20 Years Young, Another Week Conquered! - Khadijah

Debate 2 - New Set Up



There truly is an art here with what we do at SCETV! I'm just so proud and honored to be apart of the journey.

Week two didn't fail to disappoint me at all. From the very beginning, Aimee, my advisor, made sure that I had every opportunity to prove myself and why I'm a good fit here.

Since last week, I managed to finalize the Smith-Lever recap which highlighted both the Senate and house Representative's honoring Congressman Smith Lever's Family for the 100 year anniversary of the Smith-Lever act. I learned that this act did a lot as far as promoting agricultural practices and establishing 4-H clubs for children. Women also played a big role as it gave them more opportunities to get involved outside of just simple housework and child care.



Palmetto Scene - Smith Lever Video
 

The video is now made available on Palmetto Scene's website, and it took the front page highlights as well. It was my first form of web work for the show, and it really made my day to see my work made readily available for others to see.

In addition to the post work, I had an amazing job learning from another internship advisor here who works a lot with social media for Palmetto Scene, Tabitha. A lot of what I took from her were basic visual editing elements that proved useful for the end result. Considering that editing is still something that I'm learning, I'm open to any help and suggestions from those who have advanced skills with editing software. It's good to know that I can reach out to others here for advice such as that.



Maya Angelou dies at 86.

 

A bittersweet moment for myself this week was learning about the passing of my favorite author and poet, Dr. Maya Angelou.

I was at work when I first heard, and it was definitely bittersweet. I had the honor of writing the update for the website, in which my favorite SC author and poet, Nikky Finney, said some kind words of the famed poet as well. Her metaphor of Maya Angelou being a "walking library" couldn't I admire. I hope to walk in her footsteps of the legacy she's left behind with her work. I can definitely say of myself that I'm off to a solid start!

Moving on to another week of debates, this week had two! A lot of changes were made to the overall set up, and I like the change very well. Tuesday's debates finished off the GOP for Superintendent of Education nominees on the Republican side. Unlike last week, Tuesday's debate had 8 candidates, so not only did adjustments have to be made for lighting, but there were also changes made to the set up of how the candidates would appear visually on screen. It was my second time watching from the studio itself during filming.

Superintendent of Education - Republican Debate
 

For Thursday's debate, I had a change of scenery when I got the change to watch the debate in the production truck!

It was a great way of seeing how things are done behind the scenes. You could see the different shots from the 6 cameras the film crew used, there was a large monitor to show how the audience sees the production, and then there was a preview monitor that was used to set up the next shot when directed.

I was responsible for keeping time of how long each candidate talked during their scheduled times. It was just used as a reference to make sure no candidate was talking longer than they needed to.

I wish I knew a lot more about production techniques, so it was really cool to be behind the scenes watching everything.

In other news, I finally added a little flair to my own desk. In honor of my birthday week, my mother's card proudly stands against my computer screen.

Then yesterday, Marina and I enjoyed a night out at the Vista eating Mellow Mushroom after a great night of debates. I wasn't expecting to be treated to dinner, so it was really nice getting to know more about her and enjoying time away from the office for a bit.

I also shared with her my Oreo Truffles, made of white chocolate chips, oreo cookies and cream cheese. She said I did well. And today, I enjoy more. 20 years old never felt so great.

-K

In The Air - Marina

Being an intern at ETV is, without a doubt, an exhilarating experience!!!!

This morning I went with Tabitha and Katie to Jefferson, SC to cover a story about the Bermuda High Soaring School, which offers sailplane rides and flight training to the public. At first we went there to interview the pilots, instructors and two of the students. While Katie was the interviewer and Tabitha the videographer, I was responsible for the audio, making make sure the interview was recorded properly.

Interviewing one of the instructors

After the interviews it was time to get some b-rolls of the gliders on the ground and also in the sky.. (YES, IN THE SKY!!!). So we attached 3 GoPro cameras to one of the gliders to get some nice shots of the take off, the view from high above the ground, and the landing. And guess who got the chance to fly in the aircraft?!

What a feeling!

What a view!

That was just A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What an adventure! I don't know if there is an intern in the world who has the chance to glide high in the air in an aircraft, but yes... I had this chance and it was just exhilarating!

But the day was not done yet... Now it was time to go back to ETV and help with the political debates. This time I stayed with the producers in the control room helping to keep track of the time of the interview questions/answers.

It was very neat to watch a live show from the control room. You definitely get the chance to watch the program from a different perspective and time literally flies!

My day was full of learning and new experiences. I enjoyed every second of it!!!

Welcome to ETV! - The First Week Recap - Khadijah

Monday, I took one of my yearly trips to the coveted Williams-Brice Stadium, but there were no football endeavors involved. Instead, it was my very first time walking into what will be my new home for the next 9 weeks - South Carolina ETV, home to many shows and programs related to educating and informing the public.

