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Report for Studio Production
Citation preview
Sophie Marriott
Studio Production: Live Report
BA (Hons) Television Production
Year 2
Submission Date: 27/04/15
Word Count: 3654
Contents
Unit Brief – Page 3 – 3
Chosen Show and My Role – Page 3 – 5
Pre-production: The VT Content Page – Page 5 – 8
Production – Page 8 – 8
Complications – Page 8 – 9
Post-production: Supervising the edit – Page 9 – 9
My Secondary Role – Page 10 – 11
The Shoot Day – Page 11 – 12
Reflections – Page 12 – 12
Bibliography – Page 13 – 13
Appendices
A – Page – 14 – 15
B – Page – 16 – 17
C – Page – 18 – 18
D – Page – 18 – 18
2
Unit Brief
The Studio Production unit was briefed to us on 06/1/15 in which each student
was required develop an idea for a 30 minute pilot live show. It would then be
pitched to our tutors who would choose the show according to its viability and
originality. The student who pitched the chosen show would become the
Producer and other roles would be advertised subsequently which we then
had to choose and be interviewed for. We were informed that only one show
would be commissioned and all students would work together on this
production.
Chosen Show and My Role
Our tutors, Helen and Simon, chose to commission Helen Welsh’s show
entitled ‘What You Sayin’, aimed at 16 – 25 year olds. In Helen Welsh’s pitch,
the shows logline was “real people discuss the hottest stories of the week and
take a look at what’s been grabbing your attention” (Welsh, 2015). From
looking at the logline, the show would be catergorised as a talk/debate show
that would have a host posing questions to panelists and controlling the
content of the debates.
Shortly after the show was commissioned, the tutors advertised the different
roles in 5 departments, these were: Producer, Direction, Edit, Camera and
Sound. For most roles, there was a secondary role that the student would
need to undertake on the day of the live recording. Immediately, I knew I
wanted to opt for a role in the Producer department; either the VT Package
Producer or Promotions Producer; as I wanted a role that would utilise my
existing skills but would also face me with new challenges that I hadn’t
previously experienced, such as being solely responsible for a team.
As a producer I would “have overall control on every aspect of a film's
production” (Creative Skillset, 2015) and my “key responsibility is to create an
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environment where the talents of the cast and crew can flourish” (Creative
Skillset, 2015). I understood that if I were to become a Producer, I would need
to make final decisions, whether it’s regarding content of the films or the crew
I send to a shoot, and I would need to ensure that morale of the team is at it’s
highest at all times, especially during stressful periods.
I chose the VT Package Producer role for my 1st choice, followed by the
Promotions Producer; this was because I was particularly interested in the
research process of the topics and building a foundation for the production to
work around and as the VT’s would be linked to the topics directly, it would
allow me to become involved with this. Being a regular viewer of TV shows
that incorporate VT’s as a way of story telling or a way of making the show
work, e.g. Celebrity Juice, I already had a common understanding of what a
VT should bring to the show, which influenced my decision. Additionally, I had
already started to collate ideas for the VT’s that would supplement the
debates.
Once our interviews were completed, in which we had to present a
professional CV and be questioned about the role we intend to fulfill, our
tutors announced which student got which role. I was given my 1st choice role
of VT Package Producer, which I was both ecstatic and apprehensive about.
I would have 4 VT’s to produce, all of which concern different topics and
different ways of approaching them. Although I was knowledgeable about
VT’s, I decided that I should research further into what the purpose of a VT is
before I started to begin my role officially. “VTs are in many ways the key
component. Aside from helping with storytelling, they offer the live producer
something far more important: the opportunity to take a breather.” (Taberer,
2014). After reading this, it put into perspective the importance the VT’s hold
in reference to our debate show as they aid in the progression of the debates.
For example, if at any point the debates divert from the central point, the
presenter can refer back to the VT to pose a new question or to bring the
panelists back onto the topic. The VT’s will give the show extra material that
prevents the audience becoming uninterested if the show takes a debate-
fuelled approach.
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As the leader of my team, I decided to set up a way of contacting each
individual in order for everyone to get involved with the project straight away.
I created a chat group on Facebook messenger to filter through all the
information, updates and changes that occurred through the duration of this
project (see Appendix A). While Facebook isn’t the most professional tool to
contact peers, I found it easier to directly access people in my team as
opposed to e-mails as I knew that some students wouldn’t check their e-mails
regularly. This allowed me to see who had read the messages and I could
monitor the individuals input into this project.
