Scripts and Calls

The Script is a road map to the show and its the most vital thing for the director to have. Scripts contain everything from the VT number and how long it is to what the host is saying.

This is part of the script for our show. As you can see from the top there are 2 collums the first being video and the second being audio. In the video collum it shows all camera shots and which cameras are going to be used. It should also contain a VT number plus how long it is. On the audio side it should say what audio should be going on while the video is going on, for example on shot 5 we what camera it is and what the host is going to be saying roughly.

The other thing which will be on the script will be the directors notes, after a few rehearsals the director will make notes on what he has to say on each part of the script. Some of the things which he might put down are are camera 2 cut, this signify's a camera change.

Planning and Lighting the Set

The lighting of the set is very important as we need to be able to see the show. In shows like the Mock the Week and Friday night with Johnathan Ross have a incredibly complex lighting rig as they have all of the show lighted in different ways espically when artists perform. With our show we did not use a elaborate lighting scheme as we did not need it, having said that we did use a fairly effective lighting scheme. We got taught about 3 point lighting. 3 point lighting is a very simple but fairly effective way of lighing. As you have probably guessed it has 3 lights involved the first is called a back light and this is situated behind the subject and provides an outline for the subject so the audience can see there silouette. The second light is the tungsten light, this provides hard light so in general it is a spotlight. This lighting is the equivalent to the sun in the studio, this light will only make the subject brighter. The final light is a cool light and this will give soft light on the other side of the face to the hard light, in turn this makes the subject well lit and also is simply and easy to do.

Floor Plans

Floors Plans are used to map out where everything is going to be, its a very useful thing. A floor plan should contain all aspects of the studio floor and where everything is going to be. Below is the floor plan of our TV show. As you can see it has the set layout shown at the top, it also shows the microphone layout and how there are 5 microphones situated on the contestants and host and that these are all clip on microphones which will run a wireless signal to the STOB box and then from there it will head to the audio control room. It also says about the two overhead microphones which will pick up the audience and there response. It also talks about the rostrum and how this elevates the floor so that the audience can sit on it, it is also rasied even more for the 2 cameras at the back. It also shows that we had 2 monitors 1 for the contestants and 1 for the audience. Finally it shows us about the camera shots and their movements, this is important as in the floor plan it will show you if the camera has enough room for the shot types it is looking for.

Planning Audio Coverage

In some shows microphones are a very effective thing for example "Mock the Week" has 7 clip-on microphones which are all used on its hosts and guests. It also has one stand up microphone which is used for when the comedians come in with answer, this helps to add effect to the show. In our show we had 5 clip on microphones attached to the host and our guests, when we attached these we then moved on to a sound check. The sound check consisted of each contestant talking for a certain period of time individually for about 20 seconds. While they where talking the sound desk men check the levels of them talking and this is measured in decibells. If the contestants talk louder than 12 decibells then they are talking to loud, if they are talking below -9 decibells they are talking to quitely. The best sound for the job is around 0 decibells.

Program Rundowns

Program Rundowns are basically a way for the director and the Floor manager and most of the crew to find where abouts they are in the show. The most common way of doing this is through the script. The script shown below has everything including the track titles for each VT and most of what te host will be saying.

The second way of knowing what is happening in the studio is the running order. The running order is a brief overview of what is happening. It is not as detailed as the script however it does give a correct and acurate guidline of what is happening in the show. On the running order there must always be a total running time to show how long each section is, this is not shown on the script as the script is more focusing on the wording and the language. The running order also tells us how long each part of show should roughly be, this is shown on the right hand side of the sheet. The final thing that the running order shows us is the VT's this is fairly useful as it can be useful for the director to know what VT is next plus it can also be useful for the DVD operation as they could use this in stead of a cue sheet.

