???? CUNY TV Internship Journal

Week 1 (Sept. 11) 

Back in early August, I eagerly accepted the opportunity to intern with CUNY TV and the team responsible for producing "CUNY Laureates," a mini-documentary series that showcases the remarkable achievements of CUNY graduates who have won major awards such as the Nobel Prizes and the MacArther Fellowship.

Fast forward to Monday, September 11. As I got off the train and walked up the stairs to exit the 34th St Station, I was greeted by the bustling surroundings of Midtown, it was just a block away from my new internship building, situated inside the CUNY Graduate Center. Adjacent to the Empire State Building, I could see its glorious architecture from the cafeteria room on the 8th floor.

I was warmly greeted by the CUNY senior producer, and internship coordinator, Jose Luis. He was charismatic and spent the entire morning introducing us to the CUNY TV team, and touring all the facilities. The building was previously owned by Altman's department store, a competitor of Macy’s. They went bankrupt and the building was purchased by CUNY in the 90s. The TV Studio and control rooms are on the ground floor, but all their offices are on the basement floors. It was a little difficult to get around in the basement floors initially, it felt like a maze down there, but most importantly, I figured out where the restroom was.

After a quick lunch, I met up with the three producers of the show I’ll be working with, they all seemed passionate and experienced in the field. To put it simply, I will be assisting them with the shoots, whether it’s in the studio, or out in the city. I would be involved with the post-production stages, and utilizing my expertise in digital marketing, I would also be helping them with making short videos for their social media. Additionally, they granted me permission to play around with the raw footage, and “re-purpose” or cut them up into my own versions of a finished product.

My first task involved familiarizing myself with the show's previous episodes, which highlighted the incredible accomplishments of past CUNY alumni. I found out that they are producing one episode every 6 weeks. Each episode will feature 3-5 characters. The dedication and passion of the team were palpable, and I couldn't wait to contribute.

On Wednesday, we started the day with an interview with David Rudovsky. His groundbreaking work has not only earned him the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship but also helped shape the way we perceive justice in our society. Joe, our producer was interviewing him on Zoom because he lives in Philadelphia. I went to the studio, where they had the Zoom meeting set up, it was being recorded as if it were a live program. I met the crew members in the studio and control room -  the technical director, the audio engineer, lighting and camera operators. It was quite a team for recording just a simple Zoom interview, I thought.

My job was observing, learning, and recording videos behind the scenes. I shot quite a number of video clips of this production, and after lunch, I began cutting them into short videos for social media. I worked on this the entire afternoon, editing it into a short clip that can be posted on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube Shorts.

Here is the rendered video that was posted on social media the same day: https://www.instagram.com/p/CxJYoV8v0j7/

 

Week 2 (Sept. 18) 

Petar and Joe gave me access to their Dropbox folder containing all the behind-the-scenes footage they shot for last season’s episodes. My task for the day was to create two more behind-the-scenes videos. The footage they provided was mostly images, so I had to creatively edit those into short videos that appeal to social media users.

These are great exercises for me because I’m starting to get used to Adobe Premiere. I used this software a long time ago, but I’m more familiar with Final Cut Pro. Most of the industry edits with Premiere, so I definitely would benefit from learning more about this software. I played around with the footage and edited two more behind-the-scenes videos for Instagram and Facebook.

Robert Aumann BTS: https://www.instagram.com/p/CxbNU8Rv06E/

One of the most important things when it comes to social media marketing is how well the copy is written. Is it concise? Easy to understand? Does it have a clear call to action? I researched some of the most effective ways to write a social media copy and came up with a succinct description of those short videos I made, which will appear beneath the video when viewed on mobile devices.

The season premiere of CUNY Laureates is next week, so I was assigned the task of making a short promo video for the upcoming season, to be uploaded on Facebook and Instagram.

Facebook videos will be widescreen with a 16:9 aspect ratio, and the Instagram Reels will be a vertical video. I edited and rendered two versions with the respective aspect radios.

Facebook promo video: https://fb.watch/ndPRvQyZKK/

Instagram promo video: https://www.instagram.com/p/CxbUjHRvftq/

 

Week 3 (Sept. 25) 

This week’s tasks mostly consist of conducting research and editing.
It was a list of MacArthur winners who graduated from CUNY. I read into their background and what they’ve achieved. We created a shared Dropbox folder where I could put in any information I found valuable, including images, archival footage, text, etc.

