Final Internship Blog

during this internship what was the highlight of my learning was putting together a documentary after the workers of NBC showed us what goes into making a real broadcast. Normally making a documentary is no big deal but over at NBC it is a different story because the stakes are higher. At school you make it for a grade, over at NBC you make it to represent your school and your company. It was a lot of work and this picture is of me with a lot of work on my desk and falling asleep, because all the work we did really took a lot out of you at the end of the day.

Making the movie taught me the value of a good team and working together. Each person was good at something but no one person was good at everything and so we had to work together to make something really good.

Business proposal

Here we go -- press images of the HP Slate just hit the web, right as Ballmer showed it off during his CES keynote. The prototype device is said to be coming later this year, and it's running Windows -- Ballmer showed it running the PC Kindle app. It's also multitouch, and can do some gaming -- they showed it playing Frogger. Check one more pic and the teaser vid after the break. And trust us -- we're going to find out everything about this thing before we're done.

There is a rumor that it will be running Microsoft Windows 7 Tablet . There isn’t a release date or price for the device yet. What is known about it though is that it will have capabilities to stream media such as newspapers, and videos. Because its such an unknown machine, there aren’t that many people/companies backing it. For NBC to make money off this future “must have device”, the company needs to create a live connection to the device to stream NBC programming and news casts. During the production of the device, and sponsoring it would put NBC’s name on it somewhere and it would establish an agreement. For media streaming of NBC’s programming, say the device requires a subscription to stream video, NBC takes a piece of the profits of subscriptions which might be anywhere from 20 to 50 $ a month, NBC proposes the idea of making 30% off the subscriptions for company programming. NBC starts making money off every person who buys an HP Slate just for video content streaming. This device also is planning to have a newspaper streaming feature. Granted NBC doesn’t create newspapers but NBC does make news stories for its website which could easily be sent to the HP Slate.

Available Content:

Wallpapers - different themes for the device promoting the channel or a show or something. As long as the actual theme looks cool, people will buy it. Pricing varies on how complex the theme would be

Video - previews and trailers for non subscribers and full length (standard or HD to save hard drive space) videos for subscribers and downloaders. Prices for standard video would be slightly lower than HD quality video.

News articles - After subscription, viewing news articles would be free. Without subscription they would get 5 or so free trial views of a full article and after that, they would have to pay.

Streaming:

The HP Slate is going to have internet capabilities, the most logical way would be to stream video to the server that controls content of the device and then from there HP would stream NBC content to the subscribing units. Because the Slate is internet based and has storage, the device would just receive the video and have the ability to download NBC videos.

On top of subscribers, there should be small trailers/previews of the shows. These previews would be small cuts of the show either 3 to 5 minutes of what the real show is.

Another way to get content:

Obviously the Slate needs to charge right? Instead of actually streaming video through their servers, NBC can create their own server specifically designed for the Slate. When the slate is plugged into the computer for charging (assuming that it has a usb charger) NBC’s Slate server could work much like iTunes with an iPod, as soon as the Slate is plugged in, a program would open with NBC content on it available for download and then later to be loaded onto the device itself. Like iTunes, this program could be accessed without the Slate plugged in and shows and content could be purchased with a credit card or some form of gift card then awaited for download to the Slate.

This way you wouldn’t have to use the money sending NBC content through HP and then to the Slate you could just send straight to the Slate. To install the program NBC would have to make a deal with HP to cause automatic installation for first time connection between computer and Slate.

It might take a while for this product to make a lot of sales but in time it looks like it would be a valuable investment.

Internship 15

Projects & productivity—Post a series of photos that show your projects, other projects at your internship site and how they all come together.

Sai working on the documentary. Our project was a short documentary project about our experiences here. It might air on TV if our boss likes it enough (and if its short

enough). Hes working on putting everything together.

This is some of the wiring that we had to deal with earlier in the week. This was to set up the new mac for editing. We hooked up monitors, tape decks, soundboards and many other things to this one computer. As you can imagine, the wiring was really complicated.

