Steve Albritton did a very nice job as the producer, he was well organized and always thinking one step ahead. I'm excited about our upcoming broadcasts of volleyball and basketball. The other really cool part of yesterday was that we were able to strike in less than an hour and a half. We're getting better!
For our soccer broadcast i think that it ran smoothly fr the most part. However, there was a lot of broken up action. And for soccer I think our readers and graphics were over done.
I think that this is another experience that we will build from and continue to develop from
Yesterday was our broadcast of the soccer woman's soccer game. I feel that things went well yesterday. And the few problems that we had yesterday were able to be solved, because the people that were in the spot before helped the people that were currently in the position. Everything went more smoothly and looked better. The setup/tear down were both faster. The fax still took a little long. The scaffolding was better with the two levels. The show just ran much smoother.
Yesterday was our third remote. It was our second women's soccer game. I was on handheld camera for this remote. Out of our three remotes, this seemed to be our best one yet. Steve Albritton and Jason Ashmawi did a great job as producer and director. They were really on top of things all day.
This week we had a "studio" show and a remote. The studio show ended up being done outside since we did not have access to the studio because of the Telesale. It was really different to do the show this way, and I am eager to see the final product.
Last night we did the first of two volleyball remotes. I was on graphics for this one. Because of the closed practices going on in the arena that day, we had to get there at 7:30 am to start setting up for a 7:00 pm game. We could not get into the arena from 9:00 am - 3:30 pm. From 9:00 am until game time I was on the truck working on graphics.
The hardest part during the game was keeping the score updated. There were a few times where I got a few points behind. There were also a few times where I could not get the area on the graphic selected to change the score. After a while I got used to it and did not really have any problems with it.
Even though there was a lot of yelling and frustration on the truck, I think we can all agree that what went out over the air ended up being pretty good. Everyone seemed to be pretty confident in the position they had to work.
My back hurts! Running the game camera is much more physically demanding than I originally thought. I think I just have bad posture. Combine that with me having too look up the whole game and you've got yourself a good old fashioned back ache.
The good thing about last night is I got to see what worked and didn't work during the broadcast. I get to produce the next volleyball game so this is of tremendous aid to me. I've never produced before so it should be interesting. But as long as it doesn't make my back hurt I'm good.
I don't feel sorry for BC and his back. Yesterday I had to run handheld and my back is the one in pain today. The first couple of sets I was feeling fine but once we hit the fourth set my shoulder started to go numb and of course the match had to go five sets.
Overall I feel this was a good production from where I was. I couldn't see a lot but it sound as if Ken and Pete were doing a good job. For the second straight remote we got an open pre-recorded, that’s always good. I heard that the video froze up during the open and Pete and Ken did a good job fixing it live. It is easy to tell that we are starting to get a hang of everything. We also finished the studio show yesterday. Overall I feel it is good. When I was printing it to tape I noticed a couple of things that could have been changed, but it was nothing too big. This was a busy week and I am glad it is over.
Jason Ashmawi
This week was really, really busy. Not only did I direct for the first time in my life, I was able to produce for the first time in my life and I had to do it while planning a package and making sure everything was prepped for the volleyball remote. On Monday I finished my package for last week about the volleyball transfers while sending out emails, finding a crew and changing my production book constantly because of limits to get inside of closed practices. Last Friday Josh Clark and I scouted locations for our studio show.... that could not be in the studio because of telesale. After scouting locations we picked to do it in front of Benny. The show was a lot of work and we started shooting it with two cameras and then changed down to one after are first few takes because I realized we could get away with doing it with one camera and the audio would match the video perfectly if we recorded on one camera. The show was edited by Jason.... who did a great job.... while Josh and I helped and reviewed to get the look of the show we were going for. Honestly the show turned out well but it was a lot more work then a regular studio show because we had to post edit everything.
While helping with the show I had to plan for the volleyball remote and I must have sent out a hundred emails making sure every knew what I was looking for and what I needed in terms of graphics, packages, commercials and the ever changing production schedule because of the limit of getting into the gym. I think I did a really through job with pre-production, but I learned alot in the producer chair as the game went on. At first I had an issue with audio and I could not connect with everyone I was supposed to hear, in particular tape. And I was in our TD's ear too much. But I having run EVS I knew what I could expect and Alex did a great job as the game went on getting replays. It was tough to cue up the graphics in because you had to anticipate timeouts and get readers in. I had planed to use commercial breaks but the promos that were made had graphic errors and we were not allowed to use them. Overall I think the production went pretty well, but vball is a lot faster paced then any sport we have covered and the timeouts come out of nowhere. After each game I was looking for them to setup a package so they could have a break. But I really liked everyone's effort throughout the day and I can't wait to sit down with BC and help him in the pre-produciton of Volleyball.
