Sophie Marriott

Studio Production: Live Report

BA (Hons) Television Production

Year 2

Submission Date: 27/04/15

Word Count: 3654

Contents

Unit Brief – Page 3 – 3

Chosen Show and My Role – Page 3 – 5

Pre-production: The VT Content Page – Page 5 – 8

Production – Page 8 – 8

Complications – Page 8 – 9

Post-production: Supervising the edit – Page 9 – 9

My Secondary Role – Page 10 – 11

The Shoot Day – Page 11 – 12

Reflections – Page 12 – 12

Bibliography – Page 13 – 13

Appendices

A – Page – 14 – 15

B – Page – 16 – 17

C – Page – 18 – 18

D – Page – 18 – 18

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Unit Brief

The Studio Production unit was briefed to us on 06/1/15 in which each student

was required develop an idea for a 30 minute pilot live show. It would then be

pitched to our tutors who would choose the show according to its viability and

originality. The student who pitched the chosen show would become the

Producer and other roles would be advertised subsequently which we then

had to choose and be interviewed for. We were informed that only one show

would be commissioned and all students would work together on this

production.

Chosen Show and My Role

Our tutors, Helen and Simon, chose to commission Helen Welsh’s show

entitled ‘What You Sayin’, aimed at 16 – 25 year olds. In Helen Welsh’s pitch,

the shows logline was “real people discuss the hottest stories of the week and

take a look at what’s been grabbing your attention” (Welsh, 2015). From

looking at the logline, the show would be catergorised as a talk/debate show

that would have a host posing questions to panelists and controlling the

content of the debates.

Shortly after the show was commissioned, the tutors advertised the different

roles in 5 departments, these were: Producer, Direction, Edit, Camera and

Sound. For most roles, there was a secondary role that the student would

need to undertake on the day of the live recording. Immediately, I knew I

wanted to opt for a role in the Producer department; either the VT Package

Producer or Promotions Producer; as I wanted a role that would utilise my

existing skills but would also face me with new challenges that I hadn’t

previously experienced, such as being solely responsible for a team.

As a producer I would “have overall control on every aspect of a film's

production” (Creative Skillset, 2015) and my “key responsibility is to create an

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environment where the talents of the cast and crew can flourish” (Creative

Skillset, 2015). I understood that if I were to become a Producer, I would need

to make final decisions, whether it’s regarding content of the films or the crew

I send to a shoot, and I would need to ensure that morale of the team is at it’s

highest at all times, especially during stressful periods.

I chose the VT Package Producer role for my 1st choice, followed by the

Promotions Producer; this was because I was particularly interested in the

research process of the topics and building a foundation for the production to

work around and as the VT’s would be linked to the topics directly, it would

allow me to become involved with this. Being a regular viewer of TV shows

that incorporate VT’s as a way of story telling or a way of making the show

work, e.g. Celebrity Juice, I already had a common understanding of what a

VT should bring to the show, which influenced my decision. Additionally, I had

already started to collate ideas for the VT’s that would supplement the

debates.

Once our interviews were completed, in which we had to present a

professional CV and be questioned about the role we intend to fulfill, our

tutors announced which student got which role. I was given my 1st choice role

of VT Package Producer, which I was both ecstatic and apprehensive about.

I would have 4 VT’s to produce, all of which concern different topics and

different ways of approaching them. Although I was knowledgeable about

VT’s, I decided that I should research further into what the purpose of a VT is

before I started to begin my role officially. “VTs are in many ways the key

component. Aside from helping with storytelling, they offer the live producer

something far more important: the opportunity to take a breather.” (Taberer,

2014). After reading this, it put into perspective the importance the VT’s hold

in reference to our debate show as they aid in the progression of the debates.

For example, if at any point the debates divert from the central point, the

presenter can refer back to the VT to pose a new question or to bring the

panelists back onto the topic. The VT’s will give the show extra material that

prevents the audience becoming uninterested if the show takes a debate-

fuelled approach.

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As the leader of my team, I decided to set up a way of contacting each

individual in order for everyone to get involved with the project straight away.

I created a chat group on Facebook messenger to filter through all the

information, updates and changes that occurred through the duration of this

project (see Appendix A). While Facebook isn’t the most professional tool to

contact peers, I found it easier to directly access people in my team as

opposed to e-mails as I knew that some students wouldn’t check their e-mails

regularly. This allowed me to see who had read the messages and I could

monitor the individuals input into this project.

