Wendy Williams!!!

I was so nervous today because I had never really mingled that much with a celebrity. I'm not going to count being an extra on "Dexter" & "Burn Notice". Anyway, I drove to a restaurant called Fleming's Steakhouse in Coral Gables. Miraculously I arrived there without a GPS. I was to be the photographer for the day and take pictures of all the clients with the LFL girls and Wendy. It was so sweet of the station to have made me my own CBS name tag. I felt special :) When Wendy arrived, everyone was super excited. I could tell in their faces. She came with a friend, her stylist and her husband..who..seemed to have a bit of a short fuse but was okay overall. Wendy, though, was so cordial and fun in person. I took so many pictures including with other people's cameras. Eventually came the dinner in this special room provided for us. The CBS promo and the My33 promo that David slaved over came out amazing! It really pumps you up and truly makes you proud of working for the stations. It's also very persuasive in having you watch My33. Hence the purpose of a promo well done. There was even a special funny short film edited and directed by Ardis that was surrounded around "The Office". HILARIOUS! A scene from the office was chosen and it seemed as if Michael was speaking to CBS4 workers. It was even shot in the fast zoom shots of the show. Wendy was loving it. After that we had a great lunch that took awfully long to come out, unfortunately. They had me, Ardis and two other CBS 4 clients (boss lady included) at a table outside of the main room. We called it the kiddie table. There I got to bond with boss lady as well as Joe the camera man. I just asked them about how they got into their careers and such. Pretty interesting. I learned a lot from each and every one of them. I finally got my picture with Wendy after she was interviewed and went home happy. What a great way to wrap up my internship!

Judge Jeanine Pirro & a lovely surprise

So, I was given this huge project for the day which was to edit over 10 Judge Jeanine Pirro launch promos. For the first time I had to work with a :120/:90/:60 promos. The rest for :30/:15's. It was challenging for me but with all of the experience I already had with the many other promos I've edited it wasn't so bad. Ardis would come in, look at how I'd fade the lower third and the bug perfectly with the transitions and say "gooooood". I've learned some more. A lot more. Into the 3rd hour of editing, I was called out by Ardis. Everyone from the My33 family was there waiting for me with ice cream cake and a card signed by everyone. I was so happy! They sang, "for he's a jolly good fellow". Everyone was in an especially good mood because the next day was the big luncheon and Wendy Williams was going to be there! And guess who else will be there? ME! I'm going to miss the My33 family a lot.

More LFL

Being that I didn't have much to do, Ardis realized that there was only one LFL promo out on television at the moment. She gave me the job to make more promos from scratch with some of the other girls. I made 3 more (there were 4 girls) so I was happy that each girl got their chance to have their own little promo on TV. It's crazy how one application can make something look so amazing. It's called the sapphire plug which apparently is worth almost $1,000 or so. So only one computer (David's of course) has it installed. I wish I could have that plug when I edit my projects "/ Oh well. Someday.

District 9

"The Office". One of the most amazing comedy shows on television right now. I love the realistic format that its in and the actors combined make an amazing cast. They are so convincing in that realistic type of acting. I know that sounds silly because all acting is supposed to be "realistic" but most of the time it's all a lot of dramatic mumbo jumbo that we humans don't really reflect. As you can tell, I spent the day adding lower thirds and bugs to some of "The Office" promos. After that, I packed up some District 9 prizes and went to AMC Sunset Place and ran another movie screening on my own with another rep from My33 without Ardis. It was a lot of fun because it was absolutely packed and I got my boyfriend and some of his best friends as well as some of my best friends in for free. Unfortunately, I left because I cannot watch any gore whatsoever. Either way I'm glad I was able to do that for my friends.

David the editing genius.