For my first experience ever producing, it was tough but I really enjoyed it and hope I have another opportunity to produce another remote because I have a better understanding of what I need to do once game time starts.
Last night we put out a very solid product in the form of a BSU women's volleyball match. I was the sideline reporter and I thoroughly enjoyed that experience. I didn't get to see a whole lot of the production but it seemed to go very well. I must commend a few people on jobs well done. I thought Peter Carr, who produced last night's broadcast, did an outstanding job. He was well prepared and thought ahead. He worked very hard in preperation and was a leader who took charge and knew what needed to be done. I also must compliment the talent combo of James Rider and Josh Clark. I thought they were the best pxp and color combo we've had thus far. James did a very nice job a pxp and Josh Clark always adds color so he was just himself which worked very well. I'm excited about seeing how the studio show (which wasn't in a studio) turns out. I'm also excited about the men's basketball game next Saturday! Stay tuned!
We had one of our best shows of the year. I think that people are slowly but surely becoming more comfortable at the various positions. Cameron commented that it was probably our best play-by-play and color commentary combination that we have had. I think it was pretty good but we will still jump well over the mark that we set thursday. Better things are still to come for the Sports Link team.
This week we had a Volleyball remote and I was on EVS. I was kind of nervous because it is a piece of equipment that I have not spent a lot of time. I think that like all of the other remotes, we start off slow and a little rough, but toward the end Ryan Camden and I were getting replays in almost every play. By the end of the remote I felt a lot more comfortable with EVS, but at the same time I am alright with not doing it again on our remotes.
Cameron Andry is the biggest homer in the history of homers. I would love to see him be a New York Knicks fan and try to defend them.
On that note, this week was hectic due to the fact there was a football game in the middle of the week with BSU going 9-0 over NIU, along with Dante Love's press conference the day before. By far, walking next to Dante along with ESPN/NBC/Fox cameras was the coolest/will be the most memorable stuff thing I've covered all year long as a member of Sports Link.
I was the director for volleyball last night, and overall there were moments of brilliance, and moments of failure. I struggled with replays/getting graphics in the first couple games, but I would have to say I'm actually really happy with all the cuts I was taking camera-wise, minus a time when I took Rick's camera and he panned to the floor. Overall, good times.
SportsLink has recently helped me make some decent contacts. Henry Wofford of NBC Indy and Jeremimah Johnson of Fox Indy have seen my Bryant Haines piece, and have been really helpful with bits of advice for making contacts, making a resume tape, and getting a job. Overall so far, I would say this has been a very successful semester.
I had a blast doing color on this past remote. James and I were color and play by play. It felt like there was very good chemistry between us as well.
EVS did a very good job of getting a lot of replays to us. Pete also did well getting in our ears that replay's were coming.
Everyone seems to becoming more comfortable in what they are doing. This was a hard remote to be fully set up for because of the lack of time we were allowed in the gym. All things considered, I felt that the show went quite well.
The next one can only get better.
Once again, this past week I got to be the TD on the show. This gave me another chance to work on the preset buttons that I build last time.
It was nice being able to work on a show inside of Worthen Arena again. The cabling is mostly laid out already, so it makes that aspect of the job alot easier. Cable drops are available all over the arena, both triax and coax.
Another good thing is that we can fiber our signal back from the arena to WIPB, and record the show there. That frees up a deck to do replays on in the truck.
This week has been busy and tomorrow and Saturday are only going to get busier. We have a volleyball remote Friday and Men's basketball on Saturday. I spent 3 hours in the truck today preparing graphics for the basketball game. I am hoping the basketball game goes really good because this is the season opener for the basketball team and there are going to a lot of people watching. For tomorrows volleyball match I am running the EVS. I haven’t had much time on it other than at the beginning of the year. There should be lots of time to learn it tomorrow since the gym is closed off most of the day. The next two days are going to be long, but it will be fun so it won't seem too long.
