Week 6: Creating your “Brand” (Final Post)

A week after returning to Australia, it finally sunk in. I had just experienced an internship that was truly “extra-ordinary”! Five months ago, working at a talk show in New York City, with a great and celebrated veteran reporter like Charlie Rose would have never crossed my mind as a possibility. The internship that I have just experienced is an opportunity that was rare and as I sit here writing my final post the enormity of it all is truly starting to sink in!

From having a casual chat with stars like Sandra Bullock and George Clooney to running errands around Manhattan, this internship has not only taught me so much about the television industry but has also given me memories that will stay with me forever. It has taught me so much about the workplace and so much about how to interact with no only clients but also my fellow co-workers.

One lesson I’ve been taught, that really stuck with me is that I’m responsible for my “brand”, meaning how others in the workplace/industry see me. If co-workers and clients alike see you as a trustworthy and reliable person then that means you’ve succeeded in creating an attractive “brand”…. and the best way to do this, is to simply be nice. Through out this whole experience I’ve learned that through showing people kindness and compassion whilst also displaying a clear thirst for knowledge, you convey a personal “brand” that is not only impressive, but is also approachable and reliable.

From the creator of Netflix, to the editor and chief of Time magazine and also Bill Gates and George Clooney, all of these individuals who have undoubtedly succeeded in their selected fields all told Charlie Rose that along with hard work, the key to the their success was simply, a smile and a willingness to create a brand for themselves that would make them stand out from the crowd.

This internship has taught me so much and has introduced me to an industry that I can’t wait to travel back too!

Signing off, James Laidler

J.L

Below – One last sit at the famous Charlie Rose Show round table!

Week 6: My Last Week & My Last Show

It was business as usual at the beginning of my last week here at the Charlie Rose Show, running errands for the producers and greeting guests in the green room, as I’ve said in previous posts in just the past week or so I’ve really started to get a hang of things.

Then came my last show and it was a busy one! The office was buzzing because everyone was preparing for Charlie’s Oscar special, so majority of the other interns were upstairs editing segments, running errands and assisting the editing staff. Charlie was also taking the day off the next day so he wanted to try and get as many guests on the show that day as possible. In between managing the green room, escorting guests from hair & make up into the studio and making sure the set was fully prepared, I can confidently say that my last show was full on yet also reasonably successful.

Following my last show in the studios, i joined Charlie and the team as they ventured across town to tape at the Lincoln Center of Performing Arts, Charlie likes to tape some segments from his Oscar special there. I was purely observing when we arrived, since I had never experienced a taping outside of the studios and didn’t want to get in the way. It was really interesting to watch how the team operate when taping outside the PBS/Bloomberg studios, not to mention the venue was also an interesting addition.

As my time here at the Charlie Rose Show comes to an end I’m trying to savor each and every moment from this incredible and unique opportunity, i truly am grateful for this awesome experience.

There really is no other business quite like show business.

J.L

Below – The exterior of the Lincoln Center of Performing arts in New York City.

Week 5: Coming to an End!

Even though my time at the Charlie Rose show is coming to an end, I’ve started to gain some real insight into what it would be like to work in the television industry, since I’m now starting to feel a lot more confident in the workplace. Interestingly, I’ve also learnt a lot about what goes into making a efficient workplace, by simply standing back a observing how the staff at the Charlie Rose show interact with each other. Running ideas for episodes past each other, producers and other workers giving each other a helping hand with their research are all clear signs that a positive, friendly and caring work environment is the best asset to have when trying to manage a major television show.

Another aspect of my internship that I’ve definitely become comfortable with is the actual taping process. Yesterday we shot Charlie’s’ “Charlie Rose The Week” episodes which, like I’ve stated before, are all taped in a different studio. Whilst making sure all the set pieces were in the right place and preparing the beverages for Charlie and his guests I noticed that I had done all of these thing by myself, even one of my supervisors noticed this and congratulated me.

It will be sad next week when I finish my six week internship here at the Charlie Show, however I have no doubt I’ll be traveling home with a big smile on my face knowing i experienced such a unique and incredible opportunity.

J.L

Below – Studio B where Charlie tapes his “Charlie Rose The Week” program.

Week 5: Movie Stars & Supermodels … It was a big day!

Following a very relaxing public holiday, my fifth week started with a day that I would most definitely consider to be my most hectic. Not only was the Bradley Cooper & David O Russell episode that i worked on going to tape that day, but at the last minute the sports illustrated cover girls episode was pushed forward, which meant both shows were going to be right after one an other. This also meant that the green room was going to be filled to the brim with guests and their entourages.

