The Manual v Man Up?

From the Broadcast website of which I am a subscriber, I today learnt of a new programme that has just been commissioned. This programme is called 'Man Up' and the overall description sounds extremely similar to my own groups programme 'The Manual', which we have produced whilst at University. This gave me a mixture of feelings. I was quite angry that our shows premise and basic treatment has been imitated by another production company. However I was also quite happy and reassured that our shows premise must be of a high quality as it is pretty much exactly the same as this programme, this having been commissioned by a huge broadcaster such as Fox. Here is an extract from the Broadcast website about the programme in question:

Title: Man Up
Description: The series will take a group of males, from mummy’s boys to geeks, and attempt to transform them into capable men. Man Up will have makeover elements and will include a stylist, a life coach and a confidence coach.
Greenlight Status: Production
Length: 10 x 60 mins
TX Date: 2013
Genre: Popular Factual
Channel(s): Fox (UK)
Producer(s): Dave Emerson and Ian Carre
Commissioning Editor(s): Nicole Streak
Commissioned: 21 Mar 2013
Production Company: Betty TV (Discovery)
Posted: 21 Mar 2013

Man Up. (2013, March 21). Retrieved March 23, 2013, from the Broadcast Greenlight website: http://greenlight.broadcastnow.co.uk/greenlights/5919-man-up

My production group at university have produced a pilot for 'The Manual' and in the coming weeks we will start to prepare for the second episode, this being aired on Friday 31st May 2013. In the mean time, here's the pilot for you to enjoy.

'The Manual'

Society Spotlight

At 11AM on Thursday 21st February, Society Spotlight went live from the second floor open space in the Eldon Building. After months of planning, the success of the project came down to a single one hour show. The idea for the show was to showcase a variety of University societies through pre-recorded clips, live demonstration's and interviews. The show would not be broadcasted from the usual CCi Studio, but from an outside broadcast location. Therefore the studio equipment would need to be transported and set-up in an environment not usually suitable for television broadcasting. This was a good learning experience as having an understanding of what equipment is required for a broadcast and how to set it up is important in the industry. My experience of several other shoots such as the end of year fashion show and Remembrance Day coverage, helped me further understand this process.

Throughout the project, my role was to help with some of the organisational tasks, create paperwork and assist during film shoots. I took it upon myself to create a call sheet that would be sent out to the production team before the live show, to ensure that the production on the day would run as smoothly as possible.

I also managed to use my GoPro camera during some of the shoots, including the Octopush and Break Dance VT's. Achieving good shots in these environments proved a challenge, however the use of GoPro's enabled us to overcome these to good effect. We would not have been able to film most of the action involved in Octopush without using the GoPro's underwater capabilities, and obtaining some of the shots during Break Dance, such as from the ceiling, could only be done by something so small with such good mounting options.

On the day of the show, my role was production assistant and so I tried my best to ensure that everything was running smoothly. Along with Michael Parsons, I had created the running order with as much information as possible to ensure the show would flow well and finish on the hour. Using stopwatches and this running order, I managed to keep each section of the programme on track and end the show at precisely an hour. Unfortunately there were a couple of small mistakes throughout the show and so when these were edited out afterwards, the shows duration decreased slightly. Crewing a live one hour show was challenging yet rewarding, and crewing the second groups show at 2:00 added to this further, myself being production assistant again for this. This was also made harder by not being able to have a run through due to time constraints.

Society Spotlight - 21/2/13

First Job As A Runner!

Carol Vorderman (host) and the judges of Food Glorious Food: Anne Harrison, Loyd Grossman, Tom Parker Bowles and Stacie Stewart.

On Sunday I was given the opportunity to be a location runner for Food Glorious Food, an upcoming ITV show produced by Optomen Television and Syco TV. The day’s shoot was located at Marks and Spencer on Wood Lane in Shepherd’s Bush. My call time was 8:00 in the morning and so it was a very early start!

When I got to the location I was met by another runner, Sam who took me to the production office where several other members of the production crew were. Here I met production runner Michael Perry, production coordinator Lucy Woodman and several other location runners.

My first task was to make some drinks and deliver them to the film crew at the studio. After that, another runner Carly and myself were given a list of various snacks and items to buy from a nearby shop. As it was a Sunday we had to try and find somewhere that would be open at this time of the morning. We eventually found a Tesco Express that was nearby by using Carly’s phone and then we managed to get everything that was on the list whilst staying within the budget we were given.