At 8 am, I was welcomed by one of my supervisors, who has grown to be sort of a mentor to myself, Mr. Tom Posey. Tom was responsible for showing me the ropes, and he gave me my "nickel" tour inside of the ETV building.

"When you're getting a tour from Tom, it's definitely going to be a nickel tour," one of the workers stated as Tom and I continued walking around the place.

"More like 3 cents if you ask me," Tom chuckled.

Immediately, I knew that everyone I would be surrounded by would become my family.

We continued to walk around as Tom showed me all of the important places that helped shape ETV into what it is today, including the massive studios, control rooms, and we even managed to see some childhood characters I grew up watching on PBS Kids!

SC ETV Coverage

Control Room - Production

PBS kids characters (DW, Smartcat, Clifford)

After getting acquainted with where I'd be working, we immediately got right down to business. I was introduced to the department I would be working in which is content for ETV's public relations station, Palmetto Scene. After getting over the excitement of having my own desk, I was introduced to different members of the content department that I now see on a daily basis. They are all a great help, and most of all, they welcomed me with open arms.

On the first official day, I worked a lot with DVD dubbing, which the department usually does to keep a record of what's recorded for the station. Most of which is political stuff that includes recordings of the House of Representatives and Senate affairs. Some representatives will request DVDs for themselves to have as their own, which brings me to the activities of Day 2.

Tom and I partnered up once again to deliver the DVD dubs to those who requested it. Though I've always been familiar with where the State house was, it was my first time actually going inside and being faced with individuals that work there. Tom led me around with ease, greeting those he clearly knew and being polite to others who walked by. All the while, he showed me the ropes and I observed. When we were done, it was time to head back to the ETV headquarters.

"And that's your nickel tour of the State house," Tom said.

Day 2 was also the day that I got to meet Aimee Crouch, who is the producer of Palmetto Scene and someone that I will be working very closely with throughout my internship. Her positive personality and passion for her position shows in our conversations. It was also pretty awesome to be introduced to others by her as "the real deal."

One of my biggest projects of the week was to compile footage together from events recognizing the Smith-Lever act that was established in 1914 and contributed specifically to Clemson (blehh, lol) University's platform. It took a few days, but after finalizing everything and getting the kinks out, I managed to have a finished product that not only was I satisfied with, but that Aimee loved! Now, I will hopefully soon be seeing my work on Palmetto Scene's website in just my first week!

Another highlight of the week was getting to work with the production team on our weekly live debate screenings. It was my first time getting to work on a live show, as much of what I've done for student media in the past involved post work. The craziness that goes into putting a live show together definitely shows in the work produced. For the first two days prior to the actual day of the show, we worked on sound, lighting controls and making sure that everything was in their prospective places. 

 On the day of the show, myself and Marina, who is also one of the interns here for ETV stayed behind in the studio to watch what happens as the show is rolling. Katherine, intern here also, got to stay with the production team in the production truck to see some of the other behind the scenes stuff that goes into putting this show together.

All in all, I'd say that everything went pretty well for the first live show of the summer for debate season. For the next few weeks, we will be doing much of the same things all over again as the production team works hard to work on any mistakes or errors that they see.

It is an amazing feeling to be apart of such a wonderful team of members that I'm honored to work with this summer. This summer is a different challenge for me. It is the very first summer that I'm not spending at home with family. It is also the very first summer where during August, I won't be getting ready to move into a dorm here in Columbia, but instead preparing to go abroad to Japan in September.

I'm looking forward to growing and learning so much here at ETV, and I've already learned alot in my first week. I know the journey will not be the easiest, but I'm very glad to have support from those I work with, to friends and family back home.

I managed to make it this far. I'm content with the fact that I can do even greater things during the weeks to come.

-Khadijah Dennis

One, Two, Three, Action! - Marina

What I mostly like about interning in ETV is that each day I have the chance of doing something different. Today ETV host one of the series of televised debates and we got the chance to stay in the studio and watch the live program!

We had a meeting at 3 p.m. to go over what each person was going to be doing and we (the interns) had some fun standing on the stage while the microphone and cameras were being tested.

Katherine, Khadijah and I in the spotlight

We love 'selfies'

Having the experience of watching a live show in the studio is great!!! Live programs need to be extremely well organized so that everything flows as planned and everyone needs to be alert at all times. It's definitely a different experience than going out in the field and getting footage that will be edited after. There's no editing in live programs and any mistake is crucial.

Political debates ready to start!

We'll be able to watch and help with many other political debates that will be televised during the next three weeks and I'm very excited for that!! Next time I'll probably be staying with the producers to see how they run the program and give the commands to the crew.

"Seas" The Sea - Marina

WHAT A GREAT DAY!!!!!!!