The beginning of the day went very smoothly, I carried out a few errands in the morning and then straight after lunch I went down and prepared the studio and the green room. At around 4:30 in the afternoon things started to get a little more fast pace, David O Russell and Bradley Cooper had arrived and were in the make up room getting ready. At five o’clock, after Bradley and David had entered the studio, the sports illustrated models arrived, then the atmosphere went from calm, cool and collected to completely crazy.
Six models were going to appear on the show that day and with every model comes an entourage and stylist team of at least five people, so the green room was completely filled with make up artists and portable clothes racks, New York fashion week had basically arrived at the Charlie Rose Show! The room was so full that we had to move the people who arrived with David O. Russell and Bradley Cooper to another spare room on the other side of the building.

From what I saw, whilst trying to contain the chaos in the green room, the American Hustle episode went well and Charlie apparently seemed to think so as well, which is great! After escorting Bradley Cooper and Mr. Russell out of the building I was then asked to go into the studio and help the crew with fitting microphones and changing the set
Apart from all the chaos before the show, the taping itself went very well! I was even asked to take the photo for the website at the end!

At the end of the day I was completely exhausted, but that what I love about the industry, when the cameras turn ontheres no such thing as a slow and boring day!

J.L

Link to the American Hustle Episode: http://www.charlierose.com/watch/60343811

Below – Charlie in the studio with the Sports Illustrated cover models.

Week 4: It’s all in the Preparation

As the fourth week came to an end I was given another major task to fulfill. One of the producers informed me that I would be producing majority of the research and prep material for Charlie’s show with one the stars and the director of American Hustle, Bradley Cooper and David O Russell. The Episode was going to be taped next Tuesday, I was given the task on Wednesday afternoon, it needed to be submitted by Friday, due to there being a public holiday on Monday (Presidents Day). On Thursday no one could go to work due to a major snow storm hitting New York, this gave me plenty of time to prepare! I found gathering the information and composing it into dot points and paragraphs rather easy since I had prepared for shows like this before.

I also found that the most valuable information you can gather is something that is interesting enough to evoke a hard hitting question for Charlie when he reads over it. When trying to gather information for interviews with celebrities the best sources of information is from other interviews they’ve done for magazines, other television shows and blogs. My supervising producers also reminded me that you can never have too much information!
In addition to providing Charlie with as much information as possible i was also told you can also give a few question suggestions at the end of the transcript, questions that you believe are imperative to the interview. Since the episode was about their latest movie American Hustle I included a few questions about the making of the moving, the characters and some of the other cast members.

You can only judge whether or not you research was sufficient enough until after the actual interview has been taped, so I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see till Tuesday afternoon, when we tape our American Hustle special with Bradley Cooper and David O Russell!

J.L

Below – My research notes for the American Hustle episode.

Week 4: Colin Farrell & Presidents Day

The beginning of my fourth week at the Charlie Show Show was surprisingly less fast pace than the previous three weeks. Producers had already finished all their research and when I arrived that morning scripts were already being printed and sent off to Charlie. Colin Farrell was coming in on the Monday to talk about his new movie and well known photographer David Weber was also coming in to talk about his work at New York fashion week, which was being held that week. Apart from heading over to the Vogue headquarters to pick up some sample photos, the before show preparation was a lot less intense compared to previous weeks. However, like always the mood in the office starts to change around half an hour before production time. After setting up the green room and studio then greeting the guests we were told Colin Farrell was going to be running a little late. I was then told that when a publicist or agent says a “little” late that means at least half an hour. However this problem was easily able to be fixed, since our other guests for that day had already arrived so the producers rushed them through make up and went ahead with their taping whilst waiting for Mr. Farrell and his team to arrive. True to form, exactly half an hour since we were told Colin was going to be a “little” late, he arrived. Besides that little hiccup, the show went incredibly smoothly and Colin was happy to stick around after the show to chat and get a picture.

The following day was much more busy, the Presidents Day public holiday was coming up and we needed to air a show even though we weren’t going to be in the office that day. A panel of six presidential experts and historians were assembled to come on the show. In addition to two other guests also taping that day, the green room was busy with activity and so was the studio. All shows ran very smoothly, luckily all five interns were in that day to help where ever they could.

I find that in this industry busy days are much more rewarding than slower days. I’ve been told the television industry hardly has a slow day, so i think I’m in the right job!

J.L

Below – Colin Farrell and I after the show and my trip to “4 Times Square” the international headquarters of Vogue.

Week 3: Hitting Half way… Featuring George Clooney!

After the exciting yet exhausting Monday that was the “Sandra Episode”, you would think that maybe the rest of the week would be a little less intense. Wrong, the rest of the week was just as fast space and exciting!
After looking back and reflecting over what happened on Monday, myself the other interns in the office discovered that we were too busy trying to operate the green room and forgot about our duties in the studio. So come Tuesday morning I decided to come up with a system in which each intern would have a turn at operating the studio (filling up water/coffee for guests and Charlie, changing the newspapers on the table and cleaning the set). The new system has been working very well so far!