They’re doing three pieces per episode, new episode airs every 6 weeks or so. It sounds like plenty of time, but it’s not that simple. This show requires a lot of research and understanding of a broad range of subjects. Some of the people we are researching are no longer alive. So we can only rely on archival footage. However, for this season, the executive producer Petar emphasized a newer format for the show. He wanted to interview the person when possible. This means, that instead of using all narration, we actually want to hear the voices from the characters themselves. Arranging to meet with them in person or through Zoom.

The piece we did for Ben Katchor, who is a New York-based cartoonist, who graduated from Brooklyn College, went on to win the MacArthur grant in 2000. They interviewed him at a dairy shop, which was featured in one of his original cartoons. The segment definitely felt more personal, being able to hear his achievements from his perspective.

I found this clip of him talking about how dairy shops inspired his unique way of storytelling through the art of the comic strip. I edited it into vertical format, added captions, and posted it on social media. Before publishing it on Instagram, we tagged the dairy shop as a collaborator, so the post would show up on their page as well, broadening the audience reach.

This was a successful post because, after 3 days, we’ve reached over 5000 views. Partly thanks to the Instagram algorithm for pushing this video, but the video itself was interesting enough for people to like, comment, and share. In order to grow our social media account, we have to post more engaging content such as this one.

On Wednesday, we had a team meeting in the morning. The CUNY Laureates show started with only two producers, and now we have seven people sitting in the conference room, working on the newest season. I made a suggestion about analyzing our audience and making content that can reach a more specific demographic. CUNY graduates? Current CUNY students? New Yorkers?

 

Week 4 (Oct. 2) 

I continued to edit clips from the first episode of CUNY Laureates and made them into social media edits. I have to choose clips that are interesting enough for the viewers to engage (like, share, or comment). It can be a little difficult because the subjects we cover in the show can be dull or uninteresting if played to the wrong audience. The first 5 seconds need to have a catching hook. Usually, we want to start with a question, such as: “Did you know that CUNY has 26 MacArthur winners?”.

The rest of the week was mostly researching. We’re preparing for the next few episodes and it requires a lot of tedious research work. I was looking into the lives of CUNY MacArthur winners such as Paule Marshall and Eric Wolf.

Paule Marshall was an influencial black novelist, from BedStuy Brooklyn. We were planning to shoot some b-rolls in the BedStuy neighborhood, in front of some brownstone buildings where she grew up. One scholar called Ms. Marshall’s “Brown Girl, Brownstones,” published in 1959, “the novel that most black feminist critics consider to be the beginning of contemporary African-American women’s writings.” (Source)

First, I will have a general idea about them without waiting for my supervisor’s own research and scripts, which can help me think of future posts or clips I might want to highlight. Second, I can start helping them look for some material (photos/video/audio interviews) that they can potentially use in their pieces. Third, I can begin to think about whether there’s any supplemental topic I would want to tackle for a longer web piece, whether that’s a specific facet of an award winner’s life, or something related to their work or CUNY school.

 

Week 5 (Oct. 9) 

Monday was a holiday so the week began on a Wednesday for me. It was another indoor editing day. My task for the day was to use the raw footage of an interview (including B-rolls) and make it into a short promotional clip. The clips were almost 30 minutes long combined, so I had to cut them into a 2-minute video. So I scanned through all the clips and found the most interesting parts to edit. It was a story about CUNY MacArthur winner Pepon Osorio, who was a Puerto Rican visual artist.

The interview was conducted in The New Museum, inside one of his exhibitions. They weren’t able to interview him in person, so it was done with some of the workers at the museum who knew his art extensively. The challenging part with this edit was choosing the b-rolls. How should I match the content of the clips with appropriate B-rolls? Another challenge was color grading. The footage was shot in a flat color profile, so I had to apply color correction and grading to make it look natural.

It took me a whole workday to finish editing this 2 minute video. I thought it turned out well, as did my supervisors. Next week, they are going out on location to shoot two different interviews with CUNY MacArthur winners. It will be a nice change of environment as I don’t have to work in the office for the whole day. I’ll bring my camera equipment too, so I can help with the production and shoot some of my own footage or b-rolls.

