samuptonstudioportfolio-blog

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Live TV Show Production evaluation

I took on two different roles during both the Pre-Production & Production phases: Script writer and Floor Manager. 

The Script Writer role saw me writing a review for one of the show’s segments. I decided that I was going to write a review on Spyro the Dragon on PS1. The problem I had is that Spyro the Dragon is my favourite game of all time and it was really hard to not be biased about my thoughts on the game, especially because I knew that I wasn’t presenting this review. I challenged myself to do this game so I could see if I could write a review where my nostalgia for the game didn’t get in the way. I feel I was successful in writing this unbiased review and focused mainly on what the game presents to you as a first time player and not what my nostalgia was telling me to write. 

The floor manager role saw me controlling what was happening on screen. I took on this role due to my previous experience in one of the test runs. I felt it was the perfect opportunity to put what I had learnt from that show into practice. This time, I had more control over the set and how it looked, whilst making sure that it was fine on the screen with the Vision Mixer. I also had more control over the actors this time. I was on the stage with them before shooting to show them where they had to be, what they had to do and where they had to look at what time. This meant that all the actors knew what they were doing the whole time and there were no issues. 

The actual show itself went really well. However, it did take a while to do the test runs as we kept having ideas for the actors and how they could perform their roles better. Originally we had the actors read straight from the script. When we realised that wasn’t going to work, we then got them to change it up slightly, go slightly off script but stick to the main points and interact with the other actors. This made the show a million times better than it would’ve been. We then kept doing test runs to make sure that they had got it right. The recorded show went without any problems at all. The actors gave it their best shot and we got it done. 

Whilst I did enjoy my time as Floor manager, I won’t be taking it up again. We had a few issues with the Vision Mixer as the actors in some cases weren’t listening or the vision mixer was not communicating properly with me meaning I didn’t know what she was on about when she asked me to do something. However, I feel that my performance as the floor manager helped us achieve a great show. 

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Task 2 Planning

https://youtu.be/ApsbyCOOLWA https://youtu.be/Es6tGcijopIhttps://youtu.be/Es6tGcijopIType of show: The show we’ll be making will be a review show where we talk about the entertainment industry, primarily Gaming, TV and Film. 

Length: The length of the show will be around 10-15 minutes. The Ident, Advert and trailer should take up about 1-2 minutes, each review should be around 3-4 minutes and the filler in between will take up 30 seconds - 1 minute. 

Influences: We took influence mainly from IGN who focus on gaming and other entertainment news on their website, Snapchat and their YouTube channel. IGN are known for reviewing films and games and occasionally do multi-camera work. We had a look at their reviews to gain an idea of what we wanted to do as this was the closest thing we could find to do with our review show

We also looked at Jeremy Kyle and Game shows such as Would I lie to you and Mastermind to get an idea of what Multi-Camera shows are about and what they do. We gathered that a lot of the shots they do are close-ups or whole stage shots. However, these shows have multiple people on the stage whereas we’ve only got one person so a lot of the shots that we will use will be close up shots. 

We also took a short look at Factual shows and how they operate in order to help us with ours. We primarily focused on news shows for this segment. One of the things we noticed watching them is that there is now fourth wall. The host(s) always talk to the audience removing any aspect of a fourth wall. This informs the viewer that what they’re saying in the program is the truth. Direct address helps build up trust with the host so that they can successfully convey information to their audience. 

Intended Audience: The Audience for our shows is 16-25 year old males and females who are interested in the topics we cover. We decided to go for this target audience primarily for the gaming part. The game that we’re covering is from 1998 so people that age will have grown up with that game. It will benefit us aiming the show at them as they’ll get to relive the games experience, see how it holds up today and they may even invest in a PS1 and the game to replay it and feel the nostalgia. 

However, if we were to cover newer games aside from retro games, we’d be expanding the target audience massively. If we were to cover modern games, we’d change our target audience to 14-40 year old males and 16-30 year old females. This would mean that we’d get more people watching the show. However, in our current time constraint, we don’t have time to cover both modern games and retro games in separate segments. We’d have to include it into the current segment meaning we wouldn’t be able to appeal as much to people who are interested more in retro games. 

Summary of Content 

We decided on the name:  The Weekly Review 

The topics and products we will be covering are: 

Retro Gaming - Spyro the Dragon (PS1) - This is the topic that I’m writing on. I’ll talk about what the game is about, the history of it and if it holds up today. The only challenge I face writing this segment is that Spyro the Dragon is my favourite game of all time, meaning that I have to try my hardest not to be biased about my thoughts on the game. If it’s clear that I am being biased in my review then there’ll be problems. 

TV Show - The Grand Tour - Sam is writing this segment about the most recent series of The Grand Tour and comparing it to Top Gear. Again, Sam needs to make sure that he doesn’t let his own bias into the review otherwise there will be problems

Film - Logan - James is writing this review for Logan. James went into this with Low expectations so he has quite a high opinion on the film. Whilst he has to make sure that there are no spoilers and that his own bias isn’t in the review, he’ll still be praising the film quite a bit. 

