Friday, August 5, 2011

Leaving Wembley - Thanks for Everything

I've been saying all summer that I've learned a lot and have been able to experience so much with this internship, but I don't think I've stressed enough how honored I am to have worked for The FA and FATV.

Every week has been a progression of tasks and assignments, editing and producing, filming shoots and meeting incredible people. I began by purely shadowing my coworkers, learning the systematic process of the organization: how they cover an event, what angles they get, what shots they end up using what they choose to focus on and how the end product is promoted. It's quite a creative and strategic process that I find intriguing. FATV is simply an outlet for a visual man's creativity, with an England football filter. Gradually, I've learned the most accurate method of booming, how to color correct and add movement to an otherwise stagnent piece, man an EX3, and produce a handful of short videos.

My greatest achievement I've been most proud of is working alongside the chaps at The FA. I've never been in a work environment so welcoming and caring, so needless to say, today's been a very difficult day to say goodbye. This job exposes you to some of the most influential and well-known footballers in the country and gets you in the action for games, but doing all this with the corky and sarcastic personalities here have made it all infinitely more enjoyable. I'll never forget the friends I've made with The FA and hope that we all keep in touch.

Lesson learned: The job you end up taking should be something you enjoy, but it's not everything. Creating relationships with the people you surround yourself by may be the only thing that matters in the long run.

Thank you for everything!

Friday, July 29, 2011

The Inquiry

Gareth Southgate is possibly one of the most adorable football coaches to date. Why? I've watched his 3 min-long interview about his premier league highlights for three days straight, and I still want to pinch his cheeks. FATV has another regular feature that quizzes former England players about their professional playing statistics. It's a very fun, upbeat, oftentimes comical idea that any England fan would love if they're a personal fan. The format is simple: Ask a question, they answer right or wrong, move on to the next question. The produced video, however, is frilled up a bit with fun animation, sound effects and extra graphics to help illustrate the players' answers. I literally worked on this every day this week when I wasn't updating the year-long log or checking emails. Looking back on it now, I'm actually pretty proud of this little feature. Hopefully I will remember all of the fun extras on Avid when I get back to Mizzou. Sure, I'll rarely use them, but they're good to stick in your back pocket.

*Video to come

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

British Life & Culture: Field Analysis Audio Slideshow

Take a look at the audio slideshow I produced for our British Life & Culture class this summer. This assignment had us analyze how the British identity is expressed through three out of the six areas of London that we visited in class field trips.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Back to Editing

Yay for editing. The FA's Get Involved program has had FATV cover their various events since last summer and are asking for one more for their upcoming celebration. This August marks their one-year anniversary and they are making a do by hosting a party, fit with food, drinks, music -- and a video montage of their accomplishments throughout their first year. That's where I come into play. As the rest of FATV works on their own projects, I got to take on this internal video. It won't be published online, but it will projected, on loop, at the birthday event. This wasn't a hard task, by any means, but I tried to get creative with the animations and formatting. I played with the coloring, transitions and graphics, just to add some extra excitement to the piece (attempting to push the hidden message for more FA staff to sign up for Get Involved). This was completed and sent off to the Get Involved communications coordinator for suggestions and approval.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Bits & Bobs

By now, FATV staff and I feel like we've developed a pretty nice idea of responsibilities for the intern. I'm that helping hand that's been given tasks to keep busy, but I've been trained enough to become more of a 'right hand man.' My senior producers have a better understanding of my editing and basic sports knowledge that I can now be given my own assignments. Since last week, editing a few 5-a-side pieces, it's been fantastic to actually produce packages -- at those using some editing flare. This week, however, has been less eventful, yet full of little bits and bobs to keep us moving around the office.

Tuesday was scheduling day. I actually felt pretty useful, creating monthly calendars and inserting appropriate dates, events and plans from scratch. These are being used as the year-long logs of each videographers' daily tasks/assignments, big events and published pieces. I also made a projected four-month calendar to help them budget time for the upcoming FATV projects.