For our documentary, we needed to conduct interviews. This is me being interviewed. Later we put it into final cut and blended it with the rest of the documentary that we were making.

Internship 14

This picture shows dave working at his dest. as you can see, he has 2 water bottles which means hes prolly there a lot of the time working. He doesnt have much space on his desk so you know he's always busy. The two monitors he's using show that he needs to finish work quick because the two monitors make for more area of work.

He looks like an all over hard working man.

Dave Mackinnon

Q: whats your name and job title

My name is David Mackinnon, and I'm the operations manager

Q: What was your first impressions of the high school students

I thought they were ready to learn the business and ready to see how the working world was really like. They seemed to have plenty of knowledge of computers and technology in general. Thats starting to get more common in todays youth

Q: How did they help you.

They helped me come up with a marketing idea for a device that may be coming out later this year. They helped me come up with a business proposal for my boss so NBC can stream content to the newest devices.

Internship 12

Throughout the day we mainly just work with ourselves as interns. The first week was the main week for the mentors to watch us constantly. Right now what we are doing is coming up with marketing ideas to get NBC more views so everyone in the company is indirectly affected by what we are doing right now. When we work with each other normally what we are doing is sharing ideas and helping with problems, not so much working as a team, as for the real employees of the business we dont really work with them too much at all other than learning about stuff that they do. All it does is gets a second opinion about your ideas to refine them to make it better. I don't know how my work affects people i dont see because i simply dont see them. If i were in charge, i wouldnt really care about how people work together as long as the work gets done. According to a lecture in Sara's class, the workers of google get more accomplished during the 20% of free time then the 80% of work time.

Internship 11

This week at internship was really stressful because we were working on our project and there has been a very large slip up which could cost us the project. We are no longer aloud to use NBC equipment to create our project because the employees are too busy to supervise us and its against company policy to allow interns to use equipment without supervision. That one section of the week was the highlight and memorable because if we dont get the project done its because of this single event, in a sense this single event decides if we pass or not. other than the loss of the camera the rest of the weak was pretty standard, just help out mentors with whatever they needed us to do.

Internship 10

1. what position did you start at with this company?
2. what degree do you need to land a high paying job at this company.
3. what would you change if you could go back knowing what you know now.
4. how long did it take to move up from your starting job to what you do now.
5. did you ever think that you would be doing this kind of work before you started

This is a picture of my desk that I work at. Its really made me question whether or not i want to work in a office building because in an office building you are no longer a person you are a guy in a suit. theres very little individuality or diverseness. Its very boring and even though it pays well i dont think i can handle it. so thats what i think about when i see this picture and thats the question that it makes me wonder.

Internship 8

What new appreciations (for who? of what?) have you gained through internship that you did not have before? How did you develop these appreciations?


While working at NBC the station i got to see the news being done on set. Its not a super amazing and hard thing to do but watching it got a lot of respect out of me because the people doing it knew what they were doing and it flowed like clockwork. there were 3 cameras that were moving around the studio and turning on at random times. The people doing the news knew exactly which one to look at for every moment in time, an knew when to start talking for each one (without a que). and i thought that it took a long time to learn the system as well as they knew it. while your watching the news at home it doesnt look like anything special is happening. but in the studio its just so much different.

Internship week 1 Wrap up

Internship site: NBC

Department: IT (technical department)

Project Title: Documentary of a High school Intern

General Description: High school students are going through three weeks of being in the real world of internship at a rather large company. Throughout those three weeks the students are expected to perform dutys of full time employees of NBC, throughout the three weeks they are going to be interviewed about their experiences and acomplishments. By the end of the third weeks each student will have a few questions about their site documented in a video which will be edited, shot, and completely assembled by the students. Then possibly aired on the news.

Learning Objectives: The objective of the video is for the students to learn how to use the equipment used for professional news brodcasting and to get a feel of what the professional industry is really like.

Organization/Company Objectives & Benefits: To show the public what goes on behind the camera from someone who isn't a biased source. To put a story on the air that has never been done before, something really unique that will get people to think.

