A Media Student’s Week Off
Spring break is a time for relaxation and recuperation. Though, if you’re like me, you still have a few responsibilities to take care of.
The Monday morning of my spring break consisted of getting up early for a 9 a.m. Zoom conference with Temple University’s Community Collaborative, as I’m part of a group of media educators and consultants currently working to better the curriculum of the collab’s youth media programming. If you’re unfamiliar with the collab, Temple University funds 3 youth-focused media after-school and summer programs, called Power, Voices, and POPPYN. These programs focus on media literacy, content creation, and activism, as we teach young creators how to navigate the world around them. We also focus on community engagement, team building, and overall, provide a safe space for students to express themselves. We’re currently starting a bunch of new projects, most of which haven’t been executed in the past. So the collab is trying to be intentional about how we navigate these new projects. Discussing how to move forward was the jist of the conference. That conference lasted a few hours, and then shortly after I got a text from a colleague from WHYY asking if I could come to the station on Tuesday to pick up a camera I needed for a shoot. I quickly texted back “Of course!” before going through my day.
Tuesday rolls around, and I get up early once again to brush my teeth, fix my hair, and shoot over to WHYY’s news station. I’ve been there a handful of times, and it’s usually lots of fun when I get to see some of my favorite WHYY staff members. The person I came to meet was a man named Steve Dixon. Steve is the manager of media instruction and an overall video producer at the station. He’s been helping me with a gun violence documentary I’ve had the pleasure to be a part of. To give you some context, PBS Newshour Student Reporting Labs contracted me as a freelancer for this project during the summer, and the contract is for the year. PBS is currently going to multiple locations, Philadelphia included, to discuss the impact of gun violence on their communities and creating a 30-minute documentary about it. My portion is going to be 5-7 minutes of the documentary. This past fall, I started the pre-production for it. I’m co-producing it, alongside other journalists throughout the country to discuss gun violence and how it impacts them personally. That means I’m in charge of shooting, interviewing, and editing for my portion. I use Adobe Premiere Pro as my main form of editing software, as it’s the editing software PBS uses. If you’re unaware, PBS Newshour and WHYY are sister stations, so while this will be a PBS doc, WHYY has been helping me produce it as they are my local news station. PBS is stationed in DC, so that just means WHYY has been helping me out a lot to create this, and it’s been an honor being able to work with both stations.
When Wednesday rolled around, I needed to collect some B-roll of Philadelphia for my piece, and I figured since I was back home for spring break, it would give me the perfect opportunity to do so. B-roll, for non-media folks, is supportive footage that highlights or showcases the main footage. So, there’s A-roll or A-footage, which is the main thing being shown. The meat of the project, if you will. The B-roll comes in as a supportive layer, adding visuals and emphasizing the points made in the A-roll. If I have an interview of me talking about growing up in Philly, which is the A-roll, the B-roll might be footage of my neighborhood in North Philly, to give the viewers a supportive visual of my main point. With that little crash course, I needed more footage of Philadelphia to couple with some interview portions I have. So, my partner and I drove around the city to get some cool shots.
Today is Wednesday. On Thursday, I plan to get some rest, and possibly do nothing media related. Though my partner and I have a date downtown, and I will most likely end up bringing my camera in case I find something worthwhile. You never know when you might need your camera.
Friday picks back up again, as I have a meeting with PBS for the fine cut of my video. Fine cut is the term for the fine-tuning part of the editing process. The first draft is called a rough cut, cause it’s usually a little rough but has the bones of the project. The fine cut usually comes after, it builds upon the bones and works toward a finished piece. The final cut is the polished piece, pretty much ready to air. While this process can get longer or shorter depending on the piece, this is usually the editing process as a whole. So hopefully they’ll like what they see and I’ll be able to move on to the final cut!
While my week off was technically a week of things to do, I really consider myself blessed to have a reason to get up in the morning. I love what I do, and I hope to be able to continue doing it after college! My advice? Network, get out there, and do what you love! Then, doing work on your spring break just might bring a smile to your face.
