7 Hours To Create A Newscast: An Action-Packed Day at CNN’s Newsroom

“Budding journalists create their own CNN show” – see article and official CNN Newscast here.

When I received the news at work that I had been invited to take part in a CNN Open Day in partnership with the Creative Diversity Network, my first reaction was to jump out of my seat, much to the confusion of my colleagues. To be given an opportunity like this, to join 19 other budding journalists, producers and editors to temporarily “take over” a world renowned newsroom for a day, was something I hadn’t imagined possible.

The experience was a lot more hands-on than I thought it would be, and eye-opening, considering that it may not matter what your background is if you wish to pursue a career in news broadcasting. We may have only been at CNN’s London headquarters for a few hours, but boy did we manage to squeeze in a fair bit!

First of all, we met several members of the editorial team: Nick, Adam, Eve, Jill and Natalie. Each of us who had applied online to the news day gave them a little introduction. We were a diverse bunch – some of us had journalism qualifications, others had degrees in seemingly unrelated topics, others hadn’t ever been to university…but what connected us all was our shared passion for news, be it watching bulletins or producing content ourselves in the form of blogs, YouTube, radio and TV packages.

Introductions aside, we got started with pitching ideas for possible new features we could produce. Most of us had scoured reputable sources (*cough* Twitter and Facebook trending topics) for inspiration. Suggestions included World Toilet Day (hard to believe, but it does exist) and the recent medical reports that suggest coffee could reverse the effects of alcohol-related liver damage. In the end, we settled on 4 pretty diverse subject areas: Syrian refugees in the USA, Islamophobia, HIV awareness week and, to end the show on a more light-hearted note, the Black Friday sales.

We then took to the streets in groups of 4, with a professional cameraman, to capture the public’s opinions. This was a quick lesson in street casting for all of us – how to persuade the public that they should speak to us on camera, even if it wasn’t for a real live broadcast. This turned out to be much harder than it looked! Our group, tasked with producing a short report on HIV awareness week in light of Charlie Sheen’s admission that he was HIV positive, struggled to get people on board initially. The typical responses to our enthusiastic approaches? “Sorry, I don’t have an opinion on the matter” or “I’m not good at this sort of thing. You should ask my friend, they’re great at talking” (unfortunately so great that they were absorbed in their phone conversation and couldn’t take part!). In the end, we used what charm we could muster to encourage people to share their views on camera, ready for a member of our team to edit the soundbites on a computer for the reporter and anchor to discuss at the end of the day.

When we returned to the office, it was all hands on deck, working as a team to put together scripts for the anchor and reporter. The producers prepared for their roles in the gallery – to communicate with those on-screen and to operate the auto-cue to ensure the show could run as smoothly as possible. Much like the day-to-day environment of a busy newsroom, we had tight deadlines to meet. Before we knew it, half of us were getting nervous in the studio waiting for our turn to be an Anchor (myself included!), while the other half were no doubt quaking with fear behind the scenes.

It all seemed a far cry away from our relaxed lunch break, where we had been reunited with the editorial team, who shared their careers journeys with us and offered advice for taking the next steps in the industry. Gill Penlington, who is Director of Programming, told us that persistence is key. Coming from a state school background and with no previous media contacts, she had to work her way up to get to where she is today. Nick Hart, who had originally paved a career in the film industry, moved across to work in TV news and hasn’t looked back since. One thing that I took away from the Open Day is that it really isn’t important where you started out, but where you want to go and the creative skills that you can bring to the table.

On a guided tour of the office, we also spoke to members of the CNN Sport editorial team, including producer Zayn Nabbi and anchor Amanda Davies. Zayn has had the chance to work on a number of exciting projects, from the London Olympics to the FIFA World Cup in Brazil. Amanda who, like me, graduated with a degree in a seemingly unrelated subject – Geography – started out doing basic office tasks and is now the host of CNN’s Formula 1 Show!

As the end of the day grew closer, it was time to bring our news stories to life. As I sat down in the studio, I was miked up by a member of the crew and it dawned on me that, in a matter of minutes, I would be “live” on air. No room for mistakes – or so I thought! There were moments during the broadcast when a few things went slightly wrong, whether there was information missing from the script or the autocue was a bit delayed. However, I think we managed to deal with the situation extremely well for our first attempt and, with the help of Adam’s Jedi-like editing skills, we were able to create a piece of real online content, which is available on Turner Europe’s website.

During the CNN Open Day, we were all exposed to the range of roles available in news production – researching, reporting, producing and editing – and I think it is fair to say that our interest in gaining newsroom experience has grown. A huge thank you to everyone who made the day possible, especially Adam Dunnakey, Nick Hart, Gill Penlington, Natalie Orchard, Eve Parish and of course the Creative Diversity Network!

 

What the “Typical” Day of a Multi-Media Journalist Looks Like

ESSAY ALERT! Without an editor here to tell me to stop rabbiting on, I can write for England. As the cliche goes “no 2 days are the same” in media. This is largely true although once you settle in to it you get used to hopping from one task to the next!

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The saying goes that no 2 days are the same in the media industry. Having completed my first 2 weeks of training in the London 360 Reporter/Producer role, this couldn’t be more true! It’s tricky to sum up a typical day, as it can vary greatly from day to day, but I will try my best to do so in order to give a bit of an insight of what it’s like to be a journalist in training.

