Working Towards My Goals as a Producer
I only have one newscast left to produce at ATVN. It's a weird sentence to look at considering the amount of time and work put into each and every show and yet how quickly it all went by. It's only fitting that I now look back at the goals I had coming into this semester and see how I have progressed.
The first goal I had was to be able to handle every producer position at once, because in many cases this is exactly what a professional producer does. There aren't three separate producers working together in different areas; there is only one person multi-tasking like no one has ever multi-tasked before. When I first started out as a producer, handling my one duty was more than enough work for me to focus on. I would struggle to organize and complete videos as video producer, I would have difficulty creating the rundown as lead producer, and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing as graphics producer. Now I can do all of them efficiently, and so can my fellow Monday producers. We have reached the point where we are all helping each other accomplish our duties throughout the day whenever we have spare time. So although I might get a little overwhelmed if I was the only person sitting in the producer seat on Monday, I am definitely more confident that I could handle the situation better.
My second goal was to become a more vocal leader. This started with something as simple as the rundown meetings that we have every morning. At the beginning of the semester my contributions were minimal and I allowed my fellow producers to suggest the bulk of ideas for our newscast. Now, I come in much more prepared with better story ideas and information regarding people we can contact for these stories. With more information to contribute, I have a much easier time voicing my ideas. My vocal leadership also struggled when I worked as a video producer at the beginning of the semester. I would struggle to push my MJs to stay focused because I didn't want to discourage them by yelling at them. I realize now that it doesn't take yelling to get someone to work, it takes encouragement. I have come to learn the strengths of each of my MJs and try my best to focus their abilities in those areas, all the while being supportive in the great things they've accomplished.
My final goal this semester was to be more organized. This was originally most difficult as the video producer because you are in charge of assigning who is video taping what story, who is editing that story, and who is writing that story. Along the way there are little things that are easily forgotten too such as putting in run-times and CGs. At first I was terrible at all of these things but now I have wisely created spreadsheets to update myself and others on what video we have, what video we need, and who is editing the video.
Producing at ATVN has been an invaluable experience for me and the final day of producing will be bittersweet. But it may not be my last day producing for a station. This semester at ATVN has helped me realize how much I love to produce and that I could possibly make a career of it when I graduate.
