Delivering Our Second CCi Live

On Friday we met at 9:00 at the CCi studio to practice and prepare the show before we went live at 12:00. I turned on some of the equipment and got the credits computer up and running. I then went through the newer version of the script that had been corrected the night before.

Adam and myself then went through all of the autocue script and timed each section so that we could get an estimated time for the shows new duration after changes had been made. Once this was done I re-wrote the running order so that it was more accurate and in turn making my job of production assistant easier. I worked out that the show was now only 29:06 in length and so we would have to lengthen sections where we could to get it closer to the 30 minutes required.

We then did a run through of some of the sections. We could not do a full and proper run through as we were on occasions waiting for the presenters, which didn’t help. This made it harder to get more practices in again. We also discovered that the gallery would get filmed during the show as a learning aid.

We eventually managed to get one full run through done before we went live. The shows duration was over time but not by too much which was a positive sign as we thought we would be under. In the build up to when we went live, I kept everyone informed of how long we had to make sure that we were all ready.

The show started and I personally didn’t notice any mistakes as I was concentrating on my job and the running order. The timings seemed to be going well but at the same time it was hard to judge as the running order was short of the required time. It was my job to make the decisions of when to lengthen sections or go back to the autocue script, this being very difficult to judge. Towards the end of the show we realised that the timings were very close to what they needed to be. I took a note of when the credits had to start in order for the show to finish at exactly 30:00. Michael the director then took control of the stopwatch of the shows duration whilst I went over to the credits machine. He then told me when to roll the credits based on when we reached the time that I wrote down.

We found out slightly later that the show was only over by 20 frames. I was very happy with this, considering we only managed 2 full run through’s and the content and paperwork given to us was not as great as it could have been. We then turned off all the equipment and I then picked up my new CCi t-shirt.

Timeline showing 20 frames over

CCi crew t-shirts

CCi Live - 14/12/12

CCi Live Practice

On Thursday we had our first studio practice for the CCi Live show which would be broadcasted on 14th December. We had booked out the studio between 12:00 and 3:00. We decided on studio roles, and I assumed the role of production assistant again.

We were told that we had all the content, however one insert had not been cleared and the production group were unsure if it is usable or not. Once we were in the studio we got everything set up and ready. I had a look over the running order and then finalised the credits as the delivering team roles had not been put in and the formatting was not brilliant.

When we ran through the show we discovered quite a few issues. Firstly the script wasn’t great. There were certain parts that didn’t make sense or didn’t sound very good, there were several spelling mistakes, the website URL’s had been left in which confused the presenters and meant it didn’t flow as well, and one of the presenters names on the autocue changed halfway through. The timings of the show were also not that great as they were inaccurate and there were a lot of adlibbing sections which can make the timings hard to judge. The videos also had no real handles, so some of them had to be ended slightly before their end duration otherwise we would have been left with a freeze frame. Finally, the studio script and the autocue script were not the same version, which caused confusion for us.

Towards the end of the run through, the show started to fall apart due to these issues, which was very frustrating for us as a group. We spoke to the production group to try and sort these problems out, and they said they would provide us with a new script. When we looked over this new script, nothing had in fact changed. We didn’t get a newer script in time for us to work with so we did not manage to run through the show again. This studio practice was very frustrating for us as a group as we did not manage to get that much out of it due to reasons beyond our control.

Filming Memory Assault Course For 'The Manual'

On Tuesday we filmed the memory assault course challenge for ‘The Manual’. The group met at 10:30 and then we began transporting the equipment to the filming location at Southsea Common by car. When we got to the location we decided where exactly we would position the assault course and where we would film from. It was a nice sunny day, which was good for the general appearance of the shoot, however it made certain shots difficult because we couldn’t film towards the sun.

We then began setting up the course with the cones we had used before as well as the other various objects that would be used during the challenge. I then set up one of the MixPre’s, which I am now much better and quicker at doing.

For the filming, I assumed the role of Samurai operator. This meant I had to hold the Samurai unit, which was attached to the camera by SDI and make sure it was recording when it needed to be.

The Samurai is a portable touchscreen-operated HD recorder, monitor and playback device for video professionals. It captures pristine 10-bit 4:2:2 video and audio direct from any camera with HD/SD-SDI output. The Samurai consumes very little power, ensures long recording times (up to 16.5 hours on a 750GB disk) and the efficient use of batteries. 

Samurai. (n.d.). Retrieved December 11, 2012, from http://www.atomos.com/samurai/

Atomos Samurai

When holding the unit, I had to work well with the camera operator and sound operator who was also plugged into the camera, because the cable wasn’t very long and we didn’t want our shadows to be in shot. Before the presenters got to the location, we recorded several close-up cutaways of the course stations and the objects they would be using.

