Sinclair Broadcasting Group: Fox 45 Baltimore

My name is Paul Angelo and I am a Painting Major, and during the spring Semester of 2013 I interned at Sinclair Broadcast Group.  The Sinclair Broadcast group is a telecommunications company that owns the largest number of local television stations in the United States.  The station I worked at was Fox 45 Baltimore, located in Hampden.   For my internship, I worked as part of the floor crew for the production of the Fox 45 Baltimore Morning News.  Each shift I worked was from 4:30-10:00 am, as the show runs live for 5 hours.

Most of my duties included basic floor crew work, which involves operating live cameras, running the teleprompter, making sure guests are ready to go, acquiring scripts and run-downs hour by hour, and directing the anchors.  All of my time was spent either in the studio or the control room.  Everyone in the floor crew and control room are connected via wireless headphones and can communicate in order to make live changes to the show and to make sure everything runs smoothly.  There are four cameras in the studio, all which I would rotate and work on, all with various different marks that you must hit to coordinate with specific camera shots.  My supervisor and fellow colleagues were all very friendly and supportive, and quick to help out when I was confused and were good teachers.  

This is a fast paced and professional work environment, which I feel was a good learning experience and acted as a basic introductory to what the large world of journalism is like, as well as the television industry.  Gaining experience as a production assistant and operating camera’s has been beneficial as it is great to have experience on professional video equipment, and it is pertinent to my studies at MICA as I am a photography major with a concentration in video and film.  The Sinclair Broadcast Group offers a diverse field of jobs, and completing this internship in an entry level position will hopefully benefit me in the future if I decide to move in the direction of journalism or television in my career.