Breaking News... No, Really

So, Thursday was an interesting day, to say the least. I pick up my house phone to answer a call from my dad, and RIGHT at that point, I get a call from one of my friends saying that the old K-Mart building in Field Club Commons is on fire. So what do I do?

Naturally, I drive like a maniac to get back to the station, pick up an MD kit, and head out to the site. After driving around the building for a good 15-20 minutes, I finally make it in to the parking lot. Now of course all the damage was in the back of the building so I couldn't see anything from there. Fortunately, an employee (the owner?) of another store in the plaza lets me through the back of the store to get pictures and interviews etc.

From there it was easy to go out back and see the damage that had been done, especially since the fire was basically dealt with already. I got to talk to both the Fire and Police Chiefs, as well as the lady from the store, and got actual usable sound from all three of them. It was a great chance for me to get out there too, especially since I got to test out a little thing I learned from my time at WKBN.

Before when I went out on stories, I got a person's name and info (for spelling reasons etc.) and then put it on a piece of paper and saved it until I got back and started editing. One of the things I've picked up from reporters there though is this: As the first question you ask anyone on camera, ask them to say AND spell their name. This way, you have it direct from the source, and you know then you will have it correct on the air. Unless of course someone misspells their own name, but then that's their problem I'd think.

Anyway, it may seem like common sense to do that, and maybe I'm just a little slow there, but I can already see that that'll help me a lot when I get back to video production for WCN. And either way, it's good practice for me. I also left behind a stand-up to be used in the morning, since I of course was going on vacation the next day, although I really kind of knew it wouldn't be used, since it would have been way old by then, but that was good practice as well.

So I'm back now and I'll be kicking this week off with work back at Titan Radio and WKBN. Let's see where this week goes!