Jason Ashmawi
This coming weekend is the type of weekend I hope I have many of in my career. I'll be doing play-by-play for two events. First, BSU women's volleyball on Friday night and then the season opener for the Cardinals men's basketball team. I'm really excited about both of these events, especially men's basketball.
This past week I took a little bit of time to reflect on my 3-plus years here at BSU and I can say that if I would have known when I stepped on Ball State's campus for the first time of the oppotunities that I would have it would have only made my decision to come to Ball State that much easier. Sportslink has been a great experience built around hard work that wields a great reward. I'm excited for the stretch run of the last month and a half of the semester! Go Cards!
By the way- Ken's right...I am a big homer but as a BSU student and fan, how could I not be?
I have to agree with Cameron, I really hope this is the type of weekend I get to do more often in the "Real World". But directing 2 shows, one after another, has posed its fair share of issues. Mostly, I've been working with 2 different Producers and trying to make sure that we are prepared for both shows.
Both producers have different styles, so it will make for different shows, but I hope that they can both be clean, well cut shows, with very few flaws.
I am really looking forward to the Men's Basketball broadcast. I think we have one of our best crews in place, with people comfortable at the station they are at. Me and Ken are teaming up again as director and producer. Josh Clark is our EVS op, and Slamburn will be TDing. Its going to be real fun.
P.S. I think another big step for us was our ability to crew one of our own events ourselves. We have a Women's basketball game that we are broadcasting December 13th, and our professor allowed us to crew it within our group (something we successfully completed democratically.)
Me and Ken did the package on Allyson McGaha. The gymnast turned diver. The special thing about this package is Ken's stand up. He actually dived into the pool with a suit and tie. When he first told me he wanted to do this I was like yeah whatever, I never thought he would actually do it. Once I found out he was serious I couldn't stop him and I didn't want to. If he wanted to do a crazy stand-up, who am i to say no. The best part was watching him walk into 180 during our meeting with nothing, but his swimsuit on.
I just spent forty minutes with Cameron "Homer" Andry explaining to him that it would be a bad thing if he wore his "BSU #1" foam finger while doing play by play tonight. My thoughts on this week:
- At this point I'm not going to give you the spiel on how busy we are this week because about five blogs have already expressed that, but I will have to say that if I don't get my dream job as producer for VH1's top twenty countdown, I would also like to have weekends like this.
- This past week my teammate Slamburn and I teamed up as a production only news team, and I think it's safe to say we knocked it out of the ball park. Besides rocking two cameras, ADR'ing my stand-up, and making the simple sport of diving look cool, I felt as if we went all out. It moments like this when you can let your creative juices flow that Sports Link has really seemed worth the semester.
- Besides shooting highlights/iso's for future football packages,I was able to get two great shots of Bryant Haines this past week at Miami to help improve a past package of mine. I think this is something a lot of us should consider doing, now that the packages have been graded and we know what the flaws are.
- Tonight I am doing color for the women's volleyball game, and I may have two Bill Walton quotes up my sleeve.
- I'm also the producer for tomorrow's men's basketball game, and my biggest goal (along with Kurt's) is to make this game as quick, clean, cut, and smooth as possible. We feel as if this is a goal that can be reached, and I will comment later next week if we reached that goal.
We are currently on a break from volleyball set up and things are running smoothly for the most part. We have over 3 hours when we get back to fax everything. I'm running camera 1 today and I'm looking forward to it. This is actually my first time doing camera. Kurt helps us set up all the cameras on top which was a really big help to me and pete. James was also there to help.
It's really helpful when people are helping out when someone is doing a job for the first time. I got to help Jason with the EVS as well. I actually really enjoy showing people how to do things. It makes me feel more important.
Time to go because my hot pocket is done. Until Next week.
This week, was not as busy as last. I didn’t have to produce and direct a show, but I was able to help BC throughout his preplanning, and sent him all of my documents from last week to help him in preparation for the broadcast.
Set up for tonight’s broadcast is running very smoothly, and it was nice to have some down time to talk with BC and talk with graphics about what where the most important graphics to create. I think our second volleyball game tonight as sports link will be a good production.
It is nice that for setup today we were able to have an earlier crew call and more time in the gym. This will eliminate some of the pregame stress and setup that we had to deal with last week.
