Alright so I will just make this short and to the point, My main gig is video production. I been trying to get into something professionally for a while. Started mostly in you know web videos, weddings, stuff like that nothing too serious. Recently I got a job as a video editor as a local news station. The good news is they work fast, how fast? I wasn't even two weeks into my training to be AP when they asked me if I wouldn't mind filling in on cameras, and since then I have worked more in production/studio than in the newsroom I was hired to work. No complaints here I love my job, for the first time in my life actually so there is that.
Anyways work in the news room, which means I have two choices going forward (staying an AP is not a good career move its under paid, short hours, entry level stuff) so I have to decide to either try to continue working my way into production, or moving into journalism. The production side interests me a great deal, especially if I can get into cameras and running the sound booth those would be great places for me to go next. They currently do have a part time opening for production technician but since I am still fairly new and they can't give me more than 30 hours they want me to stay mostly in editing for now. They continue to schedule me in production so yeah I get to do cameras a lot, more than I do editing honestly. And yes I love it, being in the studio is more fun than in the news room, well most times.
BUT here is the thing, I work with reporters, anchors, writers, editors, and producers all day long, and my main job as an AP (Assistant Producer) means I am well aware of the stories that we run, since its my job to match them up with any video, photos, sound bites, etc, and pull stuff down from the web and put it onto the server.
The other career path is Producer, which is more a journalist thing. I don't know how much experience you have to have, all of the producers worked at a TV station before coming here but every one I talked to said they did what I do, AP, or something else, reporter, weather, stuff like that. So I am curious if there are any journalists who could offer me some advice in how to maybe break into that.
My background is slim but not much more so than anyone else. I took some writing classes in college, and yes my real writing is much better than my slop I throw up here. Anyways I took a news writing and photography class, a creative writing class, some English courses, Linguistics, tons of communications classes, lots of journalism theory classes, communications law, stuff like that, so I know I have a solid foundation to go in there and tell my boss hey if you need an extra reporter or Producer let me know, I think I could do that. My fear is if I sit still too long I will get stuck, everyone tells me the business moves super fast and I am witnessing it before my eyes every day. So should I keep working towards the production side and leave the reporting to the journalists, or would it be worth my time and effort to break into real news? I personally am more confident in my writing than I am in my technical skills but they were hiring for editors at the time and I was working for a wedding photography company on weekends so I saw it as my foot in the door situation.
I see what the reporters have to go through and yes there is a downside, I am not that photogenic so getting on air is going to be a challenge, but the producers don't have to show their face on air so I am just wondering if I might want to pursue that option as they do have producers moving around all the time and my boss told me last night to hang in there where I am because people are leaving soon and I already told them I would like to do more and she scheduled me three days next week in studio so that is promising.
Topic: Any journalists haging around here? (Read 1327 times)