Job roles: 

Sam Upton - Floor Manager & Gaming Segment Script Writer. I’m going to be making sure that the people working on the floor (Camera, Actors etc.) are in order and know what they’re doing at all times. I’ll also be writing the review for the Retro Gaming segment on Spyro the Dragon

James Maynard - Lighting & Film Segment Script Writer. James will be making sure that the host is well lit no matter where he is on the stage. If Cameron is not well lit, the camera will have trouble picking him up and the image quality may suffer for it. He’ll also be writing the review for the Film segment on Logan

Ella Saich - Camera Operator & Trailer Creator - Ella will be behind the camera making sure that the host is in shot. She’ll also be assisting Jamie with creating a trailer. 

Emily Stobbs - Vision Mixer & Advert Creator - Emily will be based in the control room as the Vision Mixer. The job of the vision mixer is to cut between the different cameras during the show. The vision mixer is also the person responsible for putting the idents, adverts etc. on screen. She’ll also be creating the advert that will play mid way through the show. 

Sam Robinson - Camera Operator, Ident Creator & TV Show Segment Script Writer - Sam will be doing the most roles out of all of us. Sam’s role on the day of the show will be Camera operator, making sure Cameron is in shot at all times. Sam will also be creating the Ident for the show. The Ident is what will appear before the show starts. It’s pretty much the Title Sequence. Sam will also be writing the TV Show Segment on The Grand Tour. 

Jamie Hambleton - Camera Operator & Trailer Creator. Jamie will behind the last camera, doing the same as all the others. He’ll also be creating a fake film advert that will play at some point 

Our host will be: Cameron Bowyer 

Ethical Issues: The only ethical issues with review shows is that you have to try and not be subjective and disguise it as an objective review. So for example, we can’t let the host say that Logan is the best film in the world because they are a massive Wolverine fan. Instead, we have to ensure that they give a none biased review 

Advert

The Advert that would play mid way through the show was created by Emily Stobbs. We went for an easy approach and decided to use a clip from one of our side-projects, ‘Out-Christmas’d’ 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJfetEtrETM 

Ident & Closing Credits

Sam Robinson created the Opening & Ending Credits and reversed the opening for the ending. 

https://youtu.be/GKP13sabUL4

https://youtu.be/Es6tGcijopI 

Trailer

The trailer for the show was created by Jamie Hambleton and shows all the different things covered in the show

https://youtu.be/ApsbyCOOLWA 

My Review

I reviewed Spyro the Dragon and focused more on the mechanics of the game rather than my thoughts in order to make sure it wasn’t biased. 

https://1drv.ms/b/s!AjsrCbxu-Maj3roISx_RZGCDS9MLZw 

Script

The script for the show was made by James Maynard and includes how the show will run but not the reviews

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Multi-Camera Primary Research & Secondary Research

Jeremy Kyle Show 

Multi-Camera is the best format for the Jeremy Kyle show as they need to switch between the different guests and follow them if they storm off. For example, If Jeremy is on one end of the stage and the guests are on the other, it wouldn’t look good if they only had one camera. So to help with this, they have 3 stationary cameras and two that can move in case they go backstage.They also film Jeremy Kyle in front of a live studio audience and none of it is planned so they have to have multiple cameras so the audience don’t get bored with multiple takes, the guests don’t have to fake reactions multiple times and so the camera operator doesn’t have to run around 

Room 101

 Room 101 requires only 3 cameras: 

One for Frank Skinner

One on the whole stage

One on the guests that can zoom in on them 

The reason that Multi-Camera works best for this show is the same reason as Jeremy Kyle. Frank is on one end of the stage and the guests is on the other. If they only had one camera, the poor camera operator would be running around. Plus you’d be able to see him moving around if he had to do close ups. It also wouldn’t look nearly as good if they had one camera facing at the whole stage. You wouldn’t be able to see what was going on stage very well. 

The X Factor 

Live broadcasts require the multi-camera set up. Especially talent shows. Cameras need to be all around the stage in order to get the performer at all angles and at any point on the stage, there needs to be a few movable cameras so they can move about the stage and get close ups of the performer and there needs to be some on the judges to get shots of the whole panel and some close ups of the judges. 

The multiple cameras do help the show, for example, if the performer makes an unexpected move, then they can quickly switch to where the performer has gone to. Plus, like I’ve said with the other two shows, you don’t have to see the camera move about and postion itself. 

Not going out

Not Going out is a british sitcom. Sitcoms use the multi-camera technique very differently. Sitcom’s use it to get different shots of the actors and pick the best one out of all of them.  As they know where the actor is going to be at what time, they don’t need to worry about having cameras everywhere so they can get the actor no matter where they go. Instead, they use it to get different angles of the actors and pick the best one for the editor to use. For example, if Lee Mack is walking along to the other end of the room, there will be one camera facing towards him and one camera showing his back. Whatever one the director feels is the best one is the one they’ll keep and use in the final edit. 

