Road Improvements

Today I went to Moberly to cover the public meeting on road construction on Highway 24. The project includes adding a center turn lane to the highway for a one-mile stretch west of Highway 63. I was interested to see what people in this area thought about an extra lane being added to a highway close to where they work or live. I found a good CCC, Bob Riley, who co-owns an appliance store along Highway 24. He said the turn lane would help his business because customers would be able to access it easier. I also talked with a representative from MoDOT to get the official point-of-view. I was hoping to get someone who maybe wasn't happy with the proposal, but I couldn't find anyone who was in that boat. There weren't too many people that came to the meeting.

I got some good shots of the traffic and nats sound in the area affected and was able to put that together with my sound bites well. I had some good nats sound breaks and video sequences, I thought.

I certainly learned a lot this semester. A learned how to put together a more complete story with graphics, hard facts, a standup, nats sound and multiple sources. I feel very good about the progress I made. I will continue to work hard to get better and improve my stories. I also learned a lot about communicating with sources and staying in-touch. It is such an important part of the business and I have learned how important it is to have great relationships with everyone you come in contact with.

The Local Effect

With the Department of Economic Development's report being released yesterday with some significant job changes, I wanted to see what the impact is locally. I called around to some manufacturing companies because the state said 3,800 jobs were added in manufacturing from June to July of this year. I was able to get someone from Central Missouri Countertops to talk with me and he was a great interview. He let me get shots of the guys working on some projects, which provided great sequences and nats sound. During the interview with operations manager, he told me the company did increase employees by about 10 percent from June to July this year. It was good to get those hard facts and numbers to put into my story to add context locally.

I also got in contact with Don Laird at the Chamber of Commerce to get a citywide perspective. I talked with him for just a bit and I think it also added more context to the story to show how the whole manufacturing industry is doing. He also was a contrast to the manager at the company because Laird told me the manufacturing industry is still having trouble.

I think editing turned out well. I was able to get a few sequences in my story, nats sound breaks, a graphic and a standup. I wish the sequences were just a bit better and I will keep that in mind next time I am out shooting.

Tracking Down Slow Internet

I hoped to humanize a story on slow Internet in the state today, but it didn't turn out like I hoped. I actually had saw a story on the NBC Nightly News a few weeks ago of a farmer whose daughter had trouble getting school work done because the family's Internet connection was so slow. I thought I could a story done like that on the heels of Missouri's application for $142 million of federal money to improve broadband access. I went out to Jefferson City to talk to the governor's spokesman, Scott Holste. I got great information from him. I thought the shot of the interview was good too, but when editing I saw that he moved a little during the interview and the part I wanted didn't look as good as it should. After interviewing Scott, I headed out looking for someone without a broadband connection available. I couldn't find anyone. All the people I spoke to in Audrain and Callaway counties said they have high-speed Internet, and I visited some pretty rural areas. In hindsight, I probably should have made a few calls to local electric/Internet companies first to try to find areas where they did currently provide broadband around Mid-Missouri. I ended up making these calls when these places were already closed.

I headed back to the station and put together a VO/SOT with an on-set. I think it turned out pretty well, with some good information from Holste. My video wasn't that great either since I couldn't find a family. I took some shots of me on the computer in the blue room and some Internet cords in the newsroom. I learned a lot today about who to get in contact with first in situations like these and how it is important to identify a CCC first before you head out into the field.

Spray Painter Vandals

I got to the station early today to work on my HFR and received a tip during the morning that there was a rash of vandalism overnight in Moberly. I thought this would be a good story to do nightside. I ended up doing the story and had a very willing source who provided some good sound bites. I also set up an interview with the PIO at the Moberly Police Department and I was off. I got a lot of shots of the spray painting, which provided some great visuals. I was done pretty early and got back down to the station at about 6 p.m.

I edited pretty quickly, but there were a few things I probably would have changed. I think I would have shown more pictures of the swastikas, because that is the most shocking video I had that we could use on air. I think it would have proved the point better visually about how hurtful the images could be to the residents there. I think just one more shot could've helped. I also wish I would have added a nats sound break. I didn't think I could because I didn't have any meaningful sound, but maybe just some outside noise would've helped in the middle. It's something to keep in mind from now on. I also learned that the lighting warning messages can sometimes not appear on the camera if the setting isn't flipped on. That could've helped my shot of the cat that was otherwise a good open shot. I think my on-set went pretty well, hopefully the makeup turned out OK for my first time!

Following Up On Missing Man

I thought it was important to follow up on the man found dead in a lake west of Columbia. It was reported the man was a severe diabetic and I wanted to know if the family had any more to say to educate others on this disease. I spoke with the man's wife and she gave me an oral statement that I wrote down and used in my package. I also got in contact with an endocrinologist and University Hospital to get an "official" view on hypoglycemia, which the wife said was the cause of the accident. With this interview, the statement from the wife and a few b-roll shots of the hospital, I headed back to the station.

I pulled some file video from yesterday's story and got to work. I had trouble figuring out which order to put my bites in from the doctor. This took me a little longer than I expected. I think I will just get faster with this in time. It is especially hard for me with official sources and one that is my only source on camera. There wasn't much video to work with and it's hard to work with video you didn't shoot. I also wish I would have put my standup further up in the story to engage the viewer better. Again, I wish I would have had better video but I think the bites were very important for viewers to hear.

Spreading Out

I went to the meeting between consultants, Columbia airport officials and residents tonight at the ARC. It was kind of a tough place to get good video, but I was able to go the airport beforehand to get some shots of airplanes and people in the terminal. Unfortunately, there weren't any planes taking off or landing when I was there. I then headed to the ARC and found a few people to talk with. They were both farmers who lived near the airport. The first person I talked with said he thought it could be a good thing for Columbia because it shows the airport is growing when many others are not. The other person I talked to said he would have a large chunk of his land bought from this airport if the proposal went through. I decided he would be a great CCC and built my story around him. I also worked in comments from the other farmer to give a different point of view and the airport manager, to get an "official" point of view. After all of these interviews, I went back to the airport to shoot a standup. I shot it along route H, which would be moved if the proposal went through. I wasn't able to use the stand-up though because I couldn't find the information I needed online to confirm what I said.

I got back to the station and was editing at 7:40. I thought the story turned out pretty well expect I realized it would have been really nice to go to this guy's farm after the meeting and get some shots there. My second shot in my package especially would have been perfect for a shot of the farm. I also would have liked to work in nats sound in the middle of my package (possibly some jet noise), but there wasn't enough from what I shot at the airport. I thought the package still turned out well with many points-of-view and an interesting CCC.