The Cue sheet is the final way of geting round the program. The Cue sheet is usually based with the director and the DVD ops. For the director this is the way of saying what he wants to be played and when. For the DVD ops this is essential. When making the DVD the person who has made it will write the cue sheet and if they have made it correctly each part of the DVD will have a chapter and on that chapter will be the VT, the cue sheet has the number of the chapter and the VT which is on that chapter. It can also have what type of media it is for example.... a photo, video or audio. One other thing that is put on the cue sheet is the first words and the last words which are used in the clip. If there aren't any words used then this does not apply. The final thing put on the cue sheet is how long the clip is, for example the first clip on the cue sheet below is the opening titles it doesnt have any words but it is a video file so it has its own music, the main thing we know about this clip is that it is 40 seconds long, this is the most important thing.

Multi-Cam Production Terms

Multi-Cam Production was the basis on what our Live TV recording was going to be about. Some of the terms which are involved in Multi-cam are

• Panning and Tilting- This is turning the camera left and right and up and down.
• Crabbing- Crabbing is moving the camera left and right to give a sense of movement and sense that the program is going somewhere.
• Roll DVD, DV ready- This is all to do with the DVD, this is the director asking the DVD operations if the VT is ready to be played. The DVD operations responds by saying DV ready.
• Floor ready- this is directed to the floor to ask them if all people on the studio floor are ready to perform or do there jobs.
• PED- This is used to tell a camera to change the angle of their shot so have a high angle shot or a low one.
• Tracking- This is one of the most important shots as this will follow the action.

There is not just production terms in the recording there is some used in making the set.

• This is technically not a production term this is more a noticifiction but it is crucial to make sure that the misc-en-scene is correct. When making the set it is difficult to choose the correct colours as some colours show up better on screen than others. On colour which works especially well is blue. We used this colour in our final recording.

Technical Rehearsals and what Learnt

A technical rehearsal is one which is done for the soul purpose of all technical equipment. This is both useful and helpful as we are going through the show again and this will benefit some of the talent or possibly the camera operations as well as it benefitting the crew. In our show we have not had a real technical rehearsal but we have been having lots of normal rehearsals and this has brought out some technical difficulties. The first being camera shots as people could not move the cameras quick enough to get into positions. The second and most crucial one, we felt, was the DVD operations. This is the reason why we do technical rehearsals so we can see what devices aren't working.

Effcient Rehearsal and Recording Practice

Before we even started rehearsals we had a couple of lessons getting used to the equipment and how to use it, plus we also learnt some of the langauge which is used in a TV studio, for example if you are a camera operations then if you move the camera right or left this is called a crab, another example is if you turned the camera right or left this would be called a pan. There are many TV studio production terms and all are vital so that people know what you are talking about. We also had a couple of lessons learning about the way in which the video and audio was connected through the studio and into the vision and audio control room.

During the 5 weeks which we have been doing this project we have been practicing a lot, as if we do not practice then our final Live TV recording will not be very good. The first practice we had was about 2 weeks before the actual recording, people got given roles as a practice to see how things went. On the first rehearsal i got given the role of a cable basher, lots of people say that this is a boring job but i disagreed as it is important to the final recording as without it we would be in great difficulty by cameras getting caught up in cables.The second time i got involved i was on the sound desk, this is a very difficult job as you have 5 microphones and each of these people have different sound levels.

Another form of rehearsals is a recording practice. A recording practice is basically the same except from the fact that it is an actual recording of a show. For this as we did not have our show ready so as the other group had done their show before us we decided to use there questions and dvd's as a recorded rehearsal.

A rehearsal in its simplest form is to practice recording a show and to make sure that everyting is going to plan. If something does not go to plan then this can be changed or corrected so that it looks better. A rehearsal is laso for looking at whether there are any mistakes, anything that is likely to go wrong. For the Live recording there will hopefully be no mistakes as the rehearsals have identified what the problems where.

Planning and Designing a Set

The first thing that you need to know when designing a set is that what you are designing is going to appear on screen and so the look of it is vital.

