Tuesday 23rd of March was broadcast day for the live show. The group I was in also included Brittany as second camera person, Louise directing, Ian editing, Stuart as Floor Manager and Zoyi and Shanice acting as presenters. Our group was first on the Tuesday, immediately beginning to set up the monitors using the correct cables and positioning the cameras all within the first hour before 10am.
The setting up process for the morning was all executed fairly quickly by the group, with all nerves appearing to stay at a calm level. With only one practise run where we were shown the full running set up, with minimal help from Dan Creed, every one acted as a group, but independently concentrating on their set tasks in their positions to make the show run as smoothly as possible. As I arrived just after 9am the set was already in place in front of the green screen. The mix of colour really did look chaotic and vibrant, feeling welcoming for any audience watching from their sofas.
As camera person, my immediate responsibility was to make sure, along with Brittany, that three HD cameras were set up, ready to film. Two HD cameras positioned on the left and right sides of the mixing/directing table to capture close ups of Zoyia and Shanice presenting, and one lowered to roughly knee height for a two shot looking directly at the Zoyia and Shanice. We needed to lower the middle camera to get the low coffee table in shot. Initially I thought this change would ruin the shot because as far as I am aware, the cameras aren't usually placed that low on real shows. I took the left camera facing Zoyia and made sure there was a blank tape inserted in all of the camera, and did an initial white balance with the lights switched on and positioned in a test seating with Zoyia in front of the green screen.
The first half went fairly smoothly overall. Zoyia and Shanice started talking whilst the opening credits were playing and the wrong part of Brittany's package was introduced. These problems were down to either simply forgetting or a slight breakdown in communication between members in the group. Overall the editing and cutting between the studio and the packages and the cuts between presenters as they spoke were nearly seamless considering Ian had missed the training lesson with the vision mixer. The second half after the break however proved a little more difficult.
After the break the only package ready to be shown was the interview with the Suzi, the university adviser. Prior to going live, there was a massive problem with recording the packages onto tape, with Stuart's Call of Duty review taking over an hour to record, meaning it wasn't ready on tape in time for broadcast. Stuart was rushed onto the set as the camera cut back to see him rearranging the set, this can't be blamed on him, as under the pressure, he initially wasn't supposed to be on screen, apart from a 30 second summary after the package.
Ian's news package was introduced as well, which also wasn't available to be shown at the time. I think the pressure started to get to us all, as my camera position slipped slightly, as Zoyia was positioned further down the screen as I had imagined for the 2/3 rule. I wasn't sure if I was allowed to reposition the camera whilst it was on her, so had to leave it as it was, referring to my cue sheet for camera cuts, trying to adjust the height.
The majority of these mistakes within the second half could be put down mostly, after reviewing the production and re-evaluating my opinion on it, as simple communication problems which lead to a lot of improvised material in front of the camera as these mistakes were corrected at the editing desk. All covered extremely well by Zoyia and Shanice, talking about subjects such as gaming, which would not have been their strong points of the show. The script was intentionally designed with these openings for improvisation as key points where things may, and did, go wrong. Mainly before and after a news package.
We all came together as a team and managed to undoubtedly recover from the negatives and produce a 30 minute live show. If the teams communication, execution or planning was faulty down the line from designing graphics to camera signals, 30 minutes of show would not have been an achievable task. As this was all of our first times doing anything as big as this, I believe it went extremely well and given another attempt, many of the blackouts experienced this time around would not be a problem again.
Tuesday, 30 March 2010
Set Design
Prior to going live on the 22nd of March the group had to make decisions about set design. After finally coming up with a name for the show 'Visual Chaos' we all decided to go for a very colourful looking set. After having a wonder through Poundland we found various sizes of jars, deciding to pick on one large one and buy lots of multicoloured sweets to fill the jar with, along with two odd looking flashing blob monsters and miniature parachute men, all placed on the front end of a small table from my own flat covered in a glittery red table cloth to accentuate the literal, but controlled, visual chaos.
We will also have to take product placement into consideration if we have a MAC laptop on the table. The Visual Chaos logo will have to cover it.
We will also have to take product placement into consideration if we have a MAC laptop on the table. The Visual Chaos logo will have to cover it.
Monday, 29 March 2010
Boom Mic + The Opening Sequence
March 22nd - Today was the first round of live shows taking place in T42. One aspect non of the groups had really considered was using a Boom mic to pick up better sound from the presenters. Just before broadcast I volunteered to hold the boom for the first group in the morning.
