Since vision mixing was entirely new to me, unlike my other two roles, I needed to carry out some research to get a better idea of what the job entailed. This was also important for me to do as I could only practice vision mixing in the gallery during rehearsals.
It is the job of the vision mixer to “cut the programme live […] listening carefully to [the director’s] instructions” (Brown, 2016:50). As the director calls the shots, the vision mixer must be able to cut in time to dialogue and musical cues. The vision mixer may have some control as to where and when cuts must be made, for example in an interview, when there may be a delay between the director picking up on reaction shots and calling them, the vision mixer will be able to instantly see which shot to pick and may do so, provided that the director is comfortable with this. For mixing our show, I will ask the studio directors, George and Gavin, whether they would rather I stick exactly to which shots they call or if I should use my own intuition in certain situations.
In some cases, the director may also work as the vision mixer - Del Brown, for example, works as a freelance director/vision mixer for QVC. This sort of content requires quick reactions and a fast turnaround from pre-production to live transmission, therefore if he calls the shots, there is no latency between calling the shots and the shots making it to transmission. There can also be two VMs for more “complex content” (Singleton-Turner, 2011:xxix).
As with editing, it is the job of the vision mixer to “fulfil the Director’s vision” in a production. Directors will instruct the vision mixer on which shots they want to for transmission, either both through scripting and through less predictable content such as interviews as I mentioned earlier.
The director will use phrases such as ‘And cut’, or ‘And mix’ – by saying ‘and’, the director is “indicating control” with the word ‘and’ working as a “stand-by”-like phrase to prepare the vision mixer to make the next cut (Singleton-Turner 2011:82).
In Studio 2 at Maidstone Studios, I will be using a Sony MVS-6530 video switcher:
A - Here we can see four rows of buttons:
- The bottom row is the preview bus, which controls which video source appears on the preview monitor.
- The next row up is the program bus, which controls which video source is sent out live. The vision mixer can cut and mix between which video source is selected on the preview bus to the program bus.
- The top two rows are the key bus which is used for more complex mixing.
- This desk has three sets of buses - the bottom is the program bus, and the other two are mix effect buses which can be used for mixing to other outputs and for more complex cutting such as split screen.
B - This is the T-bar (also known as the fader bar, or transition lever), which is used for mixing between video sources. The vision mixer can apply various wipes and transitions between the two sources, the speed of which these transitions take place depends on the speed that the bar is pulled.
C - This is the control panel which serves as an interface for more advanced features of the switcher, such as adding mattes to wipes, keying out colour, storing frame memories and more.
D - On the left is the transmission monitor which displays what is being sent out live, and on the right we see the preview monitor.
E - These are the various preview monitors dedicated to each video source.
I am really looking forward to mixing in the rehearsals and of course over the course of the show itself. Vision mixing is not something I had really considered looking into but the more I research and practice on the mixing desk, the more I am enjoying the experience.
Brown, L. (2016). The TV studio production handbook. London: I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd, pp.50-51.
Singleton-Turner, R. (2011). Cue & Cut: A practical guide to working in multi-camera studios. Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp.82.
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