 

Week 6 (Oct. 16) 

We started the week off with some outdoor shooting. Finally. I’ve been looking forward to remote shoots since I started working here. I was informed that we’d go to Queens and Brooklyn today to shoot two different pieces.
We initially met at the equipment room, where we grabbed all the necessary gear for this shoot. I was told to bring my personal camera as well, to shoot some B-rolls. Petar showed me what they generally use for these shoots, including what kind of camera, lens, tripod, mic, etc. The equipment was heavy, and we needed a dolly to transport it.

When we arrived at Flushing Meadows Park, we began walking towards the Unisphere. It took us a few tries to nail down the best location for the shot. We had to consider the lighting, distance to the Unisphere, and how noisy the area was. Lighting-wise, it was around noon, so the sunlight cast a harsh shadow, I suggested using a reflector or diffuser, but we didn’t have enough time to set that up.

This was our establishing shot and the shot where the host began talking. The piece is on Eric Wolfe, who graduated from Queens College and went on to win a MacArthur Award for his anthropology discoveries. It took us 15 minutes to set up everything. Petar showed me how to set up the tripod, which was very heavy-duty. How to mount the camera onto the tripod head, and how to calibrate the weight of the camera. I promptly set up my own camera on the side, shooting a second angle of the subject. The wireless mic was straightforward to set up. I learned how to mic up the talent, and how we do sound checks.
We were behind schedule after getting stuck in traffic early afternoon, when we arrived in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn, it was already after 2 PM and we hadn’t had lunch yet. We grabbed a quick lunch from a deli and started setting up our gear for the next piece. This piece features Paule Marshall, an influential Black author, famous for her novel “Brown Girl, Brownstones”, which is a story that takes place in the Brownstones of Bed-Stuy.

Since this was a more residential area, we had to be more cautious not trespassing on someone’s property. We set up the shot on the sidewalk, with a row of beautiful brownstones in the background. I was in charge of the second angle again, and I just had to capture the host opening and closing the book. This shoot went smoothly and took a shorter amount of time. We were able to finish it before 5 PM which is when we get off work. Overall, we all thought that it was a productive day. I look forward to seeing some of the footage I help shoot in the actual episode.

 

Week 7 (Oct. 23) 

I was happy when I found out that there’s another remote shoot scheduled on Monday. This time, it’s for a piece on Pepon Osario, a Puerto Rican who focused on social issues around Latinx and minorities in America. He had an exhibition at The New Museum in Lower Manhattan. We had to shoot a toss and some B-roll of that museum.
Just like last week, we met at the equipment room and loaded up everything we needed for the shoot. When we arrived at the scene, we found out that the front entrance of the museum was covered by construction. It was not aesthetically pleasing, so we tried to shoot it across the street, at an angle so we don’t see too much of the construction.
After the initial location, we went to a back alley with artistic street art. It was called Freeman Alley. Luckily, it wasn’t too busy at the time, we were able to set up our shot and shoot the toss within a short amount of time. At the same time, I was using my phone to shoot some BTS photos and videos that can be edited into short videos for social media.

Wednesday was mostly an indoor editing day. I spent the entire morning editing a piece on Ben Katchor, a NYC cartoonist. I was also working on a few short clips that will be posted on Instagram and Facebook. After the lunch break, I was invited to a watch party hosted by the internship coordinator Jose Luis. It was an opportunity for all the interns to gather and enjoy some short films together. We watched three short films that were featured on CUNY TV’s programs. They were exceptional work, we had a short discussion after watching each film.

 

Week 8-10 (November)

During these last few weeks, I was mainly just editing in the office. The show aired its second episode, and we’re back to the researching phase. I’ve been focusing on a MacArthur Fellow named Bright Sheng. He is a composer and conductor who focused the fusion sounds of the East and the West. He was a close friend and mentee of Leonard Bernstein, one of the greatest American conductors and composers in modern history.

There’s new movie starring Bradley Cooper, called Maestro. It’s a biopic of Leonard Bernstein’s life. During the Bright Sheng interview, he talked quite a lot about his relationship with Bernstein, and how influential he was to him. I was able to utilize the unused footage of his interview, and cut my own piece that can be posted on the web, as “web exclusives”. This was a helpful exercise for me, because I had the creative freedom to edit it however I liked.

I received many tips and advice from the producers. I learn a lot of editing tricks from this experience. You can watch the initial version I cut here on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLITQnFE7VkSLyfhtqOuHMA96HM51pex62

 

Concluding my experience at CUNY TV with a short video: