Let's just start by saying my first two weeks as an intern at FOX 2's
web team have been pretty remarkable and educational. And I'm really
not just saying that!
After last week's intensive training on all of the teams software,
systems and processes, we started applying what we learned right away.
We've been posting stories, cutting videos, and helping our team as
much as we possibly can. We are 3 interns in our department, and I find
it nice share this experience with Kelly and John. We try to help each
other out whenever someone forgets a password, or a little step in the
process, or even if someone just needs a little help in Photoshop. I
think we all have been doing very good.
Coming to this internship, I had an idea that I would be exposed to
some cool stuff that I had never experienced before... but I really
under-estimated the "cool factor."
Let me tell you guys about my first "field trip" today... I think we
all know that Michigan had a special visitor today: Mr. Barack Obama.
So, Dennis, our boss, had the awesome idea to send us out to his
appearance at the Macomb Community College with the news team. Me and
John were assigned to go get whatever we could get from
behind-the-scenes shots to reactions to Obama's speech. It was awesome
that he trusted us and just told us to get whatever we could, with no
pressure on our shoulders. The only problem: we had consumer-type mini
dv cameras (translating: terrible audio, and not very good video
quality) , and did not take a tripod (my back is still feeling this
decision!)
And away we went... press badges and all. When we got there, we went
straight to the press area and met our FOX 2 colleagues. We advised Al
Allen and Charles Pugh that we would basically stalk them for the day
and get to show a little bit of their "human side." They were very nice
to us and didn't mind us bugging them with questions and filming them
doing whatever it was that they were doing.
Obama's speech was delayed by about an hour, because his tour of the
Chrysler Stamping Plant took longer than expected, so we were all
patiently waiting for what he had to say.
I was pretty excited I would get to see what Obama had to say straight
from his mouth. As I am not a citizen of this country (I'm from
Brazil), I cannot vote here, but I am really interested in American
politics, especially because the decisions made here will affect
everyone, everywhere in the world. Because I was not there to make a
decision on whether to vote Obama, Hilary or McCain, I decided I would
just analyze Obama's intellectual character and ideologies. And I admit
I was really blown away by his well-known charisma. Even if you are not
an Obama supporter, you have to give this to him: he is a great
speaker, and he does appear have good intentions in his mind. In
person, Mr. Obama shows he really cares for what he was saying and for
his country... and this was just a beautiful thing to see.
After his conference, it was time for Charles Pugh's one-on-one with
Mr. Obama, and for our surprise, me and John got to join him as well.
But first we had to wait... with the Secret Service staring at us. Now,
I cannot describe the feeling of waiting in that corridor for the
opportunity to be face-to-face with a person that might be the next
president of the United States. I hope Charles Pugh never reads this,
but I think even he was kind of nervous too!
When we were called in and entered that small room, Mr. Obama was very
courteous and polite. He welcomed us 4 into the room, and them him and
Charles went straight into the interview.... and my heart was pounding
there for those 10 minutes. After the interview was done, Charles had
asked me to take a picture of him and Mr. Obama, which I did. As I was
done taking the picture and showing it to Charles, Barack Obama was
right in front of me, offering a hand shake and a smile (YES, I WAS
EXCITED). He asked me how I was doing and I briefly introduced myself.
He asked me about my hometown in Brazil and seemed genuinely interested
in the conversation. With all of that hospitality I risked asking for a
quick photo with him, to which he replied "Of course! No problem!" And
here's the proof:
So... yes, we really got a lot more than what we were expecting to get
in this experience. I would never even imagine I would have an
opportunity like that when I left the studio this morning... really,
what an amazing experience!!!
After this I'm really ready for whatever comes, but I seriously can't
imagine anything cooler than what happened today happening again.
I think you guys are probably tired of reading this thread already, but I really wanted to share this great day with you guys!
So if you guys are interested in our first little snippet of behind-the-scenes from today (that's all we really had time for after we got back to the office), you can check it out here:
Behind the Scenes at Obama's Visit to MCCPlease keep in mind our lack of proper equipment and time to put a decent package together, but I promise we'll do better next time!
So... enjoy and thanks for reading!