So Much to Do....

Instead, I want to play. Of course, that means playing with Photoshop, and I've been doing a lot with it lately. First of all, my professor Dr. B. has asked me to present a lecture on the basics of graphics in the Commercial Production class. I needed examples so I have been looking at my work with Westminster Cable Network and cleaning things up and fixing others.

Also, I spoke with the graphics director from WPXI earlier this week, who gave me a lot of great advice and resources to use. When I'm not insanely busy upstairs at my internship in the sales department, I will spend some time downstairs just shadowing the designers. The director is being gracious enough to look at my portfolio as well, so I need to put the finishing touches on that and put together a reel of my live remote work.

In addition to all of these projects, I am doing a sort of freelance job for my father. I am creating a press guide for his high school baseball team. The entire design and creation will be my responsibility. If all goes well, I may be able to get some sales work too because we will need to approach businesses about placing ads in order to pay for the printing of the guide.

The images that accompany this blog entry are examples of pieces in my portfolio that I recently improved upon. There will be more to come in future entries.

One More Time...

It's really hard to believe that in a little over two months, I'll be graduating from wonderful Westminster. What's even harder for me to comprehend is that last night was my final live remote broadcast.

I started as a remote crew member during basketball season of my sophomore year. I was simply on crew because I had to be thanks to remotes practicuum. By the end of that semester, I was committed to being Chief Engineer Chuck Chirozzi's work study student for the following school year and a permanent fixture on Titan Crew.

Out of all the activities and projects I have worked on through the department, I feel like the live broadcasts have been the most beneficial. Number one, I feel like there is no substitute for working during a live event or show. It's impossible to predict anything which really tests your skills and how you can adapt to different situations. Also, the remotes fulfilled my passion and love for sports since I usually ran graphics for at least thirty events in a single year. Finally, although it was fun, being a member of the crew was very demanding and time-consuming, but I feel like this prepared me for the real world. No matter what path I take after graduation, and especially if I go into the sales area, it's going to require a lot of hours and persistence because it's hard when you're just starting out. I still say working as crew for the live remotes was well worth the time and effort.

So thank you to fellow seniors Pamela Marlowe and Chris Norris for helping our last remote go so smoothly, and thanks to Chief Engineer Chuck Chirozzi for three years of great times and experience.

TV on Facebook

As I talked about last week, television has a major impact on people's lives. For people in the 16 to 25 years old range especially, two other forms of mass communication known as Facebook and MySpace have swept the nation. It seems like radio and television stations alike have realized this is a new way to hit viewers and are posting profiles and other information on these social networking sites. I received an e-mail while at my internship at WPXI-TV stating that they have now done just that, with some employees posting their own pages as well.

Prospective employees are already using sites like YouTube and Google Video to post video and audio clips so that employers can find them online. Other stations and people who work there have profiles and pages for fans so they can interact with DJs and on air personalities and find out what the latest concerts and giveaways are.

On their sites, Channel 11 includes anything from internship information to links to video and even pictures of the ribbon cutting ceremony and the new building. They said their goal is to reach those who may not visit WPXI.com on a regular basis. They have tracked some success and have also added links to the networking sites on the station's home page. Check these pages out to see if this technique would work for you if you were trying to find an internship or other information on Facebook or MySpace.

Television is changing...

Ever since the writers strike began, viewers were pleading for it to end. They wanted their favorite shows back so they could have some nightly entertainment. Finally the strike has ended, and fans should be excited, right? Well, not so fast. They are still going to have to play the waiting game because most shows will not return with new episodes until March or April. The worst part - shows like "24" and "Heroes" aren't coming back until 2009.

I can happily say that my favorite television shows will return in just shy of two months. It's a little known fact about me that I love crime dramas, so that will make the first week of April an exciting one for me. Criminal Minds, CSI, and Numb3rs (CBS) are all returning the 2nd through the 4th with at least a handful of new episodes for addicts like me.

Also, with an end to the strike, the Oscars will go on as normal with all the big stars on the red carpet. Viewers can expect to see Miley Cyrus, George Clooney, Denzel Washington, and Tom Hanks at the big event a week from today on ABC at 8 PM.

