Monday
Waiting. Today was the day the anticipation of the weekend boiled over. I came into work too early, so I had to sit—and wait for everything to move forward. I sat in the lobby scoping out the other interns, thinking about how difficult it would be to finish this project. The announcement of the groups should have settled things, but it only increased the tension.
More waiting. Waiting to hear the group ideas, waiting to hear what they could do. I could only hope they wouldn’t expect too much of me. I hadn’t researched my stories very well, and I wasn’t in love with them in the first place. As it turns out, our mentor wasn’t either. In fact, she shot down nearly all of our story ideas. We had to go back to the very beginning.
I’ve been told that news is a lot of waiting—and then a mad rush. For the next two hours, my internship reflected the latter. I’ve also learned that news is a lot of wasted time. None of my stories were fit for the project, but we eventually found one. Alison loved Babies and Signs, and therefore so did I. Katie approved the concept, though perhaps with a bit more trepidation. I can only wait to see if she loves the finished product.
- Mike Diaz
Tuesday
We started Tuesday bright and early. Everyone arrived to the broadcast center around 9 A.M. to start research. We got off to a great start with Matt speaking to Gina Ferragame early. Mike got in touch with Linda Acredolo and Matt also spoke to Davi Chandrasekaran. While the phone calls were being made, Eric, Pat, and I headed out to get the first shots of b-roll.
We went to Barnes and Noble to shoot footage of baby books and DVDs. We also planned on going to the Diana Ross Playground in Central Park, but it was too cloudy and overcast that we decided to put it off to another day. When we got back, the group decided Eric, Matt, Pat, and I would head down to Philadelphia on Wednesday and Katie, Portia, Mike, and Nick would stay back to do the Skype interview with Linda and continue to research.
We constantly met with our mentor, Alison Schwartz-Dorfman, to make sure we were on the right track. It was a great feeling to start seeing our idea turn into a reality. I was real excited for the next morning knowing we were going to be going down to Philadelphia to start shooting and get a majority of our footage.
- Jason Lewis
We went to Barnes and Noble to shoot footage of baby books and DVDs. We also planned on going to the Diana Ross Playground in Central Park, but it was too cloudy and overcast that we decided to put it off to another day. When we got back, the group decided Eric, Matt, Pat, and I would head down to Philadelphia on Wednesday and Katie, Portia, Mike, and Nick would stay back to do the Skype interview with Linda and continue to research.
We constantly met with our mentor, Alison Schwartz-Dorfman, to make sure we were on the right track. It was a great feeling to start seeing our idea turn into a reality. I was real excited for the next morning knowing we were going to be going down to Philadelphia to start shooting and get a majority of our footage.
- Jason Lewis
Wednesday
Gina Ferragame being interviewed
What an amazing experience! Gina and her family were not just phenomenal guests, but even better hosts. They took us into their class in the morning and gave us a real taste of how they do baby signs through songs. They then took us into their home and let us see how they use the baby signs in their house. What a special thing to see a mother connect with her children through sign language.
Her son Theo is so advanced at the age of 3 that he is able to teach his younger brother that is only 17 months old! It’s always to great to see someone take so much pride in the things they do and even better when you watch it on camera. We then got a true delicacy of Philadelphia by going to South Philly for cheese steaks.
Geno’s absolutely hit the spot, and remember, speak the cheese steak language before you get to the front of the line, or you are going to the back of the line. Can’t wait to see what happens tomorrow and to see how this footage came out. Signing off.
- Eric Freeman
Her son Theo is so advanced at the age of 3 that he is able to teach his younger brother that is only 17 months old! It’s always to great to see someone take so much pride in the things they do and even better when you watch it on camera. We then got a true delicacy of Philadelphia by going to South Philly for cheese steaks.
Geno’s absolutely hit the spot, and remember, speak the cheese steak language before you get to the front of the line, or you are going to the back of the line. Can’t wait to see what happens tomorrow and to see how this footage came out. Signing off.
