Written by Erin McCooey '28

The Intro to Filmmaking students went on a day-long trip to NBC Studios, which is located in New York City, on January 10. Upon arrival at NBC studios, the class engaged in a question and answer session with Maya Eaglin, Brett Holey, Liz Connor ‘06, Grace Campbell ‘16, and Natalie Bennett. 

Intro to Film student Chloe Clarke ‘28 said, “I truly loved getting a feel for the field of producing, anchoring and the setup at NBC. It was an eye-opening experience along with hearing from many impactful and important people.” 

The class learned about a typical day at NBC. It was extremely interesting to learn about the vast differences between a producer, a reporter, a director, and someone in the ad sales department.        

Mr. Holey has been working in the business for around 40 years. In addition, he organized the gift of the Today Show set to Sacred Heart Greenwich in 2006. When Mr. Holey was asked about how the television industry has changed, he mentioned the differences between the introduction of cable television and the present day. 

While talking about NBC specifically, he explained that when he started out that the other news stations were the biggest competition.

He said, “Now, anybody can go live from anywhere [...] We’re a big fish, but in a much, much bigger pond.” 

He referred to NBC’s newer options for younger generations on mobile devices. He added that NBC’s newest competitors are social media platforms, such as Instagram, instead of solely ABC and CBS. 

Instead of avoiding social media, Ms. Connor said, “We should try to join forces with them and leverage the power of social media to drive fandom [and] to drive popularity for our shows.” 

Ms. Bennett is a producer on the show “Top Story” with Tom Llamas. Ms. Bennett went to Boston University and majored in political science. She joined her college news station, which inspired her to add a journalism minor and ultimately led her to work at NBC, where she started as a Production Assistant and worked her way up to Segment Producer. As a producer for an hour-long news show, Ms. Bennett enjoys contrasting the serious stories with trendy and exciting stories that she finds on social media.  

Ms. Eaglin met with us virtually, due to the fact that she had a shoot later in the day in Brooklyn. Ms. Eaglin studied journalism at Elon University, and began to focus on producing at NBC, but ultimately switched to reporting. She is a digital reporter along with being one of the co-hosts of “Stay Tuned” which caters to a Gen Z audience. An especially interesting aspect of her job is her ability to contribute to shows across the network such as "Top Story," "Nightly News with Lester Holt," and the "Today Show."

Ms. Campbell is a Sacred Heart Greenwich graduate who went to Colgate University. Prior to her position at NBC, she believed that she wanted to go into finance. She works as an Account Manager in the advertising sales department at NBC.

 Ms. Connor is from the class of 2006 from Sacred Heart. She double majored in history and art history at Johns Hopkins University. She is VP of CPG Client Partnerships. Ms. Connor had been at NBC for 9 years when she decided to partake in a few different opportunities away from NBC. 

When she was offered a position back at NBC she accepted. 

“I love NBC, I love the people here, I love the content. I missed the rhythm of T.V. and talking about pop culture and bringing something so exciting to viewers,” Ms. Connor said.

Their different paths to their positions at NBC were especially captivating. In some ways, their paths looked very different, while on the other hand, they all had an underlying passion for different parts of the television and journalism industry. 

Ms. Eaglin said, “There’s no way to know exactly how it's going to happen for you. I couldn’t have predicted my path, so my best advice is just to keep an open mind.”   

Ms. Eaglin shared that “Stay Tuned" was originally filmed in a studio, but switched to being filmed on a cellphone when creating content for the show's social media platforms. It was especially inspirational when she said that aspiring journalists or reporters can begin their journey on this career path with a few simple pieces of equipment and a phone. 

"This field trip to NBC was an extraordinary experience for our students to learn about what it is like to work in an actual news studio. They were inspired to hear about potential careers in this industry. We are incredibly grateful to all of the speakers and especially to Tom Llamas and Abby Wu who worked behind the scenes to make this amazing trip possible," said Ms. Ellyn Stewart, Director of Media Studies, Design and Innovation. 

After the first question and answer session, the students embarked on a tour. The NBC pages acted as tour guides and were able to answer various questions about the studios, as well as NBC as a whole. The NBC page program gives young adults a taste of various career paths at NBC. 

The first stop was the studio that "The Kelly Clarkson Show" is filmed in. Since it was a regular work day, the class was able to see some of the preparations that were occurring for next week’s show, such as preparing the lighting. 

Next, the class went to the studio that "The Tonight Show" is filmed in. The class learned that Jimmy Fallon uses cue cards rather than a teleprompter. The handwriting used to create the cue cards is so specific that a team of successors is trained in the particular handwriting.

Lastly, the class was brought to the control rooms and the NBC Muppet pipes, which are pipes that were painted by a team from the Muppets before they appeared on an NBC show.

Our final question and answer session was with Yvette Miley, Executive Vice President of NBCUniversal News Group, and Janelle Rodriguez, NBC’s Executive Vice President.

Ms. Rodriguez is responsible for making decisions regarding breaking news. First, she has to determine the level of urgency. Next, she has to notify her team, comprehend the information and notify an anchor. 

Ms. Rodriguez said, “We expect the response time to generally be five minutes.” 

During an irregular hour, such as in the middle of the night, it may take longer. 

In addition, Ms. Miley and Ms. Rodriguez expressed their opinions about A.I. in the news industry. Rather than fear it, they encouraged students to learn the distinctions about what is and is not allowed regarding A.I. and news coverage. For example, NBC News could use A.I for prototyping graphics or to organize NBC’s archival footage. NBC cannot use A.I. for news coverage. Ms. Rodriguez encouraged students to stay current in this field as A.I. will continue to play an important role in the next generation of media makers. 

It is clear that the Intro to Film students left NBC studios filled with a new love for journalism. Each student was able to learn about future possibilities in the field and were inspired to learn from the incredible opportunities that they are given. The Intro to Film class is incredibly thankful for this day.    

To view a thank you video made by our students, click here.