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.