Waking up today at 7 a.m. was pretty easy for someone who had to wake up at 4 a.m. the day before. Today I went to Charleston again but this time with another crew. Katie, one of the producers at ETV, is doing a story for Palmetto Scene about the Veterans on Deck, which is a maritime initiative for Veterans with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, past experience of Military Sexual Trauma, or Serious Mental Illness.

The crew was: Katie, Titus and Gaines. Titus and Gaines were in charge of recording video and audio for the story and Katie conducted the interviews. It was just great being able to see their work and helping with whatever I could!! Besides, the day was beaaauuuuuutiful!

Taking a 'selfie' with the crew in the background

But the best part was still to come. We actually got on the boat and went sailing!! Titus went with some of the veterans on a boat and Katie, Gaines and I went on another. The goal was to get different shots from different angles and to get some b-roll of the veterans enjoying the sailing. It worked just great!!

Katie and Gaines interviewing the sailors

Katie and I enjoying the trip!

It was very neat to be there. Days like this make my internship interesting, exciting, fun and educational. I definitely started off my internship experience on the right foot!!!

Great people, great places, great learning!!!

Hitting The Road - Marina

My day today started at 4 a.m.

Yes! I'm learning now how it is to work with broadcast!! Just crazy times and schedule!!

I went with Tabitha and Ed, who is the Streaming Media Specialist here at ETV, to Charleston this morning. We left at 5 a.m. and arrived there around 6:30 a.m., with the sunrise. We went there to get some footage for a documentary about the Yorktown that ETV has been working on. The Yorktown is one of the aircrafts carriers built during World War II for the United States Navy.

Charleston

We got there and we started to set up the equipment. Ed just took this quadcopter out of his bags, which is like a small drone able to carry a GoPro camera for 8 minutes of flight time. I was like wow!! That's awesome! What was even better was to watch Ed piloting that small drone. It gets reaaaally high above the ground. You definitely need a lot of experience to control it. He took some shots of the outside of the ship and when he was done we went inside so Tabitha could record some b-roll for the documentary. It was just great being there and observing how they do their work out in the field and get some ideas for different shots!!

Ed piloting the quadcopter

And of course, after waking up so early and getting a lot of work done, we had to stop somewhere to have lunch. At 10:30 we went to a restaurant close to the beach but they were not opened until 11. So... We decided to go for a walk at the beach to kill some time!!! The weather was just great and since nobody was there to take a pic of us we just took a "selfie"!!

Selfie: Tab, Ed and I

The day went by really fast and when I got back to ETV around 1:30 p.m. I went to a meeting about the political debates that will be going on during the next three weeks. It was nice to meet everyone who will be helping with the organization of the debates and I just love being part of the team :)

The day was just a success!!

Hands-On - Marina

Today was my first day of shooting for ETV! 

We went to Lake Murray Dam to record a story about "love locks." There are an increasing number of locks all over the fence with not only lovers initials written onto it but also the name of mothers, fathers, siblings, and other loved ones who passed away. I guess people are following the same trend from Europe!

So we went there, Tabitha thought me how to use the Canon camera, the slider and some other tools. Then she handled me the camera and said "go ahead, shoot whatever you want to." So there I was, trying to brainstorm the best angles and positions to get a shot. I didn't really think I would be shooting by myself right away in the first project I started working on! Tabitha literally let me do everything and get any shots I wanted to. She would just stand there supervising and giving advices on what I should do. I can tell that in one morning I learned tons of techniques and different ways of capturing video!!

Credits: Tabitha Safdi ;)

It was a success until....... The interviews!

After getting enough footage and b-rolls it was time to get some interviews going on. We tried to get some people who were walking on the walking path to talk to us what they thought about the "love locks", but it went harder than we thought... Nobody wanted to be in front of the camera speaking.

We decided to come back another day to get some more footage and try to get some interviews for our story.. Maybe we are lucky next time!

But anyways we came back, I got my hard drive, and imported the footage to it. 

I also met another intern today, Khadijah, who is very nice and we went to have some Chipotle after work! She will be working for the Palmetto Scene as well but in the Public Affairs department. Hopefully I can upload a picture with all the interns together soon!

I like to end my posts with something nice or a powerful message that I read or saw recently. So as usual I want to mention a girl called Malala Yousafzai who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. I read a book written by Viviana Mazza about Malala's biography and I was thrilled!!! She was nominated for the Peace Prize when she was 13 YEARS OLD and her willpower is out of this world. 

Malala speaks out about her right, and the right of all women, to an education. She raised her voice even under Taliban's threats. A gunman shot Malala when she was traveling home from school in Pakistan, but she survived and she continues to speak out on the importance of education. This is not even half of the difficulties she had to face when she was younger. I think everyone and EVERY WOMAN should learn the story of Malala.

