As Live Production | Contributors and Production Design (30th January 2018)

(Notes form lecture)

• Finding talent
• Showreels - need to meet face-to-face as well
• Auditions - open or closed / may find undiscovered talent / put them in a difficult scenario
• Agents - more than likely going to cost money
• Scouting - may be cheaper / opportunity to find new talent / time consuming
• Talent websites, e.g. Mandy
• Dealing with talent
• Introduce yourself and explain your requirements
• Check availability - find out what else they are working on / potential scheduling clashes
• Make sure you are clear about the terms and conditions of the deal you are doing - hours/days, rate of pay, expenses, consider setting a flat fee or limits
• Contracts and release forms are essential - should be done in advance of VTs/rehearsals etc.
• Finding contributors
• Appeals/adverts
• Sourcing and contacting relevant organisations and parties
• Contacts
• Press offices/media liaison
• Must be cast as with any other talent
• Finding audiences
• Passive/active/representative/supportive
• Open advert
• Targeted advertising
• Piggy back on existing networks e.g. UCA Twitter
• Social media
• Targeted calls/research
• Representing the audience
• Audiences in the show should reflect the audience at home
• On many programmes they are individually cast
• Accuracy
• Keep records throughout the production process
• Essential that all information is accurate and checked - spelling etc.
• Ofcom broadcasting code...
• Scheduling and organising talent, contributors and audience
• Carefully negotiate how much time and commitment we require and the amount they are prepared to give
• Some talent may be needed for post production
• Departments should seek to minimise the amount of time that talent is required

Production Design

• 'Creatives' are often freelance
• The production team will work alongside the freelancers, commissioning the work they require and taking the lead on decisions
• Look at their previous work
• Brief the creatives on exactly what the producers want
• Important considerations
• No glare or shiny surfaces
• Background should not overpower the contributors
• Shadows
• Copyright
• Framing
• The audience

Production Meeting

• Music influence on fashion - recreating bold fashion statements - dress to the era
• History behind outfits - Churchill onesie / siren suit
• Independent stores - undiscovered gems - 
• Dress the presenter - £30 budget to buy the other presenter an outfit (bonus points for going under budget / minus points for going over) - bargain hunt style - VT of shopping for clothes, then outfit is revealed in the studio

As Live Production | My Role in the Production

After finding out which show idea we would be developing, it was time to apply and interview for jobs in the production.

The panel had chosen Katie and Melissa's idea: Steal the Style - a fashion chat show.

I was initially interested in an editing role, which led me to consider looking at the role of vision mixer as well.  This is not something I had considered previously, however I am a keen editor and would like to pursue a career in editing.  Therefore I feel it would be interesting to try vision mixing as it derives similar skills as editing in a live setting, which I am not yet familiar with.

I feel the interview went well and I am happy that I got the roles of VT sound, VT editor and Vision Mixer.  This meant that I will be busy throughout most of the pre-production period and on the actual day of production.  I have worked as a sound op before, and as an editor many times, but vision mixing is new to me, so I will focus a lot of attention towards researching this.

Here are the basics of vision mixing:

• Vision mixers edit programmes live, joining together visuals from various sources such as the studio cameras, VTs and digital effects.
• They work very closely with the director and they are the 'second pair of eyes' in the gallery.
• Vision mixers must be able to react quickly to potential changes in the running order and multitask between cutting shots and listening to the director's instructions.
• A vision mixer must have an eye for good visuals, be patient and good team working skills, as well as the confidence to deal with unforeseen circumstances.

(http://creativeskillset.org/job_roles/318_vision_mixer)

As Live Production | Proposal and Pitch

Jason and I have been hard at work developing our idea for a history-based time travel game show.  We kept a lot of ideas from the original format, such as the name 'Time Trap', but we focused in on the viability and finer details of the format.

Script:

Jason and I have come up with a concept for an original educational game show, aimed at a peak time audience of both adults and children.

Here is our topline: “An adventure spanning through the ages in which contestants battle through challenges to escape the Time Trap”

We like to think of it as Doctor Who meets Horrible Histories meets Pointless, combining elements of time travel with fun historical facts, wrapped up in a competitive atmosphere.