Today there wasn't much to do for me at the office so I got to sit and watch David edit this huge My33 promo that was to be shown to all the major executives & at the big CBS luncheon. Ardis was right, you really do learn a lot just by watching David edit. He's very fast, too! I'm pretty fast myself and have gotten faster thanks to learning all the short cuts from them. The music choices were amazing. Actually, I have a theory and I shared this with David. Maybe I'm wrong but I think if you are musically inclined, that makes you a better editor. At least for promos and trailers. I played piano for 7 years and clarinet for 3. I also have a musical ear and can tell when something is off beat or not in the right harmony. I feel that is what has made me a naturally good editor. Because before My33, all the editing I did was stuff I learned on my own and from my own instinct. That's why I feel that editing is the job for me in the television world. Would I love to direct? Sure! As long as I get to edit too :)

Bugs & Lower Thirds

So it begins..the downpour of promos that need to be adjusted the My33 way. I spent a good amount of time today adding lower thirds, bugs, & VOs to a collection of MyNetwork TV promos. The promos were for the shows, "The Unit" & "Law & Order". No lie, there were about more than 15 promos. That may not sound like a lot but when it comes to doing everything just right it can take up quite some time. I learned a lot from doing something that can be considered so simple because it really wasn't so simple. At times I thought all was looking good until I noticed that the My33 bug would stay on a clip 1 second longer than the end of the promo itself. It's the tiny, tiny details. Eventually I eventually caught on to the drift of things and started noticing visual cues as to when I should bring a lower third in and out of a promo. These things are going to definitely help me out in the long run as an editor.

Al Sunshine's advice = not so sunny

Being that the LFL shoot was last week, I got to help in digitizing the B roll footage. That took a good while. After digitizing the LFL footage, I spent a good part of the day getting advice from David about financing the University of Miami. Since late June, I have been struggling to find a way to finance UM since no cosigners work for me. I was then given the chance to talk to Al Sunshine who has been a reporter for CBS4 since 1988. Unfortunately, I didn't really get the best advice from him. To be quite blunt he told me, "television sucks". Yet, when I told him I wanted to study television for the editing aspect of it he said, "well, editing's cool". It was very nice of him to have gone out of his way to talk to me but unfortunately his talk didn't spark any positivity in my mind about attending such an expensive school & studying television. It seemed that most people there vouched for me to leave UM regardless of the fact that most of them attended there and loved it. I stuck to my guns and explained to them why I love the school so much.

Later that night I went with Ardis to the My33 Movie Club screening of "Julie & Julia". I was excited that they were screening this one because I had really been wanting to see it. I brought my mom, her best friend and my sister along. They wore cooking aprons and won free chocolate. Cute! I had a really good time.

LFL!

So, today I came in an hour early (9am) to help out with the LFL shoot. LFL stands for the Lingerie Football League. It was funny because a lot of CBS 4's male employees made sure to stop by and say hi to the ladies. Haha! The girls were really sweet and I got to meet two people that work in the web design department there. They were super cool and we talked a lot. I liked seeing how an average shoot goes which kind of reminds me of the UM shoots I've been on for films and the TV shows. Which means UM's experience and training is similar to that of a real television station. Good job, UM! :)

Where are David and Ardis?

So, today I showed up to the office but unfortunately David and Ardis weren't there til almost 1pm because they were at a DJ Laz shoot with the LFL girls. I did what I could with continuing to digitize Wendy Williams clips but all the tapes were gone I just continued to write essays and such for scholarships. When the returned they asked me to help on their next shoot on Tuesday with the LFL girls. I'm excited :)

Nothin much to do today..

As my title suggests, there wasn't much to do today. My project was completed! It felt weird not having something to edit but I basically ran errands at the office and in my free time I basically applied to different scholarships online that I desperately needed. I enjoy my random little pep talks with David and Ardis, too. All in all it was a laid back day for me but I was in good company.

"How YOU doin?"

I spent most of the day digitizing Wendy Williams clips which I didn't mind at all because as I mentioned in the previous post, I love her show! That's the fun of digitizing--you basically get to watch the show for the most part. Of course, you have to hope it's something entertaining.

I spent a lot of time this week editing a project from home for my theatre company and it was SO much easier for me! I used to do things the long way on Final Cut Pro and now I know how to organize myself better and edit a lot faster with short cuts. Thank you My33! Can't wait to start UM and start editing all the sketch comedies Off The Wire will be doing.

More scholarship applications & errands.

After Tuesday's long day of editing came another day of just running errands around the office and getting advice from the awesome people at the office. I then digitized a bunch of Wendy Williams clips. That talk show is so good! Wendy is a very funny woman--I recommend anyone to watch it.

Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?

