Big Year Comes to a Close... 2014 Here We Come!

Well damn... 2013 was quite an adventurous year - graduated college, started my first career full-time job, and moved to the Big Apple!

The first half of the year went according to plan, arrived back to Ithaca to finish my last semester at college. Throughout that time, I remembered and relived the most incredible four years of my life; realized how lucky I was to have those incredible times in Ithaca - learning so much, tears of joy and sadness, many (and many more) drinks, different ups and downs, gorge jumping, TCAT riding, wandering the streets of Ithaca, making the best of friends, and just loving life. After those four successful years, I graduated from Ithaca College's Park School of Communication and was ready to take on the media industry!

After I graduated, I thankfully found a summer job - in my intended career - and started right away, producing media content for my summer camp I have attended since sixth grade! I quickly then interviewed for a full time position, a Media Production Technician via crew agency at the United Nations, and got offered it then started very shortly after. I moved to New York City then started to settle in, relearning the subway system, exploring new neighborhoods of the City, and loving it all.

On that note, happy new year... here's to 2014 being just as successful, fun, and awesome as 2013

Wintertime in NYC... and the United Nations!

Since the last post, surprisingly not too much as happened... Thanksgiving and Channukah overlapped this year, Christmas trees and lights have taken over NYC, and few really exciting days at work!

November went by real quick, I moved into my first NYC apartment and quickly settled in - figuring out my new commute, finding good pubs/restaurants, and all the fun moving-in stuff. That's really all that happened last month, well and Thanksgivukkah! Plus NYC got its first "snow" of the winter, just a few morning snow flurries which turned into rain by mid-morning.

December quickly came upon us and started off with a bang! Nelson Mandela passed away on 5-Dec and the UN quickly took action on broadcasting a message of thoughts, condolences, and prayers to his family, South Africa, and the world. As soon as the news broke, the UN Secretary General and Security Council President quickly took action and went on-air with a message to pay tribute to the life and legacy of Mandela. Since the news broke very late in the day and much of the crew left, the remaining quickly jumped into action and got everything back up and running, ready for the broadcasts. We later saw that we broadcast our first statement 20 minutes before Obama!

Most UN committees, Security Council meetings, Mission programs, and other events happen generally wrap up as December comes to a close and come Jan/Feb, days will be much slower and less hectic. For now, I'm still tasked to monitor, then cut and distribute the the important recordings of UN events!

Post-Debate Frenzy

In early October, the General Debate ended and numerous Committee, conference, and council meetings restarted or continued. These non-Debate meetings occur throughout the year, in addition to various studio messages, photo opportunities, interviews, delegation statements, etc throughout the UN complex.

I continue to be stationed in the Media Ops Centre, where we monitor video recordings of all high-level meetings, as well as maintaining any studio recording or ENG shoot. Also, I am one of few staff that operate master control for the global UNTV channel. Everything really has settled into place and I am really creating my niche in the media management aspect of the UN media departments.

One pretty cool project that was just started this week is the retrieval of "ancient" video recordings - from the 1960s and 70s, for an NBC Olympics feature. Since the meetings was on film, these records are archived at some facility in New Jersey; once we obtain them, we will ingest and transfer into HD-ready for the NBC broadcast in February.

Long Month of August and September

Damn... these past two months have gone by ridiculously fast! Everything about my "new" position (as a Media Production Technician for the United Nations broadcast department) is awesome; I am constantly learning new techniques and skills, meeting more and more inspiring media professionals, and ultimately have a fun time. In addition to working full-time at the United Nations, I have found some time to pick up freelance jobs and continuing to expand my resume with more production experience.

Every September, the United Nations General Assembly holds its annual General Debate - featuring all 193 member states setting its agenda for the coming year and begins discussions on such matters. Our broadcast crew is already swamped with extensive amounts of video requests for each State delegation arrival, all the speeches, and various special events. I personally have been monitoring all the Debate recordings, editing and exporting each speech for their respective delegation.

General Debate 2013 is occurring the week(s) of 24 Sept thru 1 Oct