Week 4: 5 Hours

Today began very exciting.
There was a decomposing body found on the corner of Turner and 18th street the day before. We quickly got on that story, hoping to get a package. We left the office before listening to the assignments for the other reporters in the station in order to focus on this hard news story.

Immediately, we went back to the crime scene for B-roll, and started asking neighbors in the area for interviews. Cases like these depend on Man in the Street interviews. We got turned down by a few people, but after a few hours or so were able to get a good interview from a woman who lived a few houses down. In the midsts of this, we scheduled an interview with Public Information Director, Lisa Bratcher.

After getting more B-Roll from the interviewee's home we spotted policemen taking the "Crime Scene Investigation" tape down and approached them to ask questions about the case. They did not tell us anything on the record.

With more information, we parked and began working on the look-live. We wrote the script for the look-live, and were preparing the camera to shoot when we got a call the Lisa Bratcher was ready to interview.

When we arrived at Lisa's office, she told us that the case was most likely a suicide. This meant that we could not cover it with a package, because in cases of suicide the news does not want to seem as if it is promoting the act. With that, we knew we could only do a VO for the story and would need to pursue something else for the day.

We changed gears and got the "go" from the News Director to instead do another VO for the annual Southeast District Invitational Beef Expo and Farm show. For this, we contacted one of the founders of the event, Ken Suess, for an interview and headed to the venue for an interview. While there, we got the necessary B-Roll and information for the story.

Ken and the others at the event were very happy for the publicity and to let the public know the heart behind the event. I was happy to see the news covering positive local events and providing a service to the founders of such great events, even though the story we were originally pursuing would have been hard news.

Throughout the day I was reminded of the fast-pace of the reporting lifestyle as well as the importance of the relationship between community members and reporters. For example, the Public Information Director was very friendly with Sydney and they seemed to have a very positive relationship.

I also learned some more technical parts of the job. Such as,
Our Market Size: 161
Look Live- A recording that "looks live." These must be shot at the same time of day that the story is airing for continuity. For the look live, do not repeat any information that will be in the story.
Reporters carry sandbags to keep the camera tripod steady while recording. This is especially helpful in southern Oklahoma.

20.5