Nicole Sclafani sits in a director’s chair in the bowels of Lansing Community College’s TLC Building, one foot tucked under her, fingers flying over her laptop keyboard. Before her is a bank of 16 television screens, images in some with red or green lights above them. In a moment she’ll yank the flash drive out of her computer and pop it into the teleprompter where two-inch tall letters will form words for on-camera talent. She’s preparing the script for “Connections”, the current events program that will begin taping in 10 minutes. While she’s writing the script, she’s also counting backwards, timing each element, in between greeting guests coming and going. A telephone light flashes; news comes that a guest will be late.
“Yaargh,” she grins, running her hands through her hair in a faux dramatic gesture. Ever good-natured, she is helping now to produce the college’s internal programming.
But more often than not, she’s moving around the community, camera-people in tow, fashioning the college’s external image. It is here where she is the brain massaging the area’s raw material that is putting LCC TV on the public media map.
Nicole is six months pregnant. She is also growing a multimedia department at Lansing Community College that at one time might have sought life support. But this is the information age and LCC is taking its place in it.
Live and Local
Nicole’s teams have hauled cameras to Ignite and TEDxLansing. They regularly partner with WLNS/Channel 6 and WHTV/My18. They helped to invent last month’s first Capital City Film Festival. They produce shows now available on cable TV, their website, and on YouTube and Facebook. LCC TV is the only station in the Mid-Michigan market to offer an array of international programming that includes news and entertainment from around the globe. Think “Al Jazeera,” “Russia Today” and “This is Beijing,” among others and all in English.
“We’re changing the face of public TV,” she says matter-of-factly. And the station’s numbers prove people are responding: Its Facebook page had 16 “Likes” in February, 2009, compared with 512 in February, 2011. The number of times people have viewed a February, 2011 news story posted by the page is 9,309.
Ninety percent of the LCC student body is on Facebook, making it one of the most economical ways to reach students. And as if she and the community college have merged, Nicole and her human baby will become the subject of an upcoming LCC TV program when students in the college’s sonographic class use ultrasound seeking to find her child’s image and heart beat.
She doesn’t yet know the baby’s gender, but after he or she is born, the baby will be cuddled and coddled just like the new programs Nicole is planning now: a multi-generational talk show focusing on local issues, for one. Lucian Leone, director of LCC’s Communications and Marketing Department, and Nicole’s boss, has high praise for her work. He says LCC TV The Link is helping people think of the college as a vital part of the region’s future. “It’s all about engagement,” he says.
Her experience is broad, and her potential huge. So how did Nicole end up in Lansing, living in a subdivision in Bath with her husband, Mark Szymczak?
It’s a bit ironic, actually, when you consider that her last job was in Detroit, producing investigative shows mining the layers of former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s relationships and administration. And before that she worked in Las Vegas. And why is she the producer, working behind the camera when she has the intelligence, star looks and smile that could rival Diane Sawyer’s or Katie Couric’s?
The beginning
After two years at Macomb Community College, Nicole headed for Michigan State University to major in print journalism. But a TV internship showed her how to tell a story with words and pictures. “I fell in love,” she says. But advisors noted she would hit the job market at age 21, too young-appearing to deliver news. She could move up in the industry faster as a producer, she was told.
“I’m a control freak,” she laughs now. She got to create the story threads and send the reporters to capture them. She was the head honcho. Armed with a degree cum laude, jobs followed in Traverse City, then Las Vegas. Then she returned to Michigan, and Channel 4 in Detroit. She led the investigative team and also produced coverage of the Detroit Auto Show and Thanksgiving Day Parade.
The opportunity came two years ago to move to Lansing and fulfill Dr. Brent Knight’s vision of a vibrant media department. Since then, she’s acquired a staff of two full time photographers and producers and three part timers. They have produced over 200 videos for YouTube. Since its inception, LCC TV’s YouTube site has earned 88,557 total views. Called lcc1957, it draws 65 percent males.
Seven LCC-originated shows include Double Jump, hosted and produced by Dan Hartley, focusing weekly on video gaming. Lansing Lowdown features shots from around town, announcing goings on in the Lansing area. A recent show was shot at Preuss’ Pets where Nicole shared the screen with snakes, primary-colored birds and fish. Easter week, the show was taped at a “local church,” actually the long-vacated Temple Club. “L-Town Studios” is described as a “musicmentary,” featuring live recording studio sessions and interviews with rising artists in Michigan. “Coffee Break” is much like Michael Patrick Shiels’ show in Lansing or “Morning Joe” from MSNBC, radio programs filmed for TV.
Time was once when a TV show might get one exposure. Today, a show on LCC TV The Link can be seen on Comcast Channels 15 and 31, live streamed, on demand or on YouTube.
LCC course programming is coming from Second Life and on iTunes. Who knows what might be next. To be sure, LCC TV The Link will be involved and Nicole will be there, pushing the envelope at times, gently guiding at others, much like the mother she is, and is becoming.
Gretchen Cochran is a freelance writer covering stories for various companies including Capital Gains.
Dave Trumpie is the managing photographer for Capital Gains. He is a freelance photographer and owner of Trumpie Photography.
Photos:
Nicole Sclafani
Jarod Emison operates a studio camera
Sam Zeller, Nicole Sclafani, Bill Miekka, Jarod Emison, and Dan Hartley
Sam Zellar on a location shoot
Control room during a LCC TV taping
Nicole being shot on location
All Photographs © Dave Trumpie