When recording there are usually six people on the studio floor. These six people would normally consist of four camera men, a Floor Manager and a Floor Manager Assistant. In the left hand room we have the Audio Control Room. In this room there would normally be two people, both sound operators.On the right is the Visual Mixing room. This room contains the Vision mixer, Director and the Director's assistant.
The Crew.
Director
The Director is in charge of what happens through out the production.
Assistant Director
The assistant director accompanies the director when needed.
They also keep everyone in line, correcting people when they are wrong.
Floor Manager
has direct contact with the director during production, the floor manager checks that everything runs correctly and according to plan.
Assistant Floor Manager
Assists the Floor Manager in making sure everything is accurate.
Vision Mixers (x2)
Controls what shots are used
Lighting Operators (x2)
Ensures the lighting level is sufficent to each shot
Sound Operators (x2)
Is in control of using the audio mixer and making sure that all sound equipment is working.
Producer
Is in charge of the content of the production.
Camera Operators (x4)
A camera operator controls the camera, delivers shots that are asked for.
Camera Operators Assistant (x4)
Makesure no wires are damanged
Can's are used during recording so all members of the crew can interact with each other easily and quickly. For example if there was a problem with one of the camera's, the camer operator can let the floor manager know. When using the can's, the crew are expected to get the information across fast and accurately. The camera operator would let the manager know what is wrong and how long it is going to take to fix it.
Scrips are given to each member of the crew. Scripts are important as they let each member know what is happening at each precise point. It allows the floor manager to keep things in order, the camera operators to know what camera shots to use and when. Running time of show, clips and questions and also scripted audio and video clips.
Health and Safety
Pete spoke to us about health and safety. We were to name hazards around the studio, think of the risks attatched to these hazards and also the level of the risk. We then decided on what actions and precautions we could do to prevent these hazards from occuring.
For example:
Hazard: Lights over heating
Risk: Can explode and cause fire
Risk level: High
Actions and Precautions: Do not leave on for longer than needed to prevent over heating. Check throughout the day for any faults or anything not right.
Light
Soft Light - These lights take a low amount of energy to power, they have 'barn doors'. These are put on the edges which then helps direct the light into the wanted direction or area.
Small Spot Light - These lights are the opposite to the soft light and use alot of energy and have an adjustable concentrate. This light is usually used to light the talent on screen.
Flood Light - These lights make it easy to record, creating general light in the studio. A flood light does not have barn doors making it harder to control it's lighting.
Dimmer Pack - The dimmer pack powers and gives everything the right amount of power to different types of lighting,equipment, different voltages and watts in the studio.
Lighting panel - This piece of equipment controls the percentage of brightness going out to each light. almost exactly the same as an audio mixing desk, this piece of equipment has faders and a computer screen to make it piece of hardware much easier to use.
Camera
Camera pedestal - A camera pedestal is a tripod with wheels. On industry standard pedestals have an expensive steering system to make the flow of movement smoother.
Tally Light - A tally light is a small red signal lamp on the camera. It is usually located just above the lens and indicates that the camera is live. Shots are not to be changed when the tally light is on.
When the director wants to tell the camera operators how they want the camera operated, there are a set of simple terms that are used:
Pan Left/Right
Tilt Up/Down
Crab Left/Right
Track Back/Forward
Zoom In/Out
Exposure Control - Bright/Dull
Focus Control - Sharp/Soft
VU Meter
A volume units meter (VU) indicates what leven your recording in or how high, low the level is. Sound is measured in decibels (dB). The ideal level for speech when recording is -18dB and -9dB. There are two sides to the VU, this is for the stereo output. Each time you go down a dB the percentage is halved. 0dB is 100% of the recording signal. An analogue can handle volumes above 0dB up to +9dB as soon as the signal hits 0dB the signal is very likely to distort making an unclear sound.
Visual and Audio.
A line level is always shown when mixing audio into a sound desk. It will be the more stronger signal and there will aslo be a mic level which shows any audio recorded from a microphone. The mic levels come from different sources. The line level will come from the soundtrack in your live footage and the mic level is received through a stob box which is linked to a microphone which captures audio from the talent and host. Both audio clips are put through a sound desk in analogue. The CD is digital but contains a Digital to analogue converter (D.A.C) this makes the sound easier to work with. As the audio is put through the mixing desk, making sure it is at the right levels so ntohing distorts it is then recorded on a HDD in digital which makes the audio recording solid meaning if it is copied the quality will not change. A sound desk is able to have 4 line inpurts and 12 mic inputs giving a chance to record the most complex live videos. The visual side of mixing is easier as on the studio side of the wall we are able to have five different cameras which are then put through the stob box in the wall out the other side and into the vision mixer. This is controlled by the director making sure he is receiving the best visuals needed for the show. Finaly, the visual meets the mixed audia when being recorded in to the HDD (DN300)
Preduction and Preparation.
