Back to blogging!

Well, the past few weeks have been super busy and I haven't blogged at all - my apologies!!

I've had a few shows on "CU@USC," attended the College TV awards presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and have hit the set of Dancing With the Stars every Monday as part of my internship with KABC-TV!

Let's talk a bit about who's come into the studio since Vicki graced us with her presence. We had Michael Donaldson and Lisa Callif, entertainment attornies who took me inside their lives as defenders of independent filmmakers.

Next up, Dway McDuffie came to the studio for a chance to talk about comic books as a DC Comics writer/founder of DC Milestone Comics. His passion is to tell stories through comics and especially expose more cultures into the comic book industry. We discussed topics covering the industry through his multicultural lens. He shared memories from his past when he didn't see a lot of "himself," the average African American boy, portrayed in comic books. He was a nerdy techy kid and one day after studying in college, decided to bring his own flavor to the world of comic books. That's when DC Milestone Comics was born. Since then, Dwayne and the rest of his production team have launched titles such as: Blood Syndicate, Hardware, Icon and Static.

Switching gears, Nick Rizzo (Executive producer of "CU@USC") and I, hit the Red Carpet to cover the College Television Awards in Hollywood. It was a quaint Red Carpet event and I had the chance to get one-on-one with the stars. The cast of The Buried Life was such a fun group of guys, touching on their reality show about the list of 100 things they want to do before they die. After college, one of the things on their list was to have a TV show...clearly they can check that one off! Other television celebs hit the Carpet, like Tom Bergeron (Host-Dancing With the Stars), Adam Shankman (film director, producer, dancer and choreographer), Nygel Lythgoe (TV film director/producer, choreographer and former dancer), Chris Colfer (GLEE), Yvette Nicole Brown (Community), etc. There were a handful more and even the student nominees had the opportunity to catch up with the media. It was an exciting night to see student filmmakers my age, grasping on to their opportunity to create great work and be rewarded with a student Emmy (that's a HUGE résumé builder if you ask me!). Nick and I talked after the event and decided that more USC students need to submit their work. After all, we do have a phenomenal Cinema school for goodness sakes! I took a peek at the program and saw that there is also a category for best college produced Newscast, hmmm...Annenberg TV News? We need to represent next year!

College TV Awards @ The Renaissance Hotel, Hollywood CA

As the school year rapidly wraps up, there's a lot to take care of. I'll be a senior next year, so I am beginning to feel the crunch. The past few weeks have taught me a lot about how to go about interviewing people with such incredibly different stories. Whether it is a celebrity, a student or a comic book creator, each and everyone of them allow me the opportunity to dig deep into their lives and talk about topics they hold close to their hearts. It is a true pleasure to be practicing these social skills now in hopes of carrying this passion on to my job in the real world after college.

Dancing With the Stars is a whole new post in itself...check back soon.

Fight on folks!!

- MT