A Stand-up Day

Photo By: Nikki Romanuk Patriots Practice

 The next week I would be able to go to the Patriots practice with Walt again. Going to the practice was becoming my weekly routine. I would go not only to help Walt out, but also to learn about reporting. Walt would also allow me to shoot some stand-ups which I am trying to get better at.

Preparation

Something I am beginning to notice is that I am not good at talking about sports. The night before I write out different ideas and bullet points I will like to talk about in my introduction segment and in the closing segment, but even with preparation and practice I am not a very skilled reporter. The night before I went to the practice which was Tuesday night, I researched the Patriots and the Colts, I read the press releases that both teams sent out, and I read the transcripts from interviews conducted earlier in the week. 

I know that the Patriots would talk about Aqin Talib, he is the new cornerback the team acquired during the bye week, and I knew he would be a story topic. I wrote down bullet points on him and the team, and practiced talking about the team and Talib. I practiced the whole night, fell asleep figuring out what I was going to say, and spent the whole car ride, ( which is over and hour) practicing.

Walt and I drove to practice, but this week the schedule was messed up. Normally we have Tom Brady talk, then open locker-room, lunch, Bill Belichick press conference and practice, but his week we had lunch Bill Belichick press conference, and practice. Tom Brady did not talk and the open locker-room was not until later in the day. Walt and I ate lunch an hung out for a bit, watched the press conference and made our way to the field for practice. 

Practice 

Photo By Nikki Romanuk Patriots Practice

At practice we knew we needed to get footage of Talib and a list of other players. I decided I was going to talk to other reporters and get the feel for how other people got to where they are. I had recognized a guy that does the Patriots All Access and stuff for the website and talked to him for a bit. I am realizing that most people have no idea what they are going to talk about until that day. A craft I hope to master. 

At one point in the practice, Walt said, are you ready? I thought to myself “ready for what?” Then I realized he meant ready to shoot my stand-up. If I was nervous before, I was more nervous now. I had to shoot the stand-up in front of other reporters, and the Patriots, granted the players were practicing but still. I let my insecurities get the best of me and fumbled my words around. I managed to get a few good takes but nothing nearly as good as the professional reporters. Here is a look at the final product.

 

Photo By: Nikki Romanuk Patriots Practice

Something I am struggling with is not being good. People, like Brendon, Chad, and Walt have to remind me that I am new at this, an you cannot run before you walk. I have to keep going out and doing stand-ups in order to be good. The next time I would be in studio would be Sunday for the Patriots and Celtics games. I am hoping to edit my stand-up and make it into a package. Until next time, as they say on TV, “I’m Nikki Romanuk, Fox Sports.”

Playing The Field

Photo by: Nikki Romanuk Patriot Practice

Networking is hard; I admit it but it necessary to all aspects of life. This week I went to the Patriots practice, this is becoming my new weekly adventure with Walt. In the car ride to the stadium Walt advised me to talk to other reporters and get advice from them on how they choose to go about their stories. This is sort of difficult because what I am realizing is that people, have completely different ways on tackling their stories. It is also hard because I am finding out, that I am not as outgoing as I once thought. This goes back to the asking for help thing. I really do not like asking people for help, it is difficult for me to do so. But overcoming all of that made interesting and great learning experiences.

In true Walt fashion, he introduced me to Trenni. Trenni works for Comcast sports and is a great person to talk to. She gave me great advice about how to write scripts and how to shoot rails. Finding the angles are pretty easy, but writing the angles into sports talk is a bit harder than I had anticipated, and filming those angels is beyond difficult. It is in this area that I feel at a disadvantage. Most people that go into broadcasting learn how to talk into the camera, and how to write out their angle, I on the other hand am just learning. Sometimes I am feeling very insecure about what I am saying and doing, it is almost like being a t-ball player in the World Series.

Trenni also gave me advice about being a girl in the sports world. I really admire Trenni and she was very willing to help me out. The other person Walt lectured me to talk to is Rhett Lewis from channel 7. At first I thought it was unfair to talk to Rhett because he is in a competing market, but Walt assured me that I have to talk and network to everyone. Walt also told me that Rhett has working in a major sports market longer than Brendan so he has more knowledge on the topic. Rhett was very nice and gave me some advice, pretty much “whatever I find interesting most people will want to hear.”

Photo By: Nikki Romanuk Patriot's Rob Gronkowski

The Stand Up

I am finding that you need to shoot what is known as a package. I am told there are many different ways people film these, but the basic idea is that the anchor comes on screen, introduces a story, plays some footage and is talking over the footage with their story and then comes back on screen to finish up. That is very basic and I am learning there are about a million and one ways of doing this, (something I might have learned if I attended broadcasting school). But I was preparing to shoot one.

The previous night I had written out a script of what I wanted to say, and I was relying on the sound I had not yet gotten, not the smartest idea, but I did not have a choice. So I felt discouraged when the players did not talk about the angle I had written out. Then it came time to shoot, this package. During shooting I was extremely nervous, I did not have the script memorized, and I kept forgetting to breathe. After about ten takes and eight minutes, and I did not get one full take. 

I was very discouraged about my horrific performance, but Walt reassured me that it is a starting point and I can only get better. I would later watch Rhett do his stand up and noticed how good and talented he was. 