Week One.
In our class, we were divided into groups of five and given a role to take part in. The tasks consisted of an content producer, post production producer, technical producer and an art director. Our quiz was made up of five rounds, Television, Music, Internet, Movie and a Quickfire round. Each group of five chose which round they wanted to do, and began thinking of different questions.After picking which round we wanted to do which was music, we looked through different video's and different audio tracks. We then discussed different questions we would use. We decided we would have a video of JLS and Girls Aloud, two pop bands. We frosted over one persons face and asked who that person was. We also decided that the host was to play a song and the team was to guess who the artist was and what the song was called.
Week Two
In our group, I was given the roll of an art director, i joined the other art directors and we begun to design our set. We were to design a set which would involve 5 boards 8x4. In one of the sessions the class was asked to come up with some ideas, the below image was drawn up by five of our class mates which was voted the best.
The art directors had a meeting and we all put in our own ideas alongside idea above. One of our ideas was an ipod theme, the television screen would act as the ipod screen. Below is a design that Jasmine came up with to demonstrate the groups idea. We wanted to use the ipod earphone's as a way of connecting the different themes of media together on the five boards.
We then came up with a theme for each seperate board but still connecting in one way. Below is the final design for the set.
Week Three
Afer knowing what we wanted to do with the set, we were then given the flats to work on. We did a base coat of a simple white and some of our other class mates helped paint as we wanted to get the base coat out the way so we could get on with drawing the designs. Me and Lucy went to get paint, with a strict colour of blue that we had all agreed on. We then started drawing out our designs onto the flats. I began drawing the tv, which would have the games screen as the cartoon tv's screen. Llawen helped out designing the internet page, while jasmine drew out a film strip. Once we had drawn out each design, we began to paint. As all art directors were girls, the boys volunteered to arrange the flats where we wanted them. Although there was problem with the cartoon tv and the games screen. The television's stand was no high enough to fit into the flats square. We decided we would have to cut the bottom of the flat in order for our design to still work leaving the television flat smaller than the other flats. We came across other problems when arranging the flats aswell, the colour blue we had chosen came up alot lighter than we had planned. Also, the flats were not big enough to spread across behind the talent allowing cameras to pick up the black curtains behind. This affected the cameras shot on the talent as talent A was fully covered by the blue flat whereas talent B was not.
We told John what roles we would like to do, we picked three. I chose vision mixer, audio and camera roles. We began rotating in the tv studio, each learning about each role we had picked.
Week Four
The Set was finally finishing, we added a few touch ups and finaly it was finished. Above is a final image that Jasmine took had taken with her phone. This week was busy as all groups had to pull together making sure everything was finished for the final show. We began rehearsing, rotating from role to role. I was on camera two with Llawen being camera 2's assistant on the first rotation. Camera two focuses more on the host. I kept an MCU (Medium Close up) allowing head room. When i first begun my role, i kept forgetting the give the talent enough 'breathing space' this is when the shot is too tight. After Peter explained what i was doing wrong i quickly discovered why not to do this and got the hang of it. I then began to gain confidence in changing shots, for example a two shot of the host and talent B. In the second rotation i was on camera 4. Camera 4 is different to camera 2 as camera 4 catches the audience and takes wider shots that 2. I was on camera 4 with Lucy, after Sharni explained to us how to crab and to bring the camera slowly up over the audience we experimented ourselves. John and Pete both agreed that it was difficult for us to crab and pan over the audience at the same time so we stuck to crabing. As the quiz show begun we crabbed over the audience as they applaused. We repeated this at the end of the show aswell. I found myself getting confused on camera 4 though because of the tally light. At the beginning of the show we crabbed while the tally light was on, during the show i forgot to pay attention to the tally light and messed up a shot. This was when i realised just how important the tally light is and how important it is to the shot that you don't move the camera while the tally light is on.