Pre-production: The VT Content
The content of the VT’s had to engage the audience, have a clear beginning
middle and end and should make sense when watched separately from the
show; as instructed by our tutors. As a team, we had to make sure that the
narrative of the VT’s would not replicate what was going to be discussed
during the live show but set up the talking point for each debate. “Narrative is
key to live shows. The separate elements – VTs, interviews, demonstrations,
discussions, floats – need to form a cohesive whole, with each separate item
complementing those that precede and follow it.” (Taberer, 2014). As we
already knew the style of the show, it set the guideline for our VT’s to adhere
to. The 4 VT’s had to reflect the tone and style of the live show, in terms of
scripting, whilst remaining as separate entities. For most of the VT’s, we
initially couldn’t decide which angle to take because there was numerous
routes we could take but we had to try to remain as neutral as possible to
allow for the debate to come to a conclusion. If we could not remain neutral,
we would have to leave the topic open enough for discussion. The topics that
would become the debates on the show changed marginally during every
production meeting so I found it difficult to form a solid idea for my VT’s,
especially as one topic changed from gaming to politics which I was unaware
of until the next production meeting.
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“Identifying your narrative arc as early as possible will help you work out what
should be on tape, what you can handle in your live discussions, and what
you’ll need a demo for.” (Taberer, 2014). After many production meetings
discussing the most relatable topics, we decided on: Graffiti, Domestic
Violence, Body Image and Politics. The inspiration behind the graffiti VT was
came from an episode of Jack Whitehall’s ‘Backchat’ television programme in
which he takes his dad to a cuddle master class, something he despises, and
it created tension and humour. The idea of taking a person to somewhere
they will dislike is something the audience wants to see and would therefore
be entertained. I decided to take a panelist, Jordan, who dislikes graffiti and is
very opinionated, on a graffiti tour in Shoreditch where he would have a guide
with him who’s passionate about graffiti and has an opposing view to Jordan.
To organise this, I sent e-mails to two London tours (see Appendix B) and
‘freetoursbyfoot’ replied shortly after expressing their interest. After
exchanging e-mails, I gave dates that Jordan was available for filming and we
were booked in for a private tour.
The domestic violence VT was the most challenging to organise as there was
a lot of elements to the process. We came up with the idea of creating a social
experiment to test people’s reactions to witnessing violence first hand on both
genders and seeing how their reactions differ depending on who they’ve
witnessed expressing the violence. I watched a video from ‘OckTV’, a
YouTube group based around pranking the general public, who had filmed
this social experiment in a public place to try and understand how I could
script this. We concluded that we would have to base our experiment in a
controlled environment, to ensure safety, where we test the reaction of 3
people – 2 of which being panelists; this would let the debate flow naturally as
the panelists taking part could express their views on the violence in the
studio. Initially, I found it difficult to find actors for this VT but Andrei Allen, a
camera operator, knew two actors who he had worked with before so I asked
him to contact them and they both agreed to take part. We then arranged an
audition for both of them and briefed them about the project and what we want
and set a date for production.
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For the body image VT, the central topic would be discussing Photoshop and
how it affects young people today. Originally, we were looking at getting a
case study to talk about body image and self-esteem but we felt that a
demonstration of how Photoshop works might have a bigger impact on the
viewers. The idea quickly changed into showing a model getting
photographed and having it transformed in Photoshop, which Ruby Rogers
would do, where you can see the extent to which a person’s image can be
modified. I liked the idea of seeing the transformation process as a time-lapse
and then showing the original and altered picture side by side so you can see
the noticeable changes. To organise this, I set Timothy Wilcox the task of
booking the photo studio at UCA Rochester and completing a recce while I
put an advert on the UCA Rochester Facebook page in order to get a male
student model that would be familiar with Photoshop and would have an
opinion on it.
The final VT was for the new topic about politics. We decided to centre the
story around young voters and why they aren’t voting. This VT had to be
informative yet lighthearted so that young people could relate to it. Our tutor,
Helen, gave us the idea of going to Margate and covering the local election
that’s happening in May. In order to get the opinion of young voters, we would
use the vox-pop technique and ask questions that would allow them to
express their truthful opinions. To add the lighthearted tone, I came up with
the idea of having two people in Nigel Farage and Al Murray masks and
asking the locals who they’d rather go for a drink with, as both of them are
linked in that way, which would inform the audience of who they prefer. For
this, we needed a presenter to guide us through what we aim to find out.
Previously people had worked with a presenter called Dave Chawner and I
believed he would be perfect for the tone of this VT so I e-mailed him
introducing myself and the project and he e-mailed back instantly saying he
would be more than happy to participate.