• When starting to make the set you need to keep ideas loose and makes sure you don't stick to one idea, keep you ideas loose.
• You also need to consider the tonal pallet. This is the over all color of the show for example sepia, aqua.....
• You may also want to consider the thought of a Visual Motif or a logo. This usually makes the audience feel something, for example the Nike logo or Adidas.
• You almost definitely want a back drop for you show as this will give the camera something to focus on. You will need to develop your idea of the backdrop to match recording colours.
• The next stage is the lock down, by lock down i mean that the idea cannot be changed and that this is the final idea.
• Getting action props to be part of the show. The dressing of the show to get all props ready
• The final build is getting the whole show together.

Below are some pictures of our set which we made:

This was the main piece of our set, this is situated just below the table and shows what the show is about and the name of the show. This was a team effort and as you can see it has turned out rather well.

This is a shot of our right hand side flats. Again as you can see we have stuck to the theme of blue as this shows up on camera really well and we have also used darker colours as lighter colours when a tungsten light is shined onto will make the colour very bright.

We choose the night time scene because we could get a better grade of colour plus we also choose it because it suited are audience which in this case is teenagers. As you can see the bottoms of the flats are just black and this is because these are not going to be in shot when we record the show.

This is our final set piece which has dark colours which mean it will be picked up on light easily. We also decided to be a bit different from the other group and have a trapezium shaped table as this made the contestants a bit more close togther.

Planning Audio Coverage

Audio coverage is again a important aspect of the show as without the audio no one will be able to hear what is going on. In a Live TV show there would usually be clip-on microphones that are attached to the talent this will then be relayed to the audio control room. The second type of microphones that would be used are fixed microphones, these would be hung over the lighting grid so we can hear the audiences response. In other live TV shows there could be a Hand held microphone for music performances.

Planning Camera Placement and Shots

The Camera placement is based upon the set, the set is spaced out in a quiz show format and so we will use 4 cameras. The first camera (cam 1) which is shown in the floor plans is situated on the far right of the studio. This is because it will be getting contestant A and B. It will be getting a wide range of different shots including a 2 shot, a over shoulder 2 shot and if they have time they will be getting a mid shot as well. The other type of shot which is used is a 2 shot, this is used when the camera crabs to the left and gets a clear 2 shot without anyones shoulder in view. Camera 3 is on the opposite side of camera 1 and is essentially getting exactly the same shot but of guest C and D. Camera 4 is the main safety camera as this camera will be getting a wide shot, if you see our floor plan you will see that camera 4 is on a Jib. The Jib is able to give a high angle and a low angle shot. This is useful for our TV show as we will be able to start a shot with the audience in shot and then as the camera moves up we will see more the talent. Camera 2 has 2 main shots it will be getting. The first is a Mid shot of the host, this will be the hosts main camera to look at, and this will also the cameras main job. The second is a 3 shot of the contestants, the camera will get 2 3 shots. The first 3 shot is of the Host, contestant A and contestant B, and the second is of the Host, contestant C and contestant B.

Program Rundowns

A Program Rundown is a very important thing as it is basically the script. The script is very important as it is the final written show. The script should contain all of the questions which the host will ask, it should also contain all of the answers to the questions. The layout to the script is that it should always have audio to the left and video to the right, this is an easy way to lay things out for the director and the crew to see. This is useful as it shows the sound desk what levels need to be changed. But one of the most important things on the script is the VT's. This is very important on the script as it shows the DVD operations when to play each VT. When making the script the director can make notes on it as this will make it easy for everyone to see what is happening.

Studio Protocol And Practice

The first thing you need to know about Studio Protocol is the chain of command, obviously the person who is in charge of the whole show is the director. The director is the main boss in the show as he is calling all the shots and is trying to make a good show. The second person in charge is the FM or the Floor Manager. The Floor manager makes sure that the floor is ready, he makes sure that all the camera operations are in the right positions, he also makes sure that all the talent is ready as well. After that everyone is equal as everyone else has jobs that contribute to the overall show.
Health and Safety is a very important aspect of a TV studio as there are many technical equipment in there and none of them are toys. One of the most important things in a TV studio is not to play around as you could injure yourself or worse damage the equipment. Another common knowledge in a TV studio is not to wear very big boots as there are wires everywhere and boots could damage these wires, these also come into contact with health and safety as these could trip you up.
When recording a show there are a few things which need to be remembered one is that the talent must keep the same voice throughout the show if they change their voice then this affects the volume so the loudness increases. Another awareness is that again the talent must not wear black cloths or cloths with lines on as this will effect the cameras and will cause them to pick up a blurred signal.

