Monday, June 28, 2010

Still going strong...

I cannot believe that it is almost July. The summer is going by so fast. My internship is about half over, yet I feel like I just got here. Although despite how fast it has gone by, I am still incredibly blessed to be working here and learning from these people. I love being able to collaborate with people from all over America, and in all sorts of capacities. Just last week I helped out the news department with some transcription of an interview Jewel did for Shape magazine. It was neat to step outside what I normally do and work on something else, even just for a few hours. I had to watch the entire interview and mark the timecode of where each segment of the interview started and stopped. Then once that was complete, I went back and watched it again so that I could transcribe the interview. It was a 25 minute interview and took me about 2 hours to transcribe the whole thing, but it was a cool experience. I don't know if that is something I would want to do a lot (as it is tiring after awhile), but it was still a good learning experience.
Another benefit of my job this summer is that I have really beefed up my researching skills. As the majority of my job is researching the artists on the countdown, I have become increasing better at identifying what is valuable information and what is not. I have also become better at skimming articles and such to find the most interesting piece of information. As the writers only write small little snippets about the artists for the show I need to get them interesting and concise information. I know that the skills I have been utilizing this summer and have been improving upon will really help when I go back to school and have to write a research paper.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Mondays

I am sitting in my cubicle wishing I knew where I had put my headphones. I couldn't find them this morning and didn't want to wake my roommate, but now as I sit in this eerily quiet office I wish I had them so I could play some music while I work. Mondays are slow in the afternoon since the bulk of my job was accomplished earlier in the day during the taping of Top 20. And right now I really need to play some music, not just to get away from the silence which is only broken by the clicking of multiple keyboards, but also to keep me awake. Although it is only Monday I feel like I have already worked a full week. Which in a way I guess I have since I really haven't had a break since the Tuesday of last week due to the CMT Awards and CMA Fest. While I did go home for Thursday evening and Friday, I feel like I didn't relax or rest at all and then I came back and worked two more full days and then had to be up early this morning in order to go to the store to pick up craft service for the in studio shoot earlier this morning. And now I have seen to hit a wall. And usually some upbeat music cures this, but alas I have no headphones. So I am sitting at my desk with heavy eyelids trying to figure out a way to keep myself from falling asleep at work. Which is also why I am writing this blog. It gives me something to focus on and keep from staring off into space like my body obviously wants to.
Despite my tiredness and my lack of headphones I do have some positives for this blog. This past week of work, while long and tiring, was extremely fulfilling. I got to see how a huge, live award show is run and participate in backstage activities as a talent escort which gave me the opportunity to be close to all my favorite country artist. While I had to remain professional and could not take pictures or ask for autographs (even though a small part of me desperately wanted to), it was still amazing to be so close to so many amazing people. Also I got to experience how those type of shows are run. And let me tell you, it takes an army of people to pull off what you see on TV. Because it is the only exact number I know, I can tell you that there was 60 talent escorts. These are the people who escort the artist from the red carpet to their seats, to a dressing room, to the stage, wherever they need to go. If there was 60 of those people (who spend most of their night standing around waiting until their artist needs them) think about how many producers, camera people, stage managers, crew guys, production crew, etc. etc. are needed to make the show run smoothly. Like I said it takes an ARMY! I am so fortunate to have been a part of something so HUGE!
I also had the opportunity to help out at CMA Fest which is, as one of the executives so elegantly stated in an email, the Mecca for country music fans. The four days of CMA Fest was chalk full of events specifically designed for country music fans. Concerts, fan club parties, meet and greets, autograph signings, etc. I worked at the CMT booth which on Saturday was hosting a Rascal Flatts meet and greet that drew hundreds of people. It was insane, and I had to stand in the same spot all day, but there was something about seeing the smiles on everyone's faces as they exited the meet and greet which was rewarding. Maybe that's why the artists also do it. To see the smiles on their fans faces. That experience may have nothing to do with my immediate career goals, but it is something that I can take with me. No matter what you do in this industry (TV, Film, Music) you need to appreciate those who help you reach your goals, the people that are behind you, because they are the ones who get you where you are. Also it taught me about communicating professionally with those outside of my co-workers, because I had to deal with the fans who weren't fortunate enough to snag meet and greet passes and whom were willing to climb over people to get closer to the band members and when talking to these people I had to remember whose name was on my T-shirt and who I was representing as I chose the words I would say. And in the end, it was worth it because the meet and greet went smoother than we had anticipated and Rascal Flatts even invited all the staff to come up on stage for a picture. Which I have hanging in my cubicle.
Everyday when I come to work I am just so grateful to be here. This is a hard industry to break into and even just being here in an unpaid capacity, with no guarantee that I will land a job after it is over, is rewarding. I get a closer look at the inner workings of a corporation, I get to see how different departments work together to not only produce the shows, but also to sell the CMT brand and even work with the music labels and the artist to better market them. It really is a circle of us promoting them, which promotes us so we can continue making our shows. It is just astounding to finally see how it all works. It also feels nice to be falling into a routine here. To know what I am expected to accomplish each day and doing it without my boss having to tell me or having to ask what it is to be done. Especially after my experience at the award show I am more confident that I could do this job (or a similar one) for a living. I could even handle the stress of working bigger shows than the one I currently work on. Dealing with all the people and the bigger production scale. While working on a show the size of Top 20 would be a good fit, I could see a production that is more detailed than one host in a small studio with three cameras, as a good fit as well. The energy that a big scale production brings was so much FUN for me. It made me feel so energized and important to be working on something of that size. Not that I don't enjoy my show, I do, but if I ended up working on a bigger show wherever that might end up being, I would be okay with that. My options are definitely open.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Life as a CMT Intern

