3rd Semester Wrap Up – TV Broadcasting at NAIT


My third semester in the Television Broadcasting program at NAIT has officially come to a close – and with it, officially, the end of school for presumably the rest of my life. Scary? Exciting? Sad. Much like my first and second semester, this third semester flew by. It’s like I blinked and here I am. So as with all definitive moments in my life, the last three months deserve a wrap up blog post. One – because I owe it to my blog, but mainly because I know that once I finish writing and hit that Publish button, I will have officially closed the NAIT / school chapter in the book of my life. (That book is still a work in progress but I’ll let you know when it’s available at your local book store, lol. ;))

The table of contents is as follows:

– Star Awards Fall 2010
– NAIT NewsWatch
– Finally.. sort of.. narrowed down
– Michael James John Brown
– Useless Thoughts & UnRemarkable Opinions
– Great Friends
– My Awesome Teachers
– Goodbye RTA Class of 2009-11

HERE GOES!!

  • Star Awards Fall 2010

  • We’ll kick it off with something light. Star Awards Fall 2010! This night is very important to me as it is the final big event where all of the students and staff in the Radio & Television program get together. It’s like our final hurrah. We watch work we’ve done over the semester and best of all… we’re awarded for it! This semester I won Star Awards for Best Television News Report and Best Videography. I couldn’t be happier with those awards. It’s really nice to know that not only your instructors think you’ve done solid work over the semester, but since Star Awards are judged by professionals in the industry, it just makes it all that more special. Congratulations to my boyfriend Michael for winning an award for Best Produced Radio Music Promo, my friend Rachel for winning Best Editing, my friend Jack for winning Best Radio After Hours Show, and all of my other classmates and friends in other semesters who won awards! We all worked hard this semester and this Star Awards was especially important as it is the last one I will ever be involved in. There was a TV goodbye video and a Radio goodbye video and it was just all so sweet. My parents and brother also attended this semester’s Star Awards which meant a LOT to me. It was a nice ending to a nice semester.

  • NAIT NewsWatch

  • So basically NAIT NewsWatch was the semester. This was one of the biggest reasons I wanted to go into this program. The fact that the students put on weekly news shows. Our shows rival that of small market news stations (we’ve been told), and it’s been such a blast and such an honour being a part of that. NAIT NewsWatch has been a brand I’ve proudly talked about, tweeted about, worn on my jacket and plastered all over this website. I got a chance to do a variety of different positions for the show this semester including shooter/editor, live reporter, fake live reporter, entertainment host/reporter, floor director, switcher, camera person, prompter, the list goes on. It’s crazy the work that television students do at NAIT, I can never say that enough. We worked so hard every week for the half hour show people (probably mostly just our families and friends) watched each Sunday.

    I got the chance to interview great people and I got the chance to hone and develop my skills in everything important to me in this industry – writing, reporting, shooting and editing. I’ve learned to deal with so many different personality types and I’ve gotten an extra semester to produce more work for my portfolio that I am so proud of. As an aside, tweeting about NAIT NewsWatch has allowed me to make friendships with industry people whose opinions I value dearly – Jason Konoza- an RTA grad – has been a happy supporter of NewsWatch this semester. David Dawkins seems to have come out of nowhere but I don’t know how the semester would have been without looking forward to his critique and his comments each week!

    I know life will never be the same as it was in this program at NAIT and I’m both excited about moving forward but also so sad. NAIT NewsWatch has been my life for the last three months. The program has been my life for the last year and a half. It’s hard to see it end but it’s helped mold me into who I am today, it’s given me so many memories, and it’s given me so many opportunities that I will always be grateful for. I’m excited for what’s to come.

  • Finally..sort..of..narrowed down?

  • As the title of this blurb says… I still am not 100% sure what I want to do in this industry. I am really just sad that I can’t have “Everything” on my business card. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I like to do everything and I think I’m good at mostly everything (please don’t think I’m cocky, it’s just confidence, lol). The demo tape cover I made for our final assignment read “Producer. Reporter. Shooter. Editor” – so I don’t think that really narrows anything down except that I shunted out “Anchor” lol. Not that I wouldn’t take the opportunity to ever be an anchor either. LOL. See the indecisiveness? I think I’ve narrowed it down somewhat, though. As I’ll be doing a practicum at Global here in Edmonton, the news director Michael Fulmes has expressed that he would like to see me in a producing position and I was completely on board with that.