This quote came from a 13 year-old girl (who is now 17) and is specifically aimed at everyone, specifically women, in all countries fighting for better EDUCATION and equality.

"I raise up my voice not so that I can shout, but so those without a voice can be heard." ~Malala

Hitting The Ground - Marina

Rainy day outside. I woke up this morning around 5 a.m. with the flood warning alarm in my phone beeping.. I didn't even know that existed until now!

Anyways, let me talk a little bit about my day yesterday. Tabitha took me to the Avid bay in the morning so I could see how some of the documentaries are edited. For those who don't know, Avid is a video editing program like Final Cut Pro. We'll be using both of them during the internship, which means I'll have to learn how to deal with Avid! In the afternoon I did some research to come up with video ideas and also wrote an article for the Palmetto Scene page about solar energy. I also met Don Godish who is the Assistant Director of Broadcast Content here at ETV and we had some nice conversation about tennis and Brazilian food!

I love the environment here at ETV. Everyone is willing to help and they make you feel very comfortable. ETV is made of great people passionate for what they do!

But moving on... Today I got to ETV at 8:30 a.m. as usual and started making more phone calls and sending some more e-mails. I'm very excited about the projects we'll be working on and hopefully we can post some of the videos to the website soon!

Yesterday I found out that Jude Fox, who was an intern here at ETV and who I met in my first internship day, has her own radio program now featuring classical music! How neat that is :) I love classical music and I've been playing the piano since I was 14. So, of course I couldn't miss the opportunity of watching her program live!

Jude majored in Music from USC! I loved talking to her about her passion for arts. She's a sweetheart who loves the Beatles and Alan Menken! Tune in ETV radio every weekday at 11 a.m. to listen to great classics!

Next week the interns will be helping in the organization of the political debates which will be streamed live on scetv.org and also on ETV-HD. It'll be great to get the feeling of how it is to participate of a live show (behind the cameras of course!) and I'm sure it'll be a great experience! Tabitha and I also have some shooting planned for next week.

I want to finish my post with a video from Stephen Sutton.

For those who don't know, Stephen was diagnosed with an incurable cancer when he was 15. He created a page on Facebook called Stephen's Story and expanded to Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram. He wrote every update of his life himself and posted a bucketlist of 46 things he wanted to achieve in the near future. His Facebook page has more than 1,000,000 likes and his Twitter more than 213,000.

Stephen raised over 5 million dollars for charity in just one year.

He died yesterday morning, but he'll continue to inspire us among the angels. Stephen taught all of us how a brief life can be full of meaning.

No World Cup, Yes ETV! - Marina

So, today is my second day in the internship at the South Carolina Educational Television and wow..!! What a feeling to be here! I usually go back to my home country, Brazil, every summer, so this is a whole new experience for me and I have to say it's quite exciting!

Yesterday, the first thing I did when I got here was meeting with Tabitha Safdi, my supervisor. Tabitha has a great personality! She's extremely solicitous and warmhearted. 

The first place Tabitha took me was to the interns office. And guess what, I have my own desk! How awesome that is! There was only a problem... It was not decorated. Since my Brazilian roots would never allow me to leave it like that, today I went ahead and brought a picture frame of my lovely family and some daisy flowers :)

After some talking, she showed me around and introduced me to several people from different departments. Mark, the Director of Administration, gave me my intern credential card. I liked to know that Mark is a soccer fan!

Everyone was very very very nice and made me feel extremely comfortable. And, of course, everyone asked me, "are you really going to miss the World Cup?!"

After a quick tour, we had a meeting at 10 a.m. with some of the ETV producers and the Education & Outreach Director of the South Carolina Philharmonic. I loved that dynamic environment! Being a producer requires a great amount of responsibility and they have to pay attention to every single detail. For those who think television is all glamour, let me tell you that they're wrong! There's a lot going on behind the cameras before a show goes on the air or even online. Many important decisions need to be made, ideas need to be reshaped, and projects must be well planned. 

Then, we got back to the interns office and Tabitha talked to me about some of the projects I'll be working on as an intern. We'll be working mostly on the new series of Palmetto Scene called Original SC. Basically, Original SC is a series that features short videos of unique and amazing people who live, work and experience "all that the Palmetto State has to offer." We'll be creating stories outlines, researching, shooting, interviewing and editing everything for Original SC. Some of the previous videos feature an abstract artist from Charleston, a singer-songwriter from Gaffney, a spoken work artist, a sea turtle rescuer, and many other "original" and outstanding personalities. 

"What an amazing purpose!" I thought when I saw some of these videos online. I'm so glad to know that I'll be working with something that I believe in, it just makes me very happy!

Other than that, I'll be writing content for the Palmetto Scene page about arts, culture, business, education, health, technology, and others, which is very neat! Also, I'll be writing for the blog every week so anyone who wants to can follow my journey as an ETV intern!