Election Night

Tennessee anchor Raneem Imam actually recited lines from her role in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee when taping her video spot for the Election Night 2014 open (which doesn't include audio from the anchors). See if you can tell when you watch the open on November 4th.

A view of Raneem through the viewfinder. Election Night 2014 will be her first major on-air role at GHS-TV since joining Production Workshop this school year. 

US House anchor Hayley Bardos will likely not wear shorts when she's on-air for Election Night 2014. Hayley will focus on about 50 House races for the live show.

Technical producer Sean Byrne oversaw the intro tapings for all the anchors. Sean and his crew will be very busy over the next 14 days. They've got two studios, eight cameras, 12 video inserts, 10 mics, hundreds of graphics and countless other details to perfect before we go live at 7 p.m. on November 4th.

Moderator Sydney Armstrong is the only current anchor who's making a return to the election desk. Sydney was gubernatorial anchor for Election Night 2012 as a sophomore. She's no doubt been sharing tips with the rest of the anchor team.

Sydney, Hayley and Maclean always have time to stop and smile for the camera.

Local anchor Maclean Mayers enjoying a recent anchor meeting with our executive anchor coordinator Ruth Dunning.

While they are much farther along in their training, the anchors and anchor producers enjoyed watching the Schoolhouse Rock video "How a Bill Becomes a Law" during a recent meeting.

Gubernatorial anchor producer Linda Razany and gubernatorial anchor Will Alton are one of the six anchor teams studying for the November 4th show.

From left, US House anchor producer Bryan Scott, Mayers, local races anchor producer Ericka Garrison and US Senate anchor producer Elijah Bienz listen in as Mrs. Dunning explains important information about the 2014 election.

Moderator Sydney Armstrong and videographer Ethan Morton visited Germantown Elementary School to ask students what they would do as President for a day. Look for the video during our live show.

Guest producer Damaris Diaz has been busy working the phones. She's in charge of booking all the guests for the show's numerous interview segments. Some of her guests so far include candidates and incumbents for state house and senate.

Mayers (sitting) and Alton are more than just anchors for Election Night 2014. Both produced content for the show as a reporter and videographer.

Each of the show's anchor producers are also responsible for producing a report. Local races anchor producer Ericka Garrison looks over an interview she conducted with respected journalists and University of Memphis professor Otis Sanford.

Arafat Quran meets with Election Night 2014 overall producer Taylor Shennett. This is one of many meetings Shennett will have between now and November 4. She started working on the show over a month ago.

Byrne starts setting up cameras for the big night.

Less than two weeks away from election night, Gilani is working to finalize the open he will use on-air for the show.

Supervising videographer Matt Sloan works with videographer Daniel Jaramillo to fix an audio issue.

Sloan was able to troubleshoot the problem with just enough time left for Jaramillo and Bardos to record a standup for their report on young people's opinion of partisan politics in Washington.

Technical producer Sean Byrne gets the lights ready in Studio B after the first rehearsal.

There's plenty of activity in the newsroom prior to the second rehearsal. Students are busy highlighting important points in the format.

US House anchor Haylay Bardos finishes up her report script. Bardos spoke with area teens about the importance of compromise in light of the perception that the US congress can't seem to do so.

Latavia Williams and Ericka Garrison getting focused before rehearsal.

As the anchor producer for the local races, Garrison is responsible for putting her anchor, Maclean Mayers, in a position to succeed. She's done a great job of that leading to the live show.

Byrne sets up the anchors' microphones with US House anchor producer Bryan Scott.

Scott isn't responsible for microphones, but many of our crew members are pitching in wherever they can help.

Local anchor Maclean Mayers types a few script changes into the newsroom management system

Editor Ethan Morton and moderator Sydney Armstrong work on their report. The two GHS-TV students visited Germantown Elementary to find out what GES students would do if they were president for a day.

Videographer Daniel Jaramillo looks over a script for the report he's editing on young people's opinion on the lack of compromise in congress.

Jaramillo goes over report specifics with reporter and US House anchor Hayley Bardos.

