In Onward and Upward, a new weekly feature, the Daily spotlights innovative and motivated Tufts alumni who are achieving success in their chosen fields.
He's only been out of college for two years, but Adrian Baschuk's successes in the realm of television and film are already impressive.
"You tell people you're 24 and a CNN national correspondent, and they look at you like, 'Sure,'" Baschuk said (LA '02). Baschuk, in addition to spending the past year covering stories like the Kobe Bryant and Michael Jackson cases as one of CNN's youngest correspondents, also co-owns a production company that's about to release its first documentary film, "Faith, Drugs, Rock & Roll" (see box).
"My goal has always been to be an international correspondent," Baschuk, a Miami native said.
Being a CNN correspondent is highly demanding. "It's live, 24/7, on-the-spot news," Baschuk said. "You're always ready to go - I could get sent to a new location at four in the morning, you never know. You're always on edge. Some days are very easy, just doing research, and other days, you're on TV for 16 hours, on the hour, every hour."
Though television work can be grueling, Baschuk isn't shying away from adding more of it to his plate. "I have plans to produce a pilot for a TV show and pitch it to different networks," he said. "It would be news meets documentary meets talk meets debate meets comedy sketch."
Baschuk's tinkering with the standard news formula is rooted in both his appreciation for and criticism of the medium. "The news is an institution in this country - I give it that respect and that precedence," he said. "However, I think with a new generation of viewers - namely, us - that have been bombarded by so many different forms of media, we've grown up in a very different era than our parents and grandparents."
"We have the ability to process all this information, to rapidly discern what we see and what we like," he added. "So I think our generation has a different voice, a different eye, a different ear. My job as a correspondent is to churn out stories that are a minute and 30 seconds in length, yet I think we want more; we demand more. I think there's a fundamental change coming in the way we consume our media."
His long-established TV and film passion further developed at Tufts, where he quickly became involved with the Tufts media lab and TUTV, first hosting and then producing a news show.
Baschuk credits his experiences in the Tufts media lab with helping him to become an editing expert. "I saw it as a gold mine. I invested a lot of my time here in our own production studio on campus: learn all the tools, make my mistakes, and be able to work up to the level I wanted to be at upon graduation."
Baschuk's hands-on experiences at Tufts propelled him towards that level and prepared him for off-campus experiences in the realm of broadcasting. He has worked for ABC News in both Boston and Miami, doing pieces for World News Tonight, PrimeTime Live, and Nightline.
During his senior year, Baschuk taught an Explorations class at the Ex-College, "TV News in the New Millennium," in which students produced stories for his news show on TUTV.
For his senior project, Baschuk produced a documentary comparing the life of a 21-year-old in New York city with a 21-year-old Mexican who worked at a U.S. processing plant.
Baschuk has incorporated his interest in international relations into Tensions Pictures, Inc, the production company he founded with two partners six months after graduating from Tufts. "[The name comes from] discovering points of tension and exposing intentions worldwide," he said. "I see the world as a web of points of tension and conflict, and we highlight that."
The production company also gives Baschuk a chance to exercise the editing skills he honed at Tufts. "I needed [Tensions] to be my creative outlet," he said. "As a correspondent, I'm in front of the camera: giving news, doing reports. I'm reporting on the case live, every other hour, on CNN, but it doesn't allow me to, you know, shoot the shot I want or get the interview I want to get."
While Baschuk's CNN position may not be as creatively fulfilling as his work with Tensions, his job does give him a great deal of exposure. "The work is satisfying because [it is] reaching more viewers," Baschuk said.
"I get calls from around the world - for example, from friends from Tufts who live abroad - because I've been on CNN International as well. And friends across the country, I can just tell them, 'Hey, tune in in five minutes; I'll be on.'"
