Section 1 – The Brief In order to meet all the requirements of unit 23 I had to follow a brief. This brief was set by E4 asking us to produce a daily 30min TV show that
will run during the day and its target audience would be 14-‐20 yr olds. In order to do this we had to carry out different tasks firstly in pre production which includes researching job roles for my role and also all the other roles needed in the production of a live TV studio including jobs such as Director , VT , graphic mixer and even floor managers. After this research we where asked to represent our own ideas that we would like if we where to produce a show. This included typography , visual ideas and even how the running order to should be. After this the class decided on one persons idea which they thought was the most appealing and most related to the breif. After this we where chocen for our job roles and then spent two weeks carrying ourt different tasks on our equitment and also making sure we where practicing and getting ready for the Live day which was ahead of us. After the live day I will now evaluate my own preformance and also the show as a whole.
Section 1 – The Brief I think the final production of the show Trap Star meets the brief. One viewpoint would be the fact is aimed at 14-‐20 yr olds and I believe that the show provided enough entertainment and gained interest for that age group. Another reason would be the fact the show was being out on E4 as a daily 30 min show with 15min of live content. The idea we had was first thought of by one of our class members, she decided she wanted a ‘urban feel’ towards the show as the show was being targeted at teenagers. Realting back to the brief she also came up with a simple walkthrough for the show which was later finalised and editied with the director and also helped put set design ideas. Looking at different outlooks of the show I believe that the show did meets its target audience in terms of what the show was providing to the audience. This included various music videos and many game shows which involves the guests and viewers interaction through social networking sites. Behind the sense every one worked as best as they could to make sure that the show was running smoothly. I however do not think that the 30min was used wisely as many parts of the show was being dragged and some bits where also unnecasry as these moments could have been used for other segements which could have been inputed into the show. In the end the show was successful with a bit of technical difficulty and also did look towards a professional standards.
Section 1 – The Brief I believe that the production team worked fairly well throughout the practice runs and the final show. The communication level was bad at one point when we started practicing for live day and this was because everyone was just starting to get use to their environment and the equitment around them. The director was also feeling the pressure as was the person who had to give out the most instructions and make sure that everything was running smoothy. The gallery in which 5 crew members where preforming their tasks (VT , Sound , Graphics , Vision mixer and Director) , the director was responsible for directing members in the gallery and also the floor manager and camera operators outside of the gallery using a microphone. At first the lack of communication and team work was low as the director found it hard to jugle between giving instructions in the gallery and also outside of the gallery. After a couple practices everyone knew what they were doing and also a lot more comunication was traveling aroun the room. I felt at the end of the shw many of the crew members felt comfortable with their job roles and put in a lot of team work with members of crew around them.
Section 2 – Self Evaluation I chose to be put into the sound mixer job as I felt that I have had already had basic knowledge of how the equitment worked and have had expericne doing the same job last year for a year11 live day. The professional started of my work I had researched beforehand on an earlier blog post in which I described all the key duties and skills for all the of the crew members. The sound mixer has different skills and responsibility but the sole purpose of the job would have to be making sure that the sound is successful and works all fine. The concentration of the sound mixer needs to be at a high standered as they need to be aware of everything which is going on around them , this can effect the output of the final product. Qualifications might be needed to work the sound mixer , but overall the person for this job needs to be very confident with the mixer and how to use it.
Section 2 – Self Evaluation
These are some of the skills needed in the job which I stated on my blog post while researching about this specific job role. I found out that not a lot of practiucal skill is needed for this job except the fact that the sound mixer needs to be able to know what they are using and what each button is used for and when to use it which I already had a basic knowledge for. The main skills needed for the sound mixer role was concenration and being aware of what is happening around you so the sounds could be played at he right time. The other skill would be working under a lot of pressure which I lacked as I was very hesitant on what sound effect to play when we started on the live day as I have never experienced using sound effects on a show.
Section 2 – Self Evaluation I believe i met these expectation needed for this job role in different ways. The first would be that I already had some pre knowledge about the soundboard and what some of the buttons and controls on it meant , this gave me a more upper hand than everybody else. I also believe having the right concentration skills and being able to take a lot in at once was a key thing that I had as someone working as the sound manager needed a lot of awarness of whats happening around them and also being able to make sure that the sounds are also working.
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Section 2 – Self Evaluation
The improvements I could have made to my contribution would be firstly that I should have worked more closely with the director sorting out the answers which the guests will give during a quiz segment on the show. My job was to pick out the sound effects for the correct and wrong answer which would be played when the guests answer , after I have finalised the sounds with the director I thought an answer script for the guests was being made in which I can read off on the live day and play the sounds at the same time. When we started the first live week I realised that they have not make a script for the guests and that they will be replying with their own answers. This meant that I had to juggle between the sound and make sure that the right one is played , this put me on more stress. On the Live day however during the test runs the sound effects where being delayed and played quite slow , I knew that the show wouldn’t go according to plan so in the last minuite we decided to script the answers for the first quiz which helped a lot as now I cold play the sound effects at the right time. Finally on the last recording all went according to plan except a little mistake due to the graphics repeating its self I played the wrong sound effect but this was quickly stalled by the presenters.
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Section 2 – Self Evaluation
Another improvement which I could have made to my contribution would be that I could have been more aware of the equipment and done a lot more Equipment check before the live day. During this week of rehersals we had some run throughs and while practicing i only set up two of the four microphones which where going to be used on the final day. When I started setting up the equitment on the final day I realised that the fourth microphone was actually missing. This put me under a lot of pressure as it was the final day of filmming and this small problem could ruin the final show. After searching for another replacement which could not be found we came up with a last minute solution which was to switch the mics during a VT and when both guests are speaking together this is when we would have one of the guests to clip the microphone to their sleves so in this case both sounds from the two guests could be picked up with one mic.
