Five Things I Learned As a First-Time Executive Producer
By Kaley Prier
When this show started I thought it was going to be just like every other story except more in-depth. Little did I know that I was going to have to know every single bit of the content that was shot, as well as the staff’s strengths and weaknesses. As a first-time Executive Producer I learned more than I would have ever imagined.
Importance of Knowing All of Your Content:
The thing I learned the most during the three months we were working on this show is how important it was that I had seen every single clip the staff had shot. By the end of this show I knew the content better than I knew the back of my hand. I had watched every clip of B-roll, and every sound bite from every interview. It sounds like a big “duh,” but think about the amount of footage nine members of a staff can get in a three month span. Let’s just say we filled up our hard drive. Even though there was a great deal of footage to rummage through, it was a very important process so we wouldn’t go out and shoot the same thing over and over again. I didn’t understand why our adviser, Coach Davis, insisted that I had watch every clip until we were near the end of the production when the staff, as well as Coach, were asking me what shots we still needed and what we already had hidden deep within one of the many folders in the Final Cut project. If I hadn’t of seen every interview bite, or every piece of B-roll that was shot, I would have been lost.
Keeping The Staff Motivated:
When this show was announced to the staff, everybody was excited and so pumped to be apart of it, but that faded away a little too fast. We chose our topic in early December, but did not start shooting until mid-January. Second semester is always when things start to pick up and people start to get busy again, especially with our annual Buzz-A-Thon, a live, 12-hour webcast that happens in February. So it was extremely important to keep everyone motivated and to make sure that everyone knew what needed to be done with the show. But even that was difficult, because everyone, including myself, started to feel a bit less motivated until we started seeing clips pile up on the timeline. Once the opening was complete and we knew what need to be shot, everyone started to come back together and get pumped once again.
Logging and Labeling:
One of the most important things I learned from being producer of this show was how important it was to label every clip we had, and to log ever sound bite from all our interviews. When Coach told us that we, mainly reporter Savanna Steffen and I, would have to log the interviews and make each sound bite into a sub clip we moaned and groaned, but it was an amazing way to become familiar with the content and it made it easy to find the clip or the bite that we needed.
Knowing Staff Strengths and Weaknesses:
Knowing the staff members’ strengths and weaknesses was a lot more important than I thought. I learned this pretty fast when I was making a list of who would shoot which shots. I needed to know who did hand held shots the best and who had more of an eye for creativity. For instance, John Harmon was one of the better scenery shooters, and Ryan Lindsey was better at handling the mono pod for more free-handed shots. This was very important when we were shooting interviews, because a few staffers are better at shooting interviews, and others seem better at B-roll shots. Another good thing about knowing the strengths and weaknesses was I knew who wouldn’t be afraid to shoot downtown at night, or shoot homeless youth up close and personal.
Gaining Insight:
Now this last thing I learned wasn’t because I was a first time executive producer, but just from being a part of this special edition staff, and having a hand in the outcome of this show. Homelessness is not like I thought it was at all. The people who are homeless are just like us, with the same desires and interests that we have. But one thing we have that they don’t is a place to call our own. They are not “scum of the earth,” they are human beings trying to survive just like us. Sitting in that edit bay watching the clips and the interviews we had made me realize how big of a problem homelessness is becoming. Like Kelsey Williams says in her first anchor spot, “You can’t solve a problem until you admit you have one..”
Importance of Knowing All of Your Content:
The thing I learned the most during the three months we were working on this show is how important it was that I had seen every single clip the staff had shot. By the end of this show I knew the content better than I knew the back of my hand. I had watched every clip of B-roll, and every sound bite from every interview. It sounds like a big “duh,” but think about the amount of footage nine members of a staff can get in a three month span. Let’s just say we filled up our hard drive. Even though there was a great deal of footage to rummage through, it was a very important process so we wouldn’t go out and shoot the same thing over and over again. I didn’t understand why our adviser, Coach Davis, insisted that I had watch every clip until we were near the end of the production when the staff, as well as Coach, were asking me what shots we still needed and what we already had hidden deep within one of the many folders in the Final Cut project. If I hadn’t of seen every interview bite, or every piece of B-roll that was shot, I would have been lost.
Keeping The Staff Motivated:
When this show was announced to the staff, everybody was excited and so pumped to be apart of it, but that faded away a little too fast. We chose our topic in early December, but did not start shooting until mid-January. Second semester is always when things start to pick up and people start to get busy again, especially with our annual Buzz-A-Thon, a live, 12-hour webcast that happens in February. So it was extremely important to keep everyone motivated and to make sure that everyone knew what needed to be done with the show. But even that was difficult, because everyone, including myself, started to feel a bit less motivated until we started seeing clips pile up on the timeline. Once the opening was complete and we knew what need to be shot, everyone started to come back together and get pumped once again.
