2nd Semester Wrap Up – TV Broadcasting at NAIT.


My second semester (and first year) of television broadcasting at NAIT came to an end this past Thursday. I can’t believe it! That was the quickest 8 months of my life, seriously. It felt like the school year just flew past.

I felt like my semester wouldn’t be complete without a final wrap-up blog post so here are some key points that I think sums up some major points of the semester! Here goes…

  • Star Awards Spring 2010



  • This past Thursday was NAIT’s Spring 2010 Star Awards! It’s the Radio & Television awards night, which is when awards are given to students in various categories like Best TV Report, Best On-Air Personality, Best Technical Production, and more! Oh by the by, those three category examples were the very categories that I won in on Thursday!!!!! :D Heehehe. Students are allowed to enter in up to four categories per their semester so my winning 3 out of the 4 categories I entered is something I am soooo happy and so proud of! ♥ My friend Jack also won a Star Award for Best After Hours Radio Show which I am a co-host on and he wanted me to come down and accept the award with him but I didn’t want to go down because I had just finished going down for three of my awards and I didn’t want to be “that girl that keeps winning.” lol Mike Brown, my boyfriend, also won a Star Award for Best Radio News Report!! We all sat in the same row for Star Awards so we were definitely a winning row. ;) More details: my “Scary Ghost Feature” won for Best TV Technical production, my “Celebrity Chef” report won for Best TV Report, and a montage of my stand-ups and anchoring is what helped me win Best On-Air Personality! Yay! The awards are actually a lot heavier than I thought they would be too. There were some technical difficulties with some of the video montages throughout the night though so that was kind of sad! Star Awards is kind of like one final hurrah/the way for 3rd Semester students to say goodbye and so there is always a 3rd Semester goodbye kind of video and the audio for the video didn’t work! I would have been sooo devastated had that been my semester and the goodbye video didn’t work. The 2nd semester group (that’s me) had a video too, it was done by two girls Ashley and Kathy in my class and it was awesome it made me so nostalgic! Such great memories of the semester. ♥ My friend Rachel and I really want to helm the goodbye video for our semester! Hopefully we can. Anyways, afterwards I think a bunch of people in my semester went out to party but I’m the kind of person who gets sleepy by 10 p.m. (lol) so me and a couple friends went to eat and then I went to sleep, lol. Fun night!!


  • 2nd Edition



  • 2nd Semester is basically dominated by one thing: 2nd Edition! It’s a news & features show that was put on weekly and should be showing up online soon. At least, our teacher is supposed to put them up on the website soon! Haha. Anyway for the first I guess month or two of the semester we basically prepped for what we’d be doing for 2nd Edition — script writing, differences between VOs, VOSOTs, LEAD/PACKAGES — how to use the lighting equipment, the video equipment, how to shoot and how to edit, how to do graphics for TV, how to meet deadlines, that kind of thing! Then we were split into two teams – one team had 9 members and the other team (the team I was on) had 10 members! Each team put on four 2nd Edition shows so there was a total of 8. Each 2nd Edition is themed, so it was really fun to do! My team’s four themes were: Spy, 80s, Spooky, and Superheros! Each show week each team member had a different role to do. My four roles for the semester were Shooter/Editor, News Reporter, Feature Reporter and News Anchor! Needless to say, I had a LOT of work to do, I got to produce some work that I’m really, really proud of (hence the Star Awards wins!), and I learned sooo much. It is definitely intense work. We had heard many, many stories about how people have stayed until 2, 3 a.m., or even overnight, working to finish their shows by deadline, so we were actually pretty prepared to stay late to do our work. And so we did! I learned a lot about teamwork, a lot about people’s different work ethics, and a lot about what makes a good TV story! 2nd Edition lets us dabble in kind of as many different positions as we can, and it’s meant to let students do more acting and there’s more room for creativity. This changes for 3rd Semester when we put on NAIT NewsWatch that airs weekly on ACCESS Channel! NewsWatch definitely wouldn’t allow us to dress up as superheros for a show, ha ha. ;) (I was Mrs. Incredible by the way!)


  • Reporter/On-Air vs. Editor/Producer ?!?!



  • I don’t know what part of the television industry I want to be in! I’m torn between being a reporter/on-air personality or being a behind-the-scenes, technical/in-control guru. I love both areas. I firmly believe I excel at both areas. I know that sounds cocky, but let’s say it’s more confident than anything else. When it boils down to it I just love doing everything. I love writing a solid story — when words of a script match up to the video that’s being shown ( that’s video referencing ;) ). I love being on camera! If anyone knows anything about me they know I love taking pictures, I love being in pictures — this all translates quite nicely into my wanting to be on screen. I love editing! I love knowing that a video looks the way it does because of the work I put into making it that way. Plus I’m super comfortable behind a computer, everyone knows that. Ha. I love being in charge. I love organizing. I love delegating tasks. I just love all of the different tasks related to TV and at this point I have no idea what I will end up specializing in! That sounds bad, but there is a silver lining — in 3rd semester we do get to specialize more. So I’m hoping that if I focus on the same few positions (reporter, anchor, editor, producer) in the weekly rotations than by the end of the four month semester, I’ll know what I really want to do. I do think that my wanting to and being good at doing various different TV positions makes me versatile and that versatility is something (hopefully) that future employers would think is a great trait, and a trait they’d want in someone they’re looking to hire. Anyway, to sum up. This semester I got to dabble in pretty much every position that I am seriously interested in in the TV field ( except producer. I did not officially get to be a producer for any of the shows, but I kind of behind-the-scenes-produced anyway ;) ). I think I really got a chance to hone my skills and grow as a reporter and an editor. There’s definitely still so much more that I need to learn. I know that I won best On-Camera Personality for Star Awards but I think I still need to work on a lot of things to make myself more personable (I need to smile with my eyes, as Tyra puts it on America’s Next Top Model!) The girl who won Best On-Camera Personality for 3rd Semester (Tiffany), is so good! The clips they showed of her anchoring were so interesting to watch because she was so personable and it definitely inspired me to get better. In terms of editing, I know there’s still so much more editing knowledge that I need to acquire. There’s so many effects and things I want to learn how to do and I know I’ll learn a lot of that in 3rd Semester and a lot of that on my time too. So yeah basically to sum up, I loved all the different positions I had for 2nd Edition, I thought I did a good job with the positions I had, but I am excited and eager to learn even more and hopefully really grow into a specific TV niche by the end of 3rd semester!


