Media Participation Project

For my Media Participation Project, I observed two recordings of UMTV's "Maryland Newsline." For the first recording, I wasn't sure what to expect. When I first arrived, I walked around the newsroom/studio, watching all of the processes that go into making an episode. Students were sitting at computers, editing clips of footage that would be incorporated into the episode. The students that were anchoring the episode were in a room fixing their hair and doing their make up. About 10 minutes before show time, the anchors sat at the news desk and started rehearsing their lines. The camera men and women stood behind the cameras, figuring out which camera would be on which anchor at what time. Throughout the episode, there was an assistant behind the cameras, directing the anchors which camera to look at, at which time. While one anchor was speaking, the camera would focus solely on him or her. The other anchor would look toward the assistant for direction on where to look next. During commercial breaks, the anchors would have up to a minute and 30 seconds to decide if they needed anything such as a touch up on makeup, a review of their lines, etc.  From the studio, I got to watch the episode as it was being filmed in the newsroom, and also on a television screen, which showed how it actually looked when it was all put together. Before I came to the show, I was under the impression that they recorded it in bits and pieces so it would be perfectly filmed and put together. However, they film live, so if something goes wrong during the show, they have to fix it quickly without making it apparent that something is up.
This was very obvious on the second day I observed, because this time I observed from the control room. This is where all the piecing together happens. There's a student who is directing the cameras, a student in charge of the music and how it fades out and in during the episode, a student who switches the screen to commercial, a student who puts captions on the screen at certain times, and a student making sure the teleprompter is in line with the episode. All together, this is a very confusing process, and there is one person making sure everything os going according to plan. It was a very stressful atmosphere compared to the environment of the newsroom/studio. At one point, a student from the control room put the wrong camera angle on the show at the wrong time, and we could see an anchor fixing her hair instead of the anchor that was giving the news. It was quickly adjusted, and as an audience member watching from home, I might not be able to notice, but from the control room it was very apparent that there was an error. At another point, the intro music was too loud and you couldn't hear the anchors, so the student in control of the music had to turn it down noticeably. Also, the teleprompter randomly disappeared during one of the commercial breaks, so the student in charge had a minute and 30 seconds to get it up and running before the show came back on, or else the anchors would have to improvise their lines. These students work in a very stressful environment, and they have to be able to think on their feet during the 30 minute episode.
Overall, I learned a lot about the backstage processes that go into making an episode of "Maryland Newsline." I don't know if I personally would want to be a part of UMTV, at least not in the control room. I don't work well under pressure and I would be too nervous that something might go wrong. However, I did take an interest in the cutting and editing of news clips. This process goes on before the episode is actually shot, and then the news clips are inserted throughout the episode. I would like to learn more about this process and maybe even do it myself in the future.