Pre-production: The VT Content

The content of the VT’s had to engage the audience, have a clear beginning

middle and end and should make sense when watched separately from the

show; as instructed by our tutors. As a team, we had to make sure that the

narrative of the VT’s would not replicate what was going to be discussed

during the live show but set up the talking point for each debate. “Narrative is

key to live shows. The separate elements – VTs, interviews, demonstrations,

discussions, floats – need to form a cohesive whole, with each separate item

complementing those that precede and follow it.” (Taberer, 2014). As we

already knew the style of the show, it set the guideline for our VT’s to adhere

to. The 4 VT’s had to reflect the tone and style of the live show, in terms of

scripting, whilst remaining as separate entities. For most of the VT’s, we

initially couldn’t decide which angle to take because there was numerous

routes we could take but we had to try to remain as neutral as possible to

allow for the debate to come to a conclusion. If we could not remain neutral,

we would have to leave the topic open enough for discussion. The topics that

would become the debates on the show changed marginally during every

production meeting so I found it difficult to form a solid idea for my VT’s,

especially as one topic changed from gaming to politics which I was unaware

of until the next production meeting.

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“Identifying your narrative arc as early as possible will help you work out what

should be on tape, what you can handle in your live discussions, and what

you’ll need a demo for.” (Taberer, 2014). After many production meetings

discussing the most relatable topics, we decided on: Graffiti, Domestic

Violence, Body Image and Politics. The inspiration behind the graffiti VT was

came from an episode of Jack Whitehall’s ‘Backchat’ television programme in

which he takes his dad to a cuddle master class, something he despises, and

it created tension and humour. The idea of taking a person to somewhere

they will dislike is something the audience wants to see and would therefore

be entertained. I decided to take a panelist, Jordan, who dislikes graffiti and is

very opinionated, on a graffiti tour in Shoreditch where he would have a guide

with him who’s passionate about graffiti and has an opposing view to Jordan.

To organise this, I sent e-mails to two London tours (see Appendix B) and

‘freetoursbyfoot’ replied shortly after expressing their interest. After

exchanging e-mails, I gave dates that Jordan was available for filming and we

were booked in for a private tour.

The domestic violence VT was the most challenging to organise as there was

a lot of elements to the process. We came up with the idea of creating a social

experiment to test people’s reactions to witnessing violence first hand on both

genders and seeing how their reactions differ depending on who they’ve

witnessed expressing the violence. I watched a video from ‘OckTV’, a

YouTube group based around pranking the general public, who had filmed

this social experiment in a public place to try and understand how I could

script this. We concluded that we would have to base our experiment in a

controlled environment, to ensure safety, where we test the reaction of 3

people – 2 of which being panelists; this would let the debate flow naturally as

the panelists taking part could express their views on the violence in the

studio. Initially, I found it difficult to find actors for this VT but Andrei Allen, a

camera operator, knew two actors who he had worked with before so I asked

him to contact them and they both agreed to take part. We then arranged an

audition for both of them and briefed them about the project and what we want

and set a date for production.

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For the body image VT, the central topic would be discussing Photoshop and

how it affects young people today. Originally, we were looking at getting a

case study to talk about body image and self-esteem but we felt that a

demonstration of how Photoshop works might have a bigger impact on the

viewers. The idea quickly changed into showing a model getting

photographed and having it transformed in Photoshop, which Ruby Rogers

would do, where you can see the extent to which a person’s image can be

modified. I liked the idea of seeing the transformation process as a time-lapse

and then showing the original and altered picture side by side so you can see

the noticeable changes. To organise this, I set Timothy Wilcox the task of

booking the photo studio at UCA Rochester and completing a recce while I

put an advert on the UCA Rochester Facebook page in order to get a male

student model that would be familiar with Photoshop and would have an

opinion on it.

The final VT was for the new topic about politics. We decided to centre the

story around young voters and why they aren’t voting. This VT had to be

informative yet lighthearted so that young people could relate to it. Our tutor,

Helen, gave us the idea of going to Margate and covering the local election

that’s happening in May. In order to get the opinion of young voters, we would

use the vox-pop technique and ask questions that would allow them to

express their truthful opinions. To add the lighthearted tone, I came up with

the idea of having two people in Nigel Farage and Al Murray masks and

asking the locals who they’d rather go for a drink with, as both of them are

linked in that way, which would inform the audience of who they prefer. For

this, we needed a presenter to guide us through what we aim to find out.

Previously people had worked with a presenter called Dave Chawner and I

believed he would be perfect for the tone of this VT so I e-mailed him

introducing myself and the project and he e-mailed back instantly saying he

would be more than happy to participate.

With this role I had to be good at handing various jobs, ranging from coming

up with the initial idea to filling in compulsory paperwork. “In pre-production,

Producers bring together the key members of the creative team.Producers

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also approve locations, studio hire, the final shooting script, production

schedule and budget.” (Creative Skillset, 2015). As well as developing the

content of the stories, I had to draw up a production schedule (see Appendix

C), an estimated budget for each of our videos (see Appendix D) and approve

the final scripts that my directors worked on. I also created a thankyou list of

all the contributors that helped out in all of the productions (see Appendix D)

to keep track of who needed to be credited.