Once this was done I was tasked with organising and preparing the walkie-talkies for distribution that were situated in the gallery. To do this I used some white tape and wrote numbers on each of the walkie-talkies so that when a crew member was given one, the number of the walkie-talkie would be written next to their name on a list that I was given to ensure that they were all returned. The task of distributing these was then given to another runner and so I signed out and gave some of the walkie-talkies to other runners on my way back to the production office.

I was then tasked with transferring a film disk from the production office to a film crew who were going to be filming some pick-ups outside. When doing this, Tom Clarke the content producer and one of the members of the film crew, asked me to help him fetch some pieces of furniture to use in the background of the shot. Whilst travelling with him to get these various pieces of set dressing, I had a chat with him about his career and the industry, which was very interesting for me, as this is the field I want to go into. I was also able to use my knowledge of the industry which I have gained over the duration of my course to ask sensible questions and hold an interesting conversation. 

Once this was done, the film crew outside then asked me to help with the filming of the pick-ups. This involved holding a reflector to help with the shots lighting, moving the background set to a slightly different place to give the background a different look, and helping to ensure the judges who were being interviewed were looked after and that everything was ready for them. My experience from university enabled me to understand what was being done and why, for example using depth of field to put the background out of focus, and holding the reflector in a certain position to reflect the sun onto the subject as a fill light.  I then helped transport the background items back to the studio.

After lunch, the other runners and myself were asked to be stand-ins whilst the floor managers and cameramen placed everything and framed up the shots. I then had to stand in whilst Carol Vorderman delivered some of her pieces to camera and close-ups of her winners reveal.

During the whole day I was trying to ensure that refreshments were available and stocked up for the crew and the contributors. This involved making drinks runs, moving food from various places, finding plates and cutlery, and plating up some food. I took a small notepad and a couple of pens with me on the day so that I could write anything down. This came in very handy when taking drinks orders and when Lucy Woodman needed to take peoples details for car orders at the end of the day. I also tried my very best to fulfil various peoples requests. An example of this was when an important lady asked me for a skinny cappuccino. I said that that would be fine to her, then radioed in to Mike to inform him of her request to see what we could do. One of the runners then went to a Café Nero nearby and delivered it to the lady as soon as possible.

I also had to ensure that friends and family were looked after. This involved ensuring their refreshment needs were being met, escorting them between various parts of the building, chatting to them and letting them know I was there if they needed me for anything.

Once the filming was done, I was tasked with the job of standing outside the front of the building and communicating with the drivers of cars that pulled up to find out who they were for, then radioing in to Lucy Woodman to inform her. I escorted Anne Harrison to her dressing room and then carried her bags to her car and ensured she got in safely. I then had to help the other runners pack up the set that belonged to Optomen and then help pack the van.

My first job as a runner was very enjoyable and I learnt a lot of how things are done in the industry. I was able to use my knowledge I have gained on my course to ask sensible questions and talk to other members of the crew about the jobs they were doing without being a pain. I made sure I did my very best in every task I was given and offered to take on any other jobs when I was free. At university I have learnt that good communication during film shoots, live shows and projects as a whole is very important in ensuring things run smoothly. This was made further apparent during this experience, and the use of walkie-talkies throughout the day helped to ensure this. I found that the hardest part of the job was the amount of names and faces you have to remember. This was very important because a lot of the tasks you are given involve specific people and you need to know who these people are. I found this fairly difficult because it was the first time I had worked with this group of people and so I didn’t know anyone previously other than Michael Perry. It was also a very long day, being in from 8:00 in the morning to 10:00 at night, however this is something that I feel I coped with well and would have to continue to do within the industry.

Here is the link to the show's website: http://www.itv.com/foodgloriousfood/

Purchasing A GoPro

I have recently purchased a GoPro Hero 3 black edition camera. I decided to get this after seeing how effective and versatile GoPro’s are when we were filming the challenges for The Manual as my fellow group member Michael already had one.

GoPro’s are very small cameras that provide very good image quality whilst having the ability to be placed almost anywhere. They have an excellent mounting system with lots of adaptors available so that you can securely place them in all sorts of areas from standard tripods or flat surfaces to more unusual areas such as on poles, helmets and surfboards.

