Helping Hands

Almost three weeks after flames engulfed a local theater, help has finally come.

I wrote in an earlier blog about the Maplewood Barn Theatre in Columbia going up in flames. That was my first reporting shift: talking about the theater board members plans for the future. Now, my third reporting shift touched upon those plans in action.

The City of Columbia cleaned up the fire debris and laid down hay around the burned area. It also re-seeded that section of land. It also agreed to pay for a new stage. Eckhoff Construction built Maplewood's outdoor stage only three weeks before the fire. With the City's insurance cutting the costs, Eckhoff agreed to re-build the stage.

More than just one company and the city are helping. Little Dixie Construction has dropped off one trailer for the theater company to use. Another one is on the way. Maplewood will store props, tools and supplies in one trailer. The other will serve as dressing rooms, complete with air conditioning. Little Dixie offered up these trailers for no charge.

Columbia Parks and Recreation is also working with Columbia Water and Light to install a temporary power source on site. The theater would need some kind of system to operate its lighting and sound board. Those city officials are hammering out the details on where to put that power source.

If the theater does have all its essentials to put on its first summer performance on May 14th, Ice Chalet Antique Mall has opened its doors for Maplewood to use. Ice Chalet is located off Grindstone Avenue. It's also the future home of Galatic Fun Zone.

With all these different businesses helping out Maplewood, I knew I'd have plenty of people to talk to. The web story was filled with lots of quotes, facts and additional information that wasn't involved in my broadcast version. I was so happy telling Jen Reeves that my web story would be very detailed. She was just as enthused.

I'm really glad I was able to set-up my interviews at the site of the fire. It provided me with compelling camera interviews. However, a glitch: some shaky video was involved. I probably should've relied on my tripod more so. Nevertheless, for doing two off the shoulder interviews and a wireless microphone, I did okay. I didn't realize how much that wireless mic didn't pick up at times. Scott Schaefer, our videographer, told me about this issue after I was done shooting. I learned my lesson: it's convenient but maybe not completely reliable. I was frustrated while editing sometimes. Luckily, A2 picked up sound perfectly well when I needed to use it.

My writing has really improved. I felt very confident walking up to the Tiger Chair, knowing I had a few lines that made my piece ring. After all that reading this semester, I'm really catching onto what makes a good story. You can't be obvious when writing your track most of the times. Descriptions are far better than pure, plain and bland statements. Nevertheless, those quick facts plain and simple are necessary some of the time.

I swear it seemed like I had experienced an earthquake after reviewing some of my b-roll. First off, I almost never have issues running out of video. This was the first time I struggled. I had too many wide shots. I thought I tried to get creative, but instead I was overwhelmed and tired, perhaps. Next time, I'm taking a moment to think and shoot and record for at least 12-15 seconds per shot. That was irritating, but again, lesson learned.

I'm asking better questions as I've progressed this semester. I'm figuring out which ones are necessary for facts and which ones are good for sound bites. The more I've planned, the better I've been. Leaving some room for silence has helped, too. Sometimes asking a non-question works. All those lectures and readings really are paying off! I'm so glad Greeley is such a wonderful professor.

I look forward to seeing what this theater will do in the future to rebuild its historical site. It's really a shame the barn burnt down, but as Lee Willkins, a board member said, "It's a phoenix rising from the ashes." That's their theme this year. Catchy! I love it.

Luck of the Draw

Isn't interesting how the world has it's moments that just have us wondering: Why? Why me? One Saint Paul, MN woman knows exactly what I'm talking about. KARE 11 in Minneapolis covered a story about a singer with a shocking story. Just before Molly Maher's band would be booked for Rock The Cure, a concert dedicated to fight breast cancer, Maher received news she has breast cancer.

• Maher works at a guitar store in Saint Paul, Willie's American Guitars. 
• She's 39-years-old and never expected cancer to be in the cards. 
• No one in her family has a history of any cancer. 
• Maher found a lump in her breast. 
• Doctors diagnosed her in February. 

In the article, she claims to be healthy, eat right and exercise, but luck gets in the way." Not the kind of luck you wish for.


The founder of Rock The Cure, Angie Hanzel-Palomo, wanted Mahler's band to be the opening band for this year's breast cancer fundraiser. Maher and Hanzel-Palomo go years back as Molly has helped Willie's donate guitars to Rock The Cure.  These are guitars signed by musicians such as Bruce Springsteen and Melissa Etheridge.

