Emmy Nominations and Morning Shows

July has been a fun month. Since I last wrote you, my parents and I went to Carmel for wine tasting. It was a great celebration trip for Dad's birthday and Mom's completion of her Master's. Carmel was so beautiful! We had a wonderful time. I wish we could have stayed longer, but I had to get back to L.A. I definitely want to go back there again.

My boss put me in charge of the Emmy nominations that were announced earlier this month. My job was to find out who was going to be potentially nominated and create B-roll packages of the shows or the actors/actresses. That way, when the nominations were announced the morning of July 16, we could instantly roll footage of who was nominated. We looked smart for already knowing who was nominated before they were announced.

I began working on the packages one week before the annoucnements. It was my first experience editing on Final Cut Pro since high school, so I was glad I was getting practice. I had a total of about 50 people or shows that I thought were going to be nominated. This does not sound like a lot of separate packages to put together in one week, but when your server goes back and forth from working to not working and another intern downloads illegal software on the computer which completely slows it down, you might have some trouble getting it all done. Luckily, the last night before the Emmy noms were announced, I had lots of help from another intern, Allie, who helped me add any final touches to the packages.

The Emmy nominations were announced at 5:40 a.m., so I came in to work the morning show for the first time. I only slept for two hours the night before, because I was anxious that I might not hear my alarm when it went off at 4 a.m. I fueled up with two cups of very strong coffee and got to work at 5 a.m. - killer! Since all the packages were already put together, my job was easy. We had several phoners call in to talk about being nominated, including John Cryer from Two and a Half Men and Jane Krakowski from 30 Rock. I just looked for more footage of them to use while morning anchor and reporter, Jessica Holmes, interviewed them.

John Cryer, nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series

Our show looked great! Our preparation really paid off. We had the highest ratings that morning!

Despite just how early I had to get up, I really enjoyed working the morning show. I think that is an area of the news I could really do well in. The morning show is a little more upbeat and faster paced. I also really enjoyed getting off at 1:30 p.m. and being able to have a full day to do whatever I please. I'm more productive in the morning. I like to get all the work done first, then play. I loved that I got to go to the pool, do some shopping and get a little run before settling down for then night.

My last week of work I went in to work the morning show again. My boss, Allan, let me go watch how they filmed a special segment outside. The anchors took turns making ice cream at an outdoor ice cream parlor that you can rent to come to your house or party. They did the segment because July is national ice cream month. It reminded me a lot of national network morning shows: outside, upbeat, light-hearted, showing how to make something. I liked it a lot! They gave me ice cream, which was a little odd since it was 9 a.m., but by that time it felt like lunch since I had been awake for five hours.

My roommate, Amanda, and I went to the Magic Castle on July 17 with some other UTLA kids. The Magic Castle is a private club, and you have to be invited to go by someone who is a member. Phil Nemy, our director, invited us as our prize for winning the UTLA scavenger hunt we completed earlier this summer. I expected the magic castle to be like a Vegas show, but it was actually way cooler. All the magic was close up. You could sit at the table with the magicians and watch as they completely fooled you. I was so blown away, wondering how the heck they could possibly do some of those tricks.

Outside the Magic Castle

That Sunday we went to support our hometown Astros at the Dodgers baseball game. It was hot as Hades, so we didn't stay long. Our frozen lemonades could only do so much to cool us off, and we didn't want to pay $7 for a bottle of water. We were winning when we left, but unfortunately the Dodgers ended up winning the game.

It's my last week in L.A. Today 24 UTLA kids and me are going to a taping of The Price Is Right. I used to watch that show every summer morning after swim practice as a kid, so I'm stoked to have a chance to hear, "Maggie Holmes, come on down!" haha! Next time I write I could be a millionaire!

PS- The New York Times published an article of mine I submitted for their college life series. You can view it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/education/edlife/26pompoms.html?ref=edlife

Celebrity Deaths and Fourth of July

Lots of things have happened since I last wrote...

I'll begin with work:

The week of June 21 was insanely busy and rather morbid for all entertainment news departments in Los Angeles. I am in class all day on Mondays, so I missed the death of Ed McMahon and the making of his obituary. When I came in on Tuesday, my boss told me that we need to start working on other people's obituaries because putting obituary news segments together last minute is too stressful. Since deaths are usually breaking news, we try to get word on who is going to die soon so that we have time to put a segment together on them before it happens. My boss told me that he received word that Farrah Fawcett was in the hospital and getting worse, so I started putting together film clips of her life. We made a list of all her most famous works, and started collecting video.