Logging and Labeling:
One of the most important things I learned from being producer of this show was how important it was to label every clip we had, and to log ever sound bite from all our interviews. When Coach told us that we, mainly reporter Savanna Steffen and I, would have to log the interviews and make each sound bite into a sub clip we moaned and groaned, but it was an amazing way to become familiar with the content and it made it easy to find the clip or the bite that we needed.
Knowing Staff Strengths and Weaknesses:
Knowing the staff members’ strengths and weaknesses was a lot more important than I thought. I learned this pretty fast when I was making a list of who would shoot which shots. I needed to know who did hand held shots the best and who had more of an eye for creativity. For instance, John Harmon was one of the better scenery shooters, and Ryan Lindsey was better at handling the mono pod for more free-handed shots. This was very important when we were shooting interviews, because a few staffers are better at shooting interviews, and others seem better at B-roll shots. Another good thing about knowing the strengths and weaknesses was I knew who wouldn’t be afraid to shoot downtown at night, or shoot homeless youth up close and personal.
Gaining Insight:
Now this last thing I learned wasn’t because I was a first time executive producer, but just from being a part of this special edition staff, and having a hand in the outcome of this show. Homelessness is not like I thought it was at all. The people who are homeless are just like us, with the same desires and interests that we have. But one thing we have that they don’t is a place to call our own. They are not “scum of the earth,” they are human beings trying to survive just like us. Sitting in that edit bay watching the clips and the interviews we had made me realize how big of a problem homelessness is becoming. Like Kelsey Williams says in her first anchor spot, “You can’t solve a problem until you admit you have one..”
The Final Cut
by Dave Davis, HTV Magazine Adviser
When you produce a 35-minute show about homeless youth in your home town, you have to decide what you use, and what you don’t use. It is part of part of being a journalist, figuring out what you can, and should report.
Our HTV students dealt with plenty of content decisions during the three months of production, and hours of raw footage shot for “Homeless in the Heartland.”
Here is some of what was left out of the final cut of the show:
*There is quite possibly a street gang made up of mostly homeless teens in our town. They claim they are not a gang, but they have a lot of the attributes associated with urban gangs. We could not prove this one way or the other. We asked around. In the end, it was not part of our story.
*Young, pregnant girls often end up homeless, but we did not meet any during our shoot. They are definitely out there, but due to issues of confidentiality, with many of them under the age of 18, they were unwilling to be seen on camera. In the end, they were not part of our story.
*We heard numerous accounts of merchants in the downtown area being unfriendly or at least unwelcoming to homeless youth. We asked over a dozen business owners to talk about it on camera, but they refused. In the end, they were not part of our story.
*Teens who are homeless sometimes use drugs, just like teens who are not homeless. We looked at research, and talked to experts, and in the end, decided that while we used a couple of sound bites about drug use, it was not something we would focus on. In the end, it was not part of our story.
As you watch “Homeless in the Heartland,” keep in mind that in 35 minutes, we could not bring you every story we heard. That certainly does not mean those stories are any less important that what eventually made it into the final version of our program.
Our HTV students dealt with plenty of content decisions during the three months of production, and hours of raw footage shot for “Homeless in the Heartland.”
Here is some of what was left out of the final cut of the show:
*There is quite possibly a street gang made up of mostly homeless teens in our town. They claim they are not a gang, but they have a lot of the attributes associated with urban gangs. We could not prove this one way or the other. We asked around. In the end, it was not part of our story.
*Young, pregnant girls often end up homeless, but we did not meet any during our shoot. They are definitely out there, but due to issues of confidentiality, with many of them under the age of 18, they were unwilling to be seen on camera. In the end, they were not part of our story.
*We heard numerous accounts of merchants in the downtown area being unfriendly or at least unwelcoming to homeless youth. We asked over a dozen business owners to talk about it on camera, but they refused. In the end, they were not part of our story.
*Teens who are homeless sometimes use drugs, just like teens who are not homeless. We looked at research, and talked to experts, and in the end, decided that while we used a couple of sound bites about drug use, it was not something we would focus on. In the end, it was not part of our story.
As you watch “Homeless in the Heartland,” keep in mind that in 35 minutes, we could not bring you every story we heard. That certainly does not mean those stories are any less important that what eventually made it into the final version of our program.
The Reporter's Notebook
By Savanna Steffen
These past few months, I have been reporting for a 35-minute HTV Special Edition about teenage homelessness. The moment I heard that HTV was going to cover homeless youth, I knew I wanted to be at the center of it, but I wouldn’t realize until the team dove in, just how big of
a project we had chosen.
First off, there are so many different aspects to homelessness that we could not cover every angle. But we were thorough, and that meant dozens of interviews and shooting locations. With all of these different elements, and all of the different sources, I could not possibly be there for every interview, and I would like to thank a great team for doing so much of the heavy lifting on this show.
Photographers that know what they are doing are so important to making this program come alive for the viewer. You wouldn’t believe the time and effort that went into getting the footage to cover this story. I would also like to give an extra special thanks to Kaley Prier, who was our Executive Producer on this Special Edition. She was great about making sure that we stayed on topic, told us what needed to be shot, and even fed me some questions during interviews.
Some of the interviews themselves were conducted differently than I have ever experienced in an HTV show. For one, I was wearing a mic and on camera during all of the studio interviews. SUCH a different experience for me, and I learned from it that my “serious face” looks just plain mad and disinterested so now, it looks like I’m going to be spending a lot of time in the mirror practicing my “engaged face.”
The awesome people behind the scenes were able to edit around this for the most part though, again, showing how important it is to have a good group of people on board, and knowing that they care about the message that we send is all the more important. I know we all really poured our hearts and souls into this production, and I hope that it captivates a piece of our viewers’ hearts as well.
Lastly, I would like to thank all of the people who spoke with us on this troubling and sensitive issue, including the dedicated people who devote such a big part themselves to this population of youth. I would also like to thank the teens themselves, who were willing to talk to us about the challenges they face every day.
People keep asking my team how the population of homeless youth is different from the average teen. I keep hearing the same response, “These kids are no different from you or me. They have just had a hard life. That’s all.”
But I would like to take it a step further. From working on this show, and getting to know these kids, I would say that those unique, hard lives have taught them far too much to say that they are our equals. These kids have have been forced to learn not to take anything for granted. A shower, a meal, a place to sleep. It all means more to them than the average teenager could ever understand.
Hopefully this show will give you an appreciation for these kids, and an appreciation for your own lives.
a project we had chosen.
First off, there are so many different aspects to homelessness that we could not cover every angle. But we were thorough, and that meant dozens of interviews and shooting locations. With all of these different elements, and all of the different sources, I could not possibly be there for every interview, and I would like to thank a great team for doing so much of the heavy lifting on this show.
Photographers that know what they are doing are so important to making this program come alive for the viewer. You wouldn’t believe the time and effort that went into getting the footage to cover this story. I would also like to give an extra special thanks to Kaley Prier, who was our Executive Producer on this Special Edition. She was great about making sure that we stayed on topic, told us what needed to be shot, and even fed me some questions during interviews.
Some of the interviews themselves were conducted differently than I have ever experienced in an HTV show. For one, I was wearing a mic and on camera during all of the studio interviews. SUCH a different experience for me, and I learned from it that my “serious face” looks just plain mad and disinterested so now, it looks like I’m going to be spending a lot of time in the mirror practicing my “engaged face.”
The awesome people behind the scenes were able to edit around this for the most part though, again, showing how important it is to have a good group of people on board, and knowing that they care about the message that we send is all the more important. I know we all really poured our hearts and souls into this production, and I hope that it captivates a piece of our viewers’ hearts as well.
Lastly, I would like to thank all of the people who spoke with us on this troubling and sensitive issue, including the dedicated people who devote such a big part themselves to this population of youth. I would also like to thank the teens themselves, who were willing to talk to us about the challenges they face every day.
People keep asking my team how the population of homeless youth is different from the average teen. I keep hearing the same response, “These kids are no different from you or me. They have just had a hard life. That’s all.”
But I would like to take it a step further. From working on this show, and getting to know these kids, I would say that those unique, hard lives have taught them far too much to say that they are our equals. These kids have have been forced to learn not to take anything for granted. A shower, a meal, a place to sleep. It all means more to them than the average teenager could ever understand.
Hopefully this show will give you an appreciation for these kids, and an appreciation for your own lives.
The Resource for "Homeless in the Heartland"
By Mehleena Edmonds
During my senior year at Hillcrest I started to notice how many kids my age were standing outside really late at night down town. There was a part of me that began to wonder why they were always outside so late. In asking questions I began to realize that they didn't have anywhere else to go, and automatically I started thinking about what it would be like to be in their shoes.
I was on HTV, and begged Coach Davis to let me do a "day in the life" piece, but he said there was no way he would let me do something so dangerous. My senior class was not one that would have wanted to take on a project like this one, which looking back is unfortunate, but that was the reality of the situation.
I am so glad something has been done about the growing population of homeless youth in our area. Being a social work major, I just want people to know that this isn't something we can avoid. I was not worried about HTV covering it properly, and obviously I was right in having faith in the staff. They handled the subject with such grace, that it make me proud to be a former HTV'er. I just want viewers to realize how important this topic is. High school students even noticed the issue, and so should everyone else.
Mehleena Edmonds
Social Work Major
Evangel University
I was on HTV, and begged Coach Davis to let me do a "day in the life" piece, but he said there was no way he would let me do something so dangerous. My senior class was not one that would have wanted to take on a project like this one, which looking back is unfortunate, but that was the reality of the situation.
I am so glad something has been done about the growing population of homeless youth in our area. Being a social work major, I just want people to know that this isn't something we can avoid. I was not worried about HTV covering it properly, and obviously I was right in having faith in the staff. They handled the subject with such grace, that it make me proud to be a former HTV'er. I just want viewers to realize how important this topic is. High school students even noticed the issue, and so should everyone else.
Mehleena Edmonds
Social Work Major
Evangel University