TELEVISION DIRECTOR

Information about the work I did at Newschannel 8

I left Americas Voice and started working at Newschannel 8, a 24 hour local news station. I worked mostly Monday through Friday. There were three half hour newscasts in the evening (5pm, 5:30pm, and 6pm). I rotated with the other directors to direct these newscasts. I also directed the Prime Time Report(a one hour dual anchor newscast from 9pm - 10pm). And I also did the latenight (11pm newscast) and sportstalk (7:30-8) and newstalk (4-5)).

I started freelancing at Newschannel 8 in 1999. I directed a variety of newscasts. I mostly did the 6 and 11pm shows on Saturday and Sunday.

When I was at the old location there was something happening less than every five to ten seconds. I could go from a tape, to a camera shot with a CG, to a over the shoulder shot without CG, to another tape with a CG, to a Double Box shot with a remote, to the remote, then to a full screen graphic…all in less then 30 seconds! It’s really great!

Everyone there was very friendly and supportive.

Some of the shows were one or two anchor. But ALL of the shows were graphic and tape intense. In one 30 minute show (actual running time is 24 minutes) I could have easily more that 30 tape roll cues. 15 over the shoulder graphics, 10 full screens, 3 remotes, etc. And on top of all this, I’ll have a producer killing stories while I’m calling the show. See, some places a producer will kill a story in a break (which is easy to handle). But a lot of times, stories are being killed just as I’m about to go to them. Now a story being killed just as I’m about to go to it isn't very hard either. The hard part is when the story is killed and things need to be reorginized.

Example

I have ten seconds until I am about to come out of a VO which is in VTR #22. The next story (event) is a shot on camera #3 with an over the shoulder graphic (ESS) that says "Tax Cuts" leading to a full screen graphic (ESS), then a VO in VTR #23 (with CG that says 'Northwest') then to a SOT (with CG that says 'Al Gore') in VTR #24. The event after that is the tease that involves a medium shot on camera #2, CG's and VTR's # 21 and 22, and a full screen graphic.


The producer kills the next story. On paper it's no big deal, I just go to the tease. But, the CG is set for the VO in the next story (Northwest). The VO that I am in right now is in VTR #22. I need VTR #22 for the second part of the tease. On ESS A it is the "Tax Cuts" graphic. In ESS B is the full screen. But I need an ESS B for the third part of the tease.


In less than 10 seconds I have to alert the crew that we are going to a medium shot on camera #2, we need to change ESS B for the third part of the tease, we need to change the CG past 'Northwest' and 'Al gore' to the tease CG. My tape operator needs to get the tape out of VTR#22 as soon as I get off of it, and set up the second part of the tease. I have to make sure that my TD sets up a wipe from VTR #21 to #22. And I need to cue the music for the tease.


On top of all the new commands that I just gave, I need to double check that everything is ready. Is the ESS B right? Is the CG right? Is the switcher set up to wipe from VTR #21 to #22? Did the floor director understand that we are going to camera two next instead of camera three? If one of these things is not correct, I have to do something about it. ESS B is not ready---then we go to break 6 seconds early. CG is not ready---got to make sure TD knows not to key the CG in the tease. Etc, etc.

It gets pretty crazy sometimes, but that’s the way TV is sometimes and that’s what makes news so fun to do!!!!!!!

Links to other sites on the Web

For more information on NET
Find a whole lot of info about WNVC-56
And more info on WNVT-53
For a free homepage CLICK HERE!!!!!!!!!
For info on WJLA 7 (ABC AFFILIATE)
For info on Newschannel 8

My e-mail address is:
lminassian@comcast.net

or click this icon

Special thanks to Karen,Tracey and Joel for their support!!

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TM 1996

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