The day of the final production came and we were all nervous but excited. We had a run through in the morning which we picked up any difficulties we had and discussed how we could fix these. We then had our break which we came back to a final rehearsal. Our floor manager welcomed in the talent which lead to us doing audio checks on the micro phones. The talent was asked to speak for a few seconds while the audio people gave the all clear. The audience was then brought in and sat down as asked to make noise when the show begun. The show went smoothly, with a few hiccups but nothing too dramatic.
LIVE TELEVISION ANALYSIS
'Mock the week' is a live quiz show produced by Mark Leveson and directed by Geraldine Dowd which is made up of team's of three and a host; Dara O Brian. The opening sequence is a series of humorous fake headlines, newspapers and internet and news channels with the theme tune of 'News of the World'. The opening sequence creates the feeling of relaxation, humour and the theme of comedy. The host talks with an informal tone, at times usuing incorrect language. This also adds to the humour and sense of relaxation as we expect the host to have a sense of maturity keeping the two teams in control, but instead the host encourages the humour. The two teams are asked questons about different topics and are awarded a point for each correct answer. The show has a comedy theme to it and has famous comedians as part of the teams. I think the target audience would be teenagers and adults as the language used is quite crude at times. The quiz show is recorded in a studio with an audience viewing space of around 200 seats making enough room for an audience to be sat opposite the talent behind camera shot. The studio also has a seperate floor which is used as a section of the show. As the comedians are asked a question, then put head to head to create the funniest stad up answer. Behind the comedians in this round is also a large screen television, a television is also used bhind the host displaying the show's logo. The host is sat in the middle of a semi circle table with one team either side. The back drop of the set consists of a red and blue combined pattern. The set works well as it is not eye distracting but is well presented. Being shot in a large studio has many advantages, one of them being able to offer more different camera shots. On the sutdio floor there are roughly around five cameras, four being movable and the last one giving an MCU on the host. The talen wear a clipped microphone as they move from one side of the set to the other on certain rounds so microphones on the table would not be ideal. However, as part of the performance floor props there is standing single microphone marking the spot of where the comedians give their answers. The audience would also have one or two microphones hanging above the space of their seating area to catch their applaucse and laughter. The studio has fixed lighting, giving the studio main light but also decorative red and blue coloured lights matching the set. There are a range of shots used when shooting 'Mock the week'. The shots range from a medium close up, wide shot, high angle and a three shot when the talent are sitting down. When they are in the performance area we see a three shot, wide shot, a high angle and a medium shot.
'Have i got news for you' is also a live quiz show produced by 'Hat Trick Productions' since 1990. The show is different to 'Mock the week' as the host changes each week however the team captains stay the sane, Ian Hislop and Paul Meton. The two teams are asked questions and shown slogans in some rounds about different news topics and are awarded a point for each correct answer. The questions asked are not necessarily humorous, it is the conversation that is created through the answers that give the show it's comedy theme. The opening sequence is a variety of cartoons of places and people with a fast, upbeat theme tune. The cartoons and slogans are humorous creating a comedy theme to the show. I think the target audience would also be teenagers and adults as this quiz show too use's adult humour and language. The quiz show is recorded in a tv studio with an audience viewing space of around 308 seats. The audience's seats are positioned to the left, right and opposite of the stage. Two televisions are also showing what is being recorded, we see this as the show finishes and the camera shows a wide shot of the entire tv studio. The talent stay sitting down unlike 'Mock the Week', meaning the set is not as big. The back drop set is made up of eye catching flats of lighted slogans and pictures of famous people keeping to a light blue and white theme on a red background. As the show starts, the flats spell out the show's name 'Have i got news for you' and as the theme tune finishes, the boards turn around. The show is made up of two teams of two and a host; they are seated around a semi circle table with the host seated in the middle. There are roughly around four cameras used. The shots are made up of mostly MCU's on the talent and host, regularly using a two shot on each team. Very rarely a wide shot is used on both teams and the host. Clip microphones are also used even though the talent stay sitting down unlike on 'Mock the week'. The audience would have one or two microphones hanging over their heads catching their applause and laughter. The audience's laughter creates the atmosphere of a live show which words better than using canned laughter which works bettwe with shows that are not live. The studio use's basic lighting, the back drop set has lighting behind it's flats and the studio being big would take alot of lighting. 'Have i got news for you' uses more graphics than 'Mock the week'. They are taken from magazines, newspapers and television. They are then edited to make sense along side a question to make the viewer and audience laugh. This works well because it shocks the audience and they laugh because they know they are not meant to.
