So on Friday was a big day for us. We had a guess speaker, Julian Grace. He is a successful reporter currently employed by KMOV. I have just got to say that it was a huge treat to have him come in and give us advice. He spoke about reporting as a whole as well as his journey along the way to his accomplishments. He told us that it took way more than just a few times to apply to get his first job. He sent out hundreds of audition tapes before he finally caught a break. The reason he told us this is so we would be aware of how difficult it sometimes is. "Never give up", he stressed, our big was coming. He also congratulated us for choosing a school with such an incredible studio to work with and said it was a huge advantage over other schools. 

The other big thing that Julian talked about was that people our age have an advantage in that we are familiar with technology. Apparently older, more experienced anchors and reporters are being let go because they are unwilling to embrace modern machinery such as the internet for example. "Times are changing", he commented, "and we've got to be able to change with them or we will be left behind". I learned from him that the news stations have had to consolidate its spending moneys. No longer can a studio send a reporter all over the world without thinking twice about it. He went on explaining that this is not the only thing lack of finance has changed. Because of cut backs on hiring, a film crew no longer consists of a large group of tech assistants and camera experts but instead just one camera man and the reporter themselves. This makes there jobs that much harder.

The last thing that Mr. Grace talked about was how demanding this job is. It takes up your whole life, was the basic jist of what he was saying here. His advice was to be aware that it is very stressful and difficult to master but if you stick with it it will give you the opportunity to learn so many things and see the world. If that's what you want in life then this is definatley the job for you. His words were honest, and coming from a famous local "success story", they sure did paint me a picture. 

After his presentation and interview with Sara, we moved into the studio to shoot the evening news. Todays episode included all of the packages that we had completed in our groups the previous day. It was exciting to see that come to life. It sure gave me a better idea of how everything comes together when producing the big picture.