The presenters arrived at the location around 12ish. Barry picked them up with his car from the Eldon building car park, which I had arranged with them. We wanted to do this because the filming location was a fairly long walk from the Eldon building and we didn’t want to mess them around more by asking them to walk it.

Firstly we filmed the presenters being told the challenge. The presenters were then walked through the course off camera and informed of what they would need to do at each station. Charlie then had to leave the area whilst we filmed Umby’s attempt and then vice-versa, so that there would be no unfair advantage and so they did not know how the other person did.

When filming we had several difficulties. Getting our shots steady was a constant issue, as we weren’t using tripods because we didn’t want the shots to be too static. Tracking the contestants and capturing what they were doing well proved very difficult. We also didn’t anticipate that the presenters would be as good as they were at recalling the facts that were given to them. This therefore made it harder to differentiate a winner.

The assault course could have been much more difficult to create more of a visual spectacle, and if we were to do this again we would be more ambitious and try to create more stations and tougher tasks.

Once the challenges were completed we finished with some establishing shots of the presenters. After this and when they were not needed anymore, the presenters were taken back to Eldon by car. As a group we then begun packing up all the equipment and then left the location by car.

Here are some photos from the day

Mike Fuller (Topical Television) Talk

On Thursday we were given a talk by Mike Fuller, one of the partners and executive producers of Topical Television. Topical Television is a production company based in Southampton who produce many television shows and videos, including around 60 inserts a year for the BBC’s 'The One Show'. This talk was very interesting as Mike has a job in the same field as what I would like to do, and he provided a great insight into what is required and common in the industry. In this talk I made many notes.

• There are a decreasing number of individual production companies
• Topical Television started in 1991
• 3 people started the company, one of these being Mike Fuller. They had been cut loose from their previous job
• Mike has never looked back from this situation – has never had to borrow money and has never been out of a job
• Annually make around £3million
• They have produced around 2000 hours of network programming
• They do not do any regional or corporate work
• Predominantly do work for BBC1
• They make around 60/70 films for The One Show a year
• Every year around November time they panic about not having enough work for the following year. Then the seeds they sowed gradually come to fruition and get more jobs for the following year.
• Mike believes that they are a very fortunate company
• The life of a small independent company is very precarious
• They were looking for a parent company for more financial security – Avalon seemed very suitable – they are the biggest independent broadcasting company
• Avalon also have several other umbrella companies underneath them

• Mike studied English at Nottingham University where he realised that he didn’t actually like it.
• He got a job at Nottingham radio station and became a presenter and reporter
• At TV Weekly he slipped behind the camera, then went from being a director to a producer to an executive producer.

Executive Producer role

• Don’t go out much – don’t have the stresses of day-to-day filming
• Have the stress of when problems get bigger
• Have to oversee and make sure inserts are progressing
• It is important that producers and directors make their own films
• Uses a big white board and lots of post-it notes – makes things easier to visualise and stay organised
• Formatting skills are very important – making spins on a simple idea
• You are constantly finding new ways to spin old concepts
• Have to plan ahead and think of inserts that will work – Mike showed us a brochure of insert ideas that has been sent to the BBC – huge variety and amazing attention to detail
• Look at newspapers, clip out articles - helps get ideas for themes and programmes

• On The One Show, each insert is produced as a documentary, but condensed into 4 and a half minutes
• There is a shooting script for each film
• Each insert has an individual story
• HAS to be factually correct
• Had a good analogy regarding the inserts they make and projects – Don’t build up a wall, fit it all into a brick and concentrate on a particular point
• The attention to detail is mind-boggling
• If you get it wrong you get lots of complaints and into hot water
• Have to have a source for every bit of information in the script
• Reality/structured documentary TV – As an audience we don’t know if we want to know the real real, the pretend real, or if we don’t even know ourselves
• Can get feedback very quickly now – can get picked up very quickly and closely
• Archive footage – we see it in a different light – what was acceptable back then
• Must get into the industry when/where you can
• As a runner you must contribute and offer more to get up the ladder quicker/further
• At the BBC they have a pro-rata system for financing inserts – based on timings and theme
• Volume and format is important – how you make money
• You need to know you can deliver
• When filming, having a shooting script helps you get the shots you need quickly and efficiently
• Use every available minute you have
• When Mike used to go out filming, he got into the habit of only seeing the problems
• You mustn’t underestimate luck – must be optimistic
• Presenters either come from show business or a background of specialist knowledge
• Budgeting – you can only go slightly over budget per episode to make a big financial loss over a series. For example, going £2000 over budget per episode of a 10 episode series means going £20,000 over budget – not good
• They add around 7.5-10% of the production fee to the charge