Photo Courtesy: KARE 11

Moller Maher and Her Disbelievers would be a part of the concert this time. Maher's already has a connection with the fund's benefits. The Susan Komen fund, Rock The Cure's breast cancer fund, offers free breast exams through the SAGE women's clinic. Maher's had these free exams.

• This year's concert will be the ninth annual Rock The Cure. It's raised a whopping $120,000 for breast cancer already. 

Maher's had a few months to fight her own battle while preparing for the performance.

• The rocking and rolling takes place May 1 at 8 p.m. 

I like the way Kare 11's Renee Tessman writes this story. She includes facts, great, emotional quotes and background into the character leading into the story. The story has a good flow.

I was confused whether or not Hanzel-Palomo had sent the email before or after Maher's diagnosis. Tessman quotes Hanzel-Palomo saying she had the invite email to Maher in her drafts email.

• The reporter never clarifies when she sent the invite and the reaction Hanzel-Palomo gets. I think this is important to make clear to readers. 

It makes us assume what we want. We shouldn't have to assume anything. That kind of irritated me.

I like that there are a few links embedded in the story. It's easy to navigate and find any additional information right in the body of the story.

• I wish we used our links that way at KOMU. I think it would be easier for viewers to have the option to go to the links and numbers section and/or click on links directly in the story. 

The photos have plenty of depth to it. I was jealous of the fantastic photography.

• I want to improve my videography to take shots that compel viewers like Maher's photos do. The depth allows you to feel emotions through the photos. 

It's a simple story with a deeper meaning. Although Maher has bad news, she gets to experience it in a good way.

• Performing to help others while fighting her own battle. 

That's made me feel very bittersweet.

The reporter demonstrates this idea very well with the structure of the story. Like I said before, it has a nice flow. That is the most important thing for a story, I believe.

The story made me want to close my eyes and listen because the audio was very enticing. At the same time, I kept wanting to watch the smooth flow of shots of Maher and others playing. I felt at ease with this story. The flow showed in words and through broadcast. That is a tough thing to accomplish; one I'm striving for every day.

Market Madness

Fresh fruits and veggies galore all in one spot grown right in your local area. Yumm! Too bad the city is cutting funding that helps support this place. I'm talking about a farmer's market in Myrtle Beach, SC. I figured since I'm heading down to Myrtle Beach this summer for an internship, I should check out how all the local television stations cover news. I simply searched Myrtle Beach in Google News and found this story. It caught my eye because I did my first story about how popular farmer's markets have become last semester.

The anchor seems to be a little distracted in the intro. It takes her a while to spit out what she's trying to get across. It's distracting to the viewers. As the directors takes the package they use a graphic that says "Top Story" which I found to be interesting and eye-catching.

PHOTO COURTESY: scnow.com

One thing I noticed was a lack of a natural sound opening. This brings viewers closer to listen and watch. The reporter did not start her story with sounds of the market but with her voice. It's not as appealing. I'm an avid fan of nat opens. It's a must!

I enjoyed much of the video, especially the close-up shot of the tomatoes. You could see how plump and juicy they looked; it made me want to go out and buy one! However, I feel like the reporter didn't demonstrate how many people were at the market. I wanted a few more wide shots in the story.

Wendi, the reporter, does provide good facts with numbers of how much money the city will save by cutting support to the market. I like that she talks to several different people shoppers and vendors, but I want to hear from one of them sooner. There's too much of her talking in the beginning to the first sound bite.  I also noticed that she re-used a piece of video within 15 seconds of the story. That's a bit redundant.

I did like the framing on all of the interviews. You had a good feel for where they were at; she created a good background for all of them. I'm a fan of starting your sound bite with b-roll video then going to the video of the interviewee and back to b-roll. It has a nice flow. I'd like to incorporate that in my reporting more often. I wish I had more time in my past two reporting shifts to tweak my stories to do that. However, that's not always appropriate. I think it can be used often but not always.

PHOTO COURTESY: sodahead.com

The sound of the cash register was a great transition out of the sound bite and into her voice track. That's the kind of sound viewers want to hear. Wendi's stand-up was very demonstrative and provided good information. She showed us the fruits and veggies and turned to a local vendor as she talked about the changes local vendors will see.

She goes to a sound bite with a "Myrtle Beach Spokesperson". I'm not sure what that means. I feel like that title is way too vague. I'm assuming he's on the city council or maybe not. I would want a more direct title for this person.

