Digital Portfolio: Cookie Altieri

Alexandra Altieri, Sports Producer

Hi my name is Cookie Altieri and here at Wacs News my job title is the sports producer. As the sports producer I had to opportunity to gather sports information from all the varsity sports and keep the viewers updated on scores and game highlights. I was also in charge of writing the sports scripts for my sports anchor Jacob Eberile. I decided to enroll in multimedia production because it sounds like a good time and a get away from the other core classes. All of my friend’s mentioned that they were in that class as well so I knew it was going to be a fun year. As a sports producer I had a major role to play that’s why I was honored when Mr. Currin and Mr. Masci told me they wanted me to be in charge of sports. I was excited at first because I am a three-sport athlete so I thought this was an easy job for me. Unfortunately when the first film day came my sports script was not written for the first 2 weeks of fall sports. When I first started to write the scripts my grade suffered because they were very short and did not have a lot of detail. However I did learn from my mistakes and each script kept getting better and better. I have learned many things from this class. One thing that I learned was iMovie. Coming into this class I have never worked with a Mac or even heard of the app iMovie but with the help of my classmates and teachers I got the hang of it real quick and it became a second nature. In the beginning of the school year I made one video dedicated to teachers who are also coaches at Alden. I asked then a serious of questions like “how does your role as a coach impact your role as a teacher”? My teacher and coaches video was a little unorganized and messy with the recording, so I would have to say that was one of the worst projects I did. Later in the year Mr. Currin told me I could do extra credit if I made two promotions. I took the offer and the first promotion I made was for the Athletic Association here at Alden. My skills with iMovie really improved and both my teachers were impressed. The next promotion I made was for yearbook club. In this promotion I included multiple pictures of my classmates and made it look like there were actually in a yearbook. I had a lot of fun doing this one. Because I am a sports producer I mostly stuck to scripts and sports scores I did not get stories every cycle like everyone else. Writing the scripts took some practice too but I got the hang of it. I would have to email the coaches and ask them for scores of most recent games and highlights. I would also gather footage of sports teams practicing and images of them in action. Advice for future students coming into this class is keep track of the cycle days and stay organized. The hardest part for me was remembering when film day was. Sometimes I would forget and my script would be late and sports team would get to film that day which was a major set back. This class teaches you to be organized. Coming into this class I would always lose everything and would not write important dates down. This was for sure a struggle but I soon learned that if I wanted to be successful I had to stay organized. Other challenges I faced in this class was when I went to Florida for 5 days. I missed a lot of class for multi media and it was very difficult to catch back up. I also did not have a sports script done before I left for vacation so I had to scramble to find information. What I could have done better was get in sports script in a couple days earlier than film day so it could be revised and checked over by Mr. Currin. The last 2 months of school I began to take my own advice and handed my script in earlier. Wacs news is a great thing to be apart of and I can’t imagine how my school year would have been without it. Wacs news not only serves the school but also serves the community. Wacs news has all the latest stories to keep the residents informed about what is happening their community. We always have the inside scoop and a first had look at what’s going on. We are the first ones to know. I am graduating in a few weeks and I plan to attend Niagara University to major in psychology. Niagara does offer a media program similar to this one Alden offers and I’m still thinking about joining because of how much fun I had in Wacs. My overall experience in this class was one I wont forget. If it weren’t for the help of Mr. Currin and Mr. Masci’s jokes I wouldn’t have made it through the year. I’m really glad I stuck with this class. What I learned about myself was that I can get frustrated easily but if I stay focused and get my work done it will all work out in the end. I will miss Wacs news and everyone apart of it. Wacs news will always have a spot in my heart and I hope for those coming into this class next year they will feel the same way.