Productive Studio Time

On Saturday, I spent 4 hours at the Connecticut School of Broadcasting with the intent of spending most of that time in the radio studio. While it didn't quite work out that way, I still feel that it was time well spent. Instead of spending all of that time in the studio, I worked on editing the almost 30 minutes of audio files that I obtained conducting the interview with Steve Dunn and Steve Sylvia from The Steve Dunn Band. I wanted to end up with about 5 minutes of footage for our one hour show.
Our studio time did not go unused, though. Four members of our group were there for at least part of the time and we all got some time in there recording various bits. Part of my time was spent recording another commercial. Our show needs to incorporate at least three original commercials, so each of us is working on making one to potentially be included. Because they range in time from 30 seconds to 1 minute, we potentially have room for up to 20 spots.

On a different note, I am looking forward to today! Our class is Sports News 2 with WFSB's Joe Zone. During our last class with him, he gave us all four stories off the then-current AP wire. Our assignment was to take those stories and re-write them into a 90 second news broadcast giving an average of 20-25 seconds for each story. We will put our stories into the teleprompter and read them on camera. Our 'performance' will be taped so that we can see it and critique it.

Our Mock PSA

Similar to our creation of our first commercial, we also recorded a mock public service announcement. Really, this is very similar to a commercial but tends to be longer and uses fewer - if any - effects. For a real radio station, the revenue is also considerably different. PSAs are played for free while commercials are paid for by the advertiser. Paul and I again paired off for the recording and editing of this mock PSA.

My First Commercial

In a previous post, Commercial Break, I talked about the class when Paul and I created a radio commercial. I wanted to post that commercial here. Not bad for our first attempt!

Busy days ahead!

This week has been pretty amazing already and it is only going to get better! On Monday, our class schedule at the Connecticut School of Broadcasting included spending some time working on our radio final production. This was probably the most relaxed of our days - even though it was probably also one of our most crucial. We have a very limited amount of class time to put together our one hour radio show. This particular class was a little less than productive, but I think it also produced some positive results. If nothing else, it got us moving in the right direction. Several of us have scheduled some studio time to get together outside of class time to get some work done on the production. The second half of our day was spent on a fourth session with Final Cut Pro. A number of us also stayed after class and worked on various projects.
Tuesday's class was spent doing some more recording and editing with Adobe Audition for the first half. The second half was our day consisted of first class of TV news. Our instructor for this class was WFSB's Hallie Jackson.
Today was our midterm. While it was far from being an eventful day, any time you have a test to take can be stressful. After we took our midterm we spent some time talking about what the second half of our semester is going to be like.

Tomorrow is going to be a real test of my endurance, however... Classes from 9:30 - 1 followed by some computer time with Final Cut Pro until 4 PM to work on some video editing from the footage I shot last Thursday for Tainted Cherry. From 4 - 6 I will be in the studio doing an interview with a couple of members of the Steve Dunn Band. The interview is going to be a part of our radio final. Finally from 6:30-8:30, there is a News Writing Workshop given by Hallie Jackson and Chris Collibee - the news assignment editor for WFSB.

A Little Less Than Great.

Well, I got into the edit suite today and got a really good look at the video footage. While the live mix of the band sounded really good, the feed from the sound board was really light on the bass. Unfortunately, the because the camera's headphone jack is broken, I couldn't really monitor the feed during the shoot. The resulting videos will be less than ideal, but that's why we call it learning from experience. The next time that I do this, I will be ready to take precautions to avoid a similar problem.

On a slightly better note, I now have an eight gigabyte flash drive for the purpose of easily archiving and transporting my mp3 and video files. This will come in handy when using studio B as it isn't connected to the server at CSB. Recording anything in that studio is otherwise stuck in studio B without a way to transport it to another computer. Likewise, anything recorded in studio A cannot be retrieved in studio B.

Finals already?