Looking ahead we have a swimming and diving broadcast next week and I am the play-by-play on the first day and sideline on the second day. I have already begun preparing and last week I was the board-op for WCRD so I could get a feel for the flow of a meet and how to conduct play-by-play for swimming and diving. I can’t wait for next week and other opportunity to gain more experience on a live broadcast. I really look forward to working with Cameron on air.
Well we have almost reached to point of a fully functioning machine. Still a couple of hiccups but we are still students and still learning. But what we are doing now is communicating better and teaching each other. And it seems as though the only glitches are doing sports that we have yet to produce this year and people constantly switching positions. However, we are better for it. We are now diversified in not only different sports but the positions for the live productions. It is sad to think that we are almost finished with the semester. Hopefully will have the opportunity to continue this next semester and next year.
OO boy, it’s the rough time of the year for us. We have lots of remotes and studio shows in a short amount of time to produce. But we are persevering and getting better each day. We are one week away from swimming and diving which I will be producing. My mind has been stretched every which way with this project and others but I know I have it under control. These next few days it will be me eating and sleeping swimming and diving. I can't wait for it, and I know myself and my crew are up for the challenge.
This is the tough stretch for us. Remote last night, today, show Thursday (after at least 6 of us getting back early that morning from the Central Michigan game), and remotes next Friday, Saturday and the following Tuesday. While it will be tough, I think we will do fine.
The remote last night ran way better than the previous volleyball remote. We still had a few mistakes, but that happens, and we learn from them. I was the audio mixer this time, and everything went pretty well. BC and Kurt did a good job producing and directing last night, and the rest of the crew did a good job as well.
This studio show may be the hardest for us because so many people went to the Central Michigan game. BSU won the game by 7 and we should have a good package out of it. I would like to have a highlight real our of the BSU vs. Butler game but because the football game was the same night it was not possible. Since BSU won the game I thing people will be motivated to do the show. Our show ended up being a lot about Basketball, but since basketball season just started I think it is fine.
Jason Ashmawi
What a crazy week this has been for me. In an 8 day span from last Friday to this coming Saturday I will have been a part of a volleyball broadcast, a basketball broadcast, a football broadcast, two 30-minuet sports shows, three packages, and two days of swimming and diving coverage. Needless to say I'm a little worn out and I've got several things on that list I've yet to do. But what a great experience! I hope that this isn't the pinnacle of my sportscasting career!!!
This week has been another busy week after finishing two remotes last week, we are preparing for two days of swimming and diving which start tonight. Last weekend the Basketball game was by far our best broadcast of the year. I hope that will transition to tonight and we keep improving with the last shows that we have this season.
It has been a really exciting year so far and as a group we have come a along way.
This week we had to finish a story on swimming about a tri-athlete which we shot on Tuesday and it was due by Wednesday. The story turned out pretty well and Sarah Kehe is an amazing person and athlete. One Wednesday me and half of sportslink traveled to Central Michigan to watch the Football team continue their quest for the perfect season. Than when we returned yesterday we began final prep work for our TV show Sports Link which airs on WIPB, and will air during our swimming and diving broadcast this evening.
Speaking of swimming and diving we are broadcasting the fifth annual Doug Coers invitational tonight and tomorrow, both day I am a part of the broadcast team and I am really looking forward to the opportunity to try play-by-play. This past week I have spent time researching swimming and diving trying to learn as much as possible in order to announce. I feel pretty confident in the way in which I will announce tonight. Not only do we have two remotes this weekend but also we have a remote pre-game show on Tuesday night before the Football game. It will air live on WIPB, as well as online it will be exciting to see all of our football packages and interviews come together before the biggest football game of the regular season. Then after the game I will head home for thanksgiving to see my family. I am really looking forward to seeing everyone that I love so much. Then we have two studio shows left and one remote and the semester has come to an end for Ball State Sports Link.
Great players make great plays at great times.
Mr. homer Cameron Andry and I have had a grueling past 50 hours, which I'm not sure about him, but I've seen four hours of sleep in that span.
- Went over and beyond for a package that really should've been put together in two weeks span rather than a hurried four day span, but I think Cameron and I can be really happy with our Doug Coers piece considering we've had such short time to work on it.
- After going to his high school on Wednesday, it was off to Central Michigan to catch some classic Cardinals football. What a game that produced some really good footage!