This really struck me as amazing how no one had really considered how the sound was going to be recorded on the day. Holding the boom mic was a good experience for me being able to gain knowledge in another part of what it takes to put a show together; how hard it is to hold a boom mic for a long period of time, the preferred method to hold it and at what height above the presenters heads to maintain it. This may also give our show a slight advantage come tomorrow as I saw some of the mistakes the first group made in editing or presenting wise, which I can relay back to the team and we can sort out similar upcoming issues.
I will also be assisting in the sound with tomorrows afternoon group.
We broadcast tomorrow (23rd March) and we needed to come up with an opening sequence for the show. After a very quick brainstorm in class, Ian, Brittany and myself decided after college we would head down to Goffs Park and create some kind of colourful opening.
Ian and Brittany between them have paintballs and paintball guns. We wanted something extremely colourful with vibrant colours and an angle that would create an immediately lively vibe for the audience as soona s the show begins, opening up to an equally colourful set.
We went into Goffs park (22nd) and filmed Ian shooting paintballs onto a wall creating a bright yellow area on a white wall in a mixture of wide shots, close ps and low angled shots. Brittany also brought along with her a rainbow coloured umbrella which I filmed spinning around and around several times.
Despite not being the editor in our group, I am the only one with a copy of Final Cut Pro which can be used to our advantage outside of college hours. With roughly 20 minutes of footage on the tape I loggedthe footage found a short piece of guitar solo and created a short 17 second opening. The music was extremely fast paced, upbeat and cheery allowing me to create a very quickly cut and colourful montage of clips using the umbrella as the main focus, having it spin in the background with close ups of paint balls exploding on the wall.
The final opeing sequence:
This really struck me as amazing how no one had really considered how the sound was going to be recorded on the day. Holding the boom mic was a good experience for me being able to gain knowledge in another part of what it takes to put a show together; how hard it is to hold a boom mic for a long period of time, the preferred method to hold it and at what height above the presenters heads to maintain it. This may also give our show a slight advantage come tomorrow as I saw some of the mistakes the first group made in editing or presenting wise, which I can relay back to the team and we can sort out similar upcoming issues.
I will also be assisting in the sound with tomorrows afternoon group.
We broadcast tomorrow (23rd March) and we needed to come up with an opening sequence for the show. After a very quick brainstorm in class, Ian, Brittany and myself decided after college we would head down to Goffs Park and create some kind of colourful opening.
Ian and Brittany between them have paintballs and paintball guns. We wanted something extremely colourful with vibrant colours and an angle that would create an immediately lively vibe for the audience as soona s the show begins, opening up to an equally colourful set.
We went into Goffs park (22nd) and filmed Ian shooting paintballs onto a wall creating a bright yellow area on a white wall in a mixture of wide shots, close ps and low angled shots. Brittany also brought along with her a rainbow coloured umbrella which I filmed spinning around and around several times.
Despite not being the editor in our group, I am the only one with a copy of Final Cut Pro which can be used to our advantage outside of college hours. With roughly 20 minutes of footage on the tape I loggedthe footage found a short piece of guitar solo and created a short 17 second opening. The music was extremely fast paced, upbeat and cheery allowing me to create a very quickly cut and colourful montage of clips using the umbrella as the main focus, having it spin in the background with close ups of paint balls exploding on the wall.
The final opeing sequence:
Friday, 19 March 2010
Broadcast date revealed
Dan came around with sheets for everyone yesterday revelaing my group would be broadcasting on Tuesday morning between 9am and 12.30pm. with Broadcast beginning at 11:30am
Live Show Rehearsal
16th March - Today we went through our first and only rehearsal for the live broadcast. Dan helped us set up the monitors and the mixing desks and quickly ran through what everything was to our editor, Ian .
After the cameras were all checked and everything was clear and in position with presente3rs in front of the cameras we ran through the introduction and lowy made our way through each linking segment bertween [ackages. We only managed to reach the break in the time we were given for rehearsal, but the majority o of the second half is more packages and a live interview with a University student, so we really p-ractised everything you could do.
lots of changes were made with the script by simply expanding what was written to make it sound more punchy and engaging for the audience, and a few stage changes were altered as well. For example, Stuart would have had a big job as floor manager had we stuck with our original planb. Initially we were going to seich from Zoyia and Shanice, our presenters, talking to Brittany talkin and back to our presenters to introduce my movie package. This resulted in 2 seating changes within 3 minutes whcih I found, as camera man to be an unnecassery hassle. I suggested Brittany should stay on after her packoage and introduce my movie news rolling on from her Music segment and award shows. This has proved alot easier.
