As Live Production: Rehearsal Workshop 13/03/18
Today we had our first rehearsal workshop. From this rehearsal onwards we all work in our production roles. Meaning fir this reversal and all subsequent ones, I was the floor manager for the studio.
Although the studio production is split in to two distinct halves with those in group A taking the lead for the first half and group B taking the lead for the second half. Del was very keen to express that even if you are not in your half of the show, you won't be doing nothing. You will constantly be working even if it is just assisting your counterparts in the other group.
I found that to be particularly true as a floor manager. As this was our first reversal with the show script I hadn't seen exactly how our show would play out and as a result I found things a little more challenging than I expected since I hadn't been able to practice. I found out very early on that as floor manager you often have to be in two places at once, so having the other floor manager or assistant floor manager around at all times is very useful.
We began the rehearsal by running through the intro of our show. This was a great place to start as it helped us to understand where our initial starting positions for cameras, talent etc. should be, and gave us an idea of how this would change/evolve over the course of the show. For this rehearsal we were more active and had more instruction coming to us over talkback than before (since we want to replicate what it will be like in the live show).
This helped us to develop our awareness and filtration skills. Since the gallery are always talking and discussing what shots to get, as a floor manager I must learn to filter out a lot of this noise in order to focus on the needs of those on the floor. However at the same time it is important to be alert to what the gallery are saying in case they need to speak to you at any time. Admittedly I struggled to balance this once or twice, but after we had run through the scenes a few times I began to learn what to listen out for.
Running through the opening of the script allowed me to learn where the presenters would be standing in the Live show and thanks to our stand ins, helped me understand the kind of direction I would need to give them. Just because the countdown reaches zero, doesn't mean the presenters should start speaking or appear on screen. I have to wait until the director queues the presenters and then communicate this to the presenters via hand signals or a verbal gesture, sometimes this brought challenges or anxiety as the director may forget to queue the presenters, meaning we either had to guess our timing or quickly communicate with the gallery to make sure there were no issues.
As our rehearsal went on we tired out different sections of the script to give us more variety. This was a great way to prepare us for he show in the short space of time we have. But it did come with its share of challenges. Firstly several people (including our stand in presenters and our directors) were working on a slightly different version of the script. This meant that when the director asked as to start from a specific page or section, it would cause issues as they would get confused as to why we were starting on a different section than expected.
Another issue I faced as floor manager was communication. At parts of the show I had to be in two places at once, I needed to be able to brief and queue the presenters while also being in the centre of the floor to guide the cameras. It is incredibly difficult to be in two places at once, and as such I was incredibly grateful to have both Sonia and Jack to help, even if it wasn't their section of the show (as Del said even if its not your section of the show, you need to learn it as you'll always be working to assist your counterparts). Thanks to help from Sonia, Jack, and Laura (who was lead camera so could take the lead at times to capture the talents attention and queue other cameras), we were able to overcome the issue of being In two places at once. I could be in one place briefing and sending on the presenters, while Sonia and the others could be on the floor to queue the cameras and the presenters.
Sometimes the stand in presenters would start to talk without being queued to start, or would continue taking after I had singled for them to wrap things up. In order to overcome this I had a detailed chat with the talent before the start of each rehearsal in order to make sure they knew what my hand signals meant, and I knew where best to stand to get their attention.
The day continued and we worked on a few different sections. Some required the presenters to move from one part of the set to another, I made sure they knew what their queues were, so there were no issues with this (especially since we did a few practice runs). We also set up our 2+1 interview section where we would have our Etsy seller come in and talk us through some items. Thanks to practicing this last week and effective communication between myself and the talent we were able get this section to flow efficiently and to time.
Practicing these different sections also allowed us to run through camera changes and moves. As we changed scenes during a VT we got to run through different floor plans and have the cameras change positions, which thanks to the abundance of hands we have on set and went relatively smoothly.
Overall today was a great learning experience. As floor manager I learned how to work in tandem with Sonia, and the other people on the floor. At times I would step in to learn hands on where talent would need to stand, look, and move to, helping me gain a greater understanding of the direction I needed to give them. I was able to improve my communication skills vastly, updating and talking to the talent and cameras/sound regularly to learn what worked for them and what they wanted from me.
We began the rehearsal by running through the intro of our show. This was a great place to start as it helped us to understand where our initial starting positions for cameras, talent etc. should be, and gave us an idea of how this would change/evolve over the course of the show. For this rehearsal we were more active and had more instruction coming to us over talkback than before (since we want to replicate what it will be like in the live show).This helped us to develop our awareness and filtration skills. Since the gallery are always talking and discussing what shots to get, as a floor manager I must learn to filter out a lot of this noise in order to focus on the needs of those on the floor. However at the same time it is important to be alert to what the gallery are saying in case they need to speak to you at any time. Admittedly I struggled to balance this once or twice, but after we had run through the scenes a few times I began to learn what to listen out for.
Running through the opening of the script allowed me to learn where the presenters would be standing in the Live show and thanks to our stand ins, helped me understand the kind of direction I would need to give them. Just because the countdown reaches zero, doesn't mean the presenters should start speaking or appear on screen. I have to wait until the director queues the presenters and then communicate this to the presenters via hand signals or a verbal gesture, sometimes this brought challenges or anxiety as the director may forget to queue the presenters, meaning we either had to guess our timing or quickly communicate with the gallery to make sure there were no issues. As our rehearsal went on we tired out different sections of the script to give us more variety. This was a great way to prepare us for he show in the short space of time we have. But it did come with its share of challenges. Firstly several people (including our stand in presenters and our directors) were working on a slightly different version of the script. This meant that when the director asked as to start from a specific page or section, it would cause issues as they would get confused as to why we were starting on a different section than expected.
Another issue I faced as floor manager was communication. At parts of the show I had to be in two places at once, I needed to be able to brief and queue the presenters while also being in the centre of the floor to guide the cameras. It is incredibly difficult to be in two places at once, and as such I was incredibly grateful to have both Sonia and Jack to help, even if it wasn't their section of the show (as Del said even if its not your section of the show, you need to learn it as you'll always be working to assist your counterparts). Thanks to help from Sonia, Jack, and Laura (who was lead camera so could take the lead at times to capture the talents attention and queue other cameras), we were able to overcome the issue of being In two places at once. I could be in one place briefing and sending on the presenters, while Sonia and the others could be on the floor to queue the cameras and the presenters. Sometimes the stand in presenters would start to talk without being queued to start, or would continue taking after I had singled for them to wrap things up. In order to overcome this I had a detailed chat with the talent before the start of each rehearsal in order to make sure they knew what my hand signals meant, and I knew where best to stand to get their attention.
Practicing these different sections also allowed us to run through camera changes and moves. As we changed scenes during a VT we got to run through different floor plans and have the cameras change positions, which thanks to the abundance of hands we have on set and went relatively smoothly.
Overall today was a great learning experience. As floor manager I learned how to work in tandem with Sonia, and the other people on the floor. At times I would step in to learn hands on where talent would need to stand, look, and move to, helping me gain a greater understanding of the direction I needed to give them. I was able to improve my communication skills vastly, updating and talking to the talent and cameras/sound regularly to learn what worked for them and what they wanted from me.
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