Production

During shoot days, “Producers are responsible for the day-to-day smooth

operation of the team. Producers are also in constant communication and

consultation with the Director and other key creatives, on and off set.”

(Creative Skillset, 2015). For each of our shoot days, I made sure everyone

had the necessary paperwork e.g. scripts, shot lists and kept a folder with

spare documents in. As well as the extra scripts, I kept blank consent forms

and made it my duty to get the consent forms signed by every contributor that

would be on camera. As it was my responsibility to ensure the production ran

smoothly, I had to be aware of timings for the day and stick to the agenda

because if one section over-ran, it could have affected the next scene. By

being present on production days, it allowed me to oversee VT from content

point-of-view whereas the directors could focus on the creative aspects. I was

able to follow the script and check that the links and transitions from scenes

made sense.

Complications

The major complication we had was with the graffiti VT whereby a technical

issue, undetected during the production, made the footage distorted and

almost unusable. The director, Timothy Wilcox, and myself were faced with

the decision to rectify the footage we had or re-shoot the VT again. I

immediately did not want to use the footage and face reducing the production

values of the whole show, so I made the harsh decision of having to come up

with a new idea for the VT. I e-mailed Gregory to update him on what

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happened and arrange a re-shoot (see Appendix B) and got in contact with

Jordan but unfortunately due to confliction work schedules, it was impossible

that this would happen. This meant myself and Timothy Wilcox had to come

up with a brand new story for the VT. We still wanted to incorporate the

guided tour that we went on so I transcribed the footage we had to get the

back-stories to the art so we could still use this information. It was suggested

that we send Jamie Terry, our presenter, on a self-guided tour of the artwork

where he would pose the question central question of whether graffiti is art of

vandalism. This new VT would show the good and bad side to graffiti, giving

the panelists something to discuss; this meant it would still match the debate

that follows it and the guidelines that Helen Welsh set us for this VT.

Post-production: Supervising the edit

As there were two directors for the VT’s and two editors, I assigned one editor

to each director. I ensured that the VT’s that the editors were working on

corresponded to the shoots that they attended. For example, I assigned

Hannah Darby as Danny Hewitt’s editor as she was present for the politics

shoot and I assigned Ruby Rogers as Timothy Wilcox’s editor as she

attended the body image shoot and was photo-shopping the image of the

model. As soon as the filming was complete, the footage was given directly to

the editors so they could produce a rough cut. At this point, I was “expected to

liaise with the Director and postproduction department.” (Creative Skillset,

2015). I allowed the editors to produce a rough cut, from the finalised script

provided, for the director and myself before we reviewed it. Upon review, we

discussed any changes that we would like to make and allowed the editors to

proceed with the fine cuts. Once each stage of the cuts had been made, the

director and myself gave feedback. For example during the final cut of the

graffiti VT, I pointed out a few sound issues, at precise time codes, where the

audio levels peaked and dipped during the transition between voice-over and

piece-to-camera. Additionally, I ensured that the pictures matched the

information we were being told so that the cutaways were of relevance to the

content and didn’t confuse the audience.

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My Secondary Role

Prior to the live show, we had 7 workshops with Hans Petch, a producer and

director of many television programmes. He taught us what works well in live

television and each week he helped our show progress and worked on

developing the script. He allowed us to work independently as a team,

stepping in to give us constructive criticism, so we could get a sense of the

type of show we wanted to create. Initially during the workshops, I was either

a stand-in panelist or cable basher for the jib/dolly camera but as the show

became nearer and some of the VTs were filmed, I got allocated the role of a

VT Operator. As this was a new role for me, and one that I’d never heard of

previously, I researched into what a VT Operator does and what’s expected of

them. “A VT operators duties may include making a master tape” (Blackwell,

2010:79) as well as being responsible for “cueing and playing video clips at

the right time in a programme” (Blackwell, 2010:79). This meant that I was in

charge of the time-line that contained all the material shot externally such as

opening titles, VT’s and credits. I had to gather all the material and organise

the clips into a timeline, leaving a 30 second black screen with a 10 second

count down in-between each to help the production assistant with the cueing

in the VT. “Under instruction from the director, they load the videotapes in the

sequence written on the running order.” (BBC, 2008). It was important to load

the videos on the timeline in the same order that they appeared on the

running order as it made it easier to locate when scrolling through the tape to

find the start or finish of a clip.

