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The Indiana Daily Student

'Bloomington Breakfast Club' is the first of its kind at IUSTV

Campus Filler

When sophomores Gabrielle Bailenson and Lydia Knoll first met at an IU Student Television callout meeting, they said they were excited to be able to work together doing broadcast reporting. They decided they wanted to combine their interests to create a new show, “Bloomington Breakfast Club.”

“Bloomington Breakfast Club” is the first show of its kind for the network, IUSTV Co-News Director Sierra Hignite said.

Knoll said as a freshman she noticed the sports and news sides of IUSTV were very separated.

“We became friends right away and were like ‘oh this will be so fun’ but then we never saw each other because both sides were so separate,” Knoll said.

After coming up with a basic plan for the show, they pitched it to the creative content director Jocelyn Teliz. Teliz is now the executive director of IUSTV, and she supported the idea for the show.

Senior Brendon BeMent, now the show’s executive director, contacted Knoll and Bailenson to help them get “Bloomington Breakfast Club” started. The show is part of IUSTV’s entertainment division.

Knoll said their summer goal was to formalize plans for the show so they could begin filming in the fall. But when they returned for the school year, construction was not yet complete on the studio in Franklin Hall.

BeMent said the show had many difficulties during its development, but toward the end of fall semester they began to assemble a new crew to ensure they would be ready to start filming as soon as everyone returned from winter break.

“People doubted us, but I think it made us more motivated,” Bailenson said.

BeMent said his role is to provide the right tools for the show to be made. While taping, his role is to make sure shots look good and everything goes according to the plan.

“It’s really satisfying to see the show when it comes out on Monday mornings because a lot of planning goes into it and to see it come to fruition is great,” BeMent said.

Aj Salisbury, a sophomore cinema studies and production major, became the show’s floor director. It’s her job to facilitate communication between the control room and the studio, and to make sure Knoll and Bailenson’s audio and microphone equipment are working and in the right place.

“She’s our ‘mom.’ We call her because she’ll always fix our hair before we go and make sure everything looks good,” Knoll said.

As the floor director, Salisbury is in the studio during filming and wears a headset to communicate with senior Skyler Newsome, the show’s director.

Newsome said his job as director involves coordinating the crew and choosing what shots they use. He has worked at WTIU for three years, but this is his first time directing a show.

“This whole thing has been sort of experimental on all of our ends,” Newsome said. “Building a show from scratch is pretty difficult. There’s just a lot that goes into it that you don’t really foresee.”

The show films Friday mornings in Franklin Hall and airs Mondays. It’s on its ninth episode with three left to film for the school year.

The format includes weather, sports and news. The final portion of each episode is dedicated to an interview segment, usually involving an important figure in IU athletics or a prominent community member.

As for the show’s future, Bailenson and Knoll said they hope to have more musical guests and possibly chefs who could cook in the studio.

Bailenson said she and Knoll work well together because they balance each other out.

“We’re so different, but that’s why we work,” Bailenson said. “I think our dynamic really works.”

Both Knoll and Bailenson said they hope to continue “Bloomington Breakfast Club” until they graduate in 2019. In the fall or spring of their senior years, they said they hope to audition new hosts for the show.

“We want to make sure it’s put in good hands,” Knoll said.

Knoll, Bailenson, Newsome, Salisbury and BeMent all said they appreciate working with the entire crew and that the set is a great work environment.

“It’s more of, like, a family at this point than it is just kind of like a Friday morning job,” Newsome said. “We all seem to enjoy being around one another and learning and making something.”

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