However, since shows will not return until at least next month, the networks' February Sweeps ratings will not see the benefits of original programming. However, I have to hand it to NBC for grabbing my attention during the strike with their reality shows Deal or No Deal and American Gladiators. By the way, did I mention the two-hour finale for Gladiators is tonight at 7?

This just goes to show that television has become a part of everyone's daily lives. And that means we as broadcasters should take our jobs very seriously. Viewers do watch primetime programming but they are still interested in what's going on in the real world. It's our responsibility to put on content that matters because those watching at home depend on us to feed them the facts.

The Moment

You know which one I'm talking about. That scary crazy one that every senior dreads and loves at the same time. You guessed it - job application time!

I recently met back up with 2007 WC grad Stevi Nelson who's working as an account executive at WTAE in Pittsburgh. Stevi and I are still close friends so the meeting was mainly to catch up on things, but the conversation also included my future plans. I vaguely remember when Stevi was applying for jobs, but I couldn't fit it into a timeline. When I asked her when she started sending out her applications she said, "NOW!"

Needless to say, that statement gave me an extra push to get in gear. In the past week, I have started the process by updating my resume and searching for open positions at various stations. I have found openings in the three locations I am considering which are Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Youngstown. This week's activities will include getting in touch with some of my contacts to make sure I am on track and a trip to the Career Center to send out applications. However, I feel it's more exciting than scary to send out those resumes and cover letters.

Where have all the graphics gone?

When I started this blog earlier in the school year, I mentioned that I would do my best to alternate my entries between sales and graphics. As you can tell, I haven't followed that pattern very well. This is mainly because I feel like sales is the area where I see my future career. I feel as though my personality and skills are better suited for becoming a broadcast sales account executive. The fact that the art and graphics departments are quickly shrinking at television stations doesn't help for finding full-time work in the field either.

Recently, I have decided to get more involved with my art and graphics work. I still constantly create and run the graphics for the live remote broadcasts and the Coaches Corner show on campus. However, I do have a love for Photoshop, and am manipulating some photographs I shot recently to update my portfolio. Below is one of my works in progress. I took the original picture and cropped it so the butterfly was on the lower right third. Then, I applied the cutout filter to the entire image, and finally enhanced the contrast and added a little more green to the shadows. I still may make more changes but I feel it has definitely improved.

A new semester!

This week was the start of a new semester, and my last one at Westminster. That's awfully scary to think about, but it's also somewhat of a relief. The main focus of this semester is my internship at WPXI which is still going very well. However, I still have two classes on campus including Capstone and Commercial Production. Capstone is exciting because it's a class that allows me to get together my portfolio(s) and prepare for a job after graduation.

Commercial production is a class that will help me add to my portfolio. I enjoy selling broadcast advertising , and since we do not have a production department on campus, I must also create the spots. This class will allow me to make more effective commercials for my advertisers. The more effective the advertising is the happier the customers are which means more business and easier closing. I'm really looking forward to the challenge this class poses and the better results and greater rewards I can gain from it.

Here are a couple of examples of commercials I think are very effective. Take a look!

Mac vs. PC
Dove Real Beauty Workshops

Start Thinking About the Real World Folks

As we were on break from classes at Westminster, I took a break from blogging as well. However, after receiving an e-mail from Mr. Weaver saying that Sky, a broadcast major who graduated last month, is working as an assignment editor at WJET in Erie, I was inspired to write again.

Just over a week ago, I attended a broadcast job fair at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. Lucky for me, most stations there were looking for sales people. Although they were hiring for the positions currently, I had the opportunity to speak with Sales Managers from area TV and radio outlets which built up my list of contacts. Each station I spoke with also has a copy of my resume now which means they have seen my name and can put a face to my name.

I have started my internship at WPXI as well. In just the first two days of being at the station, I already know I love it. Being in the environment at a network-affiliated TV station, specifically the sales department, gave me that much more reassurance that I'm headed down the right career path. Interacting and observing the account executives is especially exciting and helpful. I can't wait to spend more time at WPXI throughout the semester.

On a cold, snowy night...

...we went to visit KDKA in Pittsburgh, the first commercially licensed radio station in America. As you can see, I was very happy to escape the crazy atmosphere on campus as finals are fast approaching. I am always really interested in seeing what other stations have to offer - how they operate, what equipment they use, and of course it helps to meet those who work there.