- Afterwards I arrived to Muncie about 4:30... slept about an hour... finished my English homework... and then came in for our show.
- We then had two shows, with me running prompter, which has claimed to be "the best prompter we've had so far." I can't wait to tell my mom when I grow up I want to be the professional prompter runner!
- Cameron and I then worked on our package a couple more hours... took a break for a swimming/diving coach's show/Cardinal Sports Live... and from 9:30-4:30 a.m. we worked finished our project.
And then off to the swimming/diving remote in about five minutes I go!
This week has been pretty busy, but we are getting to a point where things are going to calm down soon. We had two remotes last weekend, a show taping Thursday, a remote Friday, and another Saturday. A good number of us also went to the Ball State game at Central Michigan Wednesday.
The show turned out pretty good after we taped it the second time. We fixed a lot of the mistakes we had the first time.
The remote today was probably a little rough in spots, but I think it went pretty well. We are all starting to get a good feel for how things go. Saturday can only be better.
It's been a long week and a half. 2 remotes last week, the CMU game, then the Show thursday, and the remotes today and tomorrow. Plus, since i work with the team, i left for CMU on tuesday.
Now, its alot of prep work for the swimming events today and tomorrow. i need to build name fonts for everyone who will be there, plus other graphics like lane assignments, standings, and specialty graphics depending on the race.
all i know is, its going to be a long 2 days.
Last time I blogged I was literally on my way to swimming and diving while hoping that I could just inch my way in before crew call...
- Swimming and diving went incredibly well. By far a thousand times better than any of us could have imagined, and it took a full 100% effort from us Sports Link members, the volunteers, and even the professors came up clutch with camera work.
On my end I was pretty happy with my performances too, doing ten sideline reports in about 120 minutes on night #1, and then about a gazillion hours of play by play the following day which seemed to make everybody happy.
And I just have to say, I'm by far incredibly lucky to have that final race available for my demo reel.
- Yesterday afternoon was our football preview show, and for what I believe is for the third time in a row, we did an outstanding job.
- I'm about to leave home for Thanksgiving, but I have to make my final comment on last nights game, because Sports Link gave all 12 of us the chance to stand on the sidelines for the greatest moment in history of Ball State football, the chance to stand on the sidelines for the final game of an undefeated regular season. If that isn't enough reason to join Ball State Sports Link, then I'm not sure if sports production is for you.
Last Saturday was our second day of Swimming and Diving. It was a long day but we had downtime throughout the day. It was a lot less hectic than Friday because we didn't have to try and focus on both swimming and diving at the same time.
Tuesday we did our preview show before the final home football game of the season. This time we had the added pressure of being live and not having the chance to go back and fix anything we messed up. We hit our time on it, and it went really well. After the show we got to watch our football team finish the first 12-0 season in school history.
Now all we have left is a studio show that I'm producing, a best-of show, and hopefully a Women's Basketball game on the 13th.
I was the producer for our football preview show on Tuesday evening and I couldn't be happier with the results. It was a very good show. I thought my talent did an outstanding job of being loose and having fun with the show. The guys in the truck were on their toes and the end result was some good tv. The busy time of the semester is over and now things slow down a bit for the last three weeks. I'm not excited about our last few productions.
This last week I was A1 for our football preview show. I think that the whole day went very well. Everyone for the most part knew exactly what we needed to do to get ready and that was reflected in us leaving for our lunch break at 12:30. The show went really well and our tear down was really quick. The game was great. Go Cards!!
Yesterday we had our final studio show that’s not the best of show. We had Tom Collins on the show and it was a great interview. The show was going really well until we got to the end and realized we were three minutes short. This is when everything went down hill. We came up with a way to cover the time but because I hit the up counter at the wrong time we were sill 43 seconds short. I now see how important it is to have everything time out right or at least have a plan if we come up short, because no one knew what to do. But over all we had a good 9/10 of a show.
Jason Ashmawi
This week was our last studio show that has all original pieces in it. We had Tom Collins on the show and I thought that the interview was good for what we could get him to talk about(aka not Ronny Thompson, Tracy Roller, ect.). The setup went real well and everyone was ready for the show before we need to start taping. The only thing that brought the show down to it knees is that we didn't have enough content to fill the 26:46. Once that was realized we tried to shoot other ending that were longer and had some valid information about upcoming events but essential it was fluff. It will be interesting to see what the finished product will look like.
I'm the 100th Production Diary entry!!! Um...so the show was a little rough yesterday because we had some major timing issues. It was a nice show going into the last block then our talent was informed we were 3 minutes light!!! Then we attempted to redo the last 3 minutes of the show and had more timing issues where things were miss timed. Still it wasn't all bad...some nice packages and a good interivew with Tom Collins.
Wednesday we filmed our last regular studio show. We had a nice interview with Tom Collins on the show. Everything was going smooth up until the end of the show. At that point I realized we were running 3 minutes short. We ended up having to re-tape the end of the show a few times, but because of another timing issue, we still ended up 41 seconds short. Other than that, it was a really good show.
So we had some problems with the studio show this week. The first 85% of the show was really good. We had a nice interview with Tom Collins and good chemistry between the talent (Josh Clark and I).
Then going into the last block we were informed we were three minutes short! We handled reasonably well but we still wanted to re-record it. It took us a few takes to get it right but we got it. Then we were informed there was a timing error and we were still 42 seconds short.
All the cameras were already wrapped up and some of the crew had left. Sometimes things just go like that.
BC
This week I returned from a nice break back in Cincinnati. I really enjoyed my Thanksgiving and spending time with my family and honestly I was not ready to come back. During the break I set up an interview with Delta Middle School’s principal, for my package from last week that was due on Tuesday. It was a story about the team recruiting new fans.
The package played in the studio show. Which for the first 9/10th of the show went very well but the last 3 minutes did not finish as strong. The show was short by 3 minutes and if the script would have been planned better we would not have run into the problem we did at the end. My role on the show was to mix audio. It is tougher than I thought because you listing to the quo’s from the director but sometimes he was unable to quo audio and it is really important for me to follow along.
When the show was late I was trying to pitch a upcoming show graphic, but the ending was still short because we were not able to get the graphic in.
After regrouping we were able to come up with a plan, but because it was time incorrectly the show ended up being 42 seconds short.
Earlier this week I switched positions from prompter to producer for the final show. I really look forward to producing, our Emmy winning show. Well I have to watch a few more packages, and begin the rundown. So long for now and I will let you know how the show turns out.
Our studio show was fine this past week. I had a really good time working with BC on the set. I really just can't believe we ended up that short at the end. That is plenty of time for another package or at least a few more questions for Tom Collins. We really need to do a better job making sure something like that never happens.
Tom Collins was fantastic on set. He answered every question and was a very nice addition to the show. Also this week i tried to not use the prompter like Bill mentioned his guys do it. I actually really enjoy doing it that way. I did have one error though while introducing a package. Other than that where I just lost my train of thought, it was very noticeable but other than that it felt really good doing it that way.
Next week is our best of show! It's going to be something great! We'll be showing off the best of our stuff and hopefully Cameron and I can have a little fun while on the set. BUT the big thing on my mind hopefully everyone else's is EMMY NOMINATIONS! I want an Emmy so so bad. I plan on submitting a few pieces to try and bring some hardware back to Ball State and put as a nice center piece somewhere in my home in the future!
It is kind of depressing to think that Sports Link is almost finished. This has been a very good semester with both learning and growing. I think this has been a great experience. I hope that we continue to get opportunities like this in the future.
I will miss a lot of stuff about this group mainly being with the people though.
Well this is the last week of Sports Link. We had a studio show on Wednesday, and it was our "Best Of" show. I think once we get the changes made on the show it is going to be really good. Steve and Cameron worked really well with each other on set. Luckily we have time to make the changes because the show doesn’t air until next Friday. The only thing left for us to do is the Women's Basketball game on Saturday. I'm looking forward to it because I get to run EVS and I have had a blast doing it in the past. Sports Link has really prepared me for the "real world" of sports, and I hope all the hard work will pay off.
Jason Ashmawi
The semester has gone by fast and it has been enjoyable. I have learned a lot and been able to use and learn a lot of equipment that I wouldn't have had the opportunity to do any other way. If I was offered the opportunity to do it again I definitely would. We are gearing up for our last remote and I hope that it goes as well as our last one.
James and I are working on a package that recaps our remotes and can be possible used for recruitment or other purposes that the TCOM department would want it for. The package is going to be done on Friday.
This semester has flown by! And it was great! Sure there were plenty of frustrating moments. But ultimately, this semester provided irreplaceable experiences and memories. I can honestly say I never thought I would have to produce a volleyball broadcast, but now I'm glad I can say I did.
I hope they bring this program back next year. I'd be excited to see what changes are made what the next generation of Sports Linkers are capable of. Good semester.
BC
To quote my boy Wayne:
"Go farther
Go further
Go harder
Is that not
Why we came? and if not,
Then why bother?"
Sports Link is coming to it's end, and I hate to say I told you so from my very first blog when this place was a mopefest, but at the end of the year everybody loved it!
My final thoughts:
- Best class ever. There are some modifications to it that could be made to make it better, but from the beginning stages, we couldn't have asked for much more then what we received as the very first group to come out of this program. But honestly, who can complain about having Mandy Moore, even when an Anna Kournikova is out there?
- The bond grown between us Sports Linkers has grown rather strong as the semester has continued on. I don't think there's a single one of us who wouldn't go the extra mile for somebody else, and through the semester, it has showed.
- Kurt and I got free hard cover CSKern poster books earlier this week for working in Sports Link, one that only has 300 copies made and is the same exact book the President of the university will be receiving. See, media has it's perks!
- Last but not least, I think it would be an absolute shame if the University decided not to fund the program for next year. Why get rid of something that's working great? Isn't that what Coke did when they released Coke II?
Yes, the semester is finally over and I can spend the next few weeks relaxing until my final semester at Ball Sate. The biggest thing that I will miss from my time at Ball State is the Sports Link experience. I made such wonderful friends here and I had the chance to work with some really great equipment that most schools won't let a student touch. With all the opportunity there is in Sports, it will be a shame if this immersion program doesn't continue.
The biggest thing I learned from Sports Link is the confidence to be able to work with any crew at any sporting event and actually know what I am doing. My work habits changed a lot from the beginning of the semester. Our first few remote broadcasts I stood around not really knowing what I should be doing, but with our final broadcast right around the corner, I know exactly what I need to do and more important, I have the skills to do what I need to do in order to have a successful broadcast.
My week has been really busy with final projects in several classes and finishing up the semester with sports link.
This week I switched positions from prompter to producer for the best of show. I spent a long time working on the show. My preparation began last week looking over every package asking everyone to fix things and cut down the packages if possible.
After choosing my packages I looked over the new content created for the show including the best of under the spotlight, the football recap and the top ten plays of the year. I worked with professor Suzi Smith to go over my run down and I went through every package and double checked the font needs and the time in which the fonts needed to come in.
As much planning as I did we ran into to a few problems during the show, the wrong graphics got punched and when the top 10 was supposed to play it loaded on #9… I had to tell the guys to fill. We got out on time with our first take of the show. But because it is our Best of Show, we need to fix several things, three problems dealt with graphics, and one was due to the shot sheet for the top ten.
As producer I re-edited the top 10, so we had pad for the two nat sounds clips, and I cut the volleyball clips from the under the spotlight because they were bad production wise. Overall it was a good but I still have to fix some of the problems, I really liked how people stepped up and helped me out but some guys seem like they have checked out for the semester.
This weekend is our final remote, I am looking forward to doing play-by-play for the second this semester and final doing it for a sport I used to play and know something about. I really glad I can women’s basketball with one of my good friends Josh Clark.
Well, Sports Link is almost done for the semester. We had our "Best of" show Wednesday and it ran pretty well. Tomorrow we have our last remote of the semester. We are covering the Women's Basketball game at 7pm against Indiana State. I will be doing audio again for this game.
Sports Link has been a great experience. I think everyone would agree that we learned a lot. I hope to see Sports Link come back next fall.
Tomorrow is our last show of the season, Women's basketball versus Indiana State, live from Worthen Arena. Me and Ken have had a long week working on both CSL last night, and our game tomorrow.
I think this will be our best broadcast: both from the look of the show, and the flow of it. We have an interview with former SID Chris Taylor, and; unlike our other shows, we will not have a sideline reporter. I think this will help the flow of our game, and cause less congestion during the show.
It will also help that the BSSN crew will be broadcasting the game before ours. This means that alot of the cameras and audio gear will already be working and running smoothly.
Overall, I am really looking forward to my last chance to direct a show for Sports Link. Its something that me and Ken have worked really hard on, and I expect it to turn out well.
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