Studio Production: Report
Director
of ‘Teach ‘Em a Lesson’
By
Jordan Parker
Word
Count: 2,640
Contents
Introduction Page
3
My
Job Role Page
3
Creative
Methodologies Page
4
Critical
Reflection Page
6
Student
vs Professional Page
8
Conclusion Page 9
Bibliography Page 10
Illustration
List Page 11
Introduction
This report will analyse
my job role as Director of the student made studio production children’s
program, ‘Teach ‘Em a Lesson’. It will explore my key roles, achievements and
critical reflections throughout the production process. It will include any
problems or difficulties I faced personally throughout the production period,
how my experience would compare to a professional production and also looking
at any improvements. This report will include research into my role as
Director, from sources such as books, ebooks, blogs, professional feedback and
current professional equivalents of our show.
My
Job Role
My role was determined
early on in the production process when all of our production team was tasked
with pitching an idea for the show. My initial idea was a sports show in which
focused on a predominantly male audience with creative influence from Rugby Tonight and Soccer AM. However my idea was not chosen as it proved to be not entirely
cost effective and not possible with our given budget. After all pitches were
concluded a show was picked and our Producer was determined (Wesley Denne), his
children’s television show, ‘Teach ‘Em a Lesson’ was chosen.
After this our roles had
to be established through interviews. My first choice, and the role I had my
eyes on was the Directors role. I had no experience previously with live show
directing but I was confident that this tough role was something I wanted to
pursue. For the interview I made sure I was dressed smartly, came prepared, and
on time. Punctuality and ‘first impressions’ are key with interviews, something
I had learnt with previous employment. I understood that in the real world it
does not work that I would simply leave university and be interviewed for a job
as a Director. It takes time, being new to the industry and the live studio you
start as a runner and work your way up, creating and taking opportunities and being
hungry for work.
Fortunately, I was chosen to be Director
of the show. My responsibilities soon became very clear as “television
directors are responsible for maintaining the “look” of the show.” (Cury,
2011:47). Which means the entire look of
the show was down to me, part of calling the shots means that there is only one
direction everyone looks too when something goes wrong and that was my
direction, ultimately I am responsible for how the show looks. If the show
looks bad it’s my fault, as it is under my direction. My responsibilities
included:
-
Blocking the show
-
Liaising with the producer to discuss script changes
and shot lists
-
Liaising with Camera Operators to discuss the best
shots and angles
-
Communicating and working with Talent and Contestants
to make sure they know where they are going and what they are doing on set.
-
In the gallery, cueing music, talent and graphics
whiles also calling the shots to the vision mixer.
-
Communicating with every member of the production team
so everyone knows exactly what they are doing.
-
Resolving any potential conflicts or situations of ‘cold
feet’.
-
To be responsible for the outcome of the show when live.
Creative Methodologies
To ensure that I fully grasped what it
took to be a good studio television Director, I undertook research into
multi-camera directing and blocking to better my knowledge and come rehearsals
fully understand what my role was and how to get the production moving in the right
direction.
Blocking
Blocking is one of, if not the most
important processes as a director. It sets up the scene/stage and in our case
the set, the way in which It was to be shot must be organised in the rehearsals
and perfected to make sure that we go the best angles, shots and positions for
the cameras, lighting, talent and contestants. “At least 75% of the work is
done before you sit in front of the monitors.” (BBC Academy, 2016). I took on
this valuable piece of advice. I wanted to be 100% certain that when I left the
studio floor I knew that what was going on, on the studio floor was exactly
what I had in mind and that I could sit in the gallery and cut and cue show
knowing that what was coming up next was what I wanted. “When a first time
Director steps on a set, blocking a scene can be one of the most frustrating
and terrifying parts of their job. If a director doesn’t understand the
concept of blocking and staging, and they also don’t know how to speak the
actor’s language, they could end up wasting valuable shooting time.” (Pasquine,
2009). I spent a lot of time blocking during rehearsals as it was something I wanted
to have almost perfected.
Fig 1. Image of me Blocking
I knew that the contestant and talent
where in the perfect position for lighting and coverage, and that the cameras
where in the correct position for the best angles and shots. My presence on the
studio floor for rehearsals gave me an insight but also gave other members of
the production team the opportunity to speak to me if they had concerns, which
was something I liked as our communication continually improved. It helped our
team to gel more, and my confidence to grow in the production.