  • Useless Thoughts & UnRemarkable Opinions Radio Show


  • I became co-host for a radio show that was on-air Sundays from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. this semester with my good friend Jack Nemo! Jack and I had some pretty fun times being on air with just one another as well as with various guests (mostly his friends from Medicine Hat but also with people from our program too! ha ha). Jack and I, I feel, were an unlikely pairing. I was quite shocked when he asked me to be a regular guest on his show at the beginning of the year and I was also shocked that we had a pretty good on-air chemistry together! We definitely have some good memories that will forever be immortalized via Useless Thoughts & UnRemarkable Opinions podcasts! If Useless Thoughts picks up again next semester (which I’m sure it will), then I can’t wait to be back on it again! Good times Jack!


  • The Nugget Student Newspaper


  • This past semester I got the honour of being Assistant Issues Editor for the NAIT student paper The Nugget! I worked closely with Issues Editor Ryan, along with Chris, editor in chief, Garit and Taylor (sports), and Kathy and Colleen (entertainment!) Monday and Wednesday editor meetings after school became a regular routine and eating free sandwiches and pizza Wednesday at lunch for the contributor meetings was always an incredible time. I had such a great time working for the student paper, working with the contributors and working with the editors, I felt it needed a blurb on this wrap-up. I’m so used to being given stories and going out, interviewing, coming back and writing up articles, that it was actually really nice to be on the other side of things — giving stories to contributors, helping them with their writing and helping them reach contacts they need to interview, and of course – editing. Though as all the editors know, I fail at sports knowledge!


  • Michael James John Brown


  • A summary of my last 8 months at NAIT would not be possible without a section dedicated to Michael Brown, this is fact. Mike Brown has been my rock, the last 8 months. I know that seems overused but you know what, it describes the situation perfectly. All of my ups, all of my downs, everything I experienced at NAIT I experienced with Mike. From mornings meeting in the same parking lot to walk to school together to him doing his radio show and waiting for me to finish my Nugget newspaper meeting, so we could go to dance class on Mondays, Mike has always been there. We spent days where we’d just do homework, he stayed with me on nights when I had to be at school late to work on 2nd Edition stuff, he’d give me advice on a hundred topics and vice versa. Hot chocolates, rollin’ up the rim, trying to get free parking (lol), all done with him. Basically, he is great. I love Mike so much. He has been nothing but supportive of every project, everything that I’ve taken on this semester, and he still is. I loved watching him produce promos, radio dramas and all the other cool sound stuff the radio kids got to to do. Mike knows me better than anyone else and I have the best time when I’m with him. Like I wrote in my 1st semester wrap-up blog post, Michael Brown has changed my life. I love him and I can’t wait to spend the summer and the rest of my life with him!! :) (and naysayers and skeptics, go ahead and roll your eyes but we’re proving ya wrong). We’re going to be a radio/tv duo to be reckoned with I’d say. ♥


  • Have a great summer RTA Class of 2009-11!



  • I want to take this time to personally name all the TV students who have been in my life the last 8 months! From the members of the 2nd Edition team I was on – Rachel Lees, Cody Millard, Alessandra Bruni, Ashley Nichols, Clarisse Porca, Taylor Pollmann, Maria Boychuk, Brieanna McCutcheon, and Katie Kloet. You 9 became my TV family. And to the other 2nd Edition team – Nicole de Champlain, Ryan Flaherty, Kathy Le, Darek Pierzchala, Julie Finkelman, Jessica Kent, Kelsey Nichol, Kiersten Pipke, and Ali Yusuf! We’re all going to be working very closely with one another four months from now and I can’t wait!!!!!!! Woot woot. Also I have to say that RTA teachers are the best. I really loved learning everything I did from the teachers this semester and it really makes a difference when you’ve got instructors who a) know what they’re talking about and teaching you, and b) have great personalities!! Last but not least I feel it necessary to shout out to the radio class! We only had 2 classes (that turned into 1 class) together this semester so that was kind of a bummer. But from Joelessicack to Buskwhoileealex(?) to other RTA outings, the last 8 months wouldn’t have been the same without the radio kids as well! It’s summertime now! I won’t be seeing everyone every day like I used to but I’m excited for summer! It’s been a great eight months, like I said and I can’t believe how quick it went by!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

If you're Edmonton area, subscribe to my newsletter for hyperlocal recommendations on what to do, eat, and things to know this week!
If you're Edmonton area, subscribe to my FREE newsletter for hyperlocal recommendations on what to do, eat, things to know this week, and more!