The Elevator

After the stand up and lunch, we made our way to the practice field. Walt wanted to get to the practice field sooner rather than later, because time is limited so we rushed into an elevator. The elevator had some room and I squeezed into the hole. Now the hole was not huge and I kept hitting people with my backpack, which I kept forgetting I had on. If hitting people with my backpack was not bad enough, I was holding the tripod, and knocking that around. 

Photo By Nikki Romanuk Bill Belechick

Something struck me odd on this elevator ride, normally people talk and joke around, but this ride was quiet. Walt and I were the only two people talking and joking around. Finally we made it to the bottom floor and I hear someone say, “Do you want to get off first coach?” I realize at that point that I might have hit Bill Belichick a few times with my backpack. Some first impression?

We finally make it to the practice field and we are freezing, but we look for the key players or the players that we know stories will be about. It is interesting watching the practice even for a short period of time.  The whistle blows and all media is kicked out. That ends my day as a reporter. Next week I will attend another practice and work hard on my stand up. Later guys.

The Talk

I knew that I had to talk to the Producer Chad the next time we were both in the studio, but I am not one to bring things up. Despite popular belief I am not a fan of confrontation especially when it is about my job or potential job. I started talking to Chad like normal and then he brought up the words no person wants to hear, "we need to talk." I knew this was it and I needed to be prepared for what ever came my way.

I braced myself for negativity, partly because I was being negative about the situation, and I thought Chad would be negative as well. I was surprised when the talk went in a positive way. Chad explained to me that he too came from a communications back round instead of taking a broadcasting route, that was something I needed to hear because I felt at such a disadvantage going into the internship.

Chad had explained to me that in this type of field I need to be more vocal about what I want. I need to start and ask for more tasks like learning how to create a highlight, or shooting standup, even asking to go to practices and games. I really need to keep asking people in order to get what I want out of sports.

Asking people for more tasks is hard for me because I never want to come across needy or feel like I am nagging people. I was very surprised that this is the way this internship was run. Chad also told me that my concerns were valid, and I was asked to do certain tasks because I am an organized person, and everything I do is organized and make his job a lot easier.

 I really admire that even though I felt like i was being a baby about the situation, he found the positive and helped me understand more things. Chad also advised me that he would not hold that against me.

I learned how to edit that night and have set time to try and create highlights. Chad told me he would critique them and I would learn more on my own. This made me happy that I would be taking learning into my own hands. I felt like something was accomplished.

That night we, Brendon, Chad and myself, went out for dinner, nothing special just Five Guys, but  I finally felt like part of the team, and felt more positive than I was feeling. I now have a new cut throat attitude, towards sports, that makes me feel like a Bitch some times, but I realize I need to do what I have to do to survive in this industry. That means calling people out when they do not do their job right and just trying to be better at all the different tasks I do.

Until next time guys I am out and working on being more hardcore!

The Tapes That Almost Broke Me

I like to listen to music and read inspirational quotes to get me through the tough times, and as an intern we are expected to do grunt work and have a few tough times that make us really question not only our selves but our career choice. This week I had a lot of questions regarding if sports is where I want to be, and if I am cut out for what the sports world has to offer. besides from talking with my friends who all reassured me that I was in the right spot I heard a song by Pink that said, "Where there is desire, there is gonna be a flame, Where there is a flame, Someone's bound to get burned but just because it burns,doesn't mean you're going to die, You've gotta get up and try " and I realized she was right. I needed keep trying despite my spirits being down.

Photo By: Nikki Romanuk

As an intern we are required to do grunt work. I get “paying your dues”, and what not but I just felt I was the only intern paying them. Here is what killed my spirits. There is this wall full of old sports tapes, you should know before everything went digital believe it or not we did record everything and kept all those tapes.

Any ways all of those sports tapes are kept in a giant wall and were only organized according by team; the major four Boston sports Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins. There is also a section of old high school and college tapes. The producer had asked us interns on different nights to organize the tapes according to years, because they were already in teams. 

I had already done the Celtics and the Bruins and created labels for them using posits because I had no tape or stickers. Anyways the other two interns were supposed to have worked together to organize the other two teams, seems reasonable. Well Chad had asked me when all the tapes were edited to write down what labels needed to be made so he could print them out. 

Here is the problem. When I went to look at the tapes, I noticed that the Patriots and the Red Sox were not organized at all. I saw all the years mixed together with random labels thrown on the shelf to make it look like they were organized. When I told Chad I was asked to redo the wall. 

I took me over four hours to organize just one of the teams. This was on a Thursday night so there was another intern there. What upset me is ,I was organizing tapes, and wearing a dress which I have to mention I got some rug burns, and the other intern was playing golf in the studio, and watching me do all the work. I felt very upset.

Photo By: Nikki Romanuk

The next time I came into the studio was on Sunday, I assumed that the other team would be done, but just my luck I received an email from Chad asking me to finish the wall and organize the last team too. I was not happy about this because I felt like I was doing all the grunt work while the other interns got to cut highlights and shoot standups. 

I finally talked to one of the producer who is only there a few nights of the week who advised me to talk to Chad about the problem. I did finish the wall it took me another four hours to finally finish. And I did finally get to learn how to cut a highlight (which I hope to teach myself more of). 

Later I will get to talk to Chad, and that will be a whole new post.