Wednesday was not so eventful. I spent the majority of my time typing up a suggestion list for FATV to leave when I head back to the States. Daisy asked me to compile any suggestions or comments I care to share, based on my internship these past few months. It was refreshing to be asked for such a list because it shows care, to want to know my point of view, and forward-thinking, to always be looking for ways to improve an organization.

Thursday started off strong. Three of us met, bright and early at 8 a.m., at the Kings Arms pub on Roupell Street to interview a reknown English comedian. Jason Manford is also a Manchester City fan, so we interviewed him about his current professional projects, as well as his insight on the Man City roster and the upcoming Community Shield (Man City vs. Man United). Back in the office, I actively watched the editing of the Manford interview and finished labeling the kits with the FATV stickers.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Behind the Camera




Last Monday, we had the honor of interviewing one of England's legendary comedians, Bob Mortimer. He's most kmown for his duo act and show with Vic Reeves, "Vic & Bob," and such natural humor shined through throughout our interview about his fanaticism with football. Everyone's a football fan in England and seeing an icon like Bob helps to create those imagined connections amongst fans.

I manned one of the cameras for this interview! I'll have to admit, the hardest part of this task was stifling my giggles at every answer, but besides that, it was very cut-and-dry. I was the tight shot, following his reactions, really getting into Bob's face. The shots are just to add extra fluff and variance to the piece, which I think looks fantastic. Yay! Put another mark down for me on the "Published" column.

Monday, July 4, 2011

Personal Pride with 5-a-sides

Two more 5-a-side features willn soon be published on TheFA.com and YouTube.com/FATV! I'm pretty proud of these small pieces because I've added more movement and rhythm to the overall flow during editing. My only struggle with this piece is understanding one name of one of the sources.

Roy Hodgson, one of the current coaches of the senior men's national team, former coach of many including the Swedish Malmo FF. He chose two Swedes to be on his ideal 5-a-side team, one being Jonas Thern, but the other is practically impossible to understand! It's kind of become a fun, yet frustrating game in the office, which I believe will end up with a grand prize... hopefully in cookie or beer form. Whoever is closest to guessing the true name and spelling of this player, is dubbed the ultimate Mumble Master. Hodgson sounds like he is saying "Hans Hallander," or "Hans Allander," or "Hans Landoven,"or "Hansel Andoven" ... or something like that. We shall see. I've tracked downt he Swedish contact information for the Malmom press secretary and have emailed and called him. As of 10:30 am today, 11:30 am in Sweden, Patrik Janelin will reply back with the footballer's name (whom he said would not be too hard to find).

I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Again, a link is coming soon.

Technical Difficulties

Unfortunately, the memory card used to capture all the interviews from the Careers Day event was erased prematurely... so nearly all of my interviews are gone. No one's fault, really, just an unfortunate mishap. We'll be redoing a couple interviews and forging forward with the piece, but I don't think the product will be as well-rounded. We'll see!

Intern Interviews

Last Wednesday was Careers Day at Wembley Stadium, put on by the "Get Involved" program within the FA HR department. The purpose: to bridge the gap between the youth and the working professionals of the FA, showcasing the varied jobs available at Wembley and creating a stronger relationship with the London community. I think this event did just that. Beginning with a full stadium tour with a witty and interactive guide, the group of 20 local high school students walked around in awe. They then had lunch in one of the presentation rooms where they mingled with FA represetatives from the administrative side to the physical training.

My duties on this day were to assist one of the videographers, then conduct all of the interviews: One adult from the school, four students, one Get Involved spokeswoman and three FA staff. It was a great experience and an opportunity for me to showcase that I am capable of asking questions for soundbites. Immediately, j-school reporting instinct kicked in, my interest peaked and the questions began flowing. This is what I love about reporting so much; The intereaction with sources, the artform of saying few words that prompt strings of them, the genuine reaction of sources all caught on tape. This piece wasn't groundbreaking by any means, but it was nice to get back into the swing of things.

