Week 15 | TV Production

TV Production

The TV production week was only a 2 day project. This was part due to it being assigned as our winter break "homework". We were divided into groups and tasked with the idea of creating a 20 minute broadcast about Teens that appealed to that demographic.

With our groups chosen, my group opted to use Facebook as a means of communication between us. This allowed us to generate ideas, discuss topics and also assign job roles. My job role was the Floor Manager but I wasn't really aware of what that entailed until the day of filming. We were all expected to be in on Monday to get a welcome back and a brief rundown of our week. We also had a couple of hours as a group to finalise the planning and pitch our idea to Ian. That was how Monday went. At first it was a bit manic because we were all waiting on our 'Director', Matteo. Unfortunately he was the only one with all of the planning actually on paper and he was also the only one to be late so we had to wait around a while before we could start some serious work.

Being totally honest, I really wasn't aware of the idea of our show until that Monday but I didn't have much of a problem with that. Matteo gave us a rundown of our show and some of the special features like pre-recorded videos, title sequences and special talent we might invite onto our show. This was then all pitched to Ian.

The day of filming had dawned on us. Thankfully we were only filming at the last couple of hours of the day so that allowed us to get a very brief lesson in what we were expected to do. As the whole studio was going to be operated by our group it was absolutely crucial everyone knew what they were doing, especially as we had 4 camera operators.

In preparation for our TV Production project, Ian had hired a group of third year degree students to help us and essentially teach us how to run the studio and the gallery. We arrived in the gallery (above) and were given a tour of all the computers, monitors and gadgets they use to make a television show. It would have been great to receive a more hands on approach to learning how each thing worked but we simply didn't have the time.

After the tour of the tech we were going to practice some of the scenes and 'Block' the show. My job as the floor manager meant that I had to have everythi
ng in check downstairs in the studio. I had direct communication with the director and I had to ensure that anything he wanted done, was done. I had to make sure the talent were on cue with the show and I had to make sure the camera crew knew what they were doing whenever they needed assistance.

I was pretty happy with what I was expected to do. It wasn't a huge payload and I felt I did my job pretty well. There were a couple of occasions where I should have been more alert to the situations but thankfully this all occurred during the 'Blocking' part of the practice. That was the only thing I found I needed to improve upon, but that would come with practicing the show and knowing what happens and when.

I felt the Director could have been more clear at times, there were a couple of occasions where the crew were left confused because there wasn't enough clarity in the instructions the director gave us, but again this improved the more we practiced. It felt like a really successful set of rehearsals.

Coming off the bat of a few great rehearsals we decided to go for a full filming at around 3 o'clock. The first attempt was a lot smoother than I had expected with a lot of the crew managing to follow instructions effectively, and with a lot of skill. There were minor incidents with camera angles but all in all it didn't look too bad. The best parts were the interviews with the talent, I felt they went really well and we switched up the camera angles throughout to get a really professional look. However, there was room for improvement.

We ended up running through the whole show two more times after that, so three recordings even though we were supposed to only have two. Although it was nice to have a another shot at perfecting our show it was a monumental amount of pressure having to film three times and film on the second day. We would have had a whole day extra plus another shooting opportunity more than the first group, this meant ours had to be better. We had more time than them. Shooting didn't finish till about half four and we were all shattered, hours upon hours of standing on our feet and shooting, shooting and re shooting. It was knackering but it was all worth it in the end.

The TV Production project was really quite fun, it was a new experience that will hopefully come in useful one day. I've worked in that kind of environment before in previous film shoots I've been on but not being a floor manager. I was merely just a runner. This was a much more demanding task, having to be accountable for the whole crew was a massive task but I felt it went smoothly and very enjoyably.