Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Zoom, Zoom

Today zoomed by, in more ways than one.

I arrived to work at 9:00 this morning and exited the building at 9:10 due to a fire drill. I don't think I've experience a fire drill for almost five years now. It didn't bother me - the weather wasn't as cold this morning as they had forecasted and everyone's spirits were lifted a little over the fact we were missing work.

After we went back inside, everyone helped themselves to coffee and hot tea to warm up. It was then that I first saw how most Canadian get their milk - in a bag. It's kind of weird. They keep the milk in the bag and place it into a pitcher. Most people at the office take their tea with milk, which I thought was very European. So in the spirit of camaraderie I tried it this way as well. The combination wasn't as repulsive as I anticipated - I drank the whole cup.

I helped out with donation receipts this morning and even made some phone calls to track down reporters to attend an event the company is hosting in the next few days. For the most part, it was a slow morning.

Around 11:00 I was asked by one of the cameramen if I'd like to sit in on the filming of Zoom. Zoom is a 4-5 minute daily broadcast of Catholic Canadian News and world events with Catholic perspectives. They're filmed every day around 11:30, edited and then broadcasted that night at 5:00. It's the hope of the Zoom team and my supervisor that I do these broadcasts - crazy. The broadcasts are posted to their website the same day - which can be found here: http://saltandlighttv.org/prog_slprog_zoom.html

Tomorrow I'm going to follow the process of coming up with and finding the stories to be featured that day and how the reporters write up their scripts for the teleprompters. They're pretty insistent in getting me familiar with the process, so I may start trying things out next week. After the French and English versions were filmed, I was able to watch the editing process of the videos. For such a short program, a lot of work goes into the final product.

Someone asked me about my ring today and I was able to tell them the story of Ben's proposal. I'm pretty sure ever girl in the office stopped, "ooo" and "awww" from their desk when the topic was brought up. I blushed a lot and got teased - but it was all in good fun. One of the girls in the office offered to make my wedding jewelry - go figure?

I was also asked to help out with "The Priests" concert this Friday. "The Priests" is an ensemble of three Irish priests that sing various religious songs. They're supposedly very famous and known internationally. Because Salt and Light is filming them and recording the music for a CD, they have a ton of setup on Friday. I'm going to be there from 9 AM to 10 PM - looong day. I'm there to just observe the process and basically anything they need me for - coffee runs, helping carry equipment, etc. It should be exciting.

Tonight I walked home from work. So many people walk here in the city and a lot of people told me the walk from work to the convent was "just a quick 30 minutes". I don't think I'd walk anywhere in Houston for 30 minutes unless I was actually on a walk. I left the office around 5 and ended up at the house around 5:45. It wasn't as bad as I expected, but I'll probably take the railcar most days just because it's cold. The sisters had already had dinner when I got back, so I headed back to Second Cup for a quick snack and some coffee.

Tomorrow I'm having a meeting with the producers and editors of the company to go over expectations and further develop what I'll be doing over the internship, so that should be interesting. I'm already looking forward to the weekend - I still have school work to do, but I'm so exhausted when I get back that it's hard to make progress on it.

Wishing everyone a warm and relaxing night back home,

Michelle

1 comment:

  1. I just heard about this blog and I wanted to say howdy! It sounds like an adventure and I hope your visit continues to be full of blessings and excitement!

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