Details matter, especially to overall producer Taylor Shennett. She's cutting out GHS-TV logos to use on set for the live show.

The newsroom is a busy place before a rehearsal. Student crew members take care of last minute responsibilities before another practice round.

From left, logistics producer Jasmine Saulsberry, assistant floor director Ashwini Rao and local anchor Maclean Mayers highlight their formats before rehearsal.

Another view of the busy newsroom.

US Senate anchor Kaif Gilani spends most of his time off-air preparing for his next results segment.

US House anchor Hayley Bardos is responsible for over 200 races from around the nation.

In the background, supervising videographer Matt Sloan (who was a student anchor producer in '08 and student director in '10) speaks with the audio crew about changes to this year's microphone process.

Bryan Scott goes over details for some of the US House races Bardos will cover during the rehearsal.

Gilani and US Senate anchor producer Elijah Bienz discuss one of the races for rehearsal.

Bienz and the rest of our anchor producers will spend a lot of time with graphics producer Ben Taylor. Taylor is responsible for bringing up graphics for every race mentioned on air during the live, three-hour cablecast.

Armstrong and our first round of anchors work quietly just before the start of a new segment.

Ethan Morton has to remain focused throughout the live show when operating the audio board. He's responsible for 10 microphones as well as sound levels for the more than one dozen videos played during the production.

Assistant guest producer Maggie Burchfield sits in as a rehearsal guest for political analysts Rob Thomas and Ruth Dunning. They had an in-depth conversation about popular TV shows.

We'll miss having Frank Bluestein as our co-host and political analyst, but we are excited to be joined by Germantown High teacher Rob Thomas. 

This is the first election show we've produced since renovating our sets. Here's an overhead view of the new analysis and interview set.

Sean Byrne directs the show along with switcher Myles Roddy.

A view down the line in the control room during the Saturday rehearsal.

Local anchor producer Ericka Garrison reads off title numbers for graphics operator Ben Taylor.

An overhead look of the show's two technical leaders.

A successful Election Night 2014 cablecast led to happy faces from the production crew after the show.

Political analyst and Germantown High teacher Rob Thomas sporting his mustache and mustache mug during the live show.

A view of the anchor set from behind the technical crew during Tuesday night's live show.

Bryan Scott watches as graphics producer Ben Taylor prepares to bring up the US House graphics.

A view of the control room during GHS-TV's live coverage of Election Night 2014.

On-air time producer Meagan Bratton kept the crews in the control room and on the sets up-to-date on format changes and times

Moderator Sydney Armstrong prepares for her next segment while Gubernatorial anchor Will Alton goes over one of his last sets of results Tuesday night.

Local anchor producer Ericka Garrison prepares a results sheet for data entry producer Connor Sackett.

There were not many surprises in the races covered Tuesday night by Tennessee anchor Raneem Imam.

Election Night 2014 may have been political analyst Rob Thomas' first show, but you couldn't tell from his performance on-air.

Jasmine Saulsberry watched over the format all night Tuesday to inform anchors and anchor producers how much time was left before their next segment.

A look down the data entry and research line. Of the numerous aspects of the show that impressed guests Tuesday night, the action in this hallway may have topped the list.

Floor director Naya Foster kept the lines of communication open in Studio B.

Will Alton waits for an open seat on the anchor desk.

US Senate anchor Kaif Gilani's night started early when media organizations started calling races over an hour before we went on-air.

Between segments, anchors would leave set to help their research crews find results for their most important races.

Election Night 2014 actually marked one of Will Alton's first on-air appearances for GHS-TV.

Guest producer Damaris Diaz explains how the Election Night 2014 "machine" works to state representative G.A. Hardaway.

Shelby County Schools Superintendent Dorsey Hopson visited the studio to see our students in action and to talk with our political analysts.

Educators and political analysts Rob Thomas and Ruth Dunning offered insight on the races and interviewed the numerous civic leaders who stopped by Tuesday night.

Throughout rehearsals, Alex Turner became known for how well he handled the boom shots going into and bumping out of each segment. It was no different during the show.