With this role I had to be good at handing various jobs, ranging from coming
up with the initial idea to filling in compulsory paperwork. “In pre-production,
Producers bring together the key members of the creative team.Producers
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also approve locations, studio hire, the final shooting script, production
schedule and budget.” (Creative Skillset, 2015). As well as developing the
content of the stories, I had to draw up a production schedule (see Appendix
C), an estimated budget for each of our videos (see Appendix D) and approve
the final scripts that my directors worked on. I also created a thankyou list of
all the contributors that helped out in all of the productions (see Appendix D)
to keep track of who needed to be credited.
Production
During shoot days, “Producers are responsible for the day-to-day smooth
operation of the team. Producers are also in constant communication and
consultation with the Director and other key creatives, on and off set.”
(Creative Skillset, 2015). For each of our shoot days, I made sure everyone
had the necessary paperwork e.g. scripts, shot lists and kept a folder with
spare documents in. As well as the extra scripts, I kept blank consent forms
and made it my duty to get the consent forms signed by every contributor that
would be on camera. As it was my responsibility to ensure the production ran
smoothly, I had to be aware of timings for the day and stick to the agenda
because if one section over-ran, it could have affected the next scene. By
being present on production days, it allowed me to oversee VT from content
point-of-view whereas the directors could focus on the creative aspects. I was
able to follow the script and check that the links and transitions from scenes
made sense.
Complications
The major complication we had was with the graffiti VT whereby a technical
issue, undetected during the production, made the footage distorted and
almost unusable. The director, Timothy Wilcox, and myself were faced with
the decision to rectify the footage we had or re-shoot the VT again. I
immediately did not want to use the footage and face reducing the production
values of the whole show, so I made the harsh decision of having to come up
with a new idea for the VT. I e-mailed Gregory to update him on what
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happened and arrange a re-shoot (see Appendix B) and got in contact with
Jordan but unfortunately due to confliction work schedules, it was impossible
that this would happen. This meant myself and Timothy Wilcox had to come
up with a brand new story for the VT. We still wanted to incorporate the
guided tour that we went on so I transcribed the footage we had to get the
back-stories to the art so we could still use this information. It was suggested
that we send Jamie Terry, our presenter, on a self-guided tour of the artwork
where he would pose the question central question of whether graffiti is art of
vandalism. This new VT would show the good and bad side to graffiti, giving
the panelists something to discuss; this meant it would still match the debate
that follows it and the guidelines that Helen Welsh set us for this VT.
Post-production: Supervising the edit
As there were two directors for the VT’s and two editors, I assigned one editor
to each director. I ensured that the VT’s that the editors were working on
corresponded to the shoots that they attended. For example, I assigned
Hannah Darby as Danny Hewitt’s editor as she was present for the politics
shoot and I assigned Ruby Rogers as Timothy Wilcox’s editor as she
attended the body image shoot and was photo-shopping the image of the
model. As soon as the filming was complete, the footage was given directly to
the editors so they could produce a rough cut. At this point, I was “expected to
liaise with the Director and postproduction department.” (Creative Skillset,
2015). I allowed the editors to produce a rough cut, from the finalised script
provided, for the director and myself before we reviewed it. Upon review, we
discussed any changes that we would like to make and allowed the editors to
proceed with the fine cuts. Once each stage of the cuts had been made, the
director and myself gave feedback. For example during the final cut of the
graffiti VT, I pointed out a few sound issues, at precise time codes, where the
audio levels peaked and dipped during the transition between voice-over and
piece-to-camera. Additionally, I ensured that the pictures matched the
information we were being told so that the cutaways were of relevance to the
content and didn’t confuse the audience.
9
My Secondary Role
Prior to the live show, we had 7 workshops with Hans Petch, a producer and
director of many television programmes. He taught us what works well in live
television and each week he helped our show progress and worked on
developing the script. He allowed us to work independently as a team,
stepping in to give us constructive criticism, so we could get a sense of the
type of show we wanted to create. Initially during the workshops, I was either
a stand-in panelist or cable basher for the jib/dolly camera but as the show
became nearer and some of the VTs were filmed, I got allocated the role of a
VT Operator. As this was a new role for me, and one that I’d never heard of
previously, I researched into what a VT Operator does and what’s expected of
them. “A VT operators duties may include making a master tape” (Blackwell,
2010:79) as well as being responsible for “cueing and playing video clips at
the right time in a programme” (Blackwell, 2010:79). This meant that I was in
charge of the time-line that contained all the material shot externally such as
opening titles, VT’s and credits. I had to gather all the material and organise
the clips into a timeline, leaving a 30 second black screen with a 10 second
count down in-between each to help the production assistant with the cueing
in the VT. “Under instruction from the director, they load the videotapes in the
sequence written on the running order.” (BBC, 2008). It was important to load
the videos on the timeline in the same order that they appeared on the
running order as it made it easier to locate when scrolling through the tape to
find the start or finish of a clip.
