When the Cheshire emerges...

Oh btw, I DID see a possum last night at the sinkhole. Just one. But it could well have killed us for the apple pieces we were feeding it. Anyway, so I'm in the newsroom atm, this is usually the boring part of the day because journos are writing up their stories. I only had one to do so I'm done. Could have a late lunch but I'm lazy and don't wanna ask if I can actually venture out. The point is that I've done a story!!!!! Sure, it's not hard-hitting news but it's hopefully still awesome.

Knew today was going to be productive. Parkinson was interviewed on Sunrise and his journalist tips were a good omen. Plus I was entering day 3 and figured it'd just be cruel if I hadn't had a chance by now. Get here, Kristy (sports chick) hasn't shown up. We find out at 2 or so that she's been in the hospital waiting line all day, poor thing. I should do an investigation into that, why the system's a load of crap...

While I didn't replace her with the sport, my story was on a firefighters assessment where they use breathing apparatus in smoke-filled situations. Couldn't film much inside the house they used - couldn't see more than 6 inches ahead! Their task was to get the dummies to safety and dinner plates stood in for holes in the ground... The masks were huge and they had thermal imaging cameras too. Simple fluff piece but interviewed the Regional Training Co-ordinator (yes, important) and a firefighter.

Took me 2.5 hrs to pick the footage and write it up, which is from lack of expertise/practice, but I had time. Stuart (chief of staff) looked it over, chopped and changed it but said my piece-to-camera was really good and the story was excellent. His words! Reckons he only shuffled things around and didn't have to do much. I thought he was doing a lot...

Did the voiceovers fairly quickly and that went fine. Was surprised my p-t-c went okay, did freak out to myself because I struggled when trying to write it at one point and on the field there's limited time. Glad it wasn't too important a story otherwise there would've been a different effect. I won't see the final product until I watch it back at Mel's later (yes, I'm taping it but will get it on DVD after the week) so I have no idea how it looks.

Seeing Harry Potter tonight... what a perfect way to end the day. It's been pretty a cruisy intro to TV reporting, but am hoping by Friday to get much better at structuring my stories. Practice makes perfect!