Link to come!

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

I'm Published!



It's my fourth week interning at FATV and I finally have something to show for it! All the shadowing, infested with my endless questions on videography, have paid off and Joe has let me take a stab at editing a weekly 5-a-side feature. This week's footballer: Theo Walcott. The editing was pretty cut and dry, piecing together Theo's soundbites, back to back, coloring them with photos of his chosen football stars he'd put in his ideal 5-a-side team. 

I love this continuing feature for The FA because it shows consistency in viewership and allows England's thousands of fans to get to know their players. If there's anything I've learned from this internship, it's that football is part of British culture. Ask anyone. Chances are, they know football. They probably have a favorite team. If they have a favorite team, they're probably die-hards. They've been to at least one game - or too many to count - and know all of the team-specific chants/songs. Football is the headline of Sky Sports everyday. 

More to come!

Monday, June 20, 2011

Just for Kicks

Earlier this week, I asked the head FATV videographer if I could try my hand at video editing - just for kicks. I had been working on a few administrative tasks that I’ve dubbed “Daisy Duties” – responsibilities normally handled by the FATV producer currently on holiday (I'll go into detail on this later). Joe had me go through some tunnel cam footage from the England v. Switzerland game last weekend and edit together a "short" 2-3:00 min piece. It was a simple task, just cutting together a chronological snippet of the people who went in and out of the Champion's Tunnel at Wembley. After about an hour, Joe clapped his hands in exaggerated excitement and asks, "So what do you have for me, Babs?" After watching maybe 30 seconds of my masterpiece, he said I'm ready to edit my own piece. Thank goodness! I had been waiting to hear those words since my first day as the intern. 

My big moment was supposed to happen on Thursday for the FA Cup sponsorship announcement with Budweiser. Needless to say, I was stoked. Joe said that I, as an American, would be perfect to produce this piece because I can pick up on the quotes that emphasize this significant three-year partnership. Everything was going well as Matt, one of the other videographers, manned the camera throughout the whole event. I followed him around the entire time, making mental notes on what shots he was getting, how many cut-aways he had and who was interviewed. Unfortunately, some of the big names we waited to interview had taken too much time and we needed to turn around this piece very quickly - so Matt ended up cutting it together as I sat and watched. It was an understandable change of assignment, because I probably would have taken a longer time editing as it would have been my very first piece for FATV. Here's the final product: "FA Cup Budweiser launch" It's quite an upbeat feature. I hope I can learn to pick up on those motion shots, like this.

Joe mentioned later, in an off-handed, light-hearted manner, "No worries, we'll have something for you to edit next week." Sigh of relief. My time is still coming...

On another note, my administrative duties as the interim "Daisy" has been going pretty well - but my first big task ended up being a three-day ordeal. Essentially, two of our guys are traveling to Germany at the end of next week to cover the Women's World Cup and requested me to have our travel agency ATP send them confirmation emails of their flights. Easy, smeezy, right? Well, after a string of emails for four hours one day, I discovered that those flights had not actually been booked. One of the guys wanted to switch to an earlier flight, so the tickets had been cancelled and he, unknowingly, was supposed to go ahead and book the preferred flights on his own. This information was not relayed on to Daisy or myself, so another string of emails with ATP for a few hours the following day clarified this situation. The flights were not officially booked and the confirmation emails had not been sent until the third day, after the final string of emails and a phone call with the company. It wasn't stressful, per say, but more tedious and complicated. I felt like I was handling the situation gracefully and by utilizing my resources: I never raised my voice or rolled my eyes, checked through Daisy's previous emails pertaining to these Germany tickets and contacted all the parties involved to figure out the missing details. By the end of the week, this Daisy Duty was checked off my list and ended up as a success. Producing doesn't seem so bad.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Intern Gets Administrative

This week toned down a bit after a busy, exciting game day weekend. Daisy, FATV's producer, left for an extended holiday this week, so I spent most of the week and nearly all 20 hours going over her typical duties and troubleshooting protocol for those "just-in-case" scenarios: If one of the boys (videographers) needs to book a flight somewhere, this is the company you contact and this is what you tell them... If a shipment comes in and they need to drop it off, this is what you tell them... etc. It was actually pretty enjoyable for me, figuring out the production schedule, organizing shoots, learning to be that go-to person.