Thursday was again another big day, not only did we have George Clooney coming in to talk about his new movie but it was also, thanks to the new system, my turn to work in the studio instead of the green room. On Thursdays, because we don’t tape on Fridays, Charlie likes to record his Charlie Rose The Week program, which is a special kind of show he does at the end of each week, in a different studio across the hall, called Studio B. This means we have to move some set pieces from the normal studio (studio A) across to studio B. We had to do this between episodes so time was short, but we did it!

After moving set pieces and making sure Charlie and the guests had their beverages I zipped back to the green room just in time to get a quick photo with the man himself George Clooney. My third week was great and I cant believe I’m already half way through my internship here at the Charlie Rose Show!

J.L

Link to the George Clooney episode: http://www.charlierose.com/watch/60339034

Below – Myself and the other interns with George Clooney and Studio B in action on Thursday.

Week 3: “The Sandra Episode”

My third week kicked off at an even faster pace than the past two weeks combined. The Sandra Bullock episode, that I had been working on up until now, had been pushed forward and it was going to tape that day! It was all systems go as soon as I arrived at work that day, my main job was to condense the research I had been conducting over the past two weeks and deliver it to the producer who was running the show that day.

After delivering it to the producer he then worked my information into the script, as he was doing that I needed to produce an “opener” like i did for the Superbowl episode. I didn’t find this very challenging since I already knew a lot about Sandra Bullock and the Director of Gravity Alfonso Cuarón, who was also appearing in the episode, from all the research I had done prior.

Besides researching and writing I also needed to operate the green room and that day we had three other episodes taping, so the green room was filled with guests. For the most part during the taping the guests were very compliant. However along with the guests, come their agents and publicists and they are a little less compliant, they run on a schedule and nothing can get in the way of that schedule, not even the Charlie Rose Show. This can make things a little tense in the green room.

The Sandra Bullock Gravity episode taped wonderfully, no mistakes were made and the end result was superb! My First time in assisting the producers in making an episode was a great success! The team and I even got a photo with the lovely lady herself!

J.L

Link to the Sandra Bullock episode: http://www.charlierose.com/watch/60337669

Below – The Team and I with Sandra Bullock and my Research Notes/Opener for the episode.

Week 2: Constantly Learning.

My second week was just as fast pace as my first. Between operating the green room and running daily errands I found myself constantly learning new things, not just about how the Charlie Rose Show operates, but also how the television industry operates. This week I started to learn a lot more about the production side of the show; how the show’s cameras operate, how to fit a microphone onto a guest and the daily/nightly happenings in the control room.

This week President Obama made his 5th State of the Union address and the Charlie Rose Show team decided that we were going to live broadcast following the president’s speech. From what I was told by the staff, live shows are always hectic, everything must be perfectly planned. So I spent majority of the time standing back in the control room, watching and taking it all in, which was alright by me because it turned out to be very entertaining!
The show ran very smoothly, mainly because every producer was on hand to make sure it did.

This week I was also given the important duty of going to the CBS headquarters in New York City to pick up the “Eye Opener” for each day. Charlie Rose not only has his own talk show on PBS/Bloomberg, he also hosts CBS’s morning program so the Charlie Rose team often travel across town to CBS.
The “Eye Opener” is usually an opening sequence of the days events on the news, like the headlines except its just images with no news reader narrating over the top of the images.
Charlie like to use these “Eye Openers” from CBS at the beginning of each show.

My second week at the Charlie Rose Show was hectic yet incredibly informative, my feet may hurt from running around the building and Manhattan all day, but this internship is turning out to be as informative and engaging as i thought it would be!

Below – The Control Room during our State of the Union after show special AND my journey across the city to the CBS Headquarters to pick up the “Eye Opener”.

J.L

Week 2: Getting Down to Business

It was full steam ahead, upon arriving at the office for my second week. One of the producers at the show asked me to prepare an “opener” for Charlie’s Super Bowl special, that was going to be taped that afternoon.

An “opener” is the first piece of prepared script at the beginning of the broadcast, it sets the tone for the rest of the show. Its mainly used to introduce guests and in many ways inform the audience about what is going to be covered in that episode. Another producer told me that the best way to write an “opener” for an episode like that of the Super Bowl special, is to give the obvious facts and then a short yet interestingly factual introduction of each guest.

After about an hour of researching and writing i came up with a short/interesting “opener” then quickly handed it in to the control room to be put into the prompter.

Below – My “opener” for Charlie’s Superbowl Special and a link to the episode.

Episode Link: http://www.charlierose.com/watch/60333693

In addition to writing an “opener” i had to not only operate the green room but also pick up one of the guests from Mid-Town Manhattan. I think its safe to say that at the Charlie Rose Show theres no such thing as a “slow day”.

J.L