- Eric Freeman
Thursday
Today I was late to work, so I agreed to be part of the group to go out and find Man on the Street (MOS) interviews to find out if the average parent had ever used sign language with their child. Eric, Jason, and I agreed to go to a playground in Central Park because it seemed like we would have the most luck there. However, we were wrong.
Everyone adult the playground was either a camp counselor or a nanny, and none of them wanted to be on camera. So after Jason recorded footage of the kids playing and several park patrons questioned our motives for being there, we decided to pack up and move elsewhere.
This is when all the fun began. Jason and Eric decided because I was a female (and the only one with CBS identification) I should conduct the interviews. Well, they took every opportunity they could to have me run after people and embarrass myself. We also met some very interesting people, and slowly but surely found parents that backed up our conclusion.
After that the three of us decided to treat ourselves to an amazing lunch and then head back to home base!
- Portia Britt
Everyone adult the playground was either a camp counselor or a nanny, and none of them wanted to be on camera. So after Jason recorded footage of the kids playing and several park patrons questioned our motives for being there, we decided to pack up and move elsewhere.
This is when all the fun began. Jason and Eric decided because I was a female (and the only one with CBS identification) I should conduct the interviews. Well, they took every opportunity they could to have me run after people and embarrass myself. We also met some very interesting people, and slowly but surely found parents that backed up our conclusion.
After that the three of us decided to treat ourselves to an amazing lunch and then head back to home base!
- Portia Britt
Friday
We arrived at mission control around 10 am. We wanted to arrive early to make sure everything was prepared for our interview with our Speech Pathologist, Jackie Dolson-Schewchek. Eric, Matt, Pat and I loaded ourselves up with our camera gear and hopped in a cab to her office. We met her on the street and she introduced us to her two beautiful daughters, Mary and Bridget. Like a true professional, I wanted to stay and play “dance party” with them for the rest of the day.
We went over the questions and set up the camera gear- all while Mary shouted “Mommy’s going to be on TV!” Jackie was a breeze to interview. Articulate, knowledgeable, and extremely nice. For my first field interview, it was the best I could have asked for. Before I even finished acclimating to the air conditioning (it was hotter than Florida outside!) we were done, and it was time to grab some quick lunch before heading back to layout our final script. We split up to eat lunch, which ended with Matt and me getting into a cab that began smoking under the hood, and a nice to walk back to work.
Now we were in crunch time. We had most of the pieces to our puzzle, the interviews, the stats, the B-roll, all we needed to do was put it down on paper to prepare for editing on Sunday. As Pat began adding our pieces into the ENPS system, things were going swimmingly until he realized pieces of our sound weren’t being included in the overall time. After putting everything in, we were clocking in at a nearly even four minutes- a whole minute more than our package was supposed to be. This was our first major screeching halt. After chopping little pieces of audio and tightening up our voice-overs, we had no idea what else to cut out, and we were still a good twenty seconds over. We had to cut a major piece. We hadn’t planned for this, and we didn’t want to lose anything that would hurt the piece. After a long battle, and picking up the pieces of my broken heart, we decided to cut Jackie’s interview. She offered great insight, but it wasn’t absolutely crucial to the piece. Still, we loved it so much we included it on the video portion of the website (go look!)
- Katie LeBlanc
We went over the questions and set up the camera gear- all while Mary shouted “Mommy’s going to be on TV!” Jackie was a breeze to interview. Articulate, knowledgeable, and extremely nice. For my first field interview, it was the best I could have asked for. Before I even finished acclimating to the air conditioning (it was hotter than Florida outside!) we were done, and it was time to grab some quick lunch before heading back to layout our final script. We split up to eat lunch, which ended with Matt and me getting into a cab that began smoking under the hood, and a nice to walk back to work.
