KSFY: Wrap Up

This week concludes my required hours of internship. It has been a great learning experience, and I look forward to continuing on at KSFY as a part time employee. Overall, I feel like I was prepared for, and learned from, this position. Given the opportunity, I could see myself working for the news station on a full time basis.

The Studio Building

To summarize my position at KSFY, I am working as Production Assistant. As a PA, my main responsibility is the studio cameras. I receive a list of shots that the director wants in the show, and it is my job to set them up during the show. Other responsibilities that I may have include running the teleprompter and distributing scripts.

I finally found my way into a photo

The one major lesson I have learned from my time here has been how important everyone is in order to get the news on the air. Everybody from the director all the way down to the PA has a job to do, and they are all required for a smooth show. It doesn’t matter who screws up (if anybody does), it is just as noticeable as anybody else’s mistake. We are all a team, and we either succeed or fail together.

The CG operator and the Producer hard at work

KSFY: Anxiety

Throughout my time with KSFY I have learned the value of teamwork and the importance of camaraderie…but that’s not always for the best. Running the news requires that everybody involved do their job perfectly every time. The only problem; nobody is perfect all the time.

It’s usually nothing big or show ruining, but somebody will do something wrong. Maybe the audio operator will cut the audio too soon, or the video operator play the wrong video. Maybe the director cues the wrong graphic, or a cam op doesn’t get the right shot. There are many things that can go wrong in any given show, and one of them is usually present. The mistake itself is usually not too bad, but it usually destroys the moral of the person that did it. This can lead to more or greater mistakes that can hinder the news to a greater extent. 

 

The true danger of this, however, is the overall decrease in moral of the entire studio. Usually when one person makes a mistake, they get bitter and focused. This effect slowly poisons everybody in production and the entire atmosphere of the crew changes to be more solemn and irritable. That same tilt that makes the one person mess up more spreads to almost everybody. And since everybody is already in a bad mood at that point, they start to get angry when somebody messes up. These effects just keep stacking and ramping up until everybody is miserable. This is generally the worst case scenario and it doesn’t happen too often, but there are negative side effects of being required to work closely as a team.

 

KSFY: Severe Weather

I have no idea what a meteorologist’s salary is, but I do know that it probably isn’t enough on severe weather season. For the past few weeks, severe weather has been ravaging our area. It has been everything from torrential rain, to flooding, to tornadoes. And as can be imagined, this changes the news drastically.

When severe weather is in the area, and it poses a threat to people, nothing else matters to the news. We will drop absolutely everything else in the show and focus completely on the weather. Not only that, but we will also cut into the network and cover the weather when our show isn’t even on (which tends to get us some very angry emails). During these times, it is up almost completely to the meteorologist to get as much information to the viewers as possible. During the peak of the severe weather last week, meteorologist Phil Shreck was on the air for over 6 hours straight. And even after that, he stayed and made sure that the weather wasn’t going to pick back up.

Storm Damage at Wessington Springs (photo from KSFY.com)

That said, the situation is kind of the opposite for most of the rest of the studio. As a PA, my sole purpose is to wait and see if the meteorologist needs anything. There are no camera shots or anything, because they usually just show the radar or pictures. The director mostly just waits and is ready if the meteorologist needs to send to break for something. The producer keeps an eye on the social media and gathers pictures of the situation to put on the air.

KSFY: The Studio

One of the most interesting things I found out when I started out at KSFY is the layout of the studio. It pretty much boils down to half the studio being a professional looking news studio, with the other half being mostly a giant storage space. The half that we use for the news is divided into three main sections: the anchor desk, the weather center, and the weather wall.

The Anchor Desk

The main section of the studio is the anchor desk. This is the area where the anchors sit to deliver the news. While at the desk, there are several camera shots and angles that we can achieve. We can have a two shot that shows both anchors, a tight shot that is zoomed in on either anchor, or an over-the-shoulder shot that shows an anchor with a graphic over their shoulder. For added variety, there are also several monitors that we can roll in behind the anchors to display images. 

 

The Weather Center

Several feet over from the anchor desk is the weather center. This area is the main workstation for the meteorologists. It contains both a desk for the meteorologist to stand at to deliver the weather news, as well as several other computers for various radars and weather instruments. We don’t usually use this area on camera for very long, usually just for the weather man to toss back to the anchors.

The Weather Wall

Next to the weather center is the weather wall. This is the main area for the weather to be presented. It is a green screen area that the meteorologist can control to show whichever graph or radar that he wants to show. The green screen has monitors on the sides and one on the camera so that no matter where the weather man wants to look, he will be able to see what is behind him.

KSFY: The Hierarchy

The main lesson I learned this week was the general hierarchy of the people working on the news. Specifically, the people that work in the production department that is responsible for getting the news on the air. Basically, it consists of the producer and the director calling the shots, with the rest of the department working under their direction.

The Newsroom

The producer is the one that puts together the news. She is the one that puts together the news stories and decides what needs to go where. During the show, the producer is in charge of keeping the times and making sure that the news is going to end when it is supposed to. Working alongside the producer is the director. The director is in charge of, oddly enough, directing. He makes sure that everybody in production knows what they need to be doing. The director is the one that decides where the cameras are going to be facing. During the show, the director is also responsible for bringing up the commercials and fading out the show.

The Director's controls

Other than those two, some of the others involved are the audio technician, CG operator, and Master Control. The audio technician is pretty self-explanatory. He operates the sound in the show as well as making sure everybody’s microphone is working. The CG operator is responsible for the in-show graphics. He queues them up and then plays them when the director tells him too. Master Control is the one that actually allows us to go on the air. He is the one that gives the director control of the network station that we are on. Without him, we would not be able to put our broadcast on TV.

In the Studio

KSFY News

Hi, I'm DSU student Lance Kienast. My first week of my internship was spent learning what my role was supposed to be. My job title at KSFY News is Production Assistant. I basically do whatever is needed of me. My main job is usually one of two things: running the teleprompter, or running the studio cameras.

The Teleprompter

The first job I learned how to do is running the teleprompter. The teleprompter is what the news anchors read off of while they are on camera. My job is to read along with them and scroll the text so that the anchors can report the news unhindered. It isn't the most difficult of jobs, but it is quite noticeable if I mess up. Another responsibility of this job is to hand out the show scripts to the anchors and the director. The scripts are a backup in case something happens to the prompter.

Show Rundown

The other main responsibility for a PA is the running of the studio cameras. We have three studio cameras that are on dollies that we can roll around to get the desired shots. Before the show, we get rundowns of what the show is going to entail, and it is our job to make sure that the shots are set up before it is needed. These shots can range anywhere from a close up shot of an individual anchor to a full studio shot.

Studio Camera