Schedule: Theres no set schedule because the news is never completely planned

Academic Skills: Basic writing of screenplay and camera angles. On camera skills and public speaking.

Technical Skills: Final cut pro, livetype, newsedit, camera operation

Collaboration—Skills and Opportunities: While being at this internship, students get to know their mentors and the mentors co-workers. If they make a good enough impression, the mentors might remember the interns which could turn into college recommendations and possibly a job.

Exhibition Plans: Working on possibly getting the documentary on the air when its finished

Schedule & Timelines: There cant be a set time because of how un predictable this office is.

The first week of NBC, I didn't know what to expect. For the first few days it was mainly just shadowing a mentor to learn how the business worked and how all the machines worked. For like the middle of the week the main thing we were doing was fixing computers and installing new hardware to the people that needed it in the office. Personally i went with Mario (camera man) to film a story about music in the workplace. I didn't really have too many challenges, the only one i really had was when my mentor was expecting me to reformat computers and install drivers because i didn't know how to do that. How to solve my problem was to ask a lot of questions and learn from the questions I asked. My first week was mainly just a starter week, next week will be a lot harder and a lot more realistic of having a job.

Internship 6

I would like to learn from my mentor:
-what he/she majored in college
-do they enjoy their job
-how do they interact with their boss
-what they did before what they did now
-how long did it take to move up from where they started in the company
-what made you want the job you have
-knowing what you know now would you have changed anything about what you did or where you went



At the NBC office, there isn't computer reservation and because peoples needs change at different times the office is unpredictable for times. We are going to interview either Sherrylou, Craig, or Bill. The only confirmed equipment we can use for sure is whatever we bring from home. Because the office is so unpredictable we can't set a schedual time because we don't have control over what happens in the office but when there is down time (enough for what we need) thats when we will do our interview. The interview might be in pieces, we normally get random downtime throughout the day where everything is running smooth. Thats when we will get all the pieces for the interview and we can just edit them together.

Internship 5

Project title: NBC mini documentary
Project description: Using all the tools and skills we have learned for the time we were here, us as interns are going to create a documentary about our experiences here as high school students. Depending on the mood of our boss and if we have time, the documentary might be aired during the news
Project schedule: We don't really have a schedual because we learn more and more everyday and we cant predict whats going to happen everyday because systems go offline and hardware breaks. The business in general is unpredictable.
Materials & Equipment needed: PL2 video camera, INews, vibrant/news edit
Project documentation: All of our work is saved under NBC servers that we can access from any computer in the building. Others will know about it if we can get it on the air, which we are in the process of doing. After our internship we will have a professional documentary about our experiences.

Internship 4

At the job I'm working at right now some of the skills I'm using right now are computer assembly, troubleshoot, and basic editing for some of the videos that are going to air. For the project we are going to be doing, the interns are going to have to work together by assuming the jobs of the production crew of the news cast I.E. camera man, script writer, editor. The technical skills i can use here are my editing skills because everything shot with the camera has to be edited. There are numerous different programs that i havn't heard of before at NBC and i would like to learn how to use them to put something on TV. I wouldnt be able to do it from home but in the future if i work in TV production it would be good to know. Our project is going to be a video so I'm assuming that we are going to put the final on a DVD or flash drive that we can take to other computers and play. The work I'm doing is just making the process of things go quicker. If an editor needs another opinion i can help them, or if an employee needs help with one of their tasks that i know how to do i help them.

Internship 3

The skills i want to develop for the time at my site are a better understanding of the recording and brodcasting portion of news. I want to learn all the programs they use I.E. the editing software and the transferring data software, and other such programs. At my site its really interesting to watch the news casters actually do the news (watching from the studio). It doesnt directly influence the things i want to learn how to do here but thats the final product of all the small things that i want to learn how to do here. Some of the things i can address from my mentor are helping him monitor the activity of the hardware to make sure they are all working the way they should. Mostly he tells me what needs to happen for that day and shows me how to do what he wants and i do it.

