CCi Production Continues And Practicing Delivery

A producer meeting was organised by Lucas Holzhauer for the Monday whereby the producers from the 6 groups would meet to discuss the shows format and ideas of content. Unfortunately, only 4 groups were represented at the meeting so it was not as successful as first hoped. We decided that there would be a weekly ‘Something Different’ segment, which was first introduced by group 2 in the second week, yet not repeated since. We also would like to bring in more courses from around Eldon building and the university as a whole, to showcase their work. We also need to make sure we publicise the Facebook and Twitter pages at the end of every show, and ensure the news is at the start of the programme straight after the initial introduction.

On the Tuesday we had our first practice in the studio for the live show we would be delivering on the Friday. I took up the role of Production Assistant. I have been this role several times before and am quite comfortable doing it whilst also enjoying the role.

The Prospects website outlines the role of a production assistant:

Job Description 

A television production assistant (or PA) is responsible for the administration, organisation and secretarial work involved in producing a television programme. While duties do vary from production to production, the work includes assisting actors and the crew, issuing scripts, dealing with travel and accommodation bookings and sorting out enquiries and other paperwork.

A production assistant may work on different kinds of programmes, such as news and current affairs, reality television shows, soap operas, dramas and comedies. They are usually involved at all stages of a project, working alongside everyone from early stages until completion.

Production assistants can specialise in one particular area of assistance or be known by other names, such as production coordinator, script supervisor or production secretary.

Typical work activities
Tasks often include: 

- attending production meetings;
- typing, editing, copying and distributing scripts;
- organising travel arrangements for cast, crew and production executives;
- organising accommodation for cast and crew;
- typing and distributing schedules, or call sheets;
- assisting cast members, and at times running errands for them;
- running errands between the production office and other departments;
- dealing with accounts and expenses.

Assistants can also be involved in: 

- checking running orders and scripts;
- keeping track of timings during a programme;
- setting up pre-recorded material in the studio gallery;
- making schedules, shot lists, logs and other paperwork for post-production.

AGCAS editors. (2012). Television Production Assistant. Retrieved October 31, 2012, from http://www.prospects.ac.uk/television_production_assistant_job_description.htm

In this practice it became obvious that some of what the production crew want us to do within their show could be reasonably difficult to carry out. During the news, the crew in the studio have to bring in sofas for a sit down interview whilst in the gallery the Tricaster operator has to adjust the settings on the Tricaster for this to be framed well and look good. At the same time, the vision mixer must play the relevant video clip on the news background screen and place the CCi Live logo in between these clips. The set will then have to be switched back to a standing set during a later insert.

Set redressing

Back to our own show, I helped record the voice-overs in a sound studio. Firstly we used the sound studio’s own system to record a voice-over, but the levels were too low when the clips were ingested into Avid. Therefore we decided to record the rest of the voice-overs on a Zoom H2 Handy Recorder, which proved quicker and more successful.

The H2 begins with a simple idea: provide brilliant stereo recording in an easy-to-use, ultra-portable device. Now everyone can record pristine audio in an infinite variety of applications. From seminars and conferences, to electronic news gathering (ENG), interviews and podcasting, to musical performances, songwriting sessions and rehearsals, the H2 provides amazing recording quality. And no matter what kind of recording you want to make, the H2 can effortlessly record it. 

Simplicity is a beautiful thing. (n.d.). Retrieved October 31, 2012, from http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/products/h2/

Zoom H2 Handy Recorder

I was also in attendance during some of the editing process to see how it was coming together and make sure everything was okay.

Unfortunately I had to make the decision to withdraw the Diwali section of the show. This is because it took too long for the Hindu society to reply to my email, and the script was already complete so we couldn’t fit it in anywhere. We had also organised an interview with a runner from the Great South Run as an alternative due to the lack of contact from the society. We were also unsure about selectively speaking about only one religion, which may be an issue in broadcasting, especially on the big screen. We believed that if we spoke about Hinduism, there might be a requirement to speak about other religions, possibly in future programmes, which cannot be guaranteed. 

Great South Run Filming

On the Sunday we filmed the Great South Run. We met at 8:30 at Michael Parsons’ house then filmed for a total of 6 hours. During the filming of the pre-race interviews, we had a relatively successful rate of stopping people to be interviewed. I believe this was because we got to the location and had set up with plenty of time before the race started so people had time to stop and talk. We also looked rather professional with our university polo shirts on and the standard of equipment we were using. However there was one issue I discovered when filming this part of the insert. We managed to stop one lady and interviewed her, however as soon as her interview was over and I asked her to sign a contributors release form, she panicked and declined. Therefore I asked our presenter to just do a short piece to camera saying, “We cannot use the last interviewee” to remind us later who it was exactly we couldn’t use within the edit. This failed interview was a bit of a waste of time for us so I started to get our interviewees to sign the form before they were interviewed so they knew about the necessary paperwork and seriousness before they took part.

