Technical Operations Intern - WGAL-TV News 8 - Lancaster, PA
During the summer between my sophomore and junior year, I secured an internship with the technical operations department at WGAL. During this internship, I mainly did camera and prompter for the morning shows with a call time of 4am. I also worked a few weeks on night shift as well to see the differences between the morning and night newscasts. During the down time between shows, I was taught how to use their switcher and direct live newscasts. I shadowed all the various positions included in live television production including audio, master control, directing, producing, and coordinating and setting up live shots.
Throughout the summer, I also helped with some live event set-up with their Brain Busters finale which is a trivia game show where high school kids from all around the area compete. Shadowing this event helped me understand what goes into a production outside of the news set. Set up included working out all the lighting, white balancing the cameras and much more.
My Experience Directing
After the morning show ends at 7am, there are four news cut-ins in between the Today's show. I had the opportunity to direct one of these cut-ins off-air. All the anchors and rest of the team stayed a few extra minutes after a live cut-in to help me out. There's a lot that goes into directing as the director has to run graphics, video, instruct camera operators as well as punching up the shots. It put all my knowledge and hard work during this internship to the test. Check out my mock cut-in below!