Even though we have 6 weeks to go, we spent Monday's class working on our radio final. It sounded crazy, at first, but once we realized that we only have 4 talk radio classes (including yesterday's class), to put together our final project it all of a sudden made sense.
Our class was divided in half so that we would have two, smaller groups. Each group will produce a one hour long radio broadcast. The format is to be that of a morning talk radio show with a maximum of 12 minutes of music for the hour (this restriction is in place because it would be too easy to just do an hour full of music). Our group has nine students - each with their individual roles to play in the broadcast. Mine is that of the board operator. I will be responsible for making sure every one has a live mic when needed, prerecorded spots and commercials are heard as programmed, and more. In addition to my duties during the live performance, I will be doing some prerecorded voice overs for commercials and sweepers and I am planning to conduct an interview for one of the spots.
We need to include commercials for a couple of reasons: one, we need to work them into the program using NexGen so that they are nicely spaced throughout the hour and two, we need to actually create a minimum of three original commercials as a team using Adobe Audition.

This is going to be fun!

A Great Finale to a Great Week!

Yes, I am aware that today is only Thursday, so it might seem a bit odd that I am claiming this week to be over. However, my classes at the CT School of Broadcasting run from Monday through Thursday. So my second full week of classes is now in the books.

This week started off with us continuing our on-hands learning of Adobe Audition. Next, we moved on to working with both AVID and Final Cut Pro for editing video footage. I have done some editing of some videos that I shot with my personal camcorder, but the software I have is nothing compared to what AVID and Final Cut Pro can do! I am really looking forward to getting in and really working with these two programs.
In addition to our exploration of AVID and Final Cut Pro, we were introduced to NexGen - the software used by radio stations for programing their daily play lists.

Today was the icing on the cake! Today we spent time in one of the radio studios doing some work with NexGen and doing some talk-over work. Our instructor, Kevin Johnson (no relation) from Mix 93.1, had us head into the studio one at a time and take a turn performing a 'talk break' on mic. We can't actually broadcast over the air from this studio, but the others in the class can hear what we do. Most of  us in the class (we number only 19, total) were pretty excited about getting into the studio.
Following our foray into the studio, we switched gears. Our instructor for the second half of our class was Joe Zone, the sports director for WFSB in Hartford. Joe threw a lot of great information our way - though I didn't have to take a lot of notes. The next time that we meet with Joe Zone we will be getting on camera and doing our own sports broadcast.

First Day of Shooting

During class on Tuesday we were introduced to the cameras that we would be using in the field. Our class was ENG 1 (Electronic News Gathering). If you watch the local news, you are all familiar with the results of ENG. A reporter and camera operator - though sometimes it will just be one person filling both roles - will go to a location to record an event or interview on tape. Then they will edit the footage down to a suitable length for the news broadcast.

We were given an assignment to take one of the cameras and shoot some footage. There was no particular recommendation as to what we should shoot...just that we get something on tape. My kids are involved in a play and had a rehearsal today, so I decided to bring the camera and get some footage of that. I was also able to shoot about 10 interviews with some of the kids. All totaled, I got about 40 minutes worth of footage to work with once we start editing. I'll be recording again at next week's rehearsal. The director of the show would like to have a video chronicle of their rehearsal process and I am all too happy to have the practice!

After class on Monday, I have signed up for some time in one of the radio studios. I am really looking forward to getting in there and recording some demos and mock-promos for practice. I have the studio signed out for 2 hours, so I have a lot of time to play!

As of this writing, I am 42 years old (though, that will be changing in 4 days as my birthday is March 20) and I am going back to school. Classes actually began on Monday, March 14. I am back in school in hopes that I can break into the radio and television industry. As such, I am attending classes at the Connecticut School of Broadcasting.
The classes thus far have mostly been introductory classes - Monday was Intro to TV and today was Intro to Radio - I have enjoyed the experience.

My decision to go back to school - and to this one in particular - was based on the fact that I have always wanted to be involved in radio and/or television.

I'll keep you posted!