The show will involve four average Joe’s competing against each other - they have not met before and should not come from a background in history or any historical studies.

The show is aimed at a peak time audience consisting of both children and adults, and would air around 5 and 7 PM.  We imagine this is the sort of thing that parents and children could watch together after work or school - tea time telly.

We’ve seen in the last few years, particularly since 2013 that general knowledge quiz shows airing around this time have been a success with audiences.  In particular, Pointless and The Chase have led the way with viewing figures and have both been nominated for and won NTAs for Best Daytime Programme in recent years.

We feel that the Time Trap will add a new and exciting twist to the quiz show by introducing the trope of time travel and most importantly, a more focused aim toward educating the audience.

So onto the details of the show itself:

We want to go for a science fiction / steampunk sort of aesthetic.  ‘Time’ and ‘history’ are the key themes of the show so we’d like a lot of clockwork and historical imagery in the set.

We feel two presenters would work well for the show’s format.  It is important to note that they will be playing characters as well as presenting the show itself and that their portrayal of the role works in play to drive the show forward.

We have the nameless ‘Time Traveller’ - an eccentric and swashbuckling genius, sort of like a cocky Doctor Who.  In the presentation this character is male, but could easily work for a female as well.  He or she is joined by Larry - the Time Traveller’s long-suffering assistant.  I feel he should be the Igor to Dr Frankenstein, but also be the loveable idiot - like Baldrick.  I picked out this clip which I feel illustrates the sort of dynamic between the two that I would like to see.

The show itself will consist of four rounds which we’ll go into a bit more detail shortly but in the meantime, we’ve worked out a rough running order for how the show will fit together.

HAND OUT RUNNING ORDER

We have a rough layout of how we envisage the set layout to look: we have the seating area by the hydraulic door… We want to put a screen here through a “window” in the set to look like the Time Traveller’s “computer”.

We also have a green screen backstage, which will be used when contestants are eliminated.  They will stand in front of the green screen as a looped clip of a particular time period is played in the background - creating the impression that they have been trapped in time.

Onto the first round: “Who Said It?”.  In this round, a sound clip of a quote from a famous historical figure will be played aloud to the studio - the first contestant to buzz in and answer correctly is through to the next round.  Another quote is played for the remaining three contestants, and again until there is only one contestant left that has not answered a question.

Now we have a few quotes to test your knowledge and to get a better grasp at what the round is about:

1 - “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.” KARL MARX, author of the Communist Manifesto and architect of Marxism
2 - “Trust in God - She will provide.“ EMMELINE PANKHURST, leader of the Suffragette movement
3 - “An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.” MAHATMA GANDHI, activist and leader of the Indian independence movement

This round will also end with a short sketch involving the three figures and our presenters getting up to some mishaps to add to the entertaining element of the show.

Round 2 will involve our contestants watching a clip of our presenters living in another time period - this draws on experiential shows such as The Victorian Slum which took ordinary people and put them in the lives of people living during the 19th century.  Our clip will last around 2 to 3 minutes and we will see the Time Traveller and Larry living the lives of ordinary people in the given time period - the contestants will then have two minutes to answer questions about the time period and the clip, the contestant with the fewest points is eliminated.

Afterwards we have round 3: Artefact Analysis.  The two remaining contestants are each showed two different historical artefacts.  We see a VT clip of the first object with hints to facts about the object, such as what it was used for - they must guess where the object is from and when it was found, made or invented.  The second contestant does the same with another VT clip, and whoever answers closest to the real answer wins the round and is through to the final.

Just to help demonstrate the concept, I’ve brought along an object for you to guess where its from and what year it’s from:

I’ll give you a few clues: this belonged to my great great grandfather, John Reade.  He was a stretcher bearer for the army and its place of origin is often referred to as ‘the forgotten front’

It was found in Thessaloniki, now known as Silonika, Greece in which the Allied Forces entered the region to fight back against German and Bulgarian forces after the collapse of Serbia in 1915 - World War 1.

We feel that this round, as well as being educational would work as a nice segment to bring about small fun little anecdotes such as this in which my great great grandad found a horse hoof in the war.

