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Pre-Production Journal

In our pre-production group I was assigned the role of technical producer this meant that I cut down all the videos and any other things that we wanted in our Vt's. Although some of my work was virtually doubled as one of our group members left the course halfway through the rotation and halfway through all the work.

Our Subject was sport, so we decided to use Question of Sport as a guide and got ideas from some of there questions such as who is this with the blurred out face and what happens next, but we did create some questions ourselves such as an anagram round where we made up an anagram and the teams had to guess who it was.

Overall the group worked well even though most of the work was doubled and it went smoothly and all work was completed so the round went into the show.

Below is an example of the ideas we had for some questions:

Talk-back's there use and protocal

Talk-backs are used by the on floor crew and the director and floor manager, there should be no messing about on these as it can cause confusion or loss in communication.

The talk backs should only be used by the camera crew if they have a problem or really need to communicate with the director.

The Dvd Op has to use the talk back to tell the director when the dvd is ready for him to cut to whenever her wants to, and the sound desk only needs to use it at the start when they tell the director that the sound is ready.

The Floor manager and the director are the main people to use the talkbacks to communicate between floor and the vision control room. The director will tell the floor manager how he wants the talent to sit and what he wants them to do. So any messing about on the talkbacks could mean that the floor manager misses something that the director says and then it wouldnt get done so would cause problems.

Camera Shots and Moves

Below are some camera shots that are usually used in Live Tv Shows:

Wide Shot- One of the whole talent, sometimes with some audience as foreground.

2 or 3 Shot- Usually of one side of the talent or of two of the talent and the host.

Close up- Usually of the host, or on one of the talent who is answering a question.

Ped Up/Down- is to move the camera up or down.

Pan- Left/Right/Up/Down, to give more headroom, or more looking room.

Zoom- Is to go in closer of a shot or to come out.

Crab- Can go left or right.

Studio Protocal and Practice

The rules which should be followed in the studio are as follows:

Don't Run In The Studio - as the cameras have long cables that usually trail along the floor and could very easily be tripped over.

Only people who are really needed for the production should be aloud in the studio- as their is only a limited about of space and the crew are needed to be fully focused on getting the best recording possible.

No messing about on the (cans) headsets - The cans are only used for communication between the Director and the Crew and any messing about on them could cause confusion on what was being said and cause loss of instuctions from director to crew.

Also no Food or Drink should be brought into the Studio as there is a possibility that they could be spilt and damage the cameras/microphones and with that there a risk of being electrocuted.

Multi-Cam Production Terms

The two most used calls in a live tv show are:

"Cut"- Which is used by the director to tell the vision mixer that he wants to move cameras and to go onto the next shot.

"Dvd Ready" or " Dv Ready"- Is another that is used a lot, this is used by the dvd operator to signify that the Vt insert is ready for whenever the director wants to cut to it. Just before he/she does cut to it they will say "Role Vt" or "Role Dvd".

The other calls that are used during a live tv show are:

"Floor Ready"- This is used by the floor manager to tell the director that the floor is ready whenever he/she wants to start recording.

"Sound Ready"- This is used by the Sound Operators to tell the director that all Mic checks have been done and they are ready to record whenever he/she is.

Script

The script is one of the most important things in the whole show, as if you have no script then you dont really have a show as the host doesnt know what the questions are, the Dvd operator doesnt know when the inserts are needed and the director doesnt know when what will be said and where he/she should cut to. Below is the first page of our script to give an idea of what one should look like:

Planning and designing a set/lighting it.

We took some photos of our set during the various stages of it being built and some pictures during rehearsals. From these we were able to determin how much light would be needed on them during the show whether it was more or less than we thought. Above are some of the photos we took:

Planning Camera Placement and shots.

We used this diagram, to determin where the cameras should go and what type of shots we could get of it.

Floor Plan

Signal Flow (Video and Audio)

Crew Roles and Responsibilities

In studio Roles:

• Floor Manager (FM)- In charge of the studio, The directors on floor representetive and relays messages from the director to the talent.
• Camera Op's- Operate the Cameras.
• Camera Assistant- Sometimes called Cable Bashers, Help to move the camera around.
• Assistant Floor Manager (AFM)- Either keeps score or sits in with the audience to get them going and generate more of an atmosphere, can also relay messages from director if fm is unavaliable.
• Talent- Actors and audience anyone who is in front of the camera.

Audio Control Room Roles:

• Senior Sound Op- Responsible for overall sound.
• Assistant Sound Op- Responsibility usually shared, so one will control the mic's and other will control Dvd sound and the overall sound, this will usually be the Senior Sound op who does this.
• Dvd Op- Is responsible for all the inserts that are played within the show, so has to get them cued ready for whenever the director wants to cut to them.

Vision Control Room Roles:

• Vision Mixer (VX)- Operates the Vision Mixing panel.
• Director- The creative executioner- Making. Is also in overall charge no-one can argue with he/she whatever they say goes.
• Producer- Puts together a deal- Content.
• Camera Control Unit Op (CCU)
• Assistant Director- Keeps all the timings and times all inserts and gives the director and idea of when to cut of them.
• Lighting Controler/Operator- Operates the lights and dims or brightens them if needed.

Studio Equipment

Here is a list of the equipment that is used in the studio:

All of these would be found in the actual studio:

• Sony Z-2's mounted on Peds
• Curtain Tracks- With black curtains, known as blacks.
• Grid- The lights are suspended from here; each light has its own plub socket, with 6 sockets per bar. They are easily controled by a dimmer pack.
• Cool Lights
• Tungstan Lights- Heavy Duty, Normal Lights.
• House Lights
• STOB (Studio Terminal Outlet Box)- Conects to control room, has many sockets- 12 for microphones, 3 for technical communications (cans) and 3 camera outlets.
• Suspended Mic's
• Radio Mic's For Talent.
• Floor Monitor(s), sometimes more than one so the audience can see the inserts too.- Shows the video feed of the programme being filmed, usually suspended from the grid.
• On Air Light

All of these are found in the Audio Control Room:

• Dvd Player, With its own seperate monitor so the Dvd Operator can see where abouts on the Vt reel they are and can cue it up properly
• Sound Desk

All of these are found in the Vision Control Room:

• Vision Mixing Panel
• Lighting Desk (usually has its own seperate control room.)

Dvd Operation and Insert Requirements

Below is a list Dvd Operation and Insert Requirements;

Make sure that the screen size is the same for both VT insert and stings so they appear the same size when played on screen.

Make sure there is at least seven seconds between each VT.

Make sure there is one second of 'black', Five seconds of VT Roll which tells the Dvd Op what track they are on and what the VT clip is of and finally 1 second of black at the end of the clip just incase there are any problems when trying to cut back to the studio.

Programme Rundown

Hello

Hello and welcome to my Multi Cam Production blog, on here will be all of my work from this rotation.