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Week 2 - Jeremy Kyle - Camera

Week 2 saw us tasked with making an episode of Jeremy Kyle, a popular show on ITV where people come on to sort their problems out, take DNA tests to see if their child is really theirs and take lie detector tests to work out disputes. 

This week, I was behind the camera. The job of the camera operator is to make sure that all people on stage (that need to be seen on your camera) are in shot and to make sure that they’re in focus. The Camera operator has a close relationship with the floor manager and vision mixer

I was on the centre camera so my camera was pointed at the the host and the guest on the left side. We only had two cameras this time around as one of them had no batteries. This meant that I had to be constantly switching between the host of the guests. The Vision mixer was always telling us what camera was being shown so I knew when I could move the camera to the next person. 

I really enjoyed my time as a camera operator. It was always a challenge making sure that everyone that needed to be in shot was in shot and was also in focus before the VM moved to my camera. Whilst it wasn’t my overall favourite, it’s still up there as one of my favourites. 

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Week 4 - Blind Date - Vision Mixing

A vision mixer is the person in charge of making the cuts between the different cameras and what can be seen on screen. This week was not good. The planning for this was terrible and nothing that we originally planned for actually went into the show. 

We managed to somewhat save the show to make it resemble something, however, lack of planning, the lack of a script that wasn’t done despite it being started, the lack of control from the crew and the constant shouting in my ear with everyone blaming me for everything, didn’t help matters at all. 

People need to understand that the vision mixer IS NOT responsible for what happens on stage, they just cut the cameras and say what’s on screen. That is the floor managers job

In the end we decided to have our show be a continuation of the previous groups show where we had “Falconhoof” and “Ryan” talk about how their dates after the original show went. 

Overall, I feel that I performed well as the vision mixer. However, if the planning had been done properly and people didn’t give up on writing the script because they “Can’t do romantic” then it would’ve been so much better as I would’ve known what I was actually doing instead of guessing all the time 

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Studio Skills Portfolio - Would I not tell the truth to you - Floor Manager

Week 1 was the week I got to manage the floor. The Floor Manager is the person in charge on managing all the things that are going on on stage. For example, making sure the cameras are at the right angles and have the right shots, making sure the actors are postioned in the right places, making sure lights are correct and that everyone on set is quiet as to not be picked up on the microphones. 

This weeks show was a parody of BBC 1′s ‘Would I Lie to You’ titled ‘Would I not tell the truth to you’ We had 4 contestants and one host telling either a truth or a lie and the other team had to guess if it was true or not. The team with the most points won. 

As a floor manager, I had to make sure that everything was going well. I feel that I controlled the floor very well. People listened to me and the production went without a hitch. Personally, I feel that this has been my favourite. Mainly because it was the first show we have ever done, but because I was trusted with power. 

However, there were a few instances where I feel that the group did get slightly out of control and I wasn’t able to sort it out quick enough. However, despite all this, the show was a success. 

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Studio Job roles and my opinions on them

Actor - Dislike - I acted on Mastermind and I didn’t like it. I didn’t get on with the lights shining in my face, I was put under pressure with the questions (so much I forgot who Tim Allen was) and the thought of screwing it up and doing it all over again scared me

Floor Manager - Like - I really enjoyed my time as a floor manager. Whilst I will admit, I had no idea what I was doing and some people ended up hating me towards the end, I had a good time telling people what to do. 

Vision Mixer - Like - I enjoyed this role aside from me nearly having a mental breakdown because of the lack of organisation. 

Camera - Like - I enjoyed being behind the camera. It was fun making sure I had the right shot quickly and ensuring everyone was in focus and in shot

Lighting - Not done yet.

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Studio Skills Portfolio - Mastermind - Actor

In today’s studio task, I took on the role of a contestant. I didn’t have much to do in the way of setting up as the camera operators kept to themselves and the group before us already had things the way we needed it. Instead, I helped set up the set how we needed it. 

The group before us didn’t clear the stage so we had to remove everything off of it and change it to our set-up. I was also involved in the decisions on how the set should look and how the lighting needed to be. 

During the test-run, we noticed a problem. Me and the other contestant had to swap microphones when we were switching over to compete. The other actor didn’t have a problem as he only had to take the microphone off. I had the issue. I regularly during the test-runs failed to put the microphone on quick enough or the right way round. To fix this, I kept practicing putting it on until I got it right. During the recorded version I got it right. 

To give a bit of insight as to what our production was, we were tasked with creating a gameshow. We decided to keep it simple and do Mastermind. Instead of having 4 contestant, we had 2 and instead of 2 rounds we only had 1. We had to downsize the show in order to fit it in to the 5 minute window we had. We asked each contestant as many questions as we could in one minutes. I won. 

Most of the things I did were commanded by the Floor manager. Most of what we did when we weren’t running through the order of the show, we were standing in our positions to help the control room get the lighting correct and the camera operators so they could get the angles and postions correct. 

The feedback I got from the Floor manager was that my performance was excellent and that I was a huge help during the set-up phase.