I was at the office longer than usual today because I received a huge project to complete last minute. I had to add a lower third and a My33 bug to a bunch of spots for the show, "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader". Boy, was it time consuming. There were about 3 or 4 :20 second spots, 4 or 5 :10 second spots and about the same amount in :05 second spots. The timing had to be perfect and everything had to be neatly trimmed and well placed. I realize how "God [truly] is in the details" when it comes to editing. Any little glitch can be seen. I still learned a lot because when David would catch something--boom--he'd point it out and I'd fix it. Eventually, my eye got better and better and noticing flaws on my own.

Not over yet..

Well, I guess my promo wasn't fully done..yet. Why? Because the head of the department saw it on television and said how he couldn't tell what Arthur was saying in that same clip as well and asked if I could find another clip. I thought this process was going to take forever. I thought I was going to have to look at all of the tapes again. To my surprise, I wound up inserting a clip that I liked from the beginning. It's a clip where Arthur tells Doug, "I admire you so much it's actually bordering on lust". It fit really well and Ardis showed it to her boss again. Her boss loved it more than the original clip and more importantly it was audible to everyone. IT WAS A GO! Again. :)

IT'S FINISHED!

Finally! What I've worked so hard toward was finally finished. I finished my tweaking process and Ardis showed my promo to her boss and then to another woman to get a finalized answer. Both women couldn't really tell what Arthur was saying in a certain clip but they said "it's a go" regardless. Ardis' boss asked me if this was my first promo because it looked so good. That made me really happy to hear because this is what I want to study in order to make a living. Theatre can't always make you much of a living, ya know? Gotta have a back up.

I can't wait to see it on television!

More changes to be made..

At this point I was a little frustrated because I hadn't finished my promo yet. David and I had a lot of talks and he assured me that it was no big deal--all edited works take a lot of time and patience. He's been SUCH a huge help to me and sometimes we go off in conversation about the television business and yes, the entertainment business. Like me, David is a performer. He's a singer/musician and I'm an actress. We have a lot in common with that so we talk about our experiences and such when it comes to the wonderful showbiz.

I spent the whole day basically changing everything around. Yup. The newly added animated graphics changed up a lot the promo so I had to move things around, shorten things here and there, remove some sound effects and add some others, etc. I know Thursday will be filled with more of this tweaking process.

Negotiating

When I came back in today and started working on my project again, I noticed that there was something off with one of the green screen graphics that was given to Sam (one of the graphic designers there). I noticed that what was supposed to show Jerry Stiller popping up and slightly moving his head to a green screen background turned into an animation still. We worked everything out and I saw him fix the problem frame by frame. I love how all the departments work together to make a project. Within an hour it was fixed and I was able to plug it in. I showed it to Ardis and she thought it was great so far.

Graphics are in!

As soon as I came in today, I saw that my graphics came in. I placed all of the graphics clips on the editing timeline and things started to look a lot more colorful. Some problems did arise with the placing of the graphics, though. Some sound effects were off as well as timing. So, I spent the rest of my day adjusting everything. I'm not going to lie--it was frustrating, but worth it. Everything must be close to perfect in order to air on the television.

Changing things around

Because we are all creative beings--things are never going to remain the same sometimes. Once all the timing was in with voice over, temporary graphic stills, music, and clips were in--things appeared a bit off. It needed something. ARTHUR DANCING! It took me a good hour searching through more beta tapes and promos to find a clip of Arthur dancing. Fortunately, David showed me a green screen reel where Arthur is making a lot of funny faces and DANCING! It fit so well with the music. A lot of cutting had to be done. David showed me what to do in the case of it going over the 30 seconds and then he had me do it on my own. Luckily, I got it. I had to add a little over here, and delete a little over there. I even added more clips that I found suiting in place of others. I then placed my graphics order with the help of David. It's coming along great and I'm just about done completing my first project! I can't wait to see it on television.

Voice Over time!

Today was quite different because Ardis and I finally went through all of my chosen clips and finalized the script. I then e-mailed our voice over Talent, Chris Corley, the script with a brief description of how he is supposed to say the lines--a bit on the sarcastic side. While waiting, I still wanted to see how the promo was coming along. I couldn't know until I had a voice over in place so I went and recorded my own voice over and imported it. I didn't need to work with my voice for long because within an hour of sending Chris that e-mail, he had already posted his voice over saying the lines in different ways on his website. It's amazing how this guy works from home. Surprisingly, to me and Arids' surprise, we didn't need to call him and direct him to say his lines better. He nailed it. I then imported it into Final Cut and things started to look better and better.

Promos aren't as easy as they look.

