Behind the Scenes on the set of ET!

LET THERE BE LIGHT!!

So far on our internship, the Entertainment Tonight stage had been "dark". In the summer, the ET set is not always used (similar to many shows that go on summer hiatus), and many shots are filmed from the control room. However, starting last week, we got to see the GLITZ and GLAMOUR of the real set in action!

The Set

The stage is HUGE, bright orange, and revolves like a showy amusement park ride. The Entertainment Tonight hosts must walk across the revolving stage while delivering the lines from the teleprompter, stopping at the exact marked spot so the light hits them just so. No stumbling, and no time to rehearse. You might think..."psshh, all they do is smile and read the script!" OK--it's not that easy, you'll just have to trust me. That thing spins around and shakes like a CA earthquake, (WHICH--by the way, I experienced last week! 5.7 on the Richter scale, baby!!).

If anything goes wrong in this process of elaborate choreography, they must film the take again.

I always thought it looked simple, but I did not know that there was an exact art!!

"HE HAS A STRAY HAIR LOOSE!!!"

The people who get to show their PURDY FACES on camera are called the "talent". For ET, this includes Mark--THE MAN--host of ET and internship mentor!--Kevin Frazier, Samantha Harris, and Mary Hart. One of the perks to being talent is that they have professional hair and make-up artists, constantly on-call during filming! The make-up and hair crew watch their prides and joy on a huge HD monitor while filming to make sure that they can catch anything that the audience might catch--a smudged area of eyeliner, or a needed hairspray patdown!

One must weigh the costs and benefits of being talent..how would you like to be constantly scrutinized by the public eye? People commenting on your face from their living rooms. Would make-up service from experts, and professional stylists picking your wardrobe make the ordeal worth it?? Hmmm...

(I DO think so, actually.)

Meeting a WOMAN ET Host--Beautiful Samantha Harris!

I met Samantha Harris, an ET co-anchor and correspondent. (She co-hosted "Dancing with the Stars" for eight seasons! Her bio is on her website here) Samantha Harris is beautiful, and so down-to-earth! Partially due to the fact that she is from Minnesota--best from the midwest, baby!!! When I met her she was wearing a pretty, fitted plum dress and Cole Haan shoes.

I felt bad after I realized I took a picture of just her shoes before I took a picture of her face, but she just laughed.

She talked about how she got her start in broadcast journalism. She went to Northwestern University in Chicago, renowned for its journalism program.

It is really nice to hear about how other people got their start. Often times, I find myself asking, "What is the next step? HOW do I get there?" But the truth is, there is no clear-cut way. It takes practice, experience, hard work, and connections.
When emmy-award winning editor (and UNI Alum) Josh Bodnar came to UNI to speak last semester, he told me something that stuck with me. "You might think that people in LA have an industry advantage because they've lived there for their entire lives, but that's not always true...People from the Midwest get noticed because of their strong work ethic. That's what gets you places."