For the next workshop, I made a timeline with one of our VT’s on to practice
with. I got taught the basic controls of the VT machine to begin with, which
was fairly straightforward; I had a scrolling wheel to allow me to search for the
videos, a ‘play’ button and a ‘stop’ button. I was then taught about time-codes
on the tape and the importance of making them accurate when recording the
first frame of the beginning of a video. The next workshop, I got shown how to
10
set up a cue for the start of each clip which would make playback easier; I
would have to press one button instead of searching for the time-code
manually. “The VT operator has to keep an eye on the time and know the
length of each report and the whole programme. To do this, they talk to the
production assistant.” (BBC, 2008). Once I knew the start time-code of the clip
and the duration, I calculated the ending frame and I then liased with Hannah
Darby, the production assistant, to ensure she had the timings so the
countdown would be accurate. I was excited about this new role as it meant
that I had an opportunity to learn something brand new and expand on my
skills.
The Shoot Day
On the day of the recording of the live show, we rehearsed in the morning to
make sure that any issues were resolved before the afternoon recording. I
had previously cued the start of each VT to a number designated on the
machine the day before to ensure that the timeline was working and in the
correct order, which meant all I had to do was press the number in
conjunction with the ‘search’ button to play it from that time-code. The
rehearsal gave me the opportunity to run through the VT timeline with Hannah
Darby, the production assistant, and allowed us to make any amendments to
the timings to get them as precise as possible. We needed to make sure the
start and finish time codes for the VTs were checked thoroughly so that the
VT’s played out to their exact duration, as in previous workshops there had
been seconds cut off the end of the VT’s as they hadn’t been calculated
correctly. We also rehearsed cueing the VT’s in as I was most anxious about
this part due to being cued in too late by the director in previous workshops. If
I suspected this was about to happen, I used my initiative and listened to
Hannah Darby’s countdown along with observing the jib movement that
proceeded into the VT and pressed play when I thought it was appropriate. I
feel that Hannah and myself managed to get the timings accurate and we
were both happy with the outcome. Lastly, we had to test the sound transition
from the VT’s to the panelists in the studio so that the sound faded in and out
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seamlessly; this meant I had to cue up the VT’s upon instruction from the
director and the production assistant.
When it came to filming the live show, everyone in the gallery was nervous
but we remained calm and focused on the task ahead of us. Personally, I was
nervous about idents on the timeline as the link that the presenter had before I
played out the idents wasn’t long enough for me to stop the VT that had
previously been playing and cue up the ident; however, I had practiced this in
the rehearsal and it worked well, it meant that I had to be fast when it came to
the switch-over.
Reflections
I feel that I have made a good contribution to the team, as although this role
was out of my comfort zone as I was solely responsible for a team of 10
people and 4 separate videos, I embraced the new tasks and responsibilities
and was able to build on my existing skills as well as learning new ones. I feel
that I am now more confident in making harsh decisions and stepping up as
team leader, as this role required these skills. I have learnt how to handle and
overcome obstacles along the way and I am proud of how I dealt with a role
that comes with a huge amount of pressure.
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Bibliography
Backchat with Jack Whitehall and His Dad [television programme online] Pres. Whitehall BBC Two (2013) 44 mins At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seiULyvQ_kk&feature=youtu.be&t=16m52s (Accessed on 10.3.2015)
BBC. (2008) ‘Who does what in a TV studio?’ At: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/school_report/4780433.stm (Accessed on 10.3.2015)
Blackwell, A. (2010) Television (Ferguson Career Launcher) [online] At: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=JE-l9H-XdAAC&pg=PA79&dq=live+television+VT&hl=en&sa=X&ei=QKcvVbLDH42BaYvNgOgP&ved=0CEAQ6AEwAg#v=snippet&q=VT&f=false (Accessed on 10.3.2015)
Creative Skillset, (2015) Producer Job Role [online] At: http://creativeskillset.org/job_roles_and_stories/job_roles/757_producer (Accessed on 10.3.2015)
Helen Welsh (2015) What You Saying [online] At: http://helenwelsh.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/studio-production-pitch.html (Accessed on 10.3.2015)
Kellison, C. (2006) Producing for TV and Video : A Real-World Approach [online] At: http://lib.myilibrary.com/Open.aspx?id=100872 (Accessed on 10.3.2015)
OckTV Domestic Abuse In Public! (Social Experiment) (2014) [YouTube video] OckTV 4 mins At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtVHnZX8E50 (Accessed on 10.3.2015)
Taberer, D. (2014) ‘Masterclass: Showrunning - live factual’ [online] At: http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/features/masterclass-showrunning-live-factual/5071166.article (Accessed on 10.3.2015)
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