UNO Documentary: Elder Fox 8 Producer

What: Fox 8.

Film By: UNO student and filmmaker Aiden Edler

Editor’s Note: NolaVie partners with students of UNO professor László Zsolt Fülöp, pairing them with artists, non-profits, environmental groups, and cultural entities to facilitate a live curriculum, that results in a short documentary. This short film by film student at The University of New Orlenas, Aiden Edler that describes what a typical production day looks like for Fox-8 producer Caitlin Dwyer.

Transcription

I am Caitlin Dwyer; I work at Fox-8; I’m a producer and I usually work 6 a.m Thursday, Friday, and Monday and do the weekend Morning Show on Saturday and  Sunday. I would say that producers are the architects of the show. Producers are the ones who write the scripts, put the stories together in the order they are supposed to be, and the director mostly deals with how the show looks.

I’ve managed the content, the scripts, and the time. The anchors say the news, and they control the pacing of the show, so they have a say in the show as well as the executive producer. I would say I’m one of the key parts of the show.

I don’t know a specific number, but I think we’re mostly full-on producers. I think we’re short one producer, so we have five hours of news on the weekday, and I would say about eight producers. 

We all have a team’s group where we talk about problems and say, “the anchor doesn’t like this” or “this needs to be changed” or “the super wasn’t correct.” We all have to communicate all the time about newscasts.

The weekday mornings are such a big wheel, and if one mistake carries over from hour to hour it can ruin  a whole day. 

During the weekdays we all have a conversation about what’s going to be the story of the day, and it’s usually something that’s significant, happening today, or something that we know people in the area are going to care about or want to know about.

On my weekend shows, I try to talk about events that are happening that day, any other things that are happening that people might want to go to, things that they should know for the day, and national stories that are new.

I think we’re better at getting breaking news, and we are a lot more driven.

From what I can tell from the outside, obviously I haven’t worked at those stations, but we definitely have more news, and I think we put more focus on being out in the community. 

This piece was transcribed by Kate Sullivan.