I am loving Final Cut Pro more and more each day. I've always been familiar with it but I never knew a lot of things that I'm learning now at My33. Ardis and David help me so much. I continued to work on my King of Queens promo and started putting clips of my choosing onto the timeline as well as choosing music from their library that fit well. I wound up choosing a very funny, tropical-like song. Aridis says it sounds very "retirement home". Basically, it suited the promo and it suited Arthur well. Believe it or not, all of that took up my 4 hours here. As my old drama professor used to say, "God is in the details".

KOQ Promo in progress..

I spent a good 90% of my time digitizing Arthur clips today. I had to be very specific in what I chose as far as his antics go. He is so funny! As I went along digitizing the clips, I started thinking of new lines and such for the voice over talent to say. It felt great having such creative input for this project. What did I do the other 10%? You can say I spent it learning different short cuts that I never knew existed with final cut pro.

King of Queens promo in progress :)

Today I continued to work on the "King of Queens" promo and learned how to digitize beta tapes. I also learned how to use the CD-ROM that works like a search engine to locate certain parts of an episode that I'd like. In my case it was Arthur's temper or Arthur's antics. I wrote down the episode and reel numbers and grabbed the beta tapes to digitize them. I basically have digitized enough Arthur clips and added some lines here and changed some lines there. Ardis liked my ideas. Next week we'll probably finalize the script, contact the voice over talent and talk to the graphics department.

Jerry Stiller is the man.

I was given an official project today! I got started on a "King of Queens" promotion that will air live on My33! It is a 30 second spot that centers around Jerry Stiller's character named Arthur. I basically did what I did all of last Thursday which was digitizing the best Arthur moments. I was given a possible script as to outline what I had to look for more or less. Ardis told me I can change lines and what not. It's amazing that I have such creative freedom here!

Uh Oh! -- CHEATERS!

I can't believe it's the third day and I already started doing what I love--editing! I was given the task to digitize a bunch of tapes of the show that's a guilty pleasure to many, "Cheaters". It was fun forwarding to the end where things get ugly. That's basically what I did for the entire 4 hours. I would grab two tapes, digitize, return the tapes, bring more tapes, etc.

My Life in Ruins

Today I got to experience a different side of what I usually would do as an intern. I got to join Ardis on a My33 Movie Club movie screening for "My Life in Ruins". I arrived at the office at around 4:00pm and I helped Ardis set up goodie bags that audience members would win as prizes. By 6pm we were already on our way to Aventura. My boyfriend was allowed to come with me and he was a great help. When we arrived there was already a huge line! Ardis and I had to go to each person and request information from them and giving them their tickets in return. The way My33 Movie Club works is once people are signed up, they will recieve e-mail notifications about movie screenings. Once they recieve the e-mail, the first 100 people that respond get the free tickets. I think it's pretty awesome. After everyone was given their tickets, we went inside and set up some signs in front of the movie screen. I got to watch Ardis talk to the audience so that I would know what to do when I go up to do it on my own. I helped giving the audience members the goodie bags and after that we enjoyed a nice movie. Ardis is such a cool person. It's so easy to talk to her and we got to talking about UM and such. It was only my second day and I already feel comfortable.

Day 1 - Let's get things started!

Today was my first time at my internship with CBS4/My33. I know you may be wondering, "wait, so is she working for CBS4 or My33?". According to my credentials and how my interview went, I was told that I definitely belong to the creative side of promotions in My33 but I can still do some work for CBS4 if needed. So, today I got there on time at 10:00am. I am very lucky to live only ten minutes away from their location. I was given warm greetings by everyone and Ardis Gonzalez took me to HR to get set up. I was then taken to my little corner cubicle that I will share with their PR intern at times. There were some problems setting up my up my user name and password for my computer but it was shortly resolved by the wonderful Wally. Then I spent the rest of my first day as an intern being coached by producer David Orson Wallach. He was so easy to talk to and introduced me to almost everyone in the departments there. I learned how to work the machine that contacts the voice over talent, recording my own voice over, tape labeling, where I can go to find archived footage on the CBS 4 side as well as the My33 side, the paging system, faxing, what server to use to edit, what folders to use. I was shown a lot of promotional ads that I will soon be doing on my own and I can't wait! I certainly learned a lot in just four hours. I can only imagine how much I will learn throughout this entire summer!