Directing and Director's Calls

The Director is running the show and calls all the shots. The directors job in a live TV show is to be in the Vision control room, as in this room the cans will always be open and so the director can get a message across very quickly. The first major thing the director has to do is to get all of his shots lined up. Before rehearsing the director has to check for all camera shots so that he is happy with the shots that they are using. The second thing he has to do is to check to see if everyone is ready and if not then why they are not. Throughtout the performence over the cans the only person who will be talking throughout is the director. The first thing the director says when starting a show is the countdown to when they are Live. As most shows have to roll a VT at the beginning of their show the countdown will go 3,2,1, roll VT. As the VT is rolling the director will see if everyone has their camera in the right place. At the end of the VT the director will call camera 1 cut or possibly camera 2 cut. This is to signify what camera he wants next and to say that the last camera shot has ended. The director is usually trying to get 2 types of camera shots:

• Action- this shot is something that is happening in the show that is interesting and entertaining.
• Response- this shot is one of the other contestants reaction to what has just happend, to see whether they are pleased or sad or ....

The Director also can say to a camera through the cans to move his camera slightly to get a different shot, this is important as the director wants to get his points across.

DVD Operation And Insert Requirments

The DVD is one of the most crucial things which is needed in the show as this will contain all VT inserts, stings, opening titles and credits. With the DVD there are certain requirments that are needed these are listed as followed:

• Make sure that when recording VT inserts or Stings that all of the settings our the same and so the screen aspect ratio is not different on each clip.
• One of the most major things is that you always must have at least 7 second inbetween each VT. This is because in these 7 seonds you will need 3 things. The first being 1 seond of black so this will not cut straight into the next sequence. The second you will need 5 seconds of VT roll, this is the count of what VT this is and what it is, it is also a way of getting to the track quickly. The final thing which is required is a further 1 second of black, this is the more crucial of the 2 blacks as this is where the DVD must be paused at and so the director can shout roll DV and that is when the DVD is played.

Pre Production Roles and Group Round

Week beginning 18/1/10

This week we have started to get are quiz show togther. we have now finally decided on a name, the name of are show will be called "Culture City", with are title in place we have then started work on the back drops of our show. We came up with the idea of having a city landscape but the light was darkenend and so there was a siloutte over the city.

In are own groups with have 4 roles, one of which is content producer(who is overall in charge of our round), Post-Production producer (who is in charge of the VT's and if there are any questions which involve a video clip or a blurred image then that is what they do. there is also the technical producer who makes sure that things are possible, and finally the art director. in our group Luke took the role of content producer, Dave as technical producer, Tom as art director. As for myself i choose post- production manager. So far in our group we have got the layout of are round. The round starts off with one team having 60 seconds in which they answer as many questions as they can. the winning team goes first. Then the losing team goes second to see if they can catch up. We have also said that at the end of the round if someone started out reading the question they may finish reading out the question.

Week begining 24/1/10

This week we have started to paint are set, we have also come up with a name as well. The name of our show is Culture City. We came up with the name by thinking what all of our rounds were and then throught of a a catchy second word we had the same leter and noise at the front. We have also recorded our opening titles. We our opening titles we have got a collection of stuff which you would probably see in a students bedroom. We then placed it all on a table and filmed all of the items. We have also come up with an idea about what to do on the stings, we will basically just take some of the oening titles and narrow it down a bit. For our logo we have come up with the idea of a crossword logo, where we will get the culture and city to meet on the t's. Finaly we have been working on the set, the set is looking really good as we have a dark city we a silouette around the night sky, on that same board we have a supension bridge. On the other pieces of set we have we are going to use tall buildings and again give another silouette surronding them.

