Kempner

Name: Matt Kempner

Guiding Question:

(optional) Use this space to list possible activities, tasks, experiences. Remember everything you do should help you answer your Guiding Question.

(Required) This plan is a “best guess” as to what you and your mentor think you will be doing. It is not meant to be a hard and fast schedule for your Exploration. The plan should illustrate how you intend to complete a minimum of 80 hours.

Guiding Question: Would I want to pursue a career as a technical director in live sports television production?


 * = Date ||= Location/Activity ||= Number of Hours ||
 * = 5/5 ||= Darlington Race/ Travel to Darlington ||= 6 ||
 * = 5/6 ||= Darlington Race/ Shadowing and helping Colby Bourgeious and John Howard ||= 12 ||
 * = 5/7 ||= Darlington Race/ Shadowing and helping Colby Bourgeious and John Howard ||= 10 ||
 * = 5/8 ||= Darlington Race/ Travel home ||= 6 ||
 * = 5/13 ||= Dover Downs Int'l Speedway/ Shadowing and helping Colby Bourgeious and John Howard ||= 10 ||
 * = 5/14 ||= Dover Downs Int'l Speedway/ Shadowing and helping Colby Bourgeious and John Howard ||= 10 ||
 * = 5/15 ||= Dover Downs Int'l Speedway/ Shadowing and helping Colby Bourgeious and John Howard ||= 10 ||
 * = 5/25 ||= Charlotte Coke 600/ Travel to Charlotte ||= 6 ||
 * = 5/26 ||= Charlotte Coke 600/ Shadowing and helping Colby Bourgeious and John Howard ||= 10 ||
 * = 5/27 ||= Charlotte Coke 600/ Shadowing and helping Colby Bourgeious and John Howard ||= 10 ||
 * = 5/28 ||= Charlotte Coke 600/ Shadowing and helping Colby Bourgeious and John Howard ||= 10 ||
 * = 5/29 ||= Charlotte Coke 600/ Shadowing and helping Colby Bourgeious and John Howard ||= 14 ||
 * = 5/30 ||= Charlotte Coke 600/ Travel home ||= 6 ||
 * =  ||> Total Number of Hours ||= 120 ||
 * =  ||> Total Number of Hours ||= 120 ||
 * =  ||> Total Number of Hours ||= 120 ||
 * =  ||> Total Number of Hours ||= 120 ||

Journal: I feel like I was able to follow my plan very well. I actually spent more hours than initially I had planned to both weekends. In Darlington, I spent 53 hours of combined work shadowing Colby (my supervisor), and also experiencing the life of a TD (technical director), which involved airplane travel and adjusting to staying in a hotel every weekend. In the same way, I spent 44 hours in Dover. I feel like I have come a long way in answering my guiding question. I enjoy the environment and the work that is done, but there is a large component that is the travel every weekend which in turn means being away from family and loved ones for three to four days every week. I feel very good about my exploration so far. I have both learned from Colby, and also I have had the ability to observe while he switched (the verb for what a TD does during a race/game) the race at Darlington. Everything is going perfectly to plan, and in fact I will get the chance to experience switching a race this coming weekend. It is set up so that I can switch the Nationwide race. Though the work that I will be doing will not actually be sent out and viewed by people, it will be valuable experience for me, and what I do switch will be recorded in used in my presentation.
 * Journal 1.**

SSP: Sounds great, Matt! I am happy that you are getting so much out of it. I appreciate how tough travel is every week - that was one thing I definitely did not miss when I took the job at Friends. I look forward to hearing more!

I recently finished up my exploration and I think it went very well. I logged an additional 77 hours over the past weekend, which brings my total to 174hrs. I absolutely answered my guiding question, and the answer is yes, though I think i might enjoy another position in television production, this exploration has strongly backed up my desire to pursue a career in this field. Seeing as I have finished, I really have no doubts or fears right now. I plan to write another journal entry in a few days that will try to sum up the entire exploration. This past weekend I got the opportunity to experience being a technical director. During the nationwide race, I was able to switch (this is the verb associated with being a technical director) the race; it was not broadcast out to anyone, but it was great experience for me. It was recorded on video (there are a few video, actually), and I plan to make it the bas of my presentation.
 * Journal 2:**

Looking back over my entire exploration, I am very pleased with how everything turned out. My initial thoughts after my final weekend still hold true, even after taking a step back to take in everything. I spent 174 hours experiencing the life of a person in this field and I loved almost every second of it. There were times when I was bored, and times when I wished I could go back to my house and sleep, but it was all worth it for the experiences I got. During the first weekend of my exploration, I spent most of my time watching and observing. Colby and John occasionally paused to talk me through what they were doing, but the majority of that weekend was just watching. The next weekend, Colby worked with me a lot more. He showed me how to roll wipes and replays, how to take a two box (or a three box, four box, five box, and six box for that matter), how to take graphics, how to cut underneath a graphic, how to cut a graphic and a camera at the same time, and the list goes on. That weekend in Dover, I got to learn how to do check in (which is incredibly monotonous and just makes sure that everything is working properly...four times in a row), and then my first real experience with the switch-board was doing check in on the forth time while Colby watched and made sure I was doing everything correctly. The last weekend of my exploration, in Charlotte, was easily the best and most exciting. I got to put everything I had learned to the test. Because ESPN was broadcasting the Nationwide race, I was able to switch the race in the FOX truck (which was not broadcast to anyone). This was the most fun I had being a TD, and was the best way to both test my new skills, and to culminate my exploration. The majority of the pictures and videos that were taken were during that time because it was the most exciting, and it was the real finalization of my exploration. All in all, it was a great experience and my only complaint is that I didn't have more time to learn more.
 * Journal 3:** (11:41 PM, 06/06/2011)


 * POL Comments: Rizzi/Smith**
 * Matt experienced a number of technical difficulties with his presentation due to the large size of the movie files he was working with. He gave a very good presentation given these technical challenges! He clearly explained the challenges and excitement of live sports television production. His journal is complete and he has emailed his mentor requesting a sponsor report. Nice work!**