Making Moves with Summer Freelance Gig

Time has come when the UN meetings + events are slowing down and things around the international community are quiet, well before the huge chaos of the General Debate during the end of September.

With much more after-work times on my hand, I recently began a new freelance/part-time gig with MLB Network as a production logger. Very similar to my internship with NBC Olympics, I will be watching game broadcasts and taking notes of all game action, bloopers, analysis, and any other highlight-worthy events from the broadcast. 

My first game was an insane 17-run scoring game, which (for my first real shift) was absolutely miserable because we log every single highlight-worthy and for score plays, they look for word-for-word transcription of the call. Not only am I gaining experience working on a sports network, but also learning new media management / editing software: Adobe Premiere.

Overall though, the past week or so since starting has been so amazing and I am very excited to see what more I can learn and experience at MLB Network over the remainder of the season.

Back Into the Swing of Things

Whoa... It's been a few months since my last post (back in Feb) and I wish there was more to write about since then, but nothing really is new! Spring has sprung and summer is heating up; here at the United Nations, meetings and events are becoming less frequent because summer is near.

As any aspiring media professional, I am constantly searching to advance my career and develop my skills and expand my network thru freelance gigs on nights/weekends. Throughout the winter, I worked as general production assistant for a new Showtime docu-series, 3AM. The show premiered 28-May to great reviews as it follows "the bizarro world of late-night New York City."

Otherwise, I have been trying to take advantage of my Paid Time Off days and throughout late winter/spring, I traveled all over the East Coast, as well as Italy for a long weekend.

Working full-time and some freelance can be extremely tiring, yet genuinely  rewarding.

So Much Snow... and Nonstop UN Briefings

We're well into February and dug deep into many feet of snow (over the past month), the United Nations rarely closes and meetings continue all day, even with nonstop snow and freezing rain! Thankfully, with our well-deserved time off and I took a day off for an extra long weekend 

At the UN, there have been lots of week-long summits/forums/conferences and many of them have actually been quite interesting. Most recently there were sessions on social development, global anti-Semitism, the 2015 Youth Assembly, and many others — all of which, we in the broadcast facilities are monitoring and/or operating the robotic cameras, audio, graphics, etc. Many of these high-level meetings, Security Council or sessions I mentioned earlier, with various important political figures in attendance, we often experience first-hand knowledge of breaking news and historical votes on global geopolitical situations.

Many of the conferences and "emergency" SC meetings are called because of the numerous parts of the worlds' violence flaring up at once. The "Rise of Global Anti-Semitism Violence" sessions were following the Kosher supermarket attacks in Paris in January; since March 2014, Missions of Ukraine or Russian Federation have both constantly requested Security Council meetings to discuss the escalating situation on the borders.

The highlight of my winter so far has been the vacation (obviously!). Over the long Presidents' Day weekend, I flew to Italy and enjoy nonstop pizza, pasta, and vino—flights were only $400 roundtrip, so how can that be passed up!! Everything about the trip was so incredible - seeing all the cultural and historical landmarks of Milan and Venice while eating the delectable Italian foods!!