Wow. Life as an intern is certainly tiring work. You work long hours for no pay, but what you do get out of it is excellent job experience and something really cool to tack up on your resume.
But back to the tiring part. It is only 9 at night but I feel like I could go to bed right now. Things are in full swing for the CMT Music Awards which go down tomorrow night at 8/7c. I spent pretty much all day at the arena and everything and everyone down there is in constant motion. People everywhere. Moving band equipment, hunting down something or someone. And everyone is talking on headsets and walkie-talkies. As I checked in for my shift, and was issued a pass that would give me access to all the backstage areas I was also given a list of all the walkie-talkie channels. There are 16 channels and each channel is a designated department. I'm sure if they didn't do this, no one would ever know what is going on since there would probably be a constant stream of conversation.
I spent my day today as a talent escort and will go back and do the exact same thing tomorrow. Basically I pick up the talent as the enter the building and take them wherever they needed to go. And then I stayed with them until they left the building, which meant a lot of standing around waiting for them to move from place to place. I spent almost an hour standing outside a dressing room doing nothing until they gave me the ok to bring that particular person to stage.
On the one hand, this is incredibly boring, but on the other it is incredibly cool. I got to see so many people today and while we weren't really introduced and I definitely couldn't ask for a picture since I was working it was still really awesome.

Here is a list of the people I have seen/met since I started here:
Evan Farmer (host of CMT Top 20 Countdown)
Jeff Dunham
Randy Houser
Trace Adkins
Zac Brown
Lady Antebellum
Miranda Lambert
LeAnn Rimes
Kid Rock
Kellie Pickler
Melissa Peterman
(and the list will keep growing....)

Thursday, June 3, 2010

The 'glamourous' life of TV

I have now been working at CMT for about three weeks, and I times I still can't believe that it is true. It is so much more than I would ever have imagined before I began working here. I have taken film classes so I know that a lot of work goes into making films and TV shows, but what we get accomplished in short spans of time amazes me.

In one week, the prep work and script writing take place and on the start of the next week we are shooting the next episode. Or as was the case last week, we shot one episode on Monday and then another on Friday. Leaving a shorter amount of time for preparation. My job involves long hours spent on the internet doing research for the writers. The show I work on "CMT Top 20 Countdown" highlights the top 20 music videos of the week. A pretty simple concept if you think about it. However we don't just say what order the videos are in and leave the show at that. We like to provide little tid bits of information about the artists or about what went into the making of the video. This is where my research comes in. My research gives the writers the newest information about the artists that they can work in (sometimes humorously) into the script.

However, this is sometimes easier said than done. Because we prepare the research about a week before the show actually airs you have to find information that will still be interesting when the episode airs. That was difficult this week. Because the CMT Music Awards and the CMA fest are next week, most of the music news this week revolves around those two events. The news stories are about who will be playing at what time and so forth. However, when this particular episode airs, most of these events will be over. There is no point mentioning something that will have already happened. One thing that would be cool to note in this episode would be who won what awards. However, since we are filming before the winners are announced there is no way we can include this information.

So that in a sense is the 'boring' part of my job. But I enjoy it. While it does get a little monotonous and tiring sitting in a cubicle all day looking up information on the internet, I enjoy it. Why? Because I get to find out the newest information right as it hits the public. I like being 'in the know'. It is cool to go home to my roommates and tell them about what I found out during the day. One of my roommates basically does the same thing I do all day (for the radio station) so sometimes we have seen the same piece of news, but it is nice to be able to talk to someone about it.

The really cool part of my job is to sit in on the tapings of the show. When you watch the show on TV everything is edited together and flows perfectly, but in the taping we jump all over the script and things don't always go smoothly. It is an interesting experience to sit in the production room and watch take after take and see how it all comes together. Plus I get to hang out with the host of the show on occasion. (Who is a really cool guy by the way). Plus, everyone treats me like a full member of the team even though I am just an intern and am not even getting paid to be there.

It is really nice that I actually WANT to go to work everyday and it isn't something that I HAVE to do. I think that makes all the difference really. And if I like it this much when I'm not getting paid, I think it more solidifies that this is definitely something I could do in the long term. This kind of work could be what I choose to do with my life. I could live my life, excited about going to work everyday. It doesn't even bother me that I have to get up early, because when I get there I know that I will enjoy what I will be doing, and that is a great feeling.