We were given a tour of both the radio and TV stations and were able to ask questions of the Afternoon News Editor Jim Amato. He's not only a jack-of-all-trades, but he's also a wealth of knowledge. If you need to know anything about the history of radio or broadcasting for Jeopardy question, he's your man. He gave some great information that I can utilize in my literature review.

Jim also said something that I hadn't thought about in awhile when I expressed my interest in sales. He said that sales was a great way to get into management as well. Although it would take some time to get to that type of position, I would definitely be interested in holding a management position somewhere down the road. It will be nice to put that I have been an Operations Manager/Program Director on my resume from my experience at the campus radio station. Traveling to KDKA was a valuable experience - I gained knowledge, another contact, and realized that my work at Westminster has really positioned me for success in the future.

Competing Medias

It's time to start putting together my literature review, and sadly enough, I'm a little excited about it. The best part of the assignment is you get to contact professionals in the field, and get insight from them.

I recently changed my topic to selling competitive media because it seemed harder to talk with a graphic designer than a sales representative. As a part of other projects in capstone, I have already spoken with three current or former account executives: Brad Grandon, who used to sell media and is currently working for Garmin, Bobby Fisher, who has sold various forms of media, and Stevi Nelson, who sells advertising for WTAE in Pittsburgh.

I have also contacted a couple radio, network, and cable television salespeople that I am either waiting to hear back from or have appointments to speak with them. In addition to speaking with these professionals, I gained a lot of knowledge of this topic from my RAB training to become a Radio Marketing Professional.

It's really interesting to hear all the different perspectives each person has on the different forms of media, broadcast and otherwise. Learning from what these individuals have to say gives me a more complete education on the various forms of media and ways to make them more appealing to clients. Plus, it never hurts to make a connection with someone, who also has connections, that has the job you want a few months from now.

Finished!

There's been so many things going on with my broadcasting life including directing Light Up Night and getting the internship at WPXI, I have yet to show off the New Castle Regional Ballet's Nutcracker commercial.

The two performances are in two weeks and the commercial has one last airing on Thursday, November 29th during the 7:30 broadcast of The County Line. It's already played around four times, and I believe the company plans to post the spot on their website because they were so pleased with the final product.

In addition to The Nutcracker commercial, the plan is to create a general commercial promoting the ballet company itself in the spring. It's purpose will be to raise awareness about the organization and hopefully draw new girls and/or guys to take classes or participate in their annual productions.

It's been great working with the New Castle Regional Ballet Company, and I look forward to building upon my already existing relationship with this client - one of the steps to successful selling.

A First!

Last night was a first for the Westminster Broadcast Department. A crew including members of the Video Production class, producer Pamela Marlowe and myself as director broadcast New Castle's Light Up Night parade live for the first time ever.

The event itself has been a tradition in New Castle for years, and I could definitely see why. Even with such a cold, rainy evening tons of spectators came out to watch the parade filled with nearly ninety area bands, floats and groups marching and riding through downtown New Castle.

Of course, being the first time we broadcasted this event, there were some kinks to work out. Directing was actually more fun than I thought it would be, but it was definitely very stressful trying to put on a good show for the premiere of the event on live television. However, I was proud of the announcers, the crew, and also the finished product. Again, a special thanks to all the people and organizations that helped make the event and the production such a success. Watch the replay Saturday, November 17th at 7 PM!

Paid Off...

The hard work I've been doing while here at Westminster, especially these past two years with my work in sales, is showing some recognition beyond the campus community. As I said in one of my last posts, I had applied for an internship at three Pittsburgh area radio and television stations. I sent my resumes out and each of the stations received them on Friday. When I checked my e-mail Monday morning at 9 A.M., there was an e-mail from Sharon Parkes, a Senior Sales Assistant at WPXI saying she would like to meet and talk with me further regarding the internship.

The following Monday I had an interview with her at the station's new building located just off the McKnight Road exit on I-279. I have one word to say about the location: amazing! There are flat screen HD TVs everywhere, it's environmentally friendly, and it is so expansive. I was blown away by the facility, but I really enjoyed the people I met as well. Sharon and her boss Gary Bogart, the General Sales Manager, were wonderful. They were extremely personable and I could tell they cared about me other than the fact that I want to explore broadcast sales.