1/2/10

Today we have been getting ready for are final production on Wednesday, people have been working hard on the production. Some people have been setting up the set as we have finished the painting, we have now got 5 pieces of set not including the tables chairs plus the landscape piece of set which will go in front of the table. Other people have been working on the cue cards which the presenter (which we decided on Bobby Emanuel) will be holding to know what questions to ask. In the afternoon we were doing a rehersal using the previous groups questions and VT's, i did not participate in this as i was doing the DVD which will contain all TV inserts, all stings, opening credits, closing credits and the break in and out graphics.

2/2/10

Today i managed to put all of the tracks on the DVD, in afternoon we had rehearsals and so i joined in on these. For most of the rehearsals in that afternoon i was DVD ops, this was not as easy as it would seem. We were using the DVD which the other group made, there's was called Media Meltdown. Using the DVD player was not the problem it was the timings as each VT had to have a VT ident after it, this ident usually lasted about 5 seconds, the problem we faced is that some VT's needed to be played very quickly after each other and we were restricted as to how fast you could play the VT's. We also got given our roles in Wednesdays show i will be the DVD ops in the first half of the show, i am pleased with my role as i should do it well as i helped make the DVD.

3/2/10

Today was supposed to be the day when we were recording our show but due to the DVD we couldn't record today. The DVD was finished as i had put all of the tracks and VT idents in but the problem was that it was going to take a while to write it to DVD and so we did not get to practice our show until the afternoon, again we had small problems with smaller parts but again the main problem with the show was the DVD, as there was not enough time for you to move it onto the next track. We all decided at the end of the the day that we should come in at half past 10 the following day.

4/2/10

The morning started off fairly well as most people where in on time, the DVD was ready to play and everyone had been given their role. As before we were in at half past 10 again to get some last minute rehersals. In the morning the practice went well but again the main problem was the DVD as it was to slow to keep up with the show, we then came up with the idea of slowing the show down a bit and getting the host to talk more and getting some small conversations in. We had a 45 mintue lunch break to get even more rehersals in and then it came to the final show. The final show started off well as everything went occording to plan, i was on the first half doing the DVD ops. In the first half there were no slip ups everything went well. In the second half again there were no slip ups everything went occording to plan. After the show we did have a talk about what went well and what could be improved and the only thing anyone said was that one of the contestants was a little quite but apart from that everything was perfect.

Camera Shots and Moves

• The first camera movement is a tracking shot. A tracking shot is moving away or forward to the subject, this is commonly used in music shows.
• The second camera movement is a Crab or Crabbing. a Crabbing movement is moving sideways. This is used when people are walking.
• The final movement is a ped. This is when the camera is pushed down and so can get a low angle shot or if the ped is pushed up it could be a high angle shot.

Talk Backs and their use/protocol

• Each camera is on a wired cans, this much more efficient because they are wired into the camera so you do not need to worry about a wireless cans.
• The floor manager has a wireless cans
• most talking will be from the director
• If you want to call the director say "cam 2 to director" then wait.
• The overall use of a cans is so the director can talk to you and say if you shot is correct. It is basically a way for the director to tell you what to do.

Crew Roles and Responsibilities

Jobs

• Floor Manager (FM)- in charge of the studio floor. The FM is a representative of the Director on the floor.
• The director is god, the man in charge. 
• Camera Ops- operates the camera and must know the shots and be ready.
• Camera assisstant- helps move the ped
• Assissant Floor Manager.
• Talent- the presenters, guests, performers.
• Sound Ops- operates the boom and also makes sure that the sound levels are right.

 

Audio Control Room (People who are situated there)

• Senior sound ops
• Assisstant sound ops
• DVD ops (just SNC)
• Visual Control Room

Vision Mixer (VX) (people who are situated there)

• Director- Makes the show
• Producer- budgets the show says what got to be in the show, however he is not in the Visiual control room when it is being made.
• Camera Control Unit Operator
• Assisstant Director
• Lighting operator

Signal Flow

• Video
• Audio

Audio

• The signal flow in audio starts with the microphone
• it is then transmitted through a wire call a XLR or is also called a cannon plug. this wires are very resistant to electrical interference but not completely.
• The XLR then moves into the STOB box which will then connect to the audio room.
• the STOB box connects to the rack which is in the audio room.
• then finally from the rack to the audio mixer this is it penultimate destination, at the audio mixer the sound can be changed slightly.