Wendi uses phrases like "plans to tackle" and "funding slated to stop". These are catchy and flashy. Love them! Good writing makes a big difference. I'm working on making mine better with every story.

Tragedy for Local Theater

Acting's been a hobby of mine since the seventh grade. I fell in love with theater from the first play I witnessed in junior high. When I came to college, it was so hard to realize I no longer had time to take part in theater. I've taken a few theater classes luckily, attending a few plays here and there.

Sunday night a friend of mine told me he went to a play over the summer at this outdoor theater. He said he the audience sat outside and watched the play; it's stage was outside too. There was a barn behind it as it's back stage and storage place.

On the night of Monday, April 5, that very barn theater went up in flames. I couldn't believe one day after my friend told that story, the theater was gone. My friend Laura and I were jogging that night nearby and saw the giant cloud of smoke from afar. Then, the sirens came. One fire truck after another after another flew past us on Grindstone Parkway. To make a long story short, we tried to get closer to the fire to see what exactly was up in flames, but we never got close enough to figure it out.

We ran back and I immediately got on twitter. There were several tweets from KOMUNews that the Maplewood Barn Theatre was on fire. I learned the following morning it had burned to the ground completely.  This is one great thing I love about news nowadays. You can get instant coverage from reporters and citizens on Twitter. I'll always use this in my reporting.

Tuesday afternoon I walked into KOMU wanting to know more. KOMU 8's Allison Archer was already working on the fire investigation story. I spoke with her and found out what she knew and also looked at her video. I was purely interested in the story on my own without knowing what happened next. Randy assigned me to cover the board members' meeting that night; they'd be discussing what to do now that the theater is gone. Looking at the video and asking Allison really helped me get a better idea what was going on so I could further my story. I'm so glad I was so curious.

I started looking into finding out the exact time and location of the meeting by searching on the theater's website, looking for phone numbers. After I got several voice mails, I realize that I should've asked Allison before I did all the unnecessary searching. She had the president's cell phone number. I called him and told him I'd like to attend the meeting and get an interview afterward. He said he'd love to have me and felt it was necessary for the media to cover what they'd be discussing.
                                                             
Thereafter, I went through media manager and pulled in all the potential video I could use of the fire the night before and the destruction video Allison had shot Tuesday morning. I'm really glad I did this because it really saved me time later on.

I pre-wrote my script as much as I could so that once I got back from the meeting, I could just plug in the rest of what I got from the meeting. I decided I'd talk about the brand new stage built three weeks ago in my stand-up. I asked one of the other reporters who was covering the election if he'd like some photog experience to shoot my stand-up. Chris Saunders and I headed out to the scene. We both learned a great deal how to use the cameras in tough lighting and how to make my stand-up look the best it could to show the burnt stage. I'm very proud that we took the time to make it look good. The only thing I wish I did was say, "it's just a burnt platform" instead of "just a burnt platform." The "it's" would've named the stage that I left out.

I pulled in my stand-up and laid it down on my sequence. I did as much as I could before I headed to the meeting. I'm glad I pre-planned like I did. I learned a lot about creating your own luck, being organized and planning ahead.

When I got to the meeting at Flat Branch, I was a little overwhelmed because the lighting was poor and it was so loud, I could barely hear what was being said. I adjusted everything on the camera so the lighting was decent. That turned out okay, I wish I got more shots that weren't so shaky. I took the camera off the tripod to get a different angle, but it was still too shaky. I got all my information written down and asked the president, Michael Scott, to verify what I had overheard. Then, I did my interview with him and another board member. I got great sound bites, but Michael spoke softly. I pulled him away from the crowd, but it wasn't enough. I learned that in that kind of situation, maybe I should have pulled him outside the restaurant.

I got back and put the package together in less than an hour. It was pretty difficult but I got it done. It wasn't the very best, but I learned a lot and I think I did well with the timing and all. I got a lot of compliments on my stand-up. I'm definitely proud of that.

Theater board members want to try and fix up the burnt stage and put on next month's play at Nifong Park. It all depends if they can afford to put up tents to store the costumes, props, tools and such to use in place of the barn. The other option is to perform at local colleges.

Covering a theater fire was interesting and sad at the same time. I felt sympathetic for the board members as a reporter and a theater lover. I'm glad I can add this story to my background. I learned a great deal.