Day of Days

Today was my first twelve hour day, and like Normandy, it was a telling threshold. If I couldn't storm this beach, the whole campaign would ultimately fail. This type of day is the longest one I'll ever have, so I just tried to grind it out without pouting too much. It turns out that it wasn't that bad.

Waking up at 445am was a doozy, but all I had to do was shower and dress and tumble downstairs to the car that was waiting for me. There were people around, but it was surprisingly calm for the city that doesn't sleep. I found my way to the control room, the most wired and pixel-packed room I've ever been in, and waited for my fellow (and thankfully much more experienced) intern to join me.

We grabbed the coffee for everybody at the beginning, but besides that, we didn't really contribute to the whole scene. It was still really interesting to see how everyone worked together and communicated with each other to put together the show. I got a feeling it was a unique sort of day, as one of the guests became a little weepy during an interview.

My suspicion was confirmed as I manned the front desk and phone lines for the first time. Like clockwork, viewers called in droves at about 20 after the hour, depending on their time zone, after that segment, to voice their disapproval of the interview. Most callers seemed to just want to give someone an earful, and luckily for them my ears are deep. Diffusing these disgruntled viewers was much, much easier than trying to pacify angry Macy's customers, who actually expect something to happen after their tongue lashing.

I logged some tape, learned how to sort and deliver mail, and eked out the rest of the day.

My comfort level today was much higher than I thought it would be at the day's end, so I'm hoping that continues to grow at that exponential, or perhaps at least a generous logarithmic, rate. The more people I meet and the more time I spend with them, the more efficable I feel, and that's a good feeling. Especially after logging the rest of the tapes for this particular segment, I'm looking forward to my first day of shooting, and my first time (hopefully) sitting in on the writing portion of a segment.

Matt mentioned yesterday that past interns have pitched segment ideas which have been picked up and produced, and I can't get that possibility out of my head. That's my new goal, but I really need to start focusing on the whole of the show so I can wrap my head around each hour to know how and what kinds of stories all fit together. If I can get involved in more stages of development of these segments, that will also help me realize, and hopefully actualize, the ideas that I plan to receive down the line.