By the end of the week, I tagged along to the World Cup team announcement for the England Seniors National Team at South Bank. We interviewed several players and the head coach specifically about the announcement, the anticipation, who they told first, how they reacted, etc. Overall, covering the Women's team and seeing how much coverage they were receiving, was uplifting to experience. They got a significant amount of media coverage for a female sport. All the people I spoke with made it clear that U.S. soccer has better opportunities for female athletes, but coming from the States, that doesn't resonate. It seems that women's soccer just has too many professional sports to compete against.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Week 3: Can't Get Any Better Than This

Honestly, this week was somewhat a blur. It seems like a mixture between a dream and being star struck with my brushes with the England athletes. Regardless, I've learned a lot and experienced my first game with the England seniors, national team.

The beginning of the week was more of a waiting game than anything. The FATV team and I ventured to the Arsenal training grounds and The Grove hotel to document the England seniors as they prepped and bonded before their Euro 2012 Cup qualifier against Switzerland on Saturday. As the boys practiced, played golf and table tennis, we were there to document as much as we could to show the behind-the-scene experience of England's greatest footballers. All this footage will later be edited and used to create a long-form DVD about the seniors' team road to the Euro Cup. Between practices, pressers and interviews, some FATV-ers would edit packages... or find something to do. This translated into playing their own games of table tennis, eating or roaming the absolutely beautiful grounds of The Grove estate.

As usual, my role during this entire process was pretty simple. I shadowed the videographers, asking them question after question about their journalistic techniques: How do you shoot beauty shots differently than you shoot game or training footage? What's your motivation behind pans, zooms and focus changes? How do you decide the types of shots - wide, medium, tight - to get during situations where there isn't a lot of movement? I was a lot more assertive this week, asking to try my hand at filming in their style, making suggestions when editing and such.

Gameday was really when I felt useful, although I was doing a bunch of the typical intern duties. Three cups of coffee - one with milk and sugar, one just milk and one black - six bottles of water, four orange juices, and three Diet Cokes... I fetched them all Saturday morning before the game. I ran up and down eight flights of stairs at Wembley Stadium multiple times to fetch guests from the front office and help them through security. I carried cables and tripods, kept track of paperwork and even found and returned the hair gel of one of the guests. It sounds bleak, but it was all worth it.
New Indy band, Brother, takes Wembley Stadium, performing for the first time at the historic venue on Saturday, June 4.
Saturday morning, I helped set up equipment for the FATV recording of an up and coming UK indy band called Brother. I helped them through security, gave them directions and felt like I got ample time to chat and get to know them. During their live, acoustic performance, I took pictures of my own and assisted a videographer. The rest of the morning I was instructed to "babysit" the band, which basically allowed me to hang out with them for an hour before escorting them to their next appointment at Wembley.

The Switzerland national team leaves the tunnel to enter the field and warm up before kick-off.
The rest of the day, I was stationed in the tunnel where all the players pass to and from the locker rooms and the pitch. Words can't describe how incredible that atmosphere was. I assisted the videographers here by keeping an eye out for specific players and happenings within the tunnel. This seems mundane, but it actually required that I have knowledge of the players and key personnel of the England squad, things I've been able to pick up on in the past couple weeks. My time to shine came when FATV's producer asked me to conduct interviews with the child mascots for the day's game, getting them to show their excitement about meeting the team and walking onto the field for the national anthem. This was used for a very simple segment on the FATV YouTube site, but it was the first sign to show that they know I'm capable of more than just observing.