    So, while details are still sparse but I’ll know soon enough, my practicum will center around making me a better producer. And I’m golden with that. Producers are in charge. Producers know what’s going on. Producers delegate and produce quality shows and quality products and those are all qualities that I am into. I’m hoping to have some practicum time working with reporters as well because I know I’m a good reporter but I’m not stupid – if I want to get out in the field and be able to do reporting I should have gotten my practicum somewhere smaller. That’s fine. I’m only 21. I feel like getting my foot in the big city Global door producing only means good things for my career and if I eventually really feel compelled to do reporting – I’ll move. But at the same time, who knows – I like being the exception and maybe I’ll be one at Global. In terms of Shooting/Editing. I will continue part-time editing at Global – which has been a blast. My supervisor says that she’ll give me more opportunities to practice editing packages so I can only advance and improve in that way. I feel at least now, compared to last year, I have a better idea of what I’d like to do – and with a practicum centered around producing then that really focuses me more too. Maybe I can get to do some online and Global-website based work as well. I’ll let you know what my actual business card reads in a few months but for now, expect to see Global practicum – blog posts here starting January 10th!

  • Michael James John Brown

  • I’m going to marry Mike Brown one day.

    I have no worry in saying that. I tell him almost every day.

    It’s basically a fact.

    I met Mike last year when we both entered the Radio & Television program at NAIT and we’ve basically been together since the very beginning. In my first semester wrap-up and my second semester wrap-up blog posts. I say the same thing. Mike Brown changed my life. He knows me better than anyone. He has been there for me, more than anyone. And he will be there for me for everything that’s to come. I made the decision a long time ago that whatever I end up doing in this industry beit producing, reporting, shooting or editing – I would do it with Mike at my side. And vice versa. Mike’s on his way to being a famous radio producer and I’m well on my way to being whatever I’ll end up being. Honestly I’m not too worried. I know what I have to offer a station – a newsroom – the industry. I know wherever I go or whatever I end up doing or being, I’ll be happy because Mike will be there too. I have a lot of dreams of success but the dream I’ve had since I was a little girl was to find someone to love and who loved me back. And I’ve found that. I’ve never been happier than I am at this moment. I say it to you every day and I’ll continue to do so – I love you and I want to be with you forever!

    Now I’d like to quote this part of what I wrote about Mike in my “2nd Semester Wrap Up”: We’re going to be a radio/tv duo to be reckoned with I’d say. ♥

    I still believe this. This semester has been a stepping stone towards making that line a reality. Michael you mean everything the to me and I could not imagine what NAIT would have been like without you, and what life would be like without you.

    FUTURE MEDIA POWER COUPLE!!

    I am so excited for our future. I love you.

  • Useless Thoughts & UnRemarkable Opinions

  • Carrying over from last year was Useless Thoughts & UnRemarkable Opinions with Jack & Linda! Jack. You and I have a bond that no one else has. Our radio bond has been really important to me and much like I wrote last year, we have an on-air chemistry that just. works. It’s been a different semester since we had to switch days and school got so busy that we missed quite a few shows – but despite what you think the show was very important to me and when I’m old and thinking back about my time at NAIT, doing this radio show with you is easily one of the things that will pop out. I know it. The show has allowed us both to get to know each other more than we would have otherwise and I am so happy that we became friends and CO HOSTS! (hehe). You’ve said it to Mike & I a number of times – you don’t have a lot of friends in Edmonton and in the program itself, and we were your closest. Well the same goes on this end. Mike and I appreciated your friendship and will miss you more than you know. But I know our friendship isn’t over. And we’ll always have a place to stay when we visit Medicine Hat now! (and same if you and Nicole come back to visit here. Chateau Mike & Linda, remember!) Let’s start that pirate radio in a few years. Thanks for everything Jack. Useless Thoughts won Best Radio Show 2 semesters in a row for a reason. Also, I hope this made you cry.

  • Great Friends

  • I’ve made great friendships in the program. Without this program I would never have met Cody – who tweets almost if not more than I do. Or Taylor – who, if you know he’s going to be there, then you KNOW it’s going to be a great time filled with a ton of laughs. Kathy – who is like my big Vietnamese sister who is just as, if not more, gungho about school and this industry than I am. But there are two people that I absolutely need to talk about in a wrap up post about television broadcasting at NAIT, and that would be Rachel Lees and Nicole de Champlain.