My day at work begins early, as I have an hour and a half commute into White City. Sometimes, with the nightmare rush hour traffic it can take up to 2 hours! (Word of advice: NEVER trust Google Maps’ estimation of time, particularly when using buses). I get to the office and usually the first thing I will do is check through my work emails, to see if anyone I have contacted regarding potential story ideas or filming dates that we find in local newsletters. I’ve made it my mission to keep on top of my emails, organising them into categories, from important documents to story contacts, in order to avoid ending up with a back-log of unread messages.

On a Monday morning, we will have an editorial meeting with the executive producer and project manager for London360, our show which broadcasts on the Community Channel and London Live. We talk through our new story ideas, pitching them to the group, talking about the 5 W’s (Who, What, Where, When and Why). It may seem simple, but it’s an effective way of ensuring we have all the important details of our story covered. As soon as they are green lit, we get to work researching the idea in more depth looking at a range of sources for information. We then email or better still pick up the phone and make a research call to someone who can give us access to certain locations or people to interview.

Once the organisation part is sorted, and the dates for filming are arranged, I then begin writing up a call sheet. This is a simple but highly useful piece of information, as it states the exact location/s of the shoot (including a map of the area) as well as contact details for those involved in the filming on that day. This is followed up by creating interview questions for the people whos answers will form the basis of my feature. It will also feature questions to ask the public when getting quick-fire responses, often called voxpops. The final document to prepare before the shoot is the video grid script. This is essentially a plan of how the feature will roughly look like, from the types of shots I will use (e.g. wide, panoramic, close-up, piece to camera) to the script I will use if I am doing any presenting in the feature. I will also try to include a rough guide for the timings of each section of the feature, from the introduction to the concluding part. Once these are completed, I show them to my managers to go over them and they give suggestions for how my questions can be improved or suggest different angles that I could use to give my piece more originality.

Then next stage is the fun (and sometimes daunting!) part: – the filming I find someone on my reporter team, or a keen member of our work experience group, to accompany me on the shoot. We grab a camera and tripod kit and head down to our location. After introducing myself and my team to our point of contact, we go about setting up the camera on the tripod. We then browse around the site to see what we have to work with and what shots would look visually appealing, as well as location scouting to find suitable places to film interviews. One of the things I had taken for granted before I joined London360 was how long it can take to shoot in order to get 3 minutes worth of footage and interview soundbites!

By having all the camera modes set to manual, there are no shortcuts to getting that perfect shot! We are responsible for ensuring that the focus, lighting and framing of each shot is as good as it can be. This can be a difficult task when juggling other activities, including casting people for quick interviews, sound operating and choosing the right equipment for different situations (e.g. using a clip mic for professional looking interviews and controlled environments or using a reporter mic in uncontrollable and crowded outdoor conditions) and well as making sure that every different type of shot on the video script has been recorded. Even small details, such as getting a shot of a postcode of the local area, matter! It is also important that we obtain filming consents by asking people to sign consent forms and location agreements that give us permission to film without the threat of legal action against us!

Before we go home after a hard but reward day’s work, we hand out promotional material letting people know when our shows are going out on TV and how they can get in touch on social media. It’s important that we showcase what we do to as many people as we can, particularly to people that were directly involved in the events and stories that we filmed.

Every shoot is different. Depending on what kind of information is needed and how many of the interviews are organised in advance, a shoot will usually take anywhere between 3 and 8 hours to finish. For more in-depth features, a reporter will often go back out to a different location to get extra footage to add a different dimension to the feature.

The final part of the production process is the editing. We usually have 2-3 days to put together a “rough cut” or a timeline of how we want the feature to look, using the editing software we learnt about in our training, Premier Pro. We will add the images, sound and music we want to use and then, every other Thursday, will be the last official day to work on our rough edits to transform them into 3m15sec long features that are of broadcast quality. We sit in on the edit with trained professionals who tweak the sound quality and apply colour correction to some of our shots. We also record voiceovers to help to narrate our story.

For each feature we develop, from initial idea to production, we are expected to give it a “360” makeover. This means that we turn a 1-dimensional piece (such as  TV feature) into a story that can also be told through blogs and vlogs (or video blogs). So first of all, we will do a quick write-up of the piece, giving the low-down on what happened and why it was important. We will often come back to our first versions as we get more and more information. For instance, we usually put in a few of the soundbites that are unique to our features to add detail to our articles, which we then publish on the Community Channel’s website. We will often embed our finished TV packages in our blogs as well when they are finally edited. We are also expected to make a vlog, a shortened version of our TV feature (usually 1 minute or so in length) which can be put onto London Live’s website, alongside our regular TV programme.

Once our output is broadcast and online, the final thing to do is to go social media crazy! We tell all our friends and family as well as contacting all the people who we spoke to as part of our feature about when our programme airs (Mondays 7pm on the Community Channel and Sundays at 6.30am on London Live). If they miss the programme on TV, they can catch up on the Community Channel’s YouTube page as well which is handy, as I’ve often been told by people they’d missed it going out!

It’s fair to say that all of what I’ve just mentioned does NOT happen in the space of a 9.30-5.30 working day (if only!) However, we do fill out days with as much of these tasks as we can to ensure that we can meet our deadlines and get as much of our content out there. But although quantity is important, I think quality is even more so. The more time and preparation we put into our features before we even pick up the camera in terms of planning who we will speak to and what our angle will be for the piece, the better our finished output usually is. That is arguably one of the most important lessons I’ve learned since working at London360. That, and also not being afraid to make mistakes. You can learn a lot more about what works and what doesn’t work when things go wrong. One thing is for sure:- practice does make perfect and as time goes on, I hope that our Series 9 team will continue to grow and develop as budding reporters and producers.