The majority of the second half was spent with the director and editor writing down and rehearsing the camera cuts from left/right cameras to centre camera. Ian was making it clear that switching between them may be difficult, to whcih I suggested cimply cutting to the wide shot of the presenters if everythign becomes over whelming; especially in the inprovised discussion on Social Networking.
Unfortunately my camera battery ran out half way through rehearsal. Luckily we weren't recording, but something I definitely need toc heck straight away on broadcast day (Tuesday) is that I have a fuilly charged battery and a fully charged back up for emergency. If a camera goes during a live studio segment, Ian will ahve to cut to alternate cameras for the time being.
Overall, the day went quite well and I think everyone is feeling a little more confident about everything now we've given it a run through. As the camera operator I am now confident in our show, though I think there is a little apprehension between Ian and Louise about cutting the live edit on the day.
After the cameras were all checked and everything was clear and in position with presente3rs in front of the cameras we ran through the introduction and lowy made our way through each linking segment bertween [ackages. We only managed to reach the break in the time we were given for rehearsal, but the majority o of the second half is more packages and a live interview with a University student, so we really p-ractised everything you could do.
lots of changes were made with the script by simply expanding what was written to make it sound more punchy and engaging for the audience, and a few stage changes were altered as well. For example, Stuart would have had a big job as floor manager had we stuck with our original planb. Initially we were going to seich from Zoyia and Shanice, our presenters, talking to Brittany talkin and back to our presenters to introduce my movie package. This resulted in 2 seating changes within 3 minutes whcih I found, as camera man to be an unnecassery hassle. I suggested Brittany should stay on after her packoage and introduce my movie news rolling on from her Music segment and award shows. This has proved alot easier.
The majority of the second half was spent with the director and editor writing down and rehearsing the camera cuts from left/right cameras to centre camera. Ian was making it clear that switching between them may be difficult, to whcih I suggested cimply cutting to the wide shot of the presenters if everythign becomes over whelming; especially in the inprovised discussion on Social Networking.
Unfortunately my camera battery ran out half way through rehearsal. Luckily we weren't recording, but something I definitely need toc heck straight away on broadcast day (Tuesday) is that I have a fuilly charged battery and a fully charged back up for emergency. If a camera goes during a live studio segment, Ian will ahve to cut to alternate cameras for the time being.
Overall, the day went quite well and I think everyone is feeling a little more confident about everything now we've given it a run through. As the camera operator I am now confident in our show, though I think there is a little apprehension between Ian and Louise about cutting the live edit on the day.
Showing news packages
Managed to get Stuart's Call Of Duty review checked over by Dan, which pretty much got the all clear straight away after the first viewing. The only problem Dan could see was the level of violence shown in the clips considering this is a family friendly show. All we have to edit to the beginning is a small warning labrlling the amout of violance shown and then the package is complete.
I also wrote the scipt for my own movie news package the other day and managed to get it apporved by Dan on the first read through. With the Oscars literally having jsut taken place that has become the obvious focus point; mentioning the awards various films have won and giving my own mini review on each film.
I later foud out my piece had been cut down to 3 minutes and not the original 5 minute slow I was initially given. I'm also meant to be doing the piece live, which isn't what we agreed on in the last lesson I was in. I've now mentioned this to the group and my package will be shown as a prerecorded segment, with Brittany creating a link into the package off the back of her BRIT Award news.
I also wrote the scipt for my own movie news package the other day and managed to get it apporved by Dan on the first read through. With the Oscars literally having jsut taken place that has become the obvious focus point; mentioning the awards various films have won and giving my own mini review on each film.
I later foud out my piece had been cut down to 3 minutes and not the original 5 minute slow I was initially given. I'm also meant to be doing the piece live, which isn't what we agreed on in the last lesson I was in. I've now mentioned this to the group and my package will be shown as a prerecorded segment, with Brittany creating a link into the package off the back of her BRIT Award news.
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Group tutor lesson
On the Thursday, during half term, 17th February Stuart Cox and I were able to film all of the footage required for his Games review story for the live show. Originally we planned to film both 'Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2' and 'Army Of 2: The 40th Day' and do a comparison. But we decided it would be best, with the time congtraints, to focus purely on 'Modern Warfare 2'. We captured about 2 hours worth of footage roughly, needing to now cut that down to 3 minutes for the show.