    Rachel – You are one of the best people I know. And that’s out of EVERYONE that I know. You’re a great friend and if possible – an even better editor. You inspire me! I am so glad and grateful to have met you and I know – like with no doubt in my mind at ALL – that our friendship is one that will continue, one that will last beyond NAIT. Thank you for the last year and a half. Thank you for all of the inside jokes, the pictures, the late nights, our music video and setting the bar HIGH! Second Edition – (we have to thank Jeannette for putting us on the same team!) The food and bathroom breaks… everything!

    Nicole – From the moment we ran around the building that first week of school, we became friends and it’s been amazing. You are a great friend and a great person and I am so happy that we got to work together on the same team this semester. It’s been so much fun and it’s obvious from the work that we produced that we work great together and it’s been a hilarious and incredible journey together! You are one of my closest friends in the TV program. Remember how you always said we’re best school friends? Well we’ve come a long way and I hope we keep going — let’s make sure our friendship is forever!

    I do have more to say about each of you but I think I’ll save it for when I start doing my “Tribute to my Friends” blog posts again. Basically, thanks for the last year and a half. It wouldn’t have been the same without either of you.

  • My Awesome Teachers

  • If we’re being real here, the fact is I’ve always loved my teachers. Elementary – Junior High – High School – post secondary with MacEwan Journalism and then to NAIT. I’ve always had good to great relationships with those who taught me and I’ve always loved those having those positive relationships. So it’s easy for me to proclaim here that my. NAIT. teachers. are. AWESOME! I loved them. I loved how they taught me, I loved how they helped me, and I loved how they gave me good grades. Buaha! :)

    I would like to this moment to personally thank Jeannette LaBrie, Stuart Serediuk, Perry Thomas and Chris Durham for this semester (and for prior). You guys always welcomed me into your offices (well most of the time I just barged in and sat right down :)), you were always there to listen and you were always there to guide. Jeannette – thank you for using smiley faces and always being excited to see and talk to me. Stuart – thank you for always being brutally honest ;) and as I said before, for teaching me VIDEO-O-GRAPHY! Perry – thank you for your sarcastic humour and wisdomous editing ways. You are wise. But you know that lol. Chris – thank you for being so passionate about inflection and emphasis, lol.

    I would also like to thank Patrick Galenza for being a great chair of the program. Linda Bethell for being an awesome administrative assistant and giving me SO many CDs/DVDs for free and also letting me use her highlighters and just being overall cheery whenever I entered the office.

    And to the two radio instructors who I also bothered on a regular basis — Lamya Asiff and Dave Albright. Lamya – you are the only teacher actively on Twitter and it’s been a blast following you and getting to know you on a personal twitter level, lol. Dave – thank you for letting me sit in your office and talk about my life. You were wonderful. Also thank you for letting me use your disc label placer machine.

  • Goodbye RTA Class of 2009-11!

  • To (Team B) Ryan Flaherty, Kelsey Nichols, Nicole de Champlain, Kiersten Pipke, Clarisse Porca, Ashley Nichol, Ali Yusuf, Katie Kloet, (Team A) Rachel Lees, Kathy Le, Taylor Pollmann, Cody Millard, Jessica Kent, Maria Boychuk, Julie Finkelman, Alessandra Bruni and Brieanna McCutcheon, it’s easy for me to say that our class was a power class. We all had our strengths and we all gave so much to the show each week. And it showed. No one knows and understands what it is like to stay locked in an edit suite for hours at a time and into the night like this team. No one knows the pressures of simulating a real news station along with school assignments and other responsibilities like this team. No one knows what it’s like to put everything else on the backburner and this program/the show first. I’ve made some lasting friendships and I leave the program with fond memories. We’ve all heard it and you’ll hear it again here – we became a family over the past year and a half. I won’t end this blurb without pointing out that yes we did have our frustrations and yes near the end it seemed like I wanted to kill most of you and vice versa. There have been headaches. There have been yelling matches. Eye rolling and outbursts. But honestly that’s true for most families :) Ha ha. I’d like to point out now Team B in particular – you’ve been a stellar team. I think we delivered fantastic shows this semester and we really set the bar high. You are all so talented and it was an honour working with the eight of you. Thank you for making the semester what it was.

    It’s hard to believe it’s all over.
    I really do wish everyone the best in their practicums and beyond.

    Goodbye and good luck!

BRING ON THE FUTURE!!!!!!! :)

Linda

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