Farrah Fawcett's Star on Walk of Fame

Wednesday morning, June 24, I was eating breakfast and watching my work's news channel when I saw the breaking news that Farrah died. I saw all the film clips that I had helped my boss put together. I was glad I could help them pay tribute to Farrah in such a beautiful, respectful obituary. When I got to work, everyone was relatively even paced. My boss asked me to pull even more video of Farrah. As I was recording clips of her into our server I heard someone yell in the news room, "We have word that Michael Jackson is in cardiac arrest!" Everyone stopped what they were doing. All sources - agents, hospital employees, Internet gossip sites - were being called and searched for word on whether or not this news was true. Believe it or not, TMZ, which in my opinion is one of the most gossipy web sites and worst resources for honest news, was the very first source to report Michael Jackson's death. The news room went nuts! Immediately I was told to drop anything I was working on and start pulling Michael Jackson footage to air. Before I knew it I was doing four different tasks for four different people all at once. Two of the people I was helping I had never even seen in our office before. I would be working on one task and someone down the hall would scream my name to come into the next room and start something else. Normally I have two to three hours to work on two news segments for the 10 p.m. show every night. On this day I was working on about eight different segments, spending 20 minutes or less on each. For a period of about two hours I was the only entertainment intern in the office, so it was very hectic for me. Every reporter was called in. Soon we had several news trucks and helicopters going live from Michael Jackson's star on the Walk of Fame on Hollywood, the hospital and MJ's home. Ross, the prime entertainment reporter, began doing phone interviews with stations in Europe to let them know what was happening in L.A. I remember as I was recording the Billie Jean music video into our server, I saw a live shot from our helicopter on one of the big screens in the control room: the shot was of a crowd of about 200 or more people running down the streets around the hospital. Everyone was going crazy because they thought they were going to see MJ's body. When they officially announced his death on television, a woman in my office started crying. People were running up and down the halls, and papers were flying. When I got off work I was still worked up. Coming home to an apartment of silence was relieving because all I had heard for the past seven hours were six televisions on at once, police radios, telephones ringing off the hook and people screaming and running down the hallways. When I came into work the next day, all the people in my office commended me for working so hard and keeping up with the pace of their breaking news. One lady in my office told me that she has worked there for six years and that Michael Jackson's death was the biggest breaking news she has experienced so far. What an experience to be a part of something so large at my internship. I am getting so much valuable experience!

Michael Jackson's Star on Walk of Fame

Being in L.A. during Michael Jackson's death is definitely different than Austin, Texas. First of all, none of the Austin news stations have entertainment news departments. I am so glad I got to see how my department and the rest of the news station reacted to Michael Jackson's and Farrah Fawcett's death. Second of all, there are a lot of crazy Michael fans in L.A.! People have been hanging out by his Walk of Fame star and outside of his house to pay their tributes. There is a public memorial at the Staples Center center today which can fit around 20,000 people! Amanda and I went out in Hollywood that week and we saw a group of people on the street dancing to Michael Jackson music and wearing Michael's signature hat. Today Michael Jackson is being buried right down the road from my apartment at the Forest Lawn cemetery, which is seriously less than a mile from where I live.

On Friday Billy Mays died. Luckily I don't work on Fridays. I think I have handled enough deaths in one week - haha. But my boss has now made me the official obituary intern. I have about eight folders on people who we believe are in bad health and might die within in the next year. I've been collecting video and pictures of Walter Cronkite, Hugh Hefner, Betty White, Dick Clark, Elizabeth Taylor and others. Putting these obits together before they have died is really sad and kind of morbid. After putting Michael Jackson's obit together last minute, though, I can see why my work would want to get a head start.

Now other things:

Ryan came to visit me this past week! We did lots of really fun things! He came in on Wednesday, July 1, and the first thing we did was hit up the pool. He took me to an amazing dinner at the best sushi place in Hollywood, Katsuya. There were tons of paparazzi outside of the restaurant. I was really hoping Ryan would get a celebrity siting on his first night, but we never saw anyone. On Thursday, I took him to my work to show him around the news station. Then we went to Santa Monica to watch a taping of Chelsea Lately. We got to sit in the front row, thanks to Ryan's sister who got us the tickets. We had a great time, and Chelsea Handler was really funny. Thursday night I cooked Ryan dinner, and then we went clubbing in Hollywood. A bunch of UTLA kids came too. We went to Ecco Lounge where the bouncer was one of the actors in the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall. We had a really good time dancing and people watching - haha! On Friday we went hiking at Griffith Park. We went a little off trail to pick up the intensity of our hike. Ryan did great, but he had to stop a couple times to wait for me. It was so steep! The view at the top of the mountain was awesome though! You could see the entire city. That night we went to get dinner and drinks at Lola's, which was a place the girls went on MTV's The Hills show. We grabbed after dinner cocktails at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills with some 30 year olds (inside joke). Saturday was the fourth of July and it was such a blast! We spent the entire day at Manhattan Beach with a group of UTLA kids. Everyone got intense sunburns, but it was worth it, because we had so much fun! Sunday we went to eat at a little French cafe on Sunset, and then I took Ryan for a drive around Beverly Hills. I showed him what we could see of the Playboy mansion and Aaron Spelling's mansion, which is currently the most expensive home on the market in the United States. I've decided that I need to find a job that will support my Beverly Hills mansion purchase -haha! It was sad saying goodbye to Ryan, but I know time will fly fast and I will be back in Austin soon. :)

Ryan and me at Ecco Lounge

Before hiking at Griffith Park

Fourth of July at Manhattan Beach