I personally prefer 'Have i got news for you' as they use more graphics and music than 'Mock the week'. Although i prefer the comedians used on 'Mock the week' and the conversation created. I prefer the set on 'Have i got news for you' because there is more eye catching pictures and slogans. The set goes with the quiz show's title, where as 'Mock the week' has a very bland set using only a plain coloured background and the show's logo.
'Media Meltdown' Evaluation.
This project helped me gain a knowledge and understanding about airing a live quiz show, the standards that are expected, the tasks carried out and the roles that are filled. During preperation for the show, i was assigned the role of an art director. This meant i was involved in designing and creating the set with four other people.I enjoyed being an art director as i enjoy being part of a team working together discussing possible ideas and coming to a mutual agreement. Some of our ideas were complicated and to an extent not able to be a success in the time we had. We presented designs to the class asking them to vote for the one they preferred and to provide reasons for the one they wanted us to use. This also helped us a gain an understanding of our target audience. The art directors combined various ideas with the class' chosen idea and agreed on a final design.The design portrayed the different rounds within the live show all connecting together. The idea was effective however due to some bad communication the panels didn't connect with each other the way designed.
Overall i was pleased with the outcome of the set although i feel that our ideas could of produced a much better set than we had created. I epecially liked the 'music' round flat, i liked the way the 3d music notes were used. They were striking and bold. We came across some complications when setting up the finished flats. The television screen being used in the show stood on a stand however the stand was not tall enough in order for the screen to fit behind the hole provided. This resulted in us having to cut a few inches from the bottom of the panel, meaning the 'television' panel was shorter than the rest. It was quite disapointing as it was our job as art directors to be accurate with our measurements. If i was to do this project again, i would draw the designs onto the flats before i began painting any of them. I would then check them to makesure measurements and drawings were accurate to the design we were following. This would of also solved another problem we came across as we found when looking at the playback, the images painted on the panels weren't as clear as we had planned. They were positioned too low and too small. Epecially the television when an MCU shot on the host was used. The viewer can not tell what the brown behind the host was, it looked like a random bar of brown when in fact it was the television. This problem could of been resolved easily if we had used a camera to test for accuracy, we then could of enlarged the images and resolved the problem.
On the day of our final recording, i was assigned to camera 2 with Llawen as the camera assistant. I found camera 2 easier to control than when i was on camera 4 for the second rotation. On camera 2 i used basic camera shots concentrating more on the host, for example an MCU (Medium close up). At times i forgot to allow the space of three fingers above the host's head and i also kept making the shot too tight. For the second rotation i was assigned to camera 4 with Lucy. Unlike camera 2, camera 4 was movable allowing us to crab capturing the audience as the show began. We were panning and crabbing at the same time but John and Pete decided it was far too much, so we stuck to crabbing. I confused myself with the tally light, when the tally light is on the camera should not be moved but at the beginning of the show we crabbed while the tally light was red. During the show i changed my shot when the tally light was on ruining the shot all together. Overall i think i adjusted to using the camera well, i would change the fact i did not experiment with shots as much as i wish i had the confidence to do though. I enjoyed the experience of being able to learn while using the camera. I liked how we all helped each other if one of us were unsure on something.
When watching playback a few problems were noticed, for example the talent were seated on plastic swinging chairs giving the talent the urge and ability to swirl on the char. This is a distraction to the viewer. In order to resolve this I would of made the talent sit on fixed chairs which did not allow movement keeping the talent sitting at the same height and facing the same direction. Another problem we came across was the speech volume of the host. His voice was alot louder than the rest of the talent. This was due to the sound levels caused during mic check, the host spoke at a quieter volume than the level he spoke when the show was on air. If the sound check had been more accurate. This could of been resolved by altering the sound levels in order to turn the volume of his mic down when needed. The talent's voice volume also went lower once on air, this could of been down to nerves. I think a reshearsal was needed before we did the final production as the talent and host didn't come across as confident in their roles. This showed through their body language and voice. Also as the audience cheered, microphone's picked up a added noise which when watching playback was noticable. This could not of been resolved as the air conditioning was to do with this as it interfered with the audience mic.
Overall i feel the project went really well and i enjoyed taking part, learning and understanding new skills.
