Category Archives: Jenny

My first NBA game, for work

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“You’re about to interview Vinny del Negro, what do ask him?”

Wait, what?!  I’m going up there?  But I have no idea what to say!

It took me a few seconds to realize that the sports anchor’s question was only hypothetical.  I was sitting on the court at Staples Center watching the Oklahoma City Thunder warm up in preparation to play the Clippers.  Even though I was just there to hold the mic for post game interviews, the anchor made it clear to me that I had to be prepared for anything.  He explained that if anything happened to him, all of a sudden I would be the one on camera interviewing del Negro (Clippers head coach).  He showed me the extensive notes he took on both teams and how he outlined what he was going to say and questions for interviews.

After he showed me how he prepared for live shots at games, he once again made me pretend that I was doing it myself.

“I want you to realize how real this is,” he explained.  “You need to treat this as if you were the one going on camera.”

Everything he told me made perfect sense.  I do want to be a sideline reporter and what better way to prepare myself than pretend like I’m actually going to report while I’m sitting on the court with players, coaches, cameras, and everything?  After the pep talk, I immediately started looking up stats for both teams and their players, diligently taking notes.  Then I pretended like I was going to do an opening shot to the game and interview Chris Paul (Clippers point guard).  I outlined what I would say and rehearsed it over and over again in my head until I felt like I could walk in front of the camera right then and do it.

When fans started filing into the arena and the players started warming up more seriously, the cameraman and I went back to the press room.  I wound up watching about half the game in there and half up in the press box.  Halfway through the fourth quarter, the cameraman and I headed over toward the Clippers locker room.  We lined up outside with reporters and cameramen from many other stations and waited for the players to go in.  The cameraman (or “photog” as they are called) warned me that things got a little aggressive in the locker room and I might have to throw a few bows to get my mic in.

When we were finally allowed in the locker room, everyone started pushing, running almost, to get to the players.  I thought I would fall over in my heels!  We went to the back of the locker room where everyone was crowded around Blake Griffin.  He had a massive dunk in a big win against the top team in the NBA.  After a little adjusting, I managed to snake my arm through the swarm of reporters and get it in front of him.  I was concentrating so hard on making sure my mic was positioned properly that I didn’t get a chance to calm my nerves and ask a question.  It was fun watching him being interviewed right in front of me, though.  He talked for so long my arm started shaking a little.  It takes some muscle to hold up a mic while fully extending your arm for a long period of time!  (I’m going to have to do some extra tricep workouts for my next game.) Continue reading →

My New Internship- Sports with KTLA

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Recently I started my internship with the sports department at KTLA, an LA TV station.  I admit I was a little nervous at first.  I knew I would be helping out the sports producers, but I was still unsure of what to expect.  Over-thinking things as usual, many concerns were running through my mind as I embarked on the miserable drive from Claremont to downtown LA:  Are the producers going to like me?  Am I going to like them?  Will my job be really difficult?  What if they ask me something about hockey, or another sport I don’t know much about?  What if I mess something up?  What if I ask a stupid question?  What if I don’t ask enough questions?  And the list goes on…

By the time I got to KTLA, I had finally convinced myself to calm down and that I would do just fine.  After I filled out some paperwork, the human resources director brought me over the sports production room and introduced me to the producers.  As soon as I met them, I knew I’d be fine.  They were all very nice and started joking around with me about their favorite sports teams right off the bat.  One of the producers is a huge Michigan fan; I remembered distinctly the last time Oregon played Michigan (Dennis Dixon was our quarterback and we creamed them 39-7 at the Big House) so I was happy to throw out a few stats to remind him of the painful loss.

One of the producers is actually still a junior in college.  He spent a year and a half interning at KTLA and was eventually hired to be a part-time producer.  He was the one I mainly worked with that day and he was awesome.  Having recently been an intern himself, he was very understanding and did a great job explaining things to me.

That first day turned out to be pretty relaxed.  It was a slow day for LA sports, so I just watched one basketball game and wrote down the time codes for all the important or big plays so the producers could easily find them later.  I did a lot of observing and tried very hard to retain all the information I was given.  I watched the producers use a video editing program to create highlight packages for the sports segment of the evening news.  I watched them cut film, edit audio levels, and write scripts for the anchor.  I also watched them run the show in the operating room while the sports segment was on live.

Over the following two weeks, I continued to learn a lot at KTLA.  I got better at “logging games” (watching and writing down important time codes) and learned more about the editing software as well as everything that goes into a sports production.  As I learn more, I’ll get to do more.  I’ll soon be writing scripts and helping cut the film myself, which I’m very excited for.

What I’m the most excited for though, is going to games.  I got to go to my first game on last week, which is Oklahoma City Thunder at LA Clippers.  I helped the camera men set things up for live shots and will watch the game in the press box.  After the game I’ll get to go into the locker room and ask the players questions.  Since I eventually want to be a sideline reporter, getting right in the action will be perfect for me.

Needless to say, I’m very pumped for everything KTLA has to offer me.  Over the next few months I will try my hardest to be like a sponge and soak up all the information I can.  Hopefully this internship will be a big step to getting the career I want!