Multi-Camera Direction
Multi-Camera Direction
was something that I had never experienced or come across before. It was
something that I had to be sure to get to grips with no matter how challenging I
first found it. To understand how to better myself with it I had to research further
into what made a good multi-camera director. “The
main requirements for a multi-camera director are patience, enthusiasm and good
spatial awareness. The director is often sitting in a gallery a long way from
the cameras, so must be able to envisage how each camera is positioned in
relation to others, and what shots each is able to get. Good communication
skills are also crucial. The team in the studio can only hear the director’s
voice over talkback. So the director must be able to communicate quickly and
clearly what is needed, while also encouraging all of them to work together as
a team.” (BBC Academy, 2016). This was the reason why I wanted to make sure the
blocking was completely covered during rehearsals. So once in the gallery I
could completely focus on those five screens and cut and cue the show
accordingly knowing that everything and everyone else was doing exactly what
needed to be done.
I made
sure that to be a good director I had to be clear, calm and confident. This was
done by careful planning and recording of camera placements, learning the
scripts the run through of the show so I knew exactly what was coming next and being
clear with my words but not autocratic, I aimed to be a director that would
listen to opinions and ideas.
My research
took me to a range of different live pieces, such as Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, and live coverage of the 6 Nations. Paying attention to the way
in which the shows were directed and cut was very beneficial, made me
appreciate and find a new found respect for the amount of cuts and how well the
whole program runs. Especially the live Rugby. How unscripted circumstances
just appear and the director is able to foresee and cut to where the action
will be was very insightful and made me learn, as a director you need to be a
couple of shots ahead knowing what the audience will see five seconds before
they see it. A very difficult skill to acquire but one I was keen to learn, but
one that would come with practice.
Critical
Reflections
In all
we saw progression as the rehearsals went on, as a production team and within
my own personal role. The more hours of practice and research we acquired, the
better our performance was and the more successful our full rehearsals became.
Shot
Listing
As
I was blocking the show I was creating a shot list on my personal copy of the
script, See Fig. I did this so the camera operators could draw up shot cards
and know exactly what shot was needed and when without me having to call for their
shots on the day with no knowledge prior of what was going to happen.
Fig 2. Image of shot list
The
shot lists also acted as my own bible. While it was updated every time the
script changed the shot list reminded me that if any time I forgot what came
next it would be there in black and white. As you can see from Fig. it was also
colour coordinated to remind me what was coming next, for example, if
highlighted blue I knew a music cue was coming. Or if it was highlighted red I knew
to Roll VT or Sting. It was a small trick but helped hugely as the live date
drew closer. In the beginning I would lose where we were and get confused as to
what was coming next but after creating this shot list with our Professional Advisor
(Del Brown), I became very confident and got to the point where I rarely needed
the shot list.
Also working closely with the Vision Mixer (Megan Waters), allowed us to get a good idea as to how the show would look and by going through the shot list and having many rehearsals, we were able to establish almost by memory how the show would cut together.
Multi-
Camera Directing
In the beginning I found multi-camera
directing very challenging, and it is something that even at the live show I did
not find easy. However with many hours of rehearsal I did become more and more experienced,
allowing me to get used to it and improve my skills as we went on. “The vision people have of a director is completely flawed –
someone with a crystalline vision of everything they’re going to do. How boring
would that be? It’s a creative and collaborative process." (BBC Academy,
2016). To an extent this is how I rehearsed, I tried to throw myself into the
deep end and see how I did so that with experience I could learn to direct a
show in as many different scenarios as possible. For example, sometimes we
would have the talent be very chatty or very quiet to test the timing of the
show and my ability to cut it. These ‘scenarios’ helped me not just pigeon hole
myself and rehears with contestants that knew the run through and were being nice, as
we could have a totally different situation on the day, which was why we spent
so much time preparing ourselves.
Fig 3. Image of Camera POV from Gallery
Communication
Communication was arguably one of the most important parts of
my job, I needed to communicate professionally, calmly but directly to all
members of the production team, talent and to everyone when live over talk
back. “As long as everyone communicates clearly and knows what they are doing
it can be a really fun environment to work in.” (BBC Academy, 2016). At the beginning
of the rehearsals I was rather quiet in my shot calling and my mode of address
to the rest of the production team was nowhere near direct enough. Our
Professional Advisor took me aside and advised me to be louder and more
commanding with my tone. Something I am not a stranger to due to my involvement
within sport. Once I was advised this I aimed to be firm and direct when
rehearsing and going live but at the same approachable and open to negotiation.