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Section 2 – Self Evaluation Another improvement I would have made would be making sure that I learnt more about the equipment I was working with , even though I did have some experience with the soundboard most of the equitment last year was already set up for me to use. This year for this project I had to set everything up when I was using the equitment around me and also when I am done with it all put it back into its oroiginal form.I also didn’t know what some buttons meant on the soundboard and this was something that cost us having to film a segment of the show again which was the artists interview. I had not realised that someone had already pushed a button back up down which was meant to be down because this was the button that allowed the sound being picked up from the mics to be recorded onto the video. After the segment was recorded we foud out that the sound was not recorded so we had to do this interview again.
Section 2 – Self Evaluation The challenge's I faced during production was that I thought I would be more confident with juggling the sound effects but as I came to terms with using the sound board an extra feture which was the mac put me in more pressure as I now needed to control both the sound board and the mac. This was something I found hard as I have never used the mac connected to the soundboard before. Another challenge which I faced was working under a lot of pressure as like everyone else was taking a lot of instructions from different directions which is why every one had to react quickly .
Section 2 – Self Evaluation The Solutions for my first struggle was that I learnt on controlling both the sound board and the mac together. During the first half of the Live day I was able to get to grips with using both and making sure my concentration towards both equipment was good but even though I was struggling I found a keyboard short cut which I could use rather than having to move the mouse which causes me more frustration. The second problem was also quickly resolved as I got use to handling directions from the director and the graphics by making sure that I was sticking to the script and I knew what time each crew member would talk or give me direction so I could get ready for it.
Section 2 – Self Evaluation
I think during production I gained a lot of variety of skills and here are some that I have stated :
-‐Communication: I think I gained a lot of communication skills , I think the most important skill gained was communication within a team. I was working in the gallery with 4 other crew members.I believe we all worked together fairly well and communication was very important as the director who was part of the gallery had to give directions to everyone and everyone had to response very fast. Team work: I think I learnt a lot of team work skills as everyone had to work with each other and carry out different tasks and also accomplish their own goals , an example for this would be when the graphics and the sound effects need to go together the graphics person who was ‘Keren’ gave me an early single so I could get ready to play the music along with the graphics. Under pressure: : other skill i have gained is working under pressure i had a lot of pressure put on me on the Live day with dealing with last minute changes but i believed i handled it well and its one of the key skills i have learnt during the live day. Meeting deadlines : I think during pre production we was set work every week such as the relflection’s which we had to put on our blog , this did also help me build my deadline skill up as I stuck to all the deadlines. Working with equipment: I believe I also gained an aditional skil which is gaining more knowledge about the equitment used for sound on a live TV studio and I also learnt how to use them. This gave me basic knowledge which I can apple to future job roles in the future.
Section 3 – Final Production Practical Reasons : Studio:
I believe that the studio when first planned and stated was a very creative and good idea. The idea was to have an urban and funky feel towards the studio set This was a great idea as it would appeal to the brief and the target audience which are 14-‐20 year olds. The set was also presented similar or the same style as the set that can be seen on the popular channel 4 magazine show called ‘T4’.
As you can see from the example I have chosen the T4 Show really has a variety of color's in the background. We also have a vintage looking sofa which also matches with the set and the theme of the show aimed at young adults and teenagers.
Our final out come of the set on Trap star was maybe not as planned as many things where lacking such as color and props as we used a black background , sofa for the guests and director chairs for the presenters with instruments at the back. I thought it should have had a lot more variety of props and colors to make it appeal to its target audience , but I also understand that this was based in a classroom which we had to keep in mind as not a huge studio was used and we had to keep into limits with props. This is why I believe as an end result we tried out best and the set including the lighting was very creative.
Section 3 – Final Production The Coverage of action: The coverage of action on our Trap Star was also done fairly well as we used three locations one was at the start of the show when the presenters where introducing the show while walking along the corridor , and the other was the main studio and finally the rate and slate wall. The studio was the main basic set up and a very simple camera angles where used. Right next to the studio was the rate and slate wall , this was a segment of the show when the presenters and guest rate and slate latest muisc , news and artists. This was influenced by the hit tv show callled ‘Top gear’ in which they also had a wall in which they add names to . Because we do not have a sperate camera for this the coverage of action was made sure by camera 2 panning as the guest walks towards this part of the studio.
Section 3 – Final Production Multi Camera use I believe that the multi camera use in the final production of Trap Star was used very wisely and controlled very well by the director and the vision mixer. The multi camera used across the show where set up on three camera. This was the basic set up … During filming the shows where also transformed with close ups also on each guest or presenter to show more creativness and different shot angles. This gave a lot of flow to the conversation and keeeping in mind that teenagers and young adults where watching the show never kept hold of one shot for a long time because people would get very bored. Action wise everything was picked up from all three cameras and as the show was being similtaniously recorded the three camera operators did their best to fit eveyything into their shots. I also think when the presenter had to get up and walk over to the rate and slate wall for that part of the segment the panning of the camera was a good idea because it added and showed more intrest and creativness to the how.
Section 3 – Final Production Visual Style & Maintaining viewer interest: Maintaining viewer interest through out the show was quite hard as it was only a 30 min show which meant everything had to move in fairly swiftly. This why to keep a viewers intrest a lot of things where cut out and replaced with during pre-‐production until the director decided on a final running order for Trap Star. Audience interaction was also put in to mke sure that the viewer intrest was kept and also that there was some audience interaction representeed in the show which meant that the audience also has an input to the show .Other ways in which the viewers intrest was kept would have been that the different segments which was put into the show. These would be things like the ‘rate and slate’ wall and also the quiz which involved the guests and also the presenters. These are also part of what made the viewers interest .