Now we were in crunch time. We had most of the pieces to our puzzle, the interviews, the stats, the B-roll, all we needed to do was put it down on paper to prepare for editing on Sunday. As Pat began adding our pieces into the ENPS system, things were going swimmingly until he realized pieces of our sound weren’t being included in the overall time. After putting everything in, we were clocking in at a nearly even four minutes- a whole minute more than our package was supposed to be. This was our first major screeching halt. After chopping little pieces of audio and tightening up our voice-overs, we had no idea what else to cut out, and we were still a good twenty seconds over. We had to cut a major piece. We hadn’t planned for this, and we didn’t want to lose anything that would hurt the piece. After a long battle, and picking up the pieces of my broken heart, we decided to cut Jackie’s interview. She offered great insight, but it wasn’t absolutely crucial to the piece. Still, we loved it so much we included it on the video portion of the website (go look!)
- Katie LeBlanc
Saturday
Weekend is here...but not for us! A few of us came in to the Broadcast Center to tape the anchor portion and graphics. Jason is sitting in for Jeff Glor! He was a bit nervous at first, but once the director, Chip, joked around with him it was smooth sailing for there. We also had two graphics prepared so they taped them as well, looks just like some Evening News graphics!
Everyone there was so nice to go out of their way to help us out for that time. Next, we strapped on the gear and headed to the playground for my standup. Once we got there, I started to worry. No kids at the playground = uninteresting background. It was getting so hot too and it didn’t help that I was fully dressed up, tie and all. I knew of another playground next to the Met museum though so we headed there. Fortunately, there were kids playing in the water. Jason shot four takes with a nice pan and zoom – then we were ready to get out of the heat!
The entire group then all met so we could finalize the script and decide what footage would go where. We had to get in and out points of every video clip we wanted, decide where we wanted the video in the story, and make sure it flowed logically together. After hours and hours, we were finally organized and we’re happy with a final rough cut in our heads to go into editing. HOME STRETCH!
--Matthew Sewick
Everyone there was so nice to go out of their way to help us out for that time. Next, we strapped on the gear and headed to the playground for my standup. Once we got there, I started to worry. No kids at the playground = uninteresting background. It was getting so hot too and it didn’t help that I was fully dressed up, tie and all. I knew of another playground next to the Met museum though so we headed there. Fortunately, there were kids playing in the water. Jason shot four takes with a nice pan and zoom – then we were ready to get out of the heat!
The entire group then all met so we could finalize the script and decide what footage would go where. We had to get in and out points of every video clip we wanted, decide where we wanted the video in the story, and make sure it flowed logically together. After hours and hours, we were finally organized and we’re happy with a final rough cut in our heads to go into editing. HOME STRETCH!
--Matthew Sewick
Sunday
The final day of our project!! Everything seems to be coming together perfectly. We may have hit a few snags along the way (like when we found out the piece we had written was 4 minutes instead of 3 and had to do some mad 'killing').
I went into the edit room today a bit nervous about timing, the video and whether we would get everything done in time, and after a few hours working with our editor Wes, we were finished! Our end product looks great, I couldn't be happier. I think that our characters were perfect, our story flowed so well and we had great visuals. We couldn't have done any of this without the Ferragame family, so I want to personally thank them again for everything they've done for us!
After finishing the piece, we made the final touches to our website and published! It was definitely a great week, a great project and a great team. I've made friends that I never would have gotten the chance to work so closely with if it weren't for this project. It was a great experience!
- Patrick Henderson
I went into the edit room today a bit nervous about timing, the video and whether we would get everything done in time, and after a few hours working with our editor Wes, we were finished! Our end product looks great, I couldn't be happier. I think that our characters were perfect, our story flowed so well and we had great visuals. We couldn't have done any of this without the Ferragame family, so I want to personally thank them again for everything they've done for us!
After finishing the piece, we made the final touches to our website and published! It was definitely a great week, a great project and a great team. I've made friends that I never would have gotten the chance to work so closely with if it weren't for this project. It was a great experience!
- Patrick Henderson