The university has contacts in the Rochester Guildhall Museum so there is potential to ask for objects from there, but I had this in my house - history is everywhere and I feel we could achieve the same thing with objects from crew members, from antique shops; practically anywhere, and we don’t necessarily need to rely on external contributors for obtaining these artefacts.

The final round is a simple 90 second quickfire answer round based on the time periods covered previously in the show.  They must answer 10 questions correctly in order to win the trophy - the Time Core - the power source for the Time Traveller’s time machine.  If they fail they may walk free, but without the Time Core trophy.

So that’s the show and a just to clarify a few things to consider in terms of logistics:

We will need to find locations to shoot the VTs depending on which time period we are shooting.  We would also need to hire actors to work alongside our main cast.  Props and costumes are something we would also need to consider, and as I said previously the objects can be obtained through a number of routes - through museums and historical societies or from people’s homes and antique shops.


Thank you for taking the time to listen to our pitch - we feel that Time Trap stands out for being both educational and entertaining with an appeal to all ages.  We want to use aspects of experiential formats combined with the competitive nature of a quiz show to add tension and life to fun and learning.  Any questions are welcome.




Overall, I am very happy with how the pitch turned out.  I feel that both myself and Jason really sold the concept well and the panel seemed to like the concept and potential for the idea.  The main drawback was that we had chosen to pitch a gameshow, which has been done for the last two years.  This is something I knew from the start, but as we were passionate about the idea, decided to carry on and despite it not being chosen, I am thrilled that it was still runner-up despite the saturation of gameshows over the last few years.

As Live Production | Pitching and Development (18th January 2018)

Pitching ideas is an inevitable part of programme making.

• Opportunity to present your ideas and flesh it out so your audience can visualise the film
• SWOT: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats
• Idea must have an objective - included in the proposal: in the present tense and has an 'active voice'
• One page in length, no less than a paragraph
• Oral pitch is supported with the written proposal which adds colour and expands on it
• In the industry, you will usually be pitching to the most senior members of the programme, commissioners or development executives
• Outline your initial intentions and ambitions:
• WORKING TITLE AND LOCATION
• SUBJECT AND PREMISE OF FILM
• Your idea in one sentence
• Synopsis of idea
• TARGET AUDIENCE AND CHANNEL
• Including evidence and data to explain this
• STYLE AND TONE
• Mood board?
• Reference to well known faces
• Show access/agreements/research already in progress
• HOW YOUR FORMAT ADDS TO THE PROGRAMME STORYTELLING AND USP
• WHY THIS PROGRAMME SHOULD BE COMMISSIONED
• What makes it new and relevant
• RUNNING ORDER
• Break down, in detail, how the programme works
• VTs
• How will these be used
• BASIC CAMERA / FLOOR PLAN
• Use visual aids to provide guidance and to visualise your idea
• Show clips and examples of existing content that may be like
• Bring it to life
• Take us through the idea, step-by-step
• Check the viability of the idea
• Emphasise the USP and be enthusiastic
• PRACTICE
• Responding to questions
• Never say nothing
• Take your time
• Facts and figures
• Remain positive
• Dos
• Be brave and surprise
• Be passionate and engaging
• Challenge convention - new angles
• Pitch the topline - articulate it in a sentence
• Know existing output and spot opportunities
• Develop dialogue
• Pitch ideas and stories not subject matters
• Don'ts
• Send lots of ideas - keep focus
• Gimmicks
• Water down the idea too soon
• Flog a dead horse
• Develop 'off-message' ideas
• Make promises you can't keep
• Ensure ideas are fully worked out
• Worry about being 'fancy' in presenting the idea
• Take criticism on board
• Viability, Relevance, Originality and Presentation are assessed

As Live Production | Refining our Ideas

We had looked into our ideas a little further and found that Jason's music quiz idea had one potential major flaw - copyright.

We looked into copyright laws through the BBC Academy, the UK Copyright Service and various forums online, and we found that it would likely cost quite a lot of money to play most songs on a broadcast.  We thought we could get around this by getting in contact with a band that could play covers of songs, but the lyrics and composition would still be subject to copyright.  As well as this, we would need to place a lot of faith in a band to perform for us, and since we do not have contact with any bands that would do this sort of thing, this did not seem particularly viable.


