Internal Journal #10

It’s been a very busy spring, that’s for sure. KY3 is bursting at the seams with request from new and old clients for commerical spot on air. Almost every day that I have been in the KY3 offices, there’s more scripts to be written and more shoots to be schdueld. Lately, I’ve had the pleasure of seeing a little bit more of the account side rather than just the creative side of producing a commerical. Under my internship I work a lot with writing scripts and deveolping ideas for the client in teerms of creative-ness. (Not a word, I know.) I never saw too much of how we secured this client or who dealt with managing the business owner. But now that I have worked a little with the Account Executives I see how their sales techniques and ability to communicate effectively with business onwers is truly the first step in producing a well made commerical.

In addition to being exposed to new aspects and “offices” within the KY3 offices, I have become a bit of a celebrity in the process. Ok, not really, but my vioce was used in a commerical for Springfield Mattress Co. Not in the way you’d except either. For a 30 second spot about mattresses, I whispered all my lines about how comfy the beds were, how long they’d been in business, and how much their customers love them. Needless to say, this type of line delivery was outof the ordinary but it felt cool to actually be a part of a commerical I’d been assisting with.

Intern Journal #8

A very busy Spring has kept me from properly recording my work done at KY3 but luckily I have been put on several delightful projects that I can easily recall and write about from the past few weeks. Since my boss has received a promotion to Creative Sales my work has differed only a little in that I now help others in the KY3, Inc. offices with their endeavors. One thing that I have learned that I will keep with me forever is to keep a very clean and organized office. I have been working with the Community Relations Director, who is absolutely amazing. In fact, if someday I can grow up to be like her and do the amount of work she accomplishes in one week, I would live a very happy and fufilled life. She is simply amazing.

I have recently been assisting her in putting together this season’s Ozark Honor Flight. Ozark Honor Flight was started by Ky3, Inc. and promoted on-air primarily promoted by KY3 anchor Steve Grant. The flight, produced by the Community Relations Director), flies are veterans from Springfield, Missouri to the World War II and Vietnam memorials located in Washington, D.C. and back. Basically, the entire trip is less than one day but provides veterans with a sense of fulfillment and achievement for a lifetime of service. The veterans are accompanied on this trip with a guardian with all expenses paid. My duties lately have been to recruit KY3, Inc. viewing area schools requesting they take a few minutes from their day to address letters to the veterans thanking them for their service. The letters are so personal and really add a touch of local thankfulness from the community that truly touches the heroes hearts. Alongside this I get to hear delightful stories (some tear-jerking and some gut-busting) about these veterans, which is always a treat.

While working with my supervisor I have gotten to experiment a bit more with PhotoShop and After Effect Pro, both of which belong to a completely new domain of “Public Relations” that I have not gotten much experience in but I am doing my best. I have created images for Save a Lot commerical, which took me 2 hours to make two white bars, a golden star, and the worlds National and Sunshine. I also researched landscaping photos and attempted to create the word landscaping by Photoshopping the rocks from the pictures into letters to be one fluent word. Needless to say this is very difficult and sadly, I was unsuccessful in making my supervisor’s vision a reality. Luckily, he went in a totally different direction with that commercial.

In the next month leading up to graduation I hope to work more with KY3 and Springfield are events. Right now there is a lot of focus on work for clients around Springfield for their services but I’d like to perhaps work on more promotional work directly toward the station. But I’m not complaining. I like what I do and it is all an excellent learning experience!

Intern Journal #7

Currently I intern at the Ozarks’ NBC affiliated news station, KY3, in the Promotions Department. Three days a week for three hours I assist the Senior Promotions Director in prouding promos for news broadcasts, commercials for clients, KY3 i.d.s, ads for community sponsors and regular weekly airings. On Friday in particular I get to work on teasers for the 5 o’clock show which allows me to know what is being covered every Friday, which is typically a slow news time period. In order to beef up the cast we create teaser that preview what the broadcast will cover to entice viewers tuning into KY3 in the late afternoon.

The use of audio and visual play a key role is making sure viewers are receiving just enough information to make them tune in a watch the 5 o’clock broadcast. Much like weekday stories which draw a greater crowd, audio and video need to encourage those watching it is worth their while to continue watching.

Intern Journal #6

I am really, really liking my time at KY3 and I am learning a lot of things about promotions and advertising that I never thought I’d need to know. Most of my background and intern work has been field work, talking to people and using my personality to sell and promote. While at KY3 it’s all about making others look good and making sure what they’re trying to see looks amazing. For instance, there is a lan care company in the Ozarks area that requested KY3 make a commercial for them. They provide my boss with some details about their company and he does the rest. Using web image sites for pictures, videos and sound bits he drafts what he believes would make an inviting commercial, pitches it and then goes from there to produce it.