Check back for more blogs about the gameday atmosphere at Wembley Stadium!
As the England seniors warm up behind me as I cheese on the sidelines.
All 22 children are interviewed after taking the field for the national anthems of Switzerland and England, holding hands with the teams' starters. These lucky kids with such duties are called "mascots," and many of them won this opportunity by entering a McDonald's drawing. 

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

A Snippet of England's Training for Euro Cup 2012 Qualifier v. Switzerland

Joe Hart, Ashley Cole, Stewart Downing, Peter Crouch, Frank Lampard and the rest of the England seniors at a light training for the Euro 2012 Cup Qualifier v. Switzerland.

Monday, May 30, 2011

Coverage of the EU by "The Guardian"

The European Union is consistently covered in “The Guardian,” oftentimes appearing as major headlines in political and economic news. Everyday this week, at least one story on the EU has been published, examining internal affairs of EU leaders, EU agenda and upcoming issues. The articles I found most interesting were published on Tuesday, May 24, highlighting the state of the EU and the eurozone, specifically reflecting on the debt crisis in Greece.

On Tuesday, “The Guardian” analyzed the debate on Greece’s need to reschedule its debts. The EU Business Secretary Vince Cable pushes for the rescheduling because it is “the best option, or the least worst option…” and that leaving the eurozone would not solve the problem. The article continued, however, by pointing out that the eurozone has never been exposed to this kind of debt crisis before.  Overall, “The Guardian” only quoted one source who had a very clear opinion on the matter, therefore providing a very one-sided argument to the issue. “The Guardian” writer was the only voice that lightly touched on opposing, which were quickly combated with quotes by Cable.

Another angle of the eurozone was covered in the same day with a grave tone, titled, “The European dream is in danger: prepare for another rude awakening.” Here, “The Guardian” discusses an overlying feeling of apprehension and fear amongst the EU states about the unrest and instability in many major countries that could quickly break down the union and the monetary eurozone. Greece’s debt default, Germany’s rising borrowing costs, Spain’s mass protests and Ireland’s rise in emigration has the EU shaking. “What's at stake this summer is more than just the future of the eurozone, for which there are predictable outcomes. It is the future of pan-European solidarity, which has been implicit in the project of the EU and, recently, in short supply.”

This article had the most reaction of any of the EU articles of the week with 246 comments, 277 Facebook shares and 82 Tweets. This is significant because it shows that this specific topic and analysis is something that the audience wants to hear about. What’s interesting about this observation is when this article is compared to the previous, the straight news analysis is more popular than the traditional news coverage of a similar matter. Both articles discussed general instability within the EU and possibilities for improvement, but the second article, written more as an opinion/column piece, seemed to be more relatable and conversational. The majority of the comments agreed with a few points made in the article, but oftentimes included other opinions that slightly differed, or brought up completely different issues. It seems that the European public prefers a very democratic, checks-and-balances type of journalism that allows the journalist to act as an authority and the audience as contributing writers. 

Pet Peeve of the Day

In the UK, everyone clearly drives on the left side of the road... but on the sidewalk, it's free-for-all. I can see people coming at me from a distance, but no one ever seems to flinch from their pathway. When I choose to take the left side of the sidewalk, there is always walking toward me in my lane. When I take the right lane, the same thing. I've even began walking in the middle of the sidewalk and still find myself in the way. No one seems to move for you, either. It's like if you decided to play chicken and see who would dodge out of the way first, you'll lose. Rarely will someone move out of the way for you. This is the worst when I'm running outside, trying to get to the park where there's much more room for pedestrians. People will see you coming at them, clearly at a quicker pace, and still maintain the same course. It's a pet peeve, maybe my biggest pet peeve here. Regardless, I should be thankful if walking the sidewalks is my biggest nuisance of the summer.

