Wednesday « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

Wednesday

IU / journalism / photo / Wednesday — Comments Off
9
Nov 16

The weary Wednesday

The day after election night coverage is always a long one. I mentioned last night the first election I covered. It was a late night, well after midnight, before I was done. The next election I covered I slept for about two hours in my car. They are long, fascinating days full of interesting work. But the following Wednesday is a different, more exhausted experience.

Last night I paused in the IDS newsroom to check in their coverage. That’s an incredible paper. Here’s their front page today:

While the students worked late into the night last night, Ernie Pyle, was banging out copy early this morning:

And this evening Allie is still busy exploring all over:

IU / photo / television / video / Wednesday — Comments Off
2
Nov 16

That’s the thing about studios …

Once you get in them, you find it is difficult to leave. And so you end up spending a lot of time in them. Not that you mind. You do have to change your perspective from time to time, however.

This is the view over the director’s shoulder:

They were shooting a talk show. It is a little slow at times, but it is a brand new show trying to find its voice. Slow isn’t always bad. Anyway, this is the third episode. You can see it here:

IU / photo / Wednesday — Comments Off
19
Oct 16

Meanwhile, on the big screen

On Wednesday nights I have students in the television studio. That’s a two-hour experience. Meanwhile, just outside the studio, in the atrium, the giant television is getting a workout:

One of the video game groups — there is a video game major and several groups — is showing off some of their side projects. I walked by just in time to watch a zombie monster thing rush the screen.

That’s a video game that’s 12 feet tall and 26 feet wide.

The video game makers were initially concerned about frame rate on the big screen. But then they plugged in some video games and were very pleased. The screen supports Wii, X-Box and Playstation. It also boasts six Directv tuners. There’s a lot of things you can do in there, even zombies.

Nice bowtie, though.

memories / Wednesday — Comments Off
12
Oct 16

Huh

It is funny where things come to you. Some important thought once came to me in a dream. Once I had an important realization while driving up a little hill in a quaint downtown area, wondering if I would hit the green light above. I’ve had plenty of life’s little epiphanies while standing over a sink of one sort or another.

And now today. Today, I was cleaning out my phone a bit. I need the space, you see. So I’ve dumped a lot of things and I’ve removed all of the messages I can stand to delete and now I’m going through old texts with a few key correspondents. At this point I’m deleting the odd picture or two, but mostly reminiscing. You know how it is: sometimes you see a thing you’ve written and it brings back the flood of details that worked around the bits you wrote. I stumbled on a particular text and that prompted this:

I was sitting in an office when I typed that text. I was sitting in a different office when I found it again.

And it is funny where things come to you.

IU / photo / television / Wednesday — Comments Off
5
Oct 16

What happens if I push this button?

The technical director is the guy that sits at the big console in a television control room and makes it happen. When a new camera shot is taken, that’s the technical director. When there’s a graphic on the screen, the Chyron person made it, but the TD put it on the screen. When there’s a video package playing, that’s on the screen because of our friend the technical director. That person sits here:

This is a Grass Valley switcher and it is massive and impressive. It took about a full week of intensive training to get most of it down. And it will do everything we will conceivably ask of it and more. One of the TDs on one of our student shows was comparing this new control room to their old digs. Used to be, he said, he could sit in one seat and do three or four of the roles without moving. Now, in this new studio, a state-of-the-art facility, a full-on production requires a team of nine or 10 crew members. So the short version is: better programming, more training opportunities, win-win.

Such is the dedication to the broadcast students that Indiana University and the Media School have built such an impressive facility. It is a neat treat to be a small part of that. And if I am sitting at that switcher one day and I disappear into the past or transport myself to Mars, just know it was a human error on my part.

View from my run this evening:

An easy three-miler to get through the middle of the week.