Broadcast Journalist of the Year Portfolio: Grayson Blalock

Grayson Blalock, Sports Editor

A note:

Due to my role in the class this year, almost all of what I did involved live broadcasts. Thus, most of my examples do as well. More specifically, I called color for more games than I did for anything else this year.

 

Package, Color Call, & Camera Operator

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB1Pbg2hQQ4

 

I chose the girls basketball preview package as an example of a package I created this year. All of the footage was from a preseason scrimmage against Greeley Central and the package was aired prior to the girls’ season opener against Longmont.

The whole game against Longmont is included, as I feel that it was one of my better calls for girls basketball throughout the year. Coming into the game, we had no statistics to use from the current year, and I was able to talk about the freshmen on the team as I knew some of them before they came to high school.

Since it was only a two-person broadcast, I also ran camera for the game, and I feel as if I did a good job both calling the game and running camera at the same time.

 

Lead Play-By-Play – Girls Basketball @ D’Evelyn

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=93mYJUpJgHQ

I chose girls basketball’s second round playoff game against D’Evelyn as an example of Solo Play-by-Play. It was a fully student-run broadcast, which doesn’t happen often. It was on the road, and, for once, our internet connection ran smoothly throughout the broadcast. The game was easily the best of the season for the girls, who had previously lost to D’Evelyn in the regular season

 

Color Call & Camera Operator– Football vs. Fort Morgan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ulhCaBZyAA

I chose my color call from the football game against Fort Morgan. It was the only close game the team played all year, and I felt that it was my best call of a football game as well.

To go with this, like the Longmont girls basketball game, I also ran camera. This was one of my better games doing both this year.

 

Color Call – Boys Basketball vs Frederick

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zw8v5P98QlE

I chose the call of the Boys Basketball game against Frederick as an example of a color call. It was the most exciting boys game of the year, and it is a good example of a color call from this year.

 

Lead Play-By-Play

https://youtu.be/GJMMRImHjUc

I chose the boys basketball game against Windsor as another example of solo play-by-play. Unlike the D’Evelyn game, nothing would go right on the broadcast. Specifically, the school’s internet connection stopped working. In addition, at the beginning of the game, there was only one person there to help who was outside the broadcasting program. And unfortunately, due to scheduling conflicts, only one other person was able to be there

Miraculously, the internet began working again and the broadcast went live with 2 minutes left in the first quarter. From there on out, it was the boys’ best game of the season, beating a Windsor team that they hadn’t since January of 2015, and it was only their third all-time win against them.

I included this to show that everything doesn’t always go as planned, but you can make the most out of what you have.

 

News Broadcast Director

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PHBQN62WpJk&t=139s

One of the things I did in class was help out with the weekly news. In this particular case, I set up the equipment and camera angles, wrote the script, and directed the news. While I don’t appear on camera, I did the work behind the scenes for it to happen.

 

Other examples :

Color Call – Football vs. Durango

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4_9wO_jUOI

Color Call – Girls Basketball at Roosevelt

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ADq3463wxhA