Transition | Development

Since pitching our idea, we have made a number of significant changes to the original idea.  Crucially we were still making a mockumentary, but we were changing the style from the BBC history documentary style to factual entertainment style, drawing from 'Supervet' and '24 Hours in A&E'.


I watch Supervet from time to time, and I thought that there was a lot of potential from twisting the show into a comedy by making the vet completely incompetent, but with the same air of confidence we see with the real Dr Noel Fitzpatrick.  I began developing the concept and played around with potential ideas by watching through some episodes to pick out key points we could draw out and twist into a more comedic angle.  Here is what I noticed:

• The show follows a very structured narrative style: it will start with establishing the day at the vet practice, followed by an introduction of a patient with their backstory (which can often be a sob story of some description), we then enter the consultation room where the vet investigates the problem, he then performs the treatment on the animal, and will either end with an emotional montage of the animal, either happily recovering from the surgery or remembering the pet that has sadly died.  These are all overlaid with interviews with other vets, Noel himself, and pet owners.
• Fixed cameras are placed throughout the surgery, although it is clear there are some pickups used for some shots.
• Noel has some little quirks which make him more interesting to watch, for example, drawing free hand sketches to show the problem rather than relying on graphics.
• Noel is also very confident, and can sometimes come across as a little arrogant, but that does not diminish his passion for the animals he treats.

I would like to twist some of these tropes, for example, by taking away the compassionate attitude toward the animals, this could make the vet character more entertaining as he does not care what he is doing.  I would also like to make my vet character incompetent, so humour could be found in what he or she gets wrong when treating the animals.

Moving forward, we will be basing our mockumentary on this style of film rather than the Philomena Cunk style, so we will need to shoot the film using a lot more static shots and in a more 'fly on the wall' style instead of a presenter-led piece as we were initially planning.

As-Live Production | SUBMISSION (Links)

Steal the Style - Live Recording

(On course hard drive)

VT: Old to New



VT: DIY Interview



Research and Development Journal

• Pitching our Idea
• Brief and Introduction
• Refining our Ideas
• Pitching and Development
• Proposal and Pitch
• Research
• Research for Segment: 'Old to New'
• Vision Mixer Research
• Entertainment Programme Research: HIGNFY
• Factual Programme Research: Top Gear
• Editor Research: Dan James
• Studio Production
• My Role in the Production
• Contributors and Production Design
• Production Management
• First Production Meeting with Del
• Scripting / Production Values, Standards and Consistency
• In the Studio with Del
• Mockup VT and Experiments
• Studio Masterclass with Del
• VT Shoot: Old to New
• VT Shoot: DIY / Etsy Interview
• Editing the VTs
• The Rehearsals
• Transmission Day

Project Evaluation

As-Live Production | Project Evaluation

What worked?

Our initial pitch went very well and I was thrilled to hear that mine and Jason's idea was runner up to Steal the Style.  I feel we came up with a fun and original idea that could easily appeal to our target audience and I feel that we communicated that very well with the panel.

I feel my VT team worked together very well and we all had a good work ethic and chemistry that made the VTs come together so well.  Even though we had a small disaster with the Old to New VT, we came together and fixed the situation very quickly and it came together very well.

I feel I was an effective sound operator, and I was able to capture a good amount of crisp and clear audio for Bonnie's interview VT.  My sound editing also turned out very well and I am glad I was able to cut to the music as well as I did both in the VTs and in the gallery at the vision mixer desk.

The editing process also went very well, I was able to complete my fine cuts fairly quickly meaning that I had plenty of time to make minor tweaks in the build up to the live show.

Considering I have never done it before, I believe I took to the role of vision mixer very quickly and I felt very comfortable listening to the director's instructions and working the desk.

I feel the course as a whole worked very well together, I worked with people I have barely even spoken to and I feel a lot more comfortable in asking others for help and feedback on my work.

Cutting the credits to the music was perfect.

What didn't work?

Sometimes during the rehearsals and transmission I feel I let my nerves get the better of me, which led me to over think at times.  This caused me to slip up in the last rehearsals and in the transmission, though not always noticeably, I was well aware of these mistakes and they were all avoidable.

As aesthetically pleasing as it turned out, I think that I could have done more with the Old to New VT.  I feel the mockup looked really good through the aspect ratio effects I had used but we did not carry that through to the actual VT to avoid distracting from the clothes.  Looking back, it would have worked well to reinforce the tone of the era we were portraying in the film.

I feel that my edits were fairly disorganised as well which made the editing process more laborious than it needed to be - I could have organised the footage a lot better.

