So You Want to Make a TV Show- 2nd Period- Class #7

[fear_of_fish]

"I'm assuming no one had anything embarrassing happen to them this weekend," Dana greeted the class as she stood in front of her desk. "Disappointing. Anyway, it means we get to talk shop sooner. Aren't you all happy.

"Shows are different, depending on where you're working. Some of them have writers who will shove papers in front of you and you sit in front of a camera and read the news all pretty without having any idea what you're talking about," she went on. "The newscasters who actually have a clue and any real credibility write their own stuff. And absolutely no news ever- be it sports, political, entertainment, whatever- has the same news all the time. If you watch CNN, the coverage is different than it was this time even a month ago. That stupid Ryan Seacrest thing on E! has new stuff to talk about every day. You can be watching the local news and they'll interrupt for breaking news that just popped up right now. This is a good thing. You'd get bored watching the same thing all the time anyway.

"In sports, the news goes along with the seasons. With the Super Bowl, we've finished football and are moving on to baseball's spring training, and to basketball. As seasons end and approach, you start hearing about deals and trades that are being made on the teams. Last summer we had the Olympics, which took over everything. But there's always a good mix of stuff going on.

"What you're going to be doing today is writing your own story. I'm not asking for a huge long essay. No, all I want is a quick little headline, something you'd read on the news to summarize what happened. Like 'So and so was traded from this team to this team for the amount of two bazillion dollars', or 'The Pretentiously-Named-Team beat the Non-Pretentiously-Named-Team in basketball today by a score of 312 to 51.' Yes, I just made those up right now. If you want to quote someone, great. We like quotes. Just don't plagiarize the info you've given to work with. Do your best, present them at the end of class. Yes, kids, you're reading aloud today. Had to make up for going easy last week."

Comments

Sign In

[fear_of_fish]

Like you're working.

Re: Sign In

[stocksgrrl.livejournal.com]

T.R. Wexler

Listen to the lecture

[fear_of_fish]

Talk, pass notes, try to fall asleep without Dana using her thwapping icon on you...

Re: Listen to the lecture

[decoder-rings.livejournal.com]

Hannibal didn't fall asleep. He didn't know if it was possible with how fast Professor Whitaker talked.

Re: Listen to the lecture

[fabulous-secret.livejournal.com]

Nothing embarrassing? Adora was still horrified by her behavior on Saturday and wondered if she was really so alone in this.

Re: Listen to the lecture

[swipedthatfoot.livejournal.com]

This seemed easier than the kind of thing she'd been doing for Mr. Jameson, at least. Claire appreciated the lesson even if it did mean she wouldn't get to use part of class to go see her boyfriend.

Re: Listen to the lecture

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Sleeping during this class might lead to death or something insanely island-driven. Dinah wasn't going to take any chances.

Re: Listen to the lecture

[stocksgrrl.livejournal.com]

Well, this seemed like it wouldn't be too difficult. Thinking of a catchy sort of headline or newsbite couldn't be much harder than slogans for advertising, or, heck, even a real zinger of an opening remark.

React to the assignments

[fear_of_fish]

Adora- NASCAR: The results of the Daytona 500
Jack- NHL: Penguins fire head coach Therrien
Claire- College Basketball: Update on Stephen Curry's injury
Hannibal- NBA: Sunday's All-Star Game results
Dinah- Soccer: Results of the Everton vs. Aston Villa game
Lois- MLB: Ken Griffey Jr. trade talk
Robin- NFL: Marshawn Lynch's arrest
Jenny- NFL: Jeff Reed committed a misdemeanor
Turtle-NBA: David Stern on NBA finances

Re: React to the assignments

[ashockingbitch]

Jenny read her assignment and decided this guy sounded like a tw--it. A twit.

Re: React to the assignments

[decoder-rings.livejournal.com]

Basketball wasn't Hannibal's sport of choice but that didn't mean he couldn't write a catchy story.

Re: React to the assignments

[fabulous-secret.livejournal.com]

Adora was as confused as ever. She didn't believe they could fit 500 cars on one of those tracks.

Re: React to the assignments

[swipedthatfoot.livejournal.com]

Eh, basketball. Claire could care less, really, but it wasn't a hard assignment.

Re: React to the assignments

[armybrat-lois.livejournal.com]

Holy crap, something else Lois knew about. Her dad would die of shock if he found out that she was actually liking a class.

Re: React to the assignments

[stocksgrrl.livejournal.com]

Oooooh, finances! Turtle looked just about as happy as a clam with her assignment. She didn't know jack squat about sports, but finances she could do.

Re: React to the assignments

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

Jack wasn't up on his hockey, so he'd have to do a bit of research.

Work

[fear_of_fish]

Write on your own, or talk, or try to trade articles (totally allowed, why not), or tap that person on the shoulder to try and find out what the hell all this lingo in your article is.

Re: Work

[decoder-rings.livejournal.com]

Hannibal took a few moments to think of what to say before he wrote: The Western Conference All Stars, led by a rejuvenated Kobe Bryant, rolled over the Eastern Conference All Stars in last night's NBA All Star game by a score of 146-119...

He stopped and wondered if that would suit. He decided to try a few different ways of writing it.

Re: Work

[fabulous-secret.livejournal.com]

Adora looked around at others before settling in to try to write something: Emotions were high on the rain slicked Daytona 500...

She sort of hated this part of class a lot, not that she would admit it.

Re: Work

[stocksgrrl.livejournal.com]

Turtle had a few ideas, bits and pieces, scribbled onto her paper and was working on a little bit of a chart to judge catchiness and effectiveness before deciding.

Re: Work

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

Jack started doodling writing headlines and the body of the articles, and then getting frustrated and crumpling them all up. This could take a while.

Present

[fear_of_fish]

Stand up and share your spoken word blurb news story!

[This can be handwaved at will. A "(your name here) gave their presentation" will work just fine if you want.]

Re: Present

[decoder-rings.livejournal.com]

Hannibal stood up and said, "In yesterday's NBA All Star game, the Western Conference All Stars, led by a rejuvenated Kobe Bryant, trounced the Eastern Conference All Stars by a score of 146-119. Despite all reports, the Eastern Conference All Stars did not cry after such a loss."

That last part might have been an ad lib that he couldn't resist adding.

Talk to Dana

[fear_of_fish]

Who is aroooound.

OOC

[fear_of_fish]

The sucky thing is, I'm not even going to be able to see the end of the All-Star game. Lucky for me I spoiled myself looking for links.