From Inception to Creation

"So what are your story ideas?"

It's the first thing our Executive Producer, Kate, asks us in the morning, and it's the question that ultimately determines our show.

The base of each ATVN newscast starts with the morning meeting, where we throw around story ideas and pitches. Without these ideas, the show would not be able to grow and thrive as the day progresses. As a team, we must flesh out each story idea to determine who we will talk to, what footage we will see, and what is the angle we will cover. 

In this week's newscast, the majority of our stories revolved around the opening of the Wallis Annenberg Hall. Even though a lot of the content was actually planned before today's morning meeting, we still had to gather all the b-roll and interviews of guests at the event. In fact, I would argue that it was a harder newscast than most, because we had to work with hundreds of people buzzing around us, exploring the new Media Center. 

The remainder of our stories had to be completely formed from scratch. Whether it was a story about Ebola disease, the Music Center Anniversary, or Breast Cancer Awareness, Team Wednesday had to plan out and execute exactly what we wanted to see.

As the Video Teammate this week, I had to pay close attention to the footage that was being edited to ensure it matched the original plan we had layed out in the morning meeting, or adjust it if the story was going to change directions. Video really is what tells the story to our visual viewers, so I had a big responsibility of making the stories animated and easy on the eyes.

What I have learned during my time as a producer so far, is that no matter how much planning you do, some things are out of your control. What really makes a story successful is the amount of dedication a person puts into it. Even a story that is clearly lacking elements can be shaped together if a reporter is willing to fight for the story.