There’s a lot of tidious work and planning that goes into producing a commercial because so many people need to approve it and they small detail that go into designing and making the computer programs agree with your vision is hard. I deal mostly with After Effects which is the software editing program we use to produce the weekly Daily Deal commercials. It took me several Fridays to master the art of importing, sound editing and folder creating to create five days of Daily Deals but I mastered the art and with the help of the template already created, it’s a simple task.

Another aspect of my internship with KY3 I enjoy is the time i get to spend with the community Relations Director, and it’s not just because she gives me Starbucks Frappicinos and Coke Zeroes. She works on what is called Ozarks Honor Flight which is non-profit non-event that allows Ozarks veterans the opportunity to fly to Washington, D.C. to see the memorial there and fly back free of charge. The stories that she tells and the amazing memories she ahs created for some of America’s forgotten heroes is unbelievable and truly shows how rewarding her job is.

I hope to spend a lot more time with her in the latter months of my semester at KY3.

A few tweeks to… the ADDY 33 Awards

The ADDY 33 Awards is an award show presented by the American Advertising Federation each winter to recognize the best in adverting for Southwest Missouri and parts of Arkansas. I was invited by the Missouri State Ad Club president to attend the event via Twitter. Just goes to show you social media really can give you the best connections.

Both my internships submitted pieces for ADDY awards and about of them took home major awards, one of which won Best of Show which was a huge honor because I actually worked on that piece last summer. But winning aside, there were a few things I noticed while attending the ADDY 33 Awards that I would have changed. Granted the AAF of the Ozarks did an outstanding job putting such a fancy event together, I would done a few things differently.

1. Better banners- The theme of the evening was “Hats Off to You” which encouraged everyone to wearing a fancy or outrageous hat to the event. Plastic top hats decorated the tables and hat shaped confetti was scattered about the place settings. Yet behind the stage were two long banners that had a silhouette of a person tipping off their hat, it was just the outline and it was extremely hard to determine where the person was and where the background color was. I personally just thought it was a little to abstract for the event.

2. Longer happy hour- The invitation called for an hour long happy hour but guests didn’t really start showing up until about 25 minutes before the dinner was supposed to be served. Guests trickled in from both the front and back entrances into the banquet room and that made for some odd mingling. I would have carried on the cocktail hour at least until everyone had shifted into the main room.

3. livelier hosts- The hosts for the evening were two local TV personalities, one of younger woman and the other an older gentlemen. The age difference may have been what made it funny but I’m not sure if everyone got it. The jokes were somewhat dry and forced and didn’t seem like either of them were too excited to be there. None the less, they kept the crowd wanting more.

A few tweeks to… Oscar Night America 2012

Warning! This is a post mostly dedicated to how excited I was to be asked to run social media for KSPR News at their annual event, Oscar Night America. I was asked by the Community Relations woman for KY3 and KSPR to run the Twitter and Facebook feed for the night and I could not have said no, in fact, I said yes.

I’ve included a link that will describe the purpose of Oscar Night America and who it benefit and the fancy details of being able to host such an event in Springfield, Missouri. But I will be writing about my take and my opinions on how the evening was ran and what I thought of its execution. I personally know 2 of the women who serve on the planning committee so I promise I will not use specific names in my post.

1. The Perfect venue Chosen to host Oscar Night America was the Juanite K. Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts located right off Missouri State’s campus. It’s a gorgeous hall and the perfect location for the event. The only set back I saw in having Oscar Night America here was the size of the theatre. It’s a huge theatre and probably cost the planning committee a lot of money to rent and I was so sad to see the theatre under utilized due to all the hustle and bustle going on in the house of the hall with the food and drink vendors. Perhaps the event could have been hosted in a venue with a smaller theatre to save some money because the amount of seats in the theatre were under utilized.

2. Hearding Cats- Invited to attend this event was some of Springfield’s most elite and well-known persons which truly did make it a red carpet event for Springfield. There was a real red carpet lined with press and cameras wanting to snag an interview with everyone and even a real Oscar from a past winner who calls Springfield home. The draw back to having so many guests is the inability to make them all gather in one location. With 10 or so enticing food and drink vendors placed about the hall it was almost impossible to reach each attendee. Plus the fact that some showed late. I would have made sure there was a working microphone system throughout the hall that could be used by a host to inform guests of when the Oscars were starting or when was the appropriate time to join the evening’s hosts in the theatre. Just something to announce over a loud-speaker to grab everyone’s attention.

Let me state, that these are simply just suggestions that I came up with throughout the course of the night. Oscar Night America was a GREAT success and my comments are not to be taken in consideration that the night wasn’t anything but. I fully enjoyed myself and cannot wait to see the future successes this event will carry in years to come.

http://articles.kspr.com/2012-02-20/oscar-night-america_31081333

 

Intern Journal #5

The Oscars are coming to Springfield!