Fig. 4 Discussion with Del Brown
Ultimately as director I was in charge of how the show looked
when we went live and I had to take control and ““Taking control”
means the director has to accept responsibility for the production and find the
best way to get what’s needed to make the program a success. It doesn’t mean
either “be tyrannical” or “be nice.” In fact, when directors try to “be”
anything, they usually fail. It’s only when they try to make something happen,
in the most straightforward way, that they achieve success.” (Cury, 2011:47).
As a director tried to present myself as professional, confident, firm but
approachable and I hope I achieved that.
As a production team,
come TX date, our communication was as close to where we needed it to be as
possible. We relayed information clearly and everyone knew exactly what their role
was, what they were doing and what was going on away from where they were. This
was something as a team we were all very proud of, which came down to the
chemistry of our team and our ability to work professionally.
Student
vs Professional
The question was how our
production compared to that of a professional studio production. The main separating
factor was budget. Working out of the pocket of students and a university
course would never match an actual broadcasting company but I believe we made
the very most out of what we had to achieve a very professional standard of
show. What made our show look professional was the team within it and how we
worked as if this was the real world and to us we were not creating a show for
a grade, we all worked as if we were going live on CBBC at 2:30pm.
Fig 5. Image of the set
Of course our budget
restricted us with equipment and set design, so there were restrictions to set
size and the equipment we could use. For example, instead of studio industry
cameras we were using Sony EX and PMWs without live lights, and our set
designers were restricted with what they could build due to the size of the
budget. Although even with those things we found a way around it and made the
most of what we had. The set looked very professional and better than we could
all hope and our camera operators coped incredibly well.
While we did not have the
budget to match a professional studio production, I believe we created something
that indeed look professional and that was down to those involved and the
facilities we had available to us by the university not a monetary budget.
Conclusion
In conclusion I feel that this production
provided a unique opportunity to try an incredibly taxing role. I felt that
although our production had its problems we ultimately communicated and jelled together
as a team and dealt with problems together and provided support to one another
when it was needed. While there are a few areas that with a larger budget could
have been altered, I feel proud of the outcome of this production and of the
rest of the production team.
Fig 6. Group Picture at the end of the show
Bibliography
Pasquine (2009) The 5 Stages of Blocking
a Scene [online blog] In: New York Film Academy At: https://www.nyfa.edu/film-school-blog/the-5-stages-of-blocking-a-scene/
Cury, I. (2011) Directing and Producing
for Television: A format Approach. [online] At: http://lib.myilibrary.com.ucreative.idm.oclc.org/Open.aspx?id=287978
(Accessed on 19/4/16)
Cury, I. (2011) Directing and Producing
for Television: A format Approach. [online] At: http://lib.myilibrary.com.ucreative.idm.oclc.org/Open.aspx?id=287978
(Accessed on 19/4/16)
BBC
Academy (2016) Peaky Blinders: meet director Colm McCarthy At: http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/production/television/article/art20141022161940373 (Accessed on 19/4/16)
BBC Academy (2016) Profile:
Multi-Camera Director At: http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/production/television/directing/article/art20130702112135647
(Accessed on 19/4/16)
BBC Academy (2016) Profile:
Multi-Camera Director At: http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/production/television/directing/article/art20130702112135647
(Accessed on 19/4/16)
Illustration List
Illustration List
Figure 1. Image of me blocking (2016) From Behind the Scenes of Teach Em a Lesson Directed by: unknown. [film still] Great Britain: UCA Television Production. At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXM9ktTG9u8 (Accessed on 19/4/2016)
Figure 2. Image of Shot list (2016) (Taken from my
iPhone 18/4/2016)
Figure 3. Image of Camera POV from Gallery (2016)
From Behind the Scenes of Teach Em a
Lesson Directed by: unknown. [film still] Great Britain: UCA Television
Production. At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXM9ktTG9u8
(Accessed on 19/4/2016)
Figure 4. Discussions with Del Brown (2016) From Behind the Scenes of Teach Em a Lesson
Directed by: unknown. [film still] Great Britain: UCA Television Production.
At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXM9ktTG9u8
(Accessed on 19/4/2016)
Figure 5. Image of the set (2016) From Behind the Scenes of Teach Em a Lesson
Directed by: unknown. [film still] Great Britain: UCA Television Production.
At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXM9ktTG9u8
(Accessed on 19/4/2016)
Figure 6. Group Picture at the end of the show (2016)
From Behind the Scenes of Teach Em a
Lesson Directed by: unknown. [film still] Great Britain: UCA Television
Production. At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXM9ktTG9u8
(Accessed on 19/4/2016)
Comments
Post a Comment