Tess Quinlan
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Hurricane Sandy can't take New Jersey's 'Summer Nights' away

10/31/2012

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This is the Lavallette boardwalk, a mere three blocks from where I vacationed as a child.
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The Surf Club, pictured above, was a popular nightclub, but also a breakfast place we frequented.
As one of the students that attends school far away from home, I can tell you that watching the coverage of Hurricane Sandy is hard, but only one word describes it effectively:

Helpless. 

I'm 800 miles from home, watching one of my favorite places in the world be ravaged by flood waters and destroyed by debris. Places that I know and love are gone, snapped in half or swept away into the Atlantic. I can't physically help with clean up or assess the situation first hand. And I didn't even get the worst of it in my hometown of Montclair. (Sidenote-Everyone's safe. My family's extremely lucky; no major damage and we got our power back.)

While I grew up in northern New Jersey, I spent a significant amount of time at the Jersey shore. My cousins have a house in Seaside, one of the hardest areas hit. Good family friends have houses right on a lagoon next to Lavallette, which is about fifteen minutes north of Seaside. Honestly, I'm not sure if some of my childhood summer hangouts still exist. This video of the new Lyman St. Inlet stretches across the island and across the main thoroughfare of RT. 35. If Most of my friends on the East Coast don't have school and if they were able to, got home and started to help clean up. 

But if I know one thing about New Jersey, New York and Connecticut residents, it is that they are incredibly resilient. They come back from anything. The communities will rally. They will support each other in any way that they can. That extends across the country, including right here in Milwaukee. Almost every New Jersey student that I know has reached out to see if my family was OK. Even people at Marquette that have no connection to New Jersey have double checked to make sure that my family is safe. That genuine feeling is something that cannot be repaid or replicated. 

There's a reason that New Jersey's favorite son, Bruce Springsteen has songs entitled, "We Take Care of Our Own" and "My City of Ruins."

Because New Jersey will rise up. Together. 
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My Summer Turned Golden in London at 2012 Olympic Games

10/14/2012

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We took an afternoon after work and walked around Olympic Park. What an incredible place!
For the first time in my life, I felt awkward telling a story. After returning back from my internship with NBC at the 2012 London Olympics, people would see me and immediately ask, "How was London?". In all honesty, I had no idea where to start.  Do I tell them about the incredible production experience I gained? Or the sensational people I got to work with? Maybe I should start with the 24 hour free Starbucks. This foreign feeling of uneasiness would creep into my stomach. I would break eye contact and stare at the ground. My shoulders would shrug and I'd say, "It was fun." And then nothing. 

Well, like every good journalist, I conquered my awkwardness and wrote about it. 
Along with three other "logger" interns, I was placed in "Control C", a department based at NBC's headquarters in the International Broadcast Centre (IBC) that dealt with several different aspects of production. What is Control C you might ask? It took me a while to figure that out. After a lot of investigating, someone explained it this way; Anything that was not live at NBC went through our offices at some point or another. While at the Olympics, our department was responsible for pre-produced feature stories, montages, sales enhancements, graphics with video components, previews of the upcoming Olympics and segments that looked back at previous Olympics.  
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An interesting angle of the IBC from just outside the NBC setup.
As interns, it was our job to digitally send clips of live events to the production assistants, who would organize them further for editors. We were the first filter of content, weeding out shots that would not be considered for air. We scrubbed through footage for everything from interesting shots of athletes to great final calls from broadcasters. We would "clip it and ship it" at the end of each event and move onto the next game or match. This would be key when producers or editors needed shots of a specific player. We were easily able to look at what we had clipped earlier from that event, send it over, and make sure it got to the right editing station in a timely manner.
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The touch screen was so cool to see!
For example, Maria Sharapova was going to be playing Serena Williams in the gold medal match for Women's Singles. Once the match was set, a primetime promo was scheduled to air highlighting the two of them. We were asked to pull good clips of Serena and Maria. When we returned the next morning to the IBC, the promo featuring our clips was airing live on NBC back in the U.S.. We were also asked to find clips of the more obscure sports, like water polo, to feature in our "Still to Come" graphical elements, which would air as NBC was heading to commercial. All of these clips would air back in the states as the day crew was sleeping.

As I mentioned earlier, Control C was in charge of all montages, including the final montage of the Olympics called Titans. The piece, which is set to the Remember the Titans score, is the last thing that the viewers watch with NBC's coverage of the Olympics. Most people told me that this is the piece they remember from year to year and it often makes them cry. The interns were instrumental in finding clips that were selected for the piece. We focused on underdog moments, like Kayla Harrison winning the United States' first Judo gold medal, and big time stories, such as Michael Phelps' final event. Watching that was an incredibly rewarding experience for us because the clips that we selected were featured in the piece. That is something I'll never forget. 
Another thing I'll never forget is the family atmosphere. During my time in London, Control C became a family. That's why  I have been using the word "we" a lot. Whenever I talk about something that I accomplished while over there, I realize that it was not just my accomplishment, but one of a group of dedicated people that gave everything they had every day. Everyone I met at NBC genuinely cared about each other but wanted to create great television, a balance that can be very difficult to find. 
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Cassie Bussing, a USC student, was my fellow morning shift intern and has become a great friend.
I have never heard the words "please" and "thank you" uttered so many times, even in high-stressed situations. It reminded me that great people in television do exist. My boss, Matt Allen, said to us at the beginning, "Look this is a teaching hospital. Mistakes will be made. Everyone understands that. The most important thing we can do is to understand what the mistake was, learn from it and move on." That dose of perspective is something that I will take with me throughout my career. 
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The 2012 NBC London interns pose in studio. About 120 interns from across the country came with NBC.
Two months ago today, I returned home from London. It's weird being back (and being awake when the sun is out). One of our producers said, "You'll become an Olympic junkie. When you get back, you'll recover and then realize that you can't wait to get back."  I originally doubted him. I met another producer from a Canadian television network, who  said that about two months out, you'll realize that the only thing you want to be doing is back working with your friends. And in some cases, your family.
Two months to the day, I realize that these producers were 100% right. As much as I love my classes and working at Marquette, I want to be scrubbing through footage to find that one angle or sit around the commissary, wondering about the scrambled eggs. I want to be deciding what call to "clip and ship" to the editors. I want to be picking a favorite athlete and watch them win a medal. I want the NBC Olympics theme, "Home" by Phillip Phillips and "All Around the World" by Justin Beiber stuck in my head. 

And that's a story I'll never feel awkward telling. 
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    Tess Quinlan

    USA TODAY Sports Digital Producer. Marquette alumna. Coffee provides optimism.

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