Something So Right

Every time I go to South coming from the North, I always pass by this building. And I keep telling myself that one day I will work there. They always say that things are happening for a certain reason and so it happens. Sometime in February 2011, where everyone celebrates hearts day to be exact, I was very fortunate because I was able to hit two birds with one stone, a success of being in-love and also a newly acquired job at GMA7.

It‘s a dream come true for me because I have now a license to execute the job I always dream about.  I started covering for my own story, decide for a shot I want, interview popular and common people, go to different places, and best of all to become a writer.

But like any other program, our main concern is not just giving people information, but also securing viewers will be satisfied on what they’ll see and the very basis of this is the program’s rating.

So from the usual information GOOD NEWS is feeding from our avid viewers the program shifted to News Magazine from straight news.

Thus we are all pressured about this great big change and from there entertainment and information fed to people every Sunday was even more meticulous. From one story told every segment eventually each segments has three related elements.

For this reason I think gave researchers a very little time to look for stories, and thus suffer content in the subject matter, leaving a Segment Producer un-armed in the battle field. One noticeable observation was we are not provided sometimes with information about the chosen case study, some researchers failed to set schedule of coverage on time. This happens when they short-cut confirmation of appointment to sending of text message instead of calling them. One concrete scenario was when I was told I have a coverage set at 9am that day. But it turned out that I and the rest of the crew waited for two more hours because according to our contact they informed our researcher that they were only available at that time.

I am thinking as a Segment Producer I can fix it, but how? if itineraries are sent at midnight, or on the day of the coverage.

There are five segments every week but there are only four segment producers in the program. To be fair we have a rotation every month we are required to produce two segments. But having two segments every month only means 6 major elements of stories.  And since most of the times coordination plus some elements missing, the program researcher usually set an appointment coverage as late as Thursday or worst is Friday. And in this scenario, we will end up all the time rushing for the script.

Most of the times, I was writing during the coverage. But I’ve noticed that I am loosing focus on my subject matter. And part of the rush also is writing the script while on your way going to GMA. Imagine you are writing your script while travelling. Despite of dizziness I really have to, because every now and then I was always asked for the status of my script.

You have to view your coverage in able to capture the exact details you want to put on writing. Most of the times I skip meals, but sometimes even though its prohibited to eat in the editing bay, I’ll just look for ways how to not get noticeable.

This is what happening for a very long period of time I was with the program. We could have avoided it if proposals came in and approved earlier. But how are we going to do this if most of the researcher is having a hard time looking for a possible story for the program.

The point here is any delay in the process would have a domino effect on us Segment Producers. And what classic was anything wrong about it, the point person was us all the time.  You’ll be getting a very straight-forward comment from the Executive Producer of the program. 

Until such time I have to really make a big decision and stepping out of the program is indeed “Something So Right”!