After much research I decided to purchase the black edition as it offers a whole host of features, can film in much better quality and also comes with a Wi-Fi remote, which would normally be quite expensive on its own.

There is an app available for GoPro cameras whereby you can preview the footage and control the camera and its settings on either your smart phone or tablet. This is very useful, as the camera itself doesn’t have a preview screen built on, as well as the fact that you can adjust the settings without having to touch the camera itself. There is also a piece of basic editing software called CineForm Studio whereby you can edit and adjust your footage as well as make sure the camera is up-to-date.

Unfortunately I had to wait for a few days before my 32GB microSDHC card and adaptor arrived before I could update and start using the camera. Now that it has come, I have set up my camera and have tested some of its features.

The accessories that came with the camera include:

- Waterproof Housing

- Skeleton Backdoor

- Quick Release Buckle

- J-Hook Buckle

- 3-Way Pivot arm

- Flat Adhesive Mount

- Curved Adhesive Mount

- Rubber Locking Plug

- Battery

- Charging Cables

- Wi-Fi Remote

I have also bought some other accessories including:

- Tripod Mount

- Handheld Extendable Monopod Wand

- Lens Cloth

There are several accessories that I would like to get in the future. These include a Chest Mount, Head Strap Mount, Suction Cup Mount and a Steadicam Smoothee. These accessories will enable me to use the camera in numerous ways with very good effect.

I will use my GoPro for filming for our next The Manual show, as well as various other projects and sports such as skiing and other outdoor activities.

http://gopro.com/

Show Time

On Friday 11th January the group met at 9:00 in Eldon building. My job for the 2 shows was production assistant again as I enjoy doing this role and I think I am quite good at it. Some members of the group including myself were wearing our new CCi t-shirts, which I believe look good when delivering a show.

We ran through our CCi Live between 9:00 and 10:00. When doing this we realised that the timings were also slightly off and so we had to unfortunately cut out our commissioned show advert because otherwise we would run over time. We than ran through The Manual between 10:00 and 11:30.

Several minutes before we went live for CCi Live we were told that we would have to show some straps before the show to say that we are aware of technical issues when watching online and are trying to fix them. This meant we had to quickly make the straps on the Tricaster and display them before the opening credits so that they would not be embedded within the show. This also meant we went live a couple of minutes later than normal. This slightly threw us off but we managed to keep it together and stay calm. CCi Live went fine but we were 6 seconds over which was quite frustrating for myself.

We then had around 15 minutes or so to get everything ready for The Manual. The show went live at 12:30 and everyone seemed excited yet nervous. The show seemed to all be going fine until we were told of a technical issue with the sound, as 2 of the presenters were not being picked up very well. During an insert this was attempted to be fixed, however when the presenters were live again the sound was awful and came up very loud and distorted. This was not our fault though and it was very frustrating because we were live and the problem was obvious for all to see. We later discovered that the sound was in fact fine initially and so didn’t need to be corrected.

We managed to get the sound back but kind of lost where we were in the show because of the disturbance and the fact that we didn’t know what the presenters had covered. However I reiterated to the team that the show must go on and that we must stay calm and keep going. The show ended around 36 seconds short of time, which was very frustrating again for myself however the sound issue didn’t help to keep the show length under control.

We decided that we would re-film certain parts of the show that had been messed up by the sound issue as well as one or two other mistakes that were made. These would then be edited together with parts of the original live show and then uploaded to Vimeo. In doing this we managed to catch up on some of the show time that we had been short on. When I watched the show back I was very pleased with the outcome. I believed all of the elements came together well and the finished show had a consistent look and feel.

I believe that I carried out my role as producer to a reasonably good standard as the organisation of the film shoots, such as making sure everyone was available for the days filming, was quite a challenging task. These organisational tasks were made much more manageable by various other members of the group, such as Michael Parsons, taking it upon themselves to organise various other elements of the show. For the next show I will try harder to ensure that I undertake more organisational tasks and prepare for film shoots further by creating more documentation. I will also become more closely involved in each section of production and post-production to create further synergy amongst the group.

Here are some photos from the day

CCi Live - 11/01/2013

The Manual Pilot

Behind the scenes of the live delivery