Finally, Wednesday morning I received a phone call with the good news that they wanted me to intern with the WPXI Sales Department. I'm looking forward to this great opportunity to gain more experience in the field, networking with those working in my desired career field, and simply being in a professional network broadcast environment on a daily basis. The slideshow of photographs from WPXI's new building contains pictures of mostly the set and newsroom from the sales department's aerial view. Look out Pittsburgh - here I come!

Alumni Swap!

The last post said I was going to speak with Stevi Nelson for my alumni presentation. As always in the broadcast world, things change and I actually interviewed 2003 alumni Bobby Fisher.


He is one of the very few majors I know that went into broadcast sales - one of the main reasons I decided to contact him. I met Bobby originally when he spoke in Dr. Barner's Broadcast Sales and Advertising class. At that time, he was selling radio, newspaper and internet advertising at Steel City Media. He left that job about a year and a half ago for his current job with Dominion Enterprises in Pittsburgh. Bobby does inside sales for the company's publication The Employment Guide which is simply a paper full of job listings.

Other than finding out what Bobby's career path has been, I also asked him a lot about having a job in sales and any advice he could give someone entering this field. He talked about the top three characteristics of a good salesperson. He said number one is patience. You will not be an overnight success; in fact, Bobby said there's no money in your first year. The number two characteristic was being open to change, especially due to ever changing technology. Finally, number three was attaining new business. He says some of the veteran sales representatives get too comfortable, and forget that about 20% of business is lost to attrition every year. It's so important to increase billing regardless of what your account list and billing already looks like.

Not only did I enjoy talking with Bobby Fisher because he's so helpful, I know he's a contact I can use in the future. He has been in various sales jobs for five years so he's definitely knowledgeable, in addition to the fact that he has a lot of contacts that may be helpful to me as well. In fact, I sent him a copy of my resume today to look at and make suggestions for me. Thanks Bobby!

Busy Little Bee...

Although I'm not dressing up as a bumblebee for Halloween, I'm thinking it may have been a better choice. I feel like a "busy bee" trying to catch up after the college's fall break. Now it's back to the grind, and there's no stopping now.

My first accomplishment of the week was passing my Radio Advertising Bureau Final Exam with a score of 90 out of 100. I'm waiting to hear back from them on how to obtain my physical diploma, but it feels great to be a certified Radio Marketing Professional.

Secondly, I am working on my alumni presentation for capstone. My alumni, Stevi Nelson, graduated last year and is currently working in television sales at WTAE in Pittsburgh. We are close friends, and actually were sales partners in class while she attended Westminster. She's an idol to me because it's rare that a TV station hires a salesperson with no professional experience, but she obviously made an impression right out of college. Hopefully she can give me some tips from what she did to land me my dream job in a few months.

Finally, I have started the internship hunt for next semester. Earlier this week, I sent out applications to three stations in Pittsburgh for sales internships - 105.9 The X, WPXI-TV, and Stevi's employer, WTAE-TV. I hope to send out a few more internship applications before all is said and done, but I feel any of those three experiences would be very beneficial to me.

It's no secret that senior year is in full swing, but I'm hoping all of this hard work through classes, networking, and additional work off campus will position me at the top of employers lists in April and May.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

But in New Castle, it's been looking that way since September. That's because the New Castle Regional Ballet has been rehearsing since then for their 21st annual Nutcracker performance.

I had the opportunity to sit down with Debbie Parou, the artistic director for the ballet. She has over thirty years of dancing experience founded the company 20 years ago as a non-profit organization to promote quality ballet training and to present performances for the New Castle area. Parou also helped the company become a member of Regional Dance America/Northeast in 1990 as it's currently a full performing accredited company.

That's where I come into the picture. I'm creating a :30 commercial to promote the Nutcracker performances which will take place December 1st and 2nd at the Scottish Rite Cathedral in New Castle. The spot will consist of still pictures and graphics with some visual effects and a voice track. I think the beginning will be a mini montage with the voice track and graphics combined saying and showing three words about the performance that Parou conveyed to me during our meeting. The rest will mostly describe the high level of performance and how the audience will be wrapped into that feeling.