Internship 2

To start off on the right tone what i did was make sure that i was being polite to all my mentors and give off a good impression and expressing an eagerness to start working on whatever they wanted. It showed that i was ready for the job. My mentors name is Bill, Bill an I have been talking a lot about the steps he took to get where he is today as a technical manager of NBC. We talked about things I should start looking into and start doing from the mistakes he made when he was younger. It doesnt directly help me at the current time but it gives me a better understanding of what needs to be done to land a good job in the future. I havent actually advanced the interest of my site because the jobs we have been doing lately have been more of the helping the mentor out and learning how everything goes, not so much him give us jobs and us go do them. In the near future what i can do to make my experience better is to be open to any job they give me and relize that im not going to know how to do it all/like it all and i just need to be ready for that because in the real world it doesnt matter if you want to do it or not you still have to.

1st Day of Internship

Picture 1: When I got there we took a long tour of all the stuff we were going to use. I saw the camera that they use to shoot the news casts and I couldn’t resist myself I had to mess around with it a little bit.

Picture 2: This is an editing work station that we are going to be using. There is around 10 of them in the building that are open to us. The program is a similar one to final cut pro. Its just PCatized.

Picture 3: This is the operations mentor Sherry Lou. She is in charge of the rundown (script) of the news casts. What the cameras are going to do, the angles, the order of the stories. That kind of thing.

Picture 4: The studio that broadcasts the news reports. This is the spot you see on TV, its a lot smaller than what I expected but all the equipment is really cool. It certainly caught my eye because I’ve seen it before but not in person.

Picture 5: This is the networking mentor Craig. He’s going to work with us on the transferring of files, saving, formatting and that sort of thing. He is wearing a standard polo and jeans which is what most of the workers at NBC wear.

Picture 6: This is my station where I help Sherry Lou with the rundowns and whatever else she needs me to do. The stations are pretty open, anyone can log onto any computer because they are all on the same server.

Picture 7: There is a room thats about the size of the main commons filled with racks and racks of expensive equipment. Servers, computers, routers, channelers, wires this room is the heart of everything. A lot of it is hard to understand but its really interesting to see it all.

Picture 8: How could I go to NBC and not get a picture with one of the news talents.

What are some of the larger things getting cut because of the recession?

NBC no longer has a helicopter flying in the air for traffic and other things. They have to share with news 8. They also had to let go of some of the workers working in positions where there were more than one person on that assignment.

Are all the news companies under the same kind of stress from the recession as NBC?

According to Bill (the broadcasting mentor) they are under stress but NBC is under the most because out of KUSI 8 FOX and NBC, NBC is the lowest rated news station.

The Day:

I woke up at 7:33 and realized that today was the first day of internship. I jumped out of bed and got in the shower. I then put on my nice button up shirt, slacks and a tie. My dad asked me if I wanted pancakes but I told he that we didn’t have enough time and we were out the door at around 8:11.

I arrived at NBC at 8:37 and continued up to the 3rd floor to meet my mentor. I was greeted by Sai, Osamah and Faith (student at international). We were taken by one of the workers to the picture room to have all of our pictures taken and turned into keycards to gain access to all the doors. Bill showed up to take us on a tour of the equipment, it took around two and a half hours. By then it was around noon and Sai and I walked across the street to Baja Fresh. They are really expensive. In the afternoon, Bill had left and I was under the wing of Sherry Lou. She showed me the basics of writing up a rundown which is basically a script of cameras, order of stories, which news caster says what. After that, I got my own personal account on the server so I could now log into any computer. Today was a rather easy day, it was more of a “show me where stuff is” day.

Until Wednesday I am working on broadcasting with Bill. After that the interns will switch roles. I am ready for anything they can dish out, some things more so than others. I’m really excited to see a news cast take place and what happens behind the cameras that you don’t see. I am also really excited to get into the editing room and make the videos off the rundowns that are made. I’m going to have to learn to use PC’s instead of my beloved mac because there are no macs on station. The only thing I’m nervous about is knowing that my work goes up on the TV where anyone can see it.

After work I got picked up at roughly 3:52 and went home. The rest of the night was mine to chill.