Friday, May 27, 2011

Yet another great day working for FATV

*Pictures are coming


Friday before Champions League Final:

  • 8:30 a.m.-12 p.m. - Ventured to the St. Gregory's school for official opening of a new turf pitch, donated by UEFA. 
    • Guest list: 
      • Michel Platini, UEFA president 
      • Bobby Zamora, footballer for the England national team and Fulham  
      • David Bernstein, chairman for The FA
  • 5:30-6:30 p.m. - Sat pitch side to watch the open training of Manchester United. I can't explain how surreal it felt to see Berbatov, Rooney, Giggs, Nani and the rest of the legendary premier league team IN PERSON.
  • 7-8 p.m. - Gawked at Messi, Xavi, Iniesta and the entire squad of the best football team in the world.
  • 10:15-12 a.m. - Almost cried from laughing while watching "The Hangover II" for our first trip to a London cinema. 
Keep the great days coming...

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Joplin Destruction: Making Int'l Headlines

Although we're thousands of miles away, all 17 Mizzou kids are sending our thoughts and prayers to our friends from Joplin, Mo. I had four people at work ask me about the tornado and the destruction today, because they know I'm from Missouri. There is real sincerity and concern for SW Mo. over here... I just wish there was more I could do from this distance.
Monday's edition of The Morning Standard, headlined the tornado. This is how many of us heard about the destruction.
I've tweeted some links on how to volunteer and send relief. Follow me on Twitter (@BarbaraManingat) and i can message you the links, if you'd like.

RANDOM: 'Things' I've Learned and 'Stuff' I've Noticed

Here are a few things that have caught my attention in the past nine days that I've been living in London: 
  1. There are practically no trash cans in London. 
  2. There are never trash cans in sight when you have a piece of trash in your hands.
  3. Trash is not trash, it's litter or rubbish.
  4. London is most comparable to NYC, popularly known for its fast pace and big city pulse -- but that is only evident during rush hour on the tubes. The newsrooms and offices of our collective internships have not reflected such a high intensity reputation. They're quite relaxed and have a delayed sense of time management -- not in the sense that they're lazy, but they just set a longer deadline for tasks/stories that can be done in half the time. I'm really enjoying 'getting off-task' for the majority of the day, yet still accomplishing some work... I'm just not sure if I could work in such a laid back environment everyday. Take it, this is just the observation of a few of the students and myself with our respective internships.
  5. When boarding the tube, it's free-for-all. 
  6. Unspoken office rule: Drink tea two minutes after you walk in the door and continue every 30 min. 
  7. London's beauty comes from its architecture and the people. Not to sound abnormally cheesy, but I've become mesmerized by this city, just as many friends have warned me. But what and why does London have everyone so transfixed? Well, the city is old... but old in the historic and whimsical sense. No matter which part of London you find yourself, there's that Old English, stone building, brick street, narrow alleyway, scent of beer and that unrelenting breeze that finds you no matter how far or deep you are into the city. Everything is so compact and this is most obviously seen with the buildings. There aren't any luxurious bayside, grand windows; They're all tall and stacked upon each other, story after story. There are barely any clean-cut, contemporary lines -- a dream-come-true for anyone with ADD because there is always something to look at. 
  8. National History Museum, Tuesday, May 17, 2011.
      Streets of the Camden Market, Sunday, May 22, 2011.
  9. Londoners are very diverse. I've been trying to run around Regent's Park everyday and it still throws me off to see so many large groups of friends playing baseball, rugby, football and cricket where almost every continent is represented in one team. It's so clear that they're all friends, but I feel like I rarely see this level of comfort and commonality in the melting pot of the U.S. Sure, America has more diversity than I realize, but I've never seen so many ethnicities so casually merge together like I've casually noticed here. It's beautiful to walk down the street or take a jog in the park and see the colorblind-ness of the city. NYC has this, but I've never seen this level of communal reaction before. 
  10. London newspapers are not so much sensational, but very blunt. Writers seem to have little to no reservation in releasing details and they rarely attribute graphs or direct quotes -- but they're very conversational. One of my coworkers today said he really likes this style of writing because the stories simply provide all the information without adding personal opinion or extra frill. Naturally, I disagreed with the concepts of systematic and operational biases flashing like neon lights in my head. I feel like I haven't read a real newspaper in days.
  11. The newspapers in London are very straight-forward with limited censoring. This 22 year-old bride jumped off the top of her apartment building after her fiance called off the wedding. As seen here, she was caught. 
    Where in the U.S. would you see a photo published like this? Who would publish such details without direct attribution?
  12. Traffic runs on the left side of the road, but when you're walking or running on the sidewalk, you are always in the way somehow. When I walk on the left side, there's someone coming at me from their right side. When you try to pass someone while running, passing on the left is not a general practice. You just have to guess.