• Each microphone has a channel and each has a fader on the audio desk
• The microphone signals are very weak and so will be amplified along the way to the audio room.
• Line signals are a much stronger as they are directly feeded into the audio mixer, usually on a line signal is a CD player or a MP3 player.
• You should use the audio mixer to get the right balance mix.
• The output amplifier is the overall master volume, this is on the audio mixer which is usually situated on the right hand side of the mixer and is a yellow slider.
• The audio mixer has 2 outputs one of which is programme out, as you can imagine this is a very important one as it is what people hear at home. the second output is the speaker output which is directed to the vision room next door. this will be the directors listening point so he can say if he doesn't like.
• The most important thing in the audio room is the VU meter as this tells you how weak or strong you signal is. This again is on the audio mixer it is the meter on the right hand side. The optimum sound level on the VU meter is 0 decibells however you want to aim for inbetween +9 and -12 decibells as if you have it to low then no one will able hear it and if to loud then will be distortion.

Video (Pictures)

• The signal first of all starts with the camera which captures the images. Once it has captured them it will send them through to the converter which will change the images into something the vision mixer will understand.
• Once the converter has had them it will send them through to the STOB box. The STOB box will send them through into the rack.
• The rack will finally send them through to the vision mixer.

• The vision mixer has 5 inputs (sometimes more), there is 4 cameras and a DVD player.
• There are colour bars which help to calibrate the colours of the screen.
• There is only 1 output of the vision desk and that is programme out or programme line or even final mix.
• One of the most important thing is the black. this is the default colour and so when you fade into something the colour will be black.

Camera walk through

• Video converter- converts it into something that the vision mixer will understand.
• The camera is mounted on a Pan and tilt head which allows it to smoothly tilt and pan.
• The pan and tilt head is mounted on the PED which is on wheels which allows the camera to move smootly and easily.
• When starting to record make sure all of the pan and tilt lock are off.
• The camera has some cables which go down the side of the camera these should always be in line with the camera so make sure they don't get twisted.

Camera Movement

• Tracking is moving away or forward to the subject
• Crabbing is moving sideways.
• ped is moving up and down.

Setting up a Show

1. Rig the lights
2. Set the set
3. Tweak the light levels (point)
4. Rig audio
5. Dress Set (water, etc)
6. Look at shots
7. Check microphones
8. Crew in
9. Crew on Cans communication (cans are communication between the crew)
10. Director will tell the crew what shots he wants
11. Real guests in
12. Final checks
13. Final checks of shot
14. Stop/Start rehearsal
15. Recording

Studio Equipment

• The grid is one of the main things in a TV studio it holds all the types of light which are used apart from the house lights which are the normal lights in the building
• A dimmer pack controls the power of the and so therefore can dim the lights.
• Overall the lighting desk controls the lights this is usally situated in the lighting control room.
• Square lights have flourescent tubes which are more efficient with power plus they also are much cooler and do not make the presenter get hot when doing the show.
• A Tungston light has a bulb which is circler
• The curtains which are used to cover up a dirty wall and gives a easyier colour to record on are called blacks
• A STOB box (Studio Terminal Out Box) controls the microphones and also control communications between the crew.
• An ideal floor for a TV studio would be concret as it is easy to move the camera around, carpet is not a good floor as it is thick and hard to move.
• The floor monitor shows the programme out
• A fire eixt and fire extinguisher should be fitted for safety
• A on air light
• Microphones, specifically shotgun microphones.
• A studio pedistal or a ped is wot a camera mounts on as these make the picture more smooth and less bumpy.
• On top of the ped is the pan and tilt head which can change the camera angel and tilt.
• The studio is the recording area.
• There are 2 control rooms, audio and visual. the audio room controls the microphones and the visual controls the camera.
• Vision mixing panel and light desk are in the vision control room