lights, camera, exhaustion.

My legs are crossed, I'm seated on a spinny chair, my hair is in a hipster bun, and I am freezing cold. That, my friends, is a sign of exhaustion.

Today was a big day, and it was only pretend. By this I am referring to the mock-newscast I, and the other students in my Broadcast Techniques class, put on. I suppose it's kind of late to be putting on a newscast for only the first time--since I am in third year. However, my program is Media Studies with an emphasis in Journalism so we do things a little bit differently.

I arrived at school at 8:00am this morning. Luckily, one of my friends from school let me sleep over last night. Thank goodness for her or else I'd seriously be a zombie right now. If it weren't for my friend, I'd have had to wake up at 5am. I realize that's not a big deal for some people, but I can't function on under 8 hours of sleep. And trust me, today was not a good day for malfunctioning (though my 8 hour sleep didn't really prevent this).

Myself and another classmate (who was my producer for today and is also my friend) were responsible for going out on the field and covering an entertainment story. The big news in entertainment today included England's Prince William's engagement and Harry Potter hype. We covered Harry Potter.

By 9:19am, my producer and I were in front of the Rainbow Cinemas (the ghetto movie theatre) down the street from my school. Thanks to another member of our class, who had access to a car, we didn't have to bus it to the theatre. It's located in the Woodbine Centre--a north Etobicoke mall. Let's just say, there are never many people around.

We didn't have much to shoot, considering the movie theatre and majority of the shops within the centre were closed until 10am. But, we got what we could. That included a few shots of the one "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1" poster outside of the theatre. The lighting wasn't horrible, but the "Rainbow Cinemas" sign wasn't alight and the area needed some tumbleweed. 

We did our best--we even managed to get a set-up shot of me reporting in front of the camera--all in good time! Until we were met by a little friend I'd like to call the rent-a-cop, also known as mall security. The hefty fellow approached me and asked, "Excuse me, are you from Humber College?" I answered, "Yes," just to avoid having to explain the difference between the University of Guelph-Humber and Humber College. He continued, "You need to get permission from admissions."

I left to go find admissions but had no luck. Then, my producer found a lady who he had been told was who we were to seek permission from. She essentially told him she had no time for him and that we were going to wait for her to return.

We packed up and left. We missed the shuttle bus that could have taken us back to our school and we decided to walk. My producer, being such a gentleman, carried the tripod in one hand and the camera in the other. I was carrying my 50lb school bag. Why I brought this with me, I don't know. It seemed like a good idea when we left earlier this morning.

On our way back to school, my producer and I managed to do our streeters. Streeters are on-the-spot interviews with randoms on the street. We got a few, but we were pressed for time. Apparently, we missed our first deadline, which resulted in some snappy responses from producers and professors alike. However, we didn't miss the most important deadline; handing in our tape.

With help from "the Deathly Hallows'" trailer and my producer's fantastic editing skills, we pulled off the story. If we had been more organized, the completed project could have been 10x better. However, the next time we do a newscast (and there will be plenty more), we're going to plan ahead.

Hand in hand with our hearts pumping out of our chests, my producer and I stood waiting for our report to go to air. When the story ended, our day ended in the happiest embrace of all; we did it.

I realize in 10 years from now I'll probably laugh at this blog post and thinking to myself, "You missed a deadline? You were upset about some snarky remarks? You were irritated because you had to walk back to campus? If only you knew the real media world!" But, the good thing is that I learned something today, despite how crazy I was going. I mean, I was taking pretty deep breaths.

In; two, three, four....Out; two, three, four...