Not literally, though, but that’d be way cool.

Below is a link to KSPR’s website describing the invite called KSPR presents Oscar Night America. There is a link on my Facebook page with a video that I helped shoot starring two of KSPR’s anchors picking out the perfect Oscar Night dress. It’s very clever and I think you’d enjoy it.

http://articles.kspr.com/2012-02-20/oscar-night-america_31081333

I really want to encourage you to participate in this red carpet event because it will benefit Isabel’s House which is a shelter for abused women and their children. These organization is near to my heart because it is my sorority’s philanthropy. I have volunteered many times at Isabel’s House and the facility is remarkable. The housing, resources and accommodations women and children alike recieve are amazing. Isabel’s House can flourish and reach out to more families suffering domestic violence by the kind contributions made by events like Oscar Night America. I’m very excited to be at the event and covering the social media aspects for KY3 and i hope to see everyone in the Hollywood best this Sunday for the Oscars!

Intern Journal #4

The excitement truly never stops at KY3.

Yesterday I tagged along to Battlefield Lanes to help KY3’s Community Relations Director shoot a commercial advertising for Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Ozarks with the Ozarks First morning anchors. I learned two important things that shoot: 1. Bowling alleys open at 9am. 2. Morning news report anchors are hilarious.

The ad will run on KY3 soon and we spent a little over an hour and half setting up, reviewing lines and practice bowling. I was thrilled to be a part of this ad because i personally know the Special Events intern for Big Brothers Big Sisters and I knew she’d be working on this benefit bowling event so I was happy to help.

Basically, the shoot was the 3 anchors goofing about the bowling alley informing the camera how much this event is going to be and much it’ll help out the kiddos. The light-heartedness and fun spirit made for an easy work environment and the anchors really took the bowling idea and ran with it.

Another thing I was impressed with was the amount of pictures the 3 of them took and how they would comment about wanting to Tweet them or post them on Facebook. I was impressed because it showed their fun-loving sides and it was honest because we were the only ones in the alley at 10am (go figure!).

I’m eager to see this commercial run and I’m hone=ored to have been a part of it.

Intern Journal #3

Rolling into week #4 with KY3, Inc. in the Promotions department and I’m very excited to introduce one of the first commercials (in full) that I’ve been able to help cast and produce. My supervisor thought it would be hilarious if we created a commercial for Super Bowl Sunday with our beloved anchors getting sacked by a giant football player. It was my responsibility to recruit a football player for the commercial.

So what did I do?

Contact the head coach of Missouri State University’s football program, of course. Who knew he’d answer back!

After casting the football player, we filmed the shots with the anchors getting sacked in super slow motion so we could speed it up in Final Cut Pro later on and add sound effects. I was with my supervisor when he was editing the film to make it look like the anchors were getting tackled to the ground and I learned the Final Cut Pro is an AMAZING tool! If you’re not using it, you should, the possibilities are endless.

And here is the final project! I’m just the intern and I shouldn’t be as  excited as I am because my supervisor did the majority of the work but I got to help so I’m proud.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxolgircAgQ

A few tweeks to… Madonna Super Bowl Press Conference

http://www.eonline.com/news/watch_live_madonna_spills_her_super/291183

 

This is the link from E! Online to the video of Madonna’s press conference pre- Super Bowl. Cooler than a cucumber, this American music icon gracefully weaved her way through an array of probing questions about her up-coming performance at the Super Bowl this Sunday, February 5th.

Typical to any press conference, reports will try to manuever comments and remarks into getting more information out of the interviewees’ answer. Just like the headline read Madonna did let slip a few juicy tid bits about her newest single and what she will sing during the halftime show.

After watching the conference and contemplating what I would do if a super star like Madonna was my client during the her reign as Super Bowl queen, I came up with a few suggestions rather than tweaks to her public debut.

1. Zero Mention of New Material: If you watch the clip, you’ll hear Madonna break news of her dropping another single sometime next week but goes on to laugh about how it may be heard sooner rather than later. With the reputation like Madonna’s there’s no need to give viewers a teaser like that. From decades of unbelievable concerts, performances, music videos and movies Madonna has made a name for herself by simply performing. She is her own hype. Now if a lesser iconic star was performing, like One Republic or Selena Gomez, then I’d expect some pre-show buzz about their song selection because they haven’t been in the music scene for 20-something years.

2. Less is More: Granted Madonna had no control over what types of questions reporters would ask so there is no true way to censor questions yet she could have been more discreet about performance preparation. Stating the started rehearsal in December and have been practicing since after the holidays was fine but if she would have simply stated the her and her stage crew were working very hard for some time-and not put a specific time or date-then maybe there could be a bit more mystery to it.

Gotta keep ’em on their toes!