Pre-Production: Show Research (24 Hour in A&E)

Show Research: 24 Hours in A&E (What I Learned About Fixed Camera Shows)

To properly understand how shows with a fixed camera set up work and are run, I looked in to the behind the scenes details of how the show 24 Hours In A&E was made, and what makes it so effective. Bellow is a summary of what I learned.

The show has no camera crew on sight, it uses a fixed rig with a large number of exclusively remote controlled cameras. Between 70 and 90 cameras were used on this show to make sure they covered every possible angle in order to match and go beyond what a regular camera crew would be able to achieve. Using this set up the producers are able to capture and observe real life situations and stories in a natural and unobtrusive way. The shows producer is a huge advocate for this set up and said it is key to finding and creating powerful and authentic storylines from real everyday people. They say that although some kind of script will have to be in place this is something that will constantly be changing and adapting and that the stories of the documentary practically write themselves.

Once permissions are obtained and before the filming begins, it is important for the producers, camera riggers and electric specialists to visit the filming locations ahead of the shoot starting. This way they get time to meet and observe staff (contributors), as well as reccie the location in order to work out potential storylines and carefully plan out the locations for cameras and microphones. This is something I will account for in my scheduling.

I found out that permissions can be quite hard to obtain for this type of series. Since you’d need to obtain permission to observe, permission to film, permission to use and adapt the locations, and individual consents to film contributors. And all of tis needs to be approved by multiple bodies of people. Due to this I will make sure all my permissions are applied for early in the pre production to make sure filming can begin on the planned date without issue.

In this kind of series the cameras would run all day in all locations to capture all potential storylines. However not all cameras can record at the same time, it would be up to directors and editors/vision mixers to decide what cameras are recorded on at any one time, changing between feeds as required. A show like this utilises a large number of crew to keep the production running smoothly. You would need two directors and two producers in the gallery room (4 in my case, 2 for each country), along with a vision mixer/editor and several audio/visual engineers. You would then have a separate team on the floor made up of multiple assistant producers. Whilst the assistant producers would handle a lot of the work it may also be necessary to hire runners and engineers to be on site assisting with anything the producers cannot do alone. Ill need to make sure a lot of my crew have similar background experience so that my show has a consistent style despite being filmed across two countries, and within each location a diary room as well as a diary room (for interviews) will need to be located and adapted to suite our needs.

It is important to have a good microphone to camera ratio as often sound is more important than visuals. Whilst the majority of cameras will be fixed, there is good opportunity for the use of clip-mics on key contributors as it will help audiences connect with them. The distribution of these is a task that will be handled by the assistant producers on the floor. It is also worth noting that often interview scenes take place outside of the main bulk of filing since then they a re more practical and give contributors to gain more perspective over their situations and reflect upon them effectively in their dialogue.

Finally obtaining consent is a huge part of a series like this. I’ve already detailed that multiple consents need to be obtained in order to even start filming. But as well all contributors need to go through a two tier consent process (handled by producers). You need to obtain consent to film each contributor and later you need to obtain consent/approval to broadcast their stories and account for the chance they may change their mind.

All of this put together is what allows a show like this to obtain such effective, emotional and informative true to life stories. Filming real people and real events whilst treading as lightly as possible so as not to manipulate the course of events. Overall this show provided valuable insight in to how a large scale fixed camera show is et up and run, all of which I will learn from and take forward in to the planning of my own production.