Film Students Experience Television Up Close

PRESS RELEASE

Point Loma Nazarene University

Contact: Julie McKibben

Point TV: Channel 23 Marketing & Promotions Mgr.

Advisor: Alan Hueth (619) 849-2358

Date: October 21, 2011

Written by: Julie McKibben

PLNU Film Students Experience Television Up Close

            On Tuesday, October 18, a group of media communications majors and broadcast journalism majors gathered with Professor of Communications Alan Hueth and Media Operations Manager Rick Moncauskas to attend an all day field-trip to NBC Studios in Los Angels.

            Bright and Early at seven in the morning the students squished into three cars and headed to Los Angles to participate in a tour of NBC studios. The tour began at 11 and lasted a little over an hour.

            Before the tour began, two tour guide females aired a short clip that displayed a majority of the shows aired on NBC.

            Then during the tour, the students saw posters of many NBC shows, including “Parks and Rec”, “Jay Leno”, and “Days of our Lives”.

            Following that, the students got to see the set of “Days of Lives”, including props like dozens of floor pieces that give a different look to each room.

            After that, the students were led to the set where Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show” is held. In his studio, the tour guides explained that 400 lights hung from the ceiling and also Leno’s Stage changes design for every performer that comes on his show. 

            Also during the tour, the group was able to watch “Telemundo,” an American station, broadcast in Spanish.

            Sophomore and Productions Manager for Point-TV, Josh Vandermeer, said he really enjoyed seeing how professional work is created in the real world. “At PLNU we can only simulate a real world experience so much. Sometimes it's necessary to get out and see how it's really done,” said Vandermeer.

            That night, after the tour, the students went to watch a television sitcom called, “I Hate my Teenage Daughter” be filmed.

            During the sitcom, they had a “crowd warmer” who entertain the audience while the TV crew could work on the show.  Where Junior Gerrit Hoeks said he was his favorite part of the whole night.

            During the taping, the students were able to put what they are learning into action as they watched the writers and the producers and crew film a 30-minute sitcom.            Sophomore Samantha Laurenti said, “my favorite part about the sitcom taping was that you could see the behind the scenes action and how much really goes into filming a half hour show, and I liked seeing the writers and directors change things between takes.”

            Finally, at the show the actors made a lot of mistakes as they went through each scene, however, that didn’t seem to bother the students. Sophomore and Point-TV Station Manager, Leah Murphy, said, “My favorite part was being able to see how the crew and the actors interacted during the sitcom taping. I loved watching the actors revert so quickly into their roles. They would mess up and half a second later, start the line over again, like it was no big deal. It was really cool to see how virtually no time was wasted and how writing was adjusted as the taping progressed.”