I feel like a Vampire...

I opened my ESPN e-mail last week to find THIS. My supervisors sent this "baseball card" to all of Production Operations. Embarassing. haha

So anyway...I haven't written much in the last week because I've basically just been training. Nothing special. It's taking me a while to train because I'm tring to clear 3 jobs and am splitting my time between them rather than just focusing on one. However, I should be cleared in A2 by next week--HOPEFULLY.

The good news is, I've been operating on all 3 jobs regularly--which means I've been rolling all the video for the newscasts and cutting some of the highlights. :) If you watch ESPNews and see frozen video or something happen that's not supposed to--it's probably me. HAAA!

My schedule has gotten easier...

I'm no longer exhausted at 2:30am when I'm coming home from work. I've been able to sleep til like 1 everyday. Lacey and I jammed one of our comforters into our window so our room is completely black. Hence, I feel like a Vampire--staying up all night and sleeping half the day. I definitely couldn't live this way forever.

When I'm not sleeping or working, I have found some time to have fun (despite the fact that New England weather sucks and I've only seen the sun like 3 times since I've been here). Lacey and I have already taken one trip to New York City! :) :)

We've also found time to explore Downtown Hartford's nightlife...we found reasonably priced beer...so we like it. ;)

Here is my Hartford Family!

Me and Lacey (my roomie) are in the front--obviously. The guys in the back are Steve, Dave, Hobie, and John.

Stay tuned for more adventures! xo

In Training

So, after a week of observing I have begun official training for studio A2, One Play, and Playout. My trainers are keeping a checklist of everything we cover--and once I have enough hours and am proficient, I will go solo live on the air! :)

Here's me in A2 with two of our anchors Will Selva and Mike Yam:

The COOLEST part of the studio, though, are the cameras.

This is the JIB:

It's the camera that gets the awesome panning and over head shots of the desk/anchors that you see all the time on ESPNews and Sportscenter. It's the only camera in the studio that's run manually.

And here is one of the 4 smaller cameras for 1-shots that are programmed and controlled from the video room next to the studio. It's crazy...all of a sudden they just start moving...haha

You'll be glad to know I'm finally starting to get around our campus WITHOUT getting lost.
Here some of my favorite parts of campus:

1. The Basketball Court: Lacey, Hobie, and Dave playing after work the other day...2. The Cafe X-Box...don't worry, if you're bored during your lunch break--there's always NCAA football.
3. The Indoor Skywalks...these hallways connect all the buildings so we don't have to go outside in the rain or in the cold!
4. The Wall of Emmys...I wouldn't mind having one of these with my name on it one day... ;-) 5. Self-Explanitory :)

There's so much more to see and do on campus...It's really like being on a college campus. I'll try to document more when I have some free time at work--which isn't often.

Til' next time! :) ...

The Late Shift...

Last night was my first night working my 6pm-2:30am shift! I prepared by staying up as late as I possibly could on Tuesday night (which was SO hard considering the lack of sleep I've gotten since I arrived here)...and tried to sleep in as late as I could. I had to make myself go back to sleep about 4 times--ironic that when I actually NEED to sleep in til 12 or 1, I CAN'T. haha

Late shift wasn't so bad though. I didn't get sleepy until about 1ish--so hopefully it will only get easier from here on out.

My supervisor Sal met with me last night to discuss their expectations for me this summer. I am on track to "clear" in 3 jobs--which means I will be doing them solo on the air in a couple of weeks--and if I mess up...millions of people worldwide will see. Scary, huh?

My jobs are 1) Play Out--ESPN's version of a tape deck. Instead of loading tapes, cueing them up, then hitting play when the director says "Roll A", I will be pulling the video clips from a server and synching them up to the show rundown and hitting play when the director says. Its pretty sweet because I don't have to worry about waking up the tapes before rolling them (any of ya'll from senior semester reading this knows what I mean!!! haha)
2) One Play--This job will require me to do some editing...I'll be taking clips from various games and editing out specific plays to air on the show as they come in. So if say, A-Rod makes some miraculous play--it would be my job to cut it and send it over so the TD can punch it in as soon as they need it for air.
3) A2--This is my job in the studio...it's basically an audio assistant. I'll be the one during commercial breaks and between segments putting mics on guests (yes...ATHLETES) and making sure the audio tech knows when they are miked up.

All I did last night really was observe. I observed Play Out (or E-Play as they call it) for most of the time. It seems pretty easy, especially since ESPN uses ENPS which we use at school--I just have to make sure to pay attention to the directors commands and not zone out, like the full timers have told me can happen easily. :) ha...
I also observed the TD. The switcher board at ESPNews is SO much more extensive than ours at Carolina News. They have to go through major training to be able to learn the button commands for all the wipes, wraps, specific animations, all the different cameras, etc. I don't think I'll be doing that job by myself. haha :)

That's pretty much all I can think of for right now. Stay tuned!

PS...

Did I mention we got to play Stump the Schwab the other day??? Howie Schwab came in at the end of our orientation to give us a little taste of what it takes to stump him--the human sports encyclopedia. He seriously knows EVERYTHING! haha


Here's my boy Hobie kicking butt!...He wound up getting 2nd and winning us some sweet ESPN2 basketball pencils. haha...the guy that won was crazy smart!

Schwab doesn't seem like it on TV, but he is SO nice. He ate with Hobie and I at the BBQ afterwards--and gave us an open invitation to visit him in his office anytime! :)

OH and we also met Mike Golic from Mike and Mike, Linda Cohn, and John Buccigross.

Finally Here

First of all...

I hope you guys enjoy reading this! I figured it to be the best way for everyone to keep up with my adventures up here. I miss you all and I am SO sorry if you've tried to call or text me and I haven't gotten back to you. It's been a crazy last week and I'll hopefully be less crazy SOON! :)

BUT...with that said, I've been in Connecticut since last Thursday just exploring and trying to find my way around!

The interns all live in a highrise apartment building in downtown Hartford (called Hartford 21). It's really, really pretty here, but surprisingly quiet! Everything around our apartment closes at like 7 INCLUDING the mcdonalds downstairs. SO weird!

However, we have found some places to go out on our nights off--including a pub that reminds me of Delaney's. Check out their awesome state house--it's located right behind our apartment...

My roommates are Lacey, Lauren, and Pamela--they're all super nice! Lacey--who's from Florida State...is in Production Operations with me and we are sharing a room. It's like freshman year of college all over again--sharing a bedroom, finding my way around campus, meeting all new people...it's GREAT! We already have some great guy friends upstairs!! :)

Here are Lacey and I on the way to Rookie Camp yesterday!...

ESPN held "rookie camp" orientation for all the summer interns from Bristol, NYC, and LA yesterday on our first day. They told us that we are a mere 55 out of over 9,000 who apply for this internship every semester. I feel so lucky to have been given this opportunity.

Everyone here is SO extremely nice. They genuinely want to see us succeed and have offered countless times to help us with anything we need. They keep telling us that WE are the future of ESPN and they are relying on us to be there as others move up through the company. Eventually we will get our chance to move up too one day. As we put it "you can't have a successful football team with out the bench." Hopefully this means a good chance for a job...? ;)

For such an intimidating place--the people at work are sure welcoming. :) Thank GOD.

Yesterday was UNREAL.

We were taken on a tour of the entire campus. The place is like a college campus (literally)! It's HUGE! They even have a kickass cafeteria (made to order omlettes for breakfast and FREE COFFEE!!!!), a huge wellness center (with free massage therapy and exercie classes), and there's a full basketball court, too.

I'm embarrassed to say this, but when I walked into the Sportscenter control room, my eyes teared up. It was amazing!!! I think it was at that moment I realized, Crap, I'm really here. I'm where I've been dreaming of being for SO long--all my hard work is finally starting to pay off in a big way.

I can't believe I'm here.

As I write this I am trying SO hard to stay awake. I start the night shift tomorrow--6pm-2:30am. I'm hoping to sleep til atleast 11 tomorrow morning so I don't crash and burn come 10:00 tomorrow night.

We shall see!!!!

Schedule

As I was told about a month ago...I will be doing control room production for ESPNews (their CNN-like 24/hr network). They produce 36 half hour newscasts every 24 hours. I guess I will have to be on my toes... :) haha

Got a call yesterday from my supervisor, Sal. He told me I will be working Tuesday-Saturday 6:00 pm until 2:30 am. Gonna take a lot of getting used to, but atleast I won't oversleep (like I tend to do) and I'll get to see daylight! :)

More to come...

No Explanation Needed. :-)