Directing a Newsroom for College. Anyone have any advice?

[Coldkilla]

I joined the UW Milwaukee Broadcasting Club at the beginning of this semester and all I've been interested in doing is directing. Interestingly enough, no one except myself and one other have expressed interest in the position. It has been repeatedly said that it is "the hardest position" and after doing my first show last week, I must say I agree.

The club is fun, but since there is no clear "leader", I found myself scrambling to try and learn as fast as I could with virtually no training. During our first show (its a live broadcast sent out to the university's TV network broadcasted throughout the dorms and whatnot), the "president" of the club notified me that he's never directed and for that matter, barely worked in the control room before.

I figured it should be easy enough.. I was told to "watch the monitors, and tell the technical director which camera to switch to". Thats all I knew prior to the show starting. I never thought I'd be working with so many moving parts, even before the show right up to it starting.

In the middle of the show (like literally while we were broadcasting live), someone was telling me to tell the floor director how much time was left in the broadcast... camera operators needed more notice prior to me switching to them, the technical director needed an advance on a command so he had time to find the controls, the audio director needed cue on show volume to turn up before that person started talking. I got the script litterally 3 minutes before airtime and me being as uninformed as I was, started scribbling all over it saying "this is where I'll tell the technical director to get ready to cut to camera 3, etc" - but once the show started I was getting so many people talking in my ear I just couldnt concentrate on any of it.

Some of the commands they told me to say:
-Ready Super Host [CG text under speakers name].
-Ready Camera 1
-Ready Mic Host
-Go Super
-Go Camera 1
-Go Mic Host
-Super Cut Fade
-Ready Camera 3
-"Camera 2 can you back up maybe a foot and pan to the right a little"
-Ready Super Guest
-Go Camera 3

Someone who previously directed started directing "over me" and started telling people what to do mid-show, but since he was not assigned as director, my head started to spin because all the stuff he was shouting out I was never told to tell anyone (I was wondering who was directing at this point because every time I would be ready to open my mouth with a command he'd start talking).

Sometimes I would say "Ready Camera 3" but change my mind because the person may not be paying attention or something and the confusion often created a bad angle. The person talking over my shoulder told me to "vary up the shots a little" by telling camera men to move around between shots, and I basically laughed in anger... because I would have considered it a success to simply manage juggling all the parts and keeping the cameras stationary for that matter.. (because I've never done this before).

Basically it was a huge mess. At the end of the day I felt stressed, angry, and disheartened at the prospect that the people I worked with may have lost faith in my ability to direct in future broadcasts. I know I did.

I'm just curious if someone here has previously worked in a newsroom and might have any tips they could share with me in order to be a more efficient director because don't get me wrong.. for as stressful and maddening as it was, I found it extremely educational, fun, and I've got another show to look forward to on Friday.

 

[gar3555]

I've always wondered myself how directors can do it. Seems like your brain needs to be able to pay attention to 100 things at once, and be ready to shift in seconds. I've never worked in one, but besides the stress, sounds like a fun experience. Good luck!

 

[Gibson486]

Uh, yeah. If you never did it before, how do you expect to pick it up? You are not going to get it right the first time. If you are doubting yourself because of 1 bad experience, then I say you give up to easily and you do not want it bad enough. Life is not supposed easy, man.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Learn. I tried being tech manager for my lighting club and knowing color coordination light placement the names of all out equipment what each control board was capable of and everything was tough.only thing you van do is learn

 

[Coldkilla]

Right, but thats why I created the thread here. If anyone here has worked in a newsroom environment, any information would probably prove helpful. Of the 40 or so people in the Club, 2 (including myself) have been interested in directing. I'd like to learn - but since (at the moment) no one really knows anything in the club - Im reaching out to those who might.

Last show we did, no one there knew how to operate the control board to put text on the screen showing someones name when introducing them. The control room had people frantically going between the CG room and the control room trying to figure it out until a good 30 seconds before air time. Now this is usually the technical directors job but that just goes to show how little "know-how" is floating around for people to ask questions when they get confused.

UWM only has access to the Studio 1x a week for 4 hours. During those 4 hours we are airing 1-2 live shows. So yes I understand that not doing it well the first time is understandable - but since I cannot practice directing during a period where there is no show being filmed, I have to screw up when there are hundreds of people watching across the dorms. Which to me... just adds to the stress. Again don't get me wrong, if I at least knew 50% of what I was doing I'd enjoy every minute of it - including the stress.