TV News: Shoot Diary Day 5

TV News: Shoot Diary Day 5

Today marked the 5th and final day of our shoot week. Today was dedicated to shooting in a studio environment with an anchor man and green screen. Today was another productive day. My role today was director and camera operator. 

We arrived at the studios today fully prepared with a script, an idea, and a whole lot of equipment. Cailan had booked out a room for us ealier in the week that we were free to use, which was great. We had a minor mix up as the room we had been assigned had a double booking, but this wasn't really a problem as we moved to the room next door which we had scoped out (or RECCIED)as a back up anyway. 

We began by setting up the green screen, we wanted to make sure that it was as smooth as possible with no creases to give a smooth and professional back drop that was easy to chroma key out. We then positioned tables and a chair in front of the screen so that our presenter could be framed as central as possible. 

I discussed with Cailan as to what the best lighting set up would be. He thought LED's might work but from my looking at other peoples shoots and from the workshop we had I knew that we'd need the tungsten lights. We started with a fill and a key light as planned but the lay out of the room didn't really allow for a back light. However this wasn't really needed. 

We did face a slight problem with shadows being cast by the presenter. This took a lot of maneuvering of lights and we had to set up 2 additional LED's  to help reduce this. Although we couldn't eliminate the shadows completely we were able to reduce it to an acceptable level. 

We had originally planned for a two camera set up, however for multiple reasons we decided to stick with one. Firstly Cailan and Andrew were not 100% sure it was necessary and unlike some people I beleive in listening or at least negotiating with team mates. Secondly since Alex was away today we didn't have a camera that could match the settings of the Panasonic, and space restrictions would have made it difficult anyway. But this was fine its important to be able to adapt in 

these situations. 

 

We started with Andrew as our presenter while Cailan operated the camera, and I directed. Cailan and I worked together to make sure the shot was well framed. We set up a clip mic for each presenter. Then Andrew had a few practice run through's of our script. We decided an auto queue wasn't necessary for this as it was not that long a piece. 

Andrew had a good attitude towards presenting but seemed to struggle considerably. He had a bit of trouble getting through sentences and tended to change up some words and pronunciations which didn't help. None the less I admired his positive attitude.

The advantage of filming this section at the end of the shoot is we know exactly what content we have filmed and what our presenters say on location. As such i was changed a few lines on the script so that they were more accurate and made more sense. 

While directing I also read out Alex's on location lines so that Andrew and Cailan knew how long of a gap to leave before starting their next line when talking to Alex who would be "live on location". This also helped it feel more real and allowed for more genuine responses.  

After a successful take with Andrew it was Cailan's turn to sit in the "hot seat", and have a go at presenting. 

I continued to direct, while also operating the camera and re framing the shot for Cailan. I began to give gentle pointers on presenting (since I have experience in speaking to an audience) which I think went down quite well. 

Once again we did a few practice runs before starting filming. This time I decided to take a slightly different approach to make the presenters job easier. I broke the script down in to individual blocks that we would film. This way the presenter could learn a section well and then we could film it, then take a break while they learned the next section before resuming filming. the gaps would then be bridged with VT/OOV's etc. 

However to ensure we had the best of both worlds I made sure we also filmed a few complete run through's. In my opinion Cailan defiantly  did a good job as the presenter, and although both were good, I think it came more naturally to Cailan than it did to Andrew. 

The only real pointers I had to give to him was to inject a little more enthusiasm in places. This is something I notice Alex struggled with as well, perhaps it's a nerves thing, or perhaps it's because we were all a bit tired. 

I also suggested a few vocal exercises to help with pronunciation which actually seemed to work quite well. 

By the day we had some great takes with both presenters and I'm very happy with the productivity of the day and the enthusiasm of the team. I also continued and concluded the behind the scenes filming that I had been doing and will upload to this blog when edited. 

Today was a great day and I was pleased with the results and our ability to adapt. We unfortunately had to pack up at 3:00 since another group had booked the room after us. Given more time i would have done a few more takes from a slightly different angle. Since i noticed that they do this on broadcasts like the BBC, but as Andrew/Cailan said they don't do this very often and since ours is a short section with VT/OOV it didn't really matter. 

Overall I think we had a very productive shoot week. I am very pleased with the results and filming we were able to achieve. We had to adapt our plans a lot during the week which i think demonstrated and improved our ability to think on our feet.

I think overall we worked well as a team, and even though myself and Alex occasionally had "creative differences" it was only because we wanted this project to be as fair, equal and as amazing as possible. And eventually we pulled together well as a team to get a great shoot. 

I would Just like to note that I was the only team member that was present for all 5 shoot days. While all team members had completely fair and valid reasons for not attending certain days, I think this really shows my dedication to this project in case there was ever any doubt (which i don't think there was). 

Positives

We adapted to the room change well.

We set up quickly and had a good set up.

We were able to get multiple takes with both presenters. 

In Alex's absence I filled in as director and listened  to the team, and gave opinions/pointers without being bossy. 

We had some really nice framing and were able to fully utilize the camera and lighting equipment. 

We worked really closely and efficiently as a team to get the best results possible, be it through practice runs, vocal exercises, opinion pooling, splitting roles etc. 

I didn't once get annoyed with anyone, and maintained a productive yet relaxed environment.

Difficulties

We had a change of room, which meant we had slightly less room than planned but this wasn't really a problem. The only issue we had was background noise from people outside the room. But I fixed this by occasionally popping my head out the door and very politely asking for quiet. 

We had a few shadows on the green screen but i reduced this as much as possible. 

   

We were limited to one angel, but honestly this helped simplify things especially since we had to do multiple takes when the presenter stumbled, meaning we didn't have ti reset 3 cameras. 

I may have jogged the camera/tripod once or twice but I don't think this was too noticeable.