Helen also made us aware of a show that aired in 1976-1988 and returned briefly in 1997 - Name That Tune.  This show has a very similar format to what we had envisaged, and although there were some key differences, we feel that ours fell a bit too close to this concept and so decided to focus our efforts towards my time travel history show.

As Live Production | Brief and Introduction (9th January 2018) + Initial Ideas

Initial Ideas

Jason and I decided to each come up with our own ideas and then come together to decide which idea would be best to go ahead and develop - we also liaised with Helen for feedback and ideas to help us develop our ideas:

History / time travel game show

'Horrible Histories meets Doctor Who meets Catchphrase'

My idea was to create a history-based quiz show that utilised VTs to incorporate the concept of time travel to have our presenters 'go back in time' to different historical periods, where the contestants would have to answer questions and complete challenges to avoid being 'Time Trapped'.  Once a team is eliminated, they will be stuck in the time period as the rest of the contestants move on to the next round.

• 'Time Trap' - aimed at a primetime audience
• 2 Presenters - the time traveller and his assistant
• The assistant is put in difficult situations to live in the life of the people in history that they visit in the VTs - similar to 'The Victorian Slum' (BBC) http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07zd454 - The contestants then answer questions about the VT and the history behind it
• 4 teams - 1 eliminated after each round - the eliminated team is then 'trapped' back in time using a green screen or pre-shot footage
• VTs used to introduce different eras in time and ask questions / pose challenges
• Helen suggested we could have an interactive round for the contestants to guess what an object is - they could be blindfolded or have to deduce what an object from history was used for - the university has contacts with the Rochester Guildhall Museum and other historical organisations that could potentially accommodate for this

I created a mood board to help visualise how I had certain elements of the show looked in my head:

The Time Traveller:

His assistant:

Possible set ideas: (steampunk / sci-fi)

Music Quiz

'Out of Context'

Jason's idea focused on music in which contestants would have to guess which song or artist from a series of different challenges and questions.

• For one segment, song lyrics could be acted out in VTs - similar to catchphrase, but relying on actors to act out some lyrics
• Similar to Never Mind the Buzzcocks, contestants may sing or play a tune using only their voice for their teammate to guess
• Another segment could revolve around a VT in which an actor reads from lyrics translated into Old English for the contestants to work out the original lyrics
• Pictionary segment - one team member draws an artist
• Questions on music statistics could be used for tie-breakers and/or the final round

I like both ideas and I feel both could work for our pitch and as a live show, however there are still a number of issues that we would need to tackle.

(Notes from lecture)

Things learned from last term:

• Ensure I get my ideas down and think them through as thoroughly and as quickly as possible
• Carry out detailed research before developing further
• Manage time between external commitments and uni work
• Keep in contact with contributors to ensure locations and actors etc stay on board and do not delay projects
• Prepare for potential changes

Studios provide a tailor-made and controlled environment. Potential genres include:

• Factual
• Comedy
• Music
• Drama
• Entertainment
• Children's

Advantages of shooting in a studio and roles:

• Picture quality and opportunities
• Studio lighting allows for lighting to be rigged, plotted and set in advance in a controlled environment
• You could leave the lighting rigged and it will be the same every time
• Communication
• Etiquette
• Know your role
• Teamwork
• Dry/wet hire
• Dry = no kit at the studio
• Wet = studio provides kit
• Gallery
• Lighting
• Sound
• Studios are usually sound-proofed so that quality is produced without and echo or intrusive noises
• Microphones can be plotted and rigged in advance and adjustments can be made at any time before or during recording
• Director
• Producer
• Vision Mixer
• Script Supervisor / PA

Important health and safety considerations:

• All staff should be properly trained for the studio environment and appropriate risk assessments made
• Hazards may include:
• Trip hazards, e.g. cables
• Electricity / lighting
• Fire hazards / keeping exits clear
• Confined spaces
• Audiences / public
• Manual handling / lifting
• Scaffolding / heights
• Ultimately, the production team is responsible and liable for the safety of everyone involved and invited to the production.  All productions must have insurance coverage.

The gallery:

• Central control room for the studio