We will editing together on Final Cut Studio at my own apartment, as we will be able to spend much more time in the editing process, than if we were restricted to College hours.
Today we sat down with Dan for an hour as a group and discussed the running order of the 30 minute show. It was begin with an introduction in the studeio, going into the music and movie reviews live, linking to twitter and a social networking discussion between the presenters. After the break we lead into University discussion with a pre-recorded interview with Suzi and a live interview with a University student. Then ending on a light note with the games, news and closing with Ians News Package on pubs and drinking.
for next tuesday I have to decide which films to discuss and what points to talk about in the segmant.
We will editing together on Final Cut Studio at my own apartment, as we will be able to spend much more time in the editing process, than if we were restricted to College hours.
Today we sat down with Dan for an hour as a group and discussed the running order of the 30 minute show. It was begin with an introduction in the studeio, going into the music and movie reviews live, linking to twitter and a social networking discussion between the presenters. After the break we lead into University discussion with a pre-recorded interview with Suzi and a live interview with a University student. Then ending on a light note with the games, news and closing with Ians News Package on pubs and drinking.
for next tuesday I have to decide which films to discuss and what points to talk about in the segmant.
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Live studio Broadcast lesson brief
Live Studio Production Team!
Louise - Director
Zoyia - Presenter
Shanice - Presenter
Mark - Camera
Brittany - Camera
Stuart - Floor Manager
Ian - Live editor
After deciding our roles we got down to brainstorming. We managed to come up with a wide range of subject matters that we could talk about within the 30 minute tme slot (take 4 minutes for advertising) including sports/eather,games.University adive.sexss advice, gardening etc. Covering a wide variety for our 16-25 target audience.
We finally came to the conclusion of 6 topics we will be able to cover within the time, giving time for live studio interviews and discussions bnetween packages.
University Advice
Social Networking
Video Games/Film reviews
Music reviews
Comedy news and weather.
We ahve all selected seperate parts top contribute towards. As a cameraman, I won't be able to do a live segment due to having to obviously man the camera for the entire time. Therefore I have opted to do all of the prep work for Stuart Coz and and his Game REview news package. This will include permission forms or arranging interviews, if needed, outside of college.
19/01/10
In todays session we practised setting up the studio's live editing desk and cameras, attaching them all to their own monitors and familiarising ourselves with all the wire types and different connectors; making sure everything works.
BNC - Bayonet Nut Connector (Female)
S-Video - Visuals
SCART - plug into back Monitor
Phonos - 2 Audio (Red + White) 1 Visual (Yellow) (Male)
Mini Jacks (different number of rings around the top mean different functionss)
Next lesson we will need to complete group and individual Treatments before getting the times of the entire 30 minute period sorted and beginning the scripting/filming process for our News Packages.
Louise - Director
Zoyia - Presenter
Shanice - Presenter
Mark - Camera
Brittany - Camera
Stuart - Floor Manager
Ian - Live editor
After deciding our roles we got down to brainstorming. We managed to come up with a wide range of subject matters that we could talk about within the 30 minute tme slot (take 4 minutes for advertising) including sports/eather,games.University adive.sexss advice, gardening etc. Covering a wide variety for our 16-25 target audience.
We finally came to the conclusion of 6 topics we will be able to cover within the time, giving time for live studio interviews and discussions bnetween packages.
University Advice
Social Networking
Video Games/Film reviews
Music reviews
Comedy news and weather.
We ahve all selected seperate parts top contribute towards. As a cameraman, I won't be able to do a live segment due to having to obviously man the camera for the entire time. Therefore I have opted to do all of the prep work for Stuart Coz and and his Game REview news package. This will include permission forms or arranging interviews, if needed, outside of college.
19/01/10
In todays session we practised setting up the studio's live editing desk and cameras, attaching them all to their own monitors and familiarising ourselves with all the wire types and different connectors; making sure everything works.
BNC - Bayonet Nut Connector (Female)
S-Video - Visuals
SCART - plug into back Monitor
Phonos - 2 Audio (Red + White) 1 Visual (Yellow) (Male)
Mini Jacks (different number of rings around the top mean different functionss)
Next lesson we will need to complete group and individual Treatments before getting the times of the entire 30 minute period sorted and beginning the scripting/filming process for our News Packages.
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