First Day of Work

To put it simply, this could have been the best day of my life. 


I now have my own desk on the fourth floor of Wembley Stadium. There's not much of a view from there, but the view of the stadium never gets old.
On Thursday morning, I hopped onto the tube with a groggy, yet giddy mentality. The six-hour jet lag had not yet subsided and my unofficial addiction to coffee became clear that morning. Yes, I was tired, the tube was crowded and I wasn't 100 percent sure I was traveling in the right direction -- but all of that didn't matter because I was on my way to my first day as an intern with FATV! 


Equipped with my laptop and coffee, I boarded the Metropolitan Line to head to my first day as a broadcast intern at FATV (official television coverage of the Football Association).




Since I got the call from my former boss with the Sporting Kansas City MLS team in February, I dreamed of this day and how incredible my summer in London had to be. Working for the England FA, seeing premier league stars, going to games, immersing myself in the world of European football... I didn't care what I'd have to do, as long as I could be surrounded by it all and soak in the culture and the journalistic atmosphere. I could learn about reporting and expand my understanding of another "newsroom" -- but doing so by intently watching and interviewing professional athletes is best described as any girl's dream come true. Essentially, I had developed somewhat high expectations for this summer. Besides deciding what I was going to wear that day and researching as much as I could about English football, containing my excitement was my hardest task. 

Joe Worsley, my new supervisor for the summer, met me when I arrived at the FA offices. My surroundings were pretty intimidating; marble floors, glass entranceways, LCD TV screens permanently programmed to Sky TV, and a huge display case of the England national team's cups and trophies proved to be enough for my post-coffee jitters and excitement. Joe first introduced me to the rest of the FATV team, along with the event planning, merchandising and business sponsorship departments close by. Next up, a tour of Wembley.

Pictures just don't do Wembley justice, but I'll do my best to document it as the summer goes on. The original 1928 Wembley Stadium was controversially torn down in 2000, but it's looking amazing now. I believe Joe said it can hold up to 90,000 fans, an upgrade of around 10,000. The archway is the venue's trademark that can be seen for miles and its diameter is said to be wide enough for a tube train to run through it. Fun fact of the day. 

Wembley is the official home of the England national team that will play twice this summer. I'll be working the June 4th England vs. Switzerland game, so check back!

After the tour, I began working on a log of all the videos published in the past year and a half on FATV's YouTube channel. We're planning on putting together pre-packaged segments for future use and prospective pre/post-game shows.

The highlight of the day came around 19:30 (7:30 p.m.) when we lugged the video equipment to Liam Gallagher's "Pretty Green" store opening to interview him about the FA Cup. Needless to say, it was a great first day task. I didn't do anything, really, just consume the free champagne and appetizers, then hold the camera cables -- but it was still a high-class experience I never would have expected.

Great. Day.

Liam Gallagher, former Oasis lead singer, opened his second "Pretty Green" clothing store in London on Thursday, May 19. FATV interviewed him at his event because he attended the FA Cup match and rooted for the winning team, Manchester City.



Manchester City and Stoke vied for the FA Cup on May 14, the day I flew into London. I thought I completely missed out -- but I was actually able to TOUCH the FA Cup after Liam Gallagher's store opening.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Follow My Summer in London!

It's still unreal to me that I'll be living in London for the next three months, but follow my blog and experience it all with me! I will try my best to blog, posting photos and videos regularly.

Study abroad classes. Internship at FATV. Travel. Landmarks. Memories. International friendships.