I'm looking forward to helping the New Castle Regional Ballet promote this always popular event and facing the challenge of creating a commercial with limited resources. For more information on the New Castle Regional Ballet, click here.

My other passion...

As indicated in my profile, my two passions are baseball and broadcasting. However, in all reality, I have a passion for all sports, with football coming in at number two on the list. That's why last night was a great experience as I shot highlights during the Mars versus Neshannock football. Although most of the highlights came from the Mars side, it was still an exciting game for me to shoot since it was my first time going behind the camera shooting sports highlights. However, I did capture the only Neshannock touchdown while shooting in the second quarter.

My supervisor was John Mikulas, a videographer with Channel 21 WFMJ in Youngstown, Ohio. He really knows the ins and outs of shooting, and is an excellent teacher. I learned the basics like starting on the quarterback and zooming out to a medium shot with him and the two guards, but he also gave us tips about shooting in general. For example, if you're shooting anything with music, never stop rolling because when you take the tape for editing, it will be difficult at best to match up different parts of music if it cuts out at any point.

It was nice to try something new in the field, and I feel like John Mikulas would always be available in the future for help or advice if needed.

We're going to Kentucky...

I'm finally back from Kentucky as the members of Titan Crew traveled there this weekend to broadcast the Westminster versus Thomas More football game. The best part was getting to use a semi-truck full of professional equipment provided to us by United States Broadcast.

Setting up and learning the new equipment was an overload of information for nearly everyone. However, we actually brought the CG from our remote truck for me to use. It was neat showing it off for Pete Beckett, the gentleman who let our crew use the truck. I also got to take over some of what would be audio's duties in our truck by giving the announcers their cues. I was excited to help out and experience another job as I have only done graphics for remotes.

After my machine was set-up, I checked out everyone else's stations in attempt to try and soak it all in. The fact that NBC Sports, CBS Sports, and ESPN have operated the equipment that our crew was able to use this weekend is absolutely awesome. This is definitely a day I will not forget.

So many people...

This weekend was Homecoming weekend at Westminster College, meaning lots of balloons, football, and people - especially alumni. I was running CG for the live broadcast that was also streamed live on the web, so I got to meet a lot of broadcast alumni. I saw some old friends, but I also was able to meet some of the former students that we always hear so much about like Amy Dalbon and Amy (Gustafson) Garland. Amy Garland is now a videographer at WKBN-TV in Youngstown, OH, where I recently applied for a part-time graphic artist position. She said she would mention my name when she got back to the station.

Also, two weeks ago while doing the graphics for the PCN game, I met their Pittsburgh Bureau Chief Doug Sicchitano. He's was very helpful to everyone on the crew offering suggestions and advice. Most importantly, he told me about some freelance opportunities I could take advantage of through the company such as working at the Harrisburg Farm Show. He also said he would be more than willing to help me out with any questions or just to look at my work. If a job opened up at the Pennsylvania Cable Network, I would definitely apply.

This just goes to show, you never know who you are going to meet and where, so always be prepared and get your name out there! After all, one of the items on Dr. B.'s checklist for success is networking.

In this week's graphic report...

I will display and explain what I've done to improve the graphics during our weekly sports talk show Coaches Corner and for our live remote broadcasts.

Let's start with Coaches Corner. Most of the CG is lower thirds with simple names, however the PAC report there are a lot of full screens that needed a new look. Every week an offensive, defensive, and special teams player of the week is named. The graphics have always been tailored to the specific team, however it seemed like the football and logo were simply slapped on the page. On the left is what the old graphic looked like, with the new and improved CG appearing on the right. I moved both the football and logo behind the beveled box and increased their transparency to create a more professional look.

The second change was made to the full screen for the upcoming week's games. Previously, each game had a separate graphic, but the format has now changed to a single graphic for all the games. Again, you can see the improvement between the two.

As for the live remote graphics, I added the team logo to the key players’ lower thirds. I feel the largest improvement came from the change in the scoreboard, though. Before it was a freestyle solid shape with the score on top, but the shape has been replaced with a football keyed in the lower right hand corner.

Next week, I'll explore possible job opportunities and the steps I'm taking to position myself for them.