There was also a small issue within the crew towards the end of the day in the form of an argument. This was due to the stresses and strains of the shoot and how we were all tired after 6 hours filming and walking around the route. This issue was only on the subject of the days filming however it showed me how important it is to stay calm and concentrate on the matter at hand to remain professional. The issue was quickly resolved and forgotten about and I would do my utmost to ensure a similar incident would be prevented in future. All in all, I believe the day was a success and we ended up with some good footage to put together in the editing room.

Here are some photos taken during the filming

Some Difficulties Start Arising

On the Friday, I had a meeting with those who will be filming the weekends two shoots. In this meeting we discussed interview questions, content we wanted to film, and filming schedules.

Offline editing occasionally posed several problems for us. There were a couple of incidences where we would lose all our sub clips and would have to do it all again. Although it is a hassle we could do without, I’m hoping that it will not affect our schedule too much. We also started to write a voice over for the autumn insert as the footage has already been put together in an initial rough cut.

The filming of the Night of the Dead insert proved a lot more difficult than first anticipated. Firstly, it was a very cold night, so using equipment was made more difficult. Secondly, there was not much choice in terms of interview locations. Most areas were noisy from either guests of the event, or loud copyright music, and the indoor areas didn’t provide a brilliant backdrop and we would often be in the way of guests. We also couldn’t use the lights we brought because there was not the room for them and we didn’t have the time to set them up properly. We also had to be very careful with footage we captured because of general broadcast rules as well as the BBC’s own guidelines. We didn’t want to film too many shots of alcohol, fake blood and horror face paint, however this proved exceptionally difficult as the mayor, along with others, already had face paint on before we interviewed them. This shows that even with sufficient planning, some film shoots can spring some nasty surprises on the film crew that are unavoidable and difficult to counteract. I believe we can learn from this experience and in future try to better predict certain issues that could arise when filming with suitable contingency plans.

Earlier in the week I sent an email to the Hindu society at the university because we wanted to bring one of the members in to speak about the Hindu festival of Diwali. I still have had no reply from them so this idea may have to be changed.

CCi Live Preparation Continues

We have finally managed to get clearance to film the Great South Run from the event organiser, on the condition that we make it absolutely clear who we are, don’t get in the way of Channel 5 film crews and do not use any wireless frequencies whilst filming.

On the Tuesday we had a group meeting to discuss and organise both the CCi and the commissioned shows. I delegated tasks to the members of the group and ensured everyone knows where we are with each piece of the show. We are also gradually getting a treatment together for our commissioned show, although the tighter deadline for CCi Live means the main point of focus is on that.

Charlie watts set up an open audition session whereby producers could evaluate prospective presenters. This session was very useful as we could see how the candidates dealt with presenting, and also enabled us to discover some new talent we hadn’t yet seen. There were several candidates that I decided I would like to use in future shows, however I couldn’t ask any to present our next CCi Live as we already had presenters lined up. We were also told in this session that Portsmouth City Council have changed the process to get permission to film around the city, they now want at least 5 days notice. During this session, one of the presenters, Tom Cross, gave the producers feedback in terms of the script. He said that he would prefer it if he could see the script earlier so he could read over it and feedback to us if he thought adjustments were needed. He also said that sometimes the show can be too scripted and this comes across as fake and cheesy.

In preparation for our live show, I bought several poppies for our presenters to wear. This is because our show is broadcasted on the Friday before Remembrance Sunday and presenters always wear poppies around this time of the year on television, so I wanted our show to be no different. I also made several ‘microphone flags’ to use during the filming of the Great South Run to distinguish ourselves as CCi Live, and also give the interviews a nice professional touch. These were made out of a cereal box, and had the CCi Live logo on each side, with slits cut at the top and bottom to slide the microphone up whilst also being adjustable for multiple microphones. We also borrowed University TV crew polo shirts from the CCi office to wear over our coats on the day, to further identify ourselves as being from the University.

Homemade microphone flag

We discovered that our next CCi Live show will hopefully be broadcasted on the BBC big screen in Guildhall Square. This means that we have to be even more careful with our content because we have to abide by the BBC’s rules as well and bear in mind that it will be shown at 12:00 in front of a wide audience of all ages and backgrounds.