I also think that I did not record as much audio as I could have, for example, it would have been nice to use authentic camera shutter sound effects but I instead opted to add them in post which detracted from the authenticity of the VT.

What did I learn?

Of course the most significant thing I learned from this unit was vision mixing.  This was entirely new skill to me and learning it was one of the best experiences I have had on this course, not only because I enjoyed it immensely but also because it has opened up a potential career path that I had not previously considered.

Working in a live studio environment was also a very new experience for me and I learned to work in such a large team, both before and during transmission.  From working on the VTs I had to liaise with the director, crew and producers to record sound and edit the VTs and in the studio I was under the instruction of the studio director.  This gave me an insight into what it is like to work with a larger team than I am used to.

I believe that I learned to deal with stress a lot better, especially when I was in the gallery.  I knew throughout the entire process that one mistake on my part could negatively affect the outcome of the live recording, but I did not let that get to me and even when I did make one mistake I carried on like normal and finished the show with flying colours.

What could I develop?

I would like to look more into vision mixing so that I can delve more into the vision mixer role as a potential career path.

I could also develop my organisational skills when it comes to editing.  I was able to organise the footage for the interview VT, but when it came to the Old to New VT, I was a bit lazier and just added the clips as they came, so by organising my footage better I could be a lot more efficient with my work.

I also feel I could be more ambitious with my colour grading as the VTs both seemed fairly tame in this respect.

Conclusion

On the whole, I am very pleased with how this project turned out.  I was initially dreading the idea of going into a live studio but once we got into it and started working as one big team, everything fitted together so nicely that it became a joy to be a part of, and I regret that it is now finished.  Looking to the future, I am finding that offline editing can grow boring after a while and vision mixing seems like a fun and exciting alternative that I want to look into as I head into the industry.

As-Live Production | Transmission Day

After months of planning and preparation, it was finally transmission day and I was cautiously optimistic and excited for the day ahead.  We managed to fit in three rehearsals before the live transmission and we were able to make any final tweaks in this time.

I was now mixing the graphics as still images rather than as animated graphics which looked a lot smoother than they had before.  Since the lights were all properly rigged now, I went back into the studio and adjusted the plasma screen's picture to get the best image I could.  I feel it looked a little dark, however I found an issue with one of the PMW cameras as it would come up with a strobe effect if the backlight was at a particular brightness.  I had to find a balance between avoiding the strobing and picture quality, and I feel I found that balance.

As far as I know, I only made one noticeable mistake during the final rehearsals.  During the DIY segment, rather than punching up Bonnie's lower third to the programme, I got ahead of myself and punched it to the plasma instead.  We did not see this on the programme, but the studio audience would have been able to see this.  This was a fairly minor error, but I now made sure that I kept a keen eye on the graphics monitor to see what graphics were coming up so that I punched them up at the correct time.

During one of the rehearsals, as the end music was running, I cut to the credit titles in time with the music, which I was thrilled with.  It was entirely by chance, but I was now keen to achieve this in the live show as well.  Del said that a director would love me for that and I was very pleased that I had managed to think on my feet as I saw the drop coming to cut on that beat.

The live transmission went fantastically from my point of view, all except for one split second mistake I made during the drag queen performance.  My hand slipped when cutting to one camera and I accidentally cut to a camera that was pointing toward a dark area of the set.  I was mortified, but I reacted very quickly and rectified this immediately.  Nobody in the gallery noticed, however looking back at the live recording you can see one single frame of black.  I was very frustrated with myself for this but these things happen with live shows, and in a real world situation this could likely be rectified in an edit, since this was an as-live recording.  This showed me that I need to ensure that I am exactly sure which button I press and not to panic when things like this happen.  I feel I kept calm and reacted in the correct way so that this did not get me down for the remaining minutes of the show, avoiding another potential mistake like this.

On the other hand, I am over the moon that I was able to make the cut in time with the music for the credits.  This left me on such a high note at the end of the show, even such a simple thing can make a show look a lot more professional and well-polished.

As-Live Production | The Rehearsals

We did not have that many days to rehearse the show, and the days we were rehearsing were mostly spread over a few weeks due to adverse weather conditions and the Easter break.  Despite this we were able to make the most of the time we had thanks to the patience and determination of the whole team.

For our first rehearsals we were relying entirely on stand-ins as we did not have any presenters or models booked.   The directors, George and Gavin were also still working on blocking out the camera shots and movements.  We were also all getting used to using the talkback system - although I only ever used it between the rehearsals in case I needed to communicate to the floor manager about the plasma screen in the later rehearsals.

For our next set of rehearsals, we had our presenters