For the next workshop, I made a timeline with one of our VT’s on to practice

with. I got taught the basic controls of the VT machine to begin with, which

was fairly straightforward; I had a scrolling wheel to allow me to search for the

videos, a ‘play’ button and a ‘stop’ button. I was then taught about time-codes

on the tape and the importance of making them accurate when recording the

first frame of the beginning of a video. The next workshop, I got shown how to

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set up a cue for the start of each clip which would make playback easier; I

would have to press one button instead of searching for the time-code

manually. “The VT operator has to keep an eye on the time and know the

length of each report and the whole programme. To do this, they talk to the

production assistant.” (BBC, 2008). Once I knew the start time-code of the clip

and the duration, I calculated the ending frame and I then liased with Hannah

Darby, the production assistant, to ensure she had the timings so the

countdown would be accurate. I was excited about this new role as it meant

that I had an opportunity to learn something brand new and expand on my

skills.

The Shoot Day

On the day of the recording of the live show, we rehearsed in the morning to

make sure that any issues were resolved before the afternoon recording. I

had previously cued the start of each VT to a number designated on the

machine the day before to ensure that the timeline was working and in the

correct order, which meant all I had to do was press the number in

conjunction with the ‘search’ button to play it from that time-code. The

rehearsal gave me the opportunity to run through the VT timeline with Hannah

Darby, the production assistant, and allowed us to make any amendments to

the timings to get them as precise as possible. We needed to make sure the

start and finish time codes for the VTs were checked thoroughly so that the

VT’s played out to their exact duration, as in previous workshops there had

been seconds cut off the end of the VT’s as they hadn’t been calculated

correctly. We also rehearsed cueing the VT’s in as I was most anxious about

this part due to being cued in too late by the director in previous workshops. If

I suspected this was about to happen, I used my initiative and listened to

Hannah Darby’s countdown along with observing the jib movement that

proceeded into the VT and pressed play when I thought it was appropriate. I

feel that Hannah and myself managed to get the timings accurate and we

were both happy with the outcome. Lastly, we had to test the sound transition

from the VT’s to the panelists in the studio so that the sound faded in and out

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seamlessly; this meant I had to cue up the VT’s upon instruction from the

director and the production assistant.

When it came to filming the live show, everyone in the gallery was nervous

but we remained calm and focused on the task ahead of us. Personally, I was

nervous about idents on the timeline as the link that the presenter had before I

played out the idents wasn’t long enough for me to stop the VT that had

previously been playing and cue up the ident; however, I had practiced this in

the rehearsal and it worked well, it meant that I had to be fast when it came to

the switch-over.

Reflections

I feel that I have made a good contribution to the team, as although this role

was out of my comfort zone as I was solely responsible for a team of 10

people and 4 separate videos, I embraced the new tasks and responsibilities

and was able to build on my existing skills as well as learning new ones. I feel

that I am now more confident in making harsh decisions and stepping up as

team leader, as this role required these skills. I have learnt how to handle and

overcome obstacles along the way and I am proud of how I dealt with a role

that comes with a huge amount of pressure.

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Bibliography

Backchat with Jack Whitehall and His Dad [television programme online] Pres. Whitehall BBC Two (2013) 44 mins At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seiULyvQ_kk&feature=youtu.be&t=16m52s (Accessed on 10.3.2015)

BBC. (2008) ‘Who does what in a TV studio?’ At: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/school_report/4780433.stm (Accessed on 10.3.2015)

Blackwell, A. (2010) Television (Ferguson Career Launcher) [online] At: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=JE-l9H-XdAAC&pg=PA79&dq=live+television+VT&hl=en&sa=X&ei=QKcvVbLDH42BaYvNgOgP&ved=0CEAQ6AEwAg#v=snippet&q=VT&f=false (Accessed on 10.3.2015)

Creative Skillset, (2015) Producer Job Role [online] At: http://creativeskillset.org/job_roles_and_stories/job_roles/757_producer (Accessed on 10.3.2015)

Helen Welsh (2015) What You Saying [online] At: http://helenwelsh.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/studio-production-pitch.html (Accessed on 10.3.2015)

Kellison, C. (2006) Producing for TV and Video : A Real-World Approach [online] At: http://lib.myilibrary.com/Open.aspx?id=100872 (Accessed on 10.3.2015)

OckTV Domestic Abuse In Public! (Social Experiment) (2014) [YouTube video] OckTV 4 mins At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtVHnZX8E50 (Accessed on 10.3.2015)

Taberer, D. (2014) ‘Masterclass: Showrunning - live factual’ [online] At: http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/features/masterclass-showrunning-live-factual/5071166.article (Accessed on 10.3.2015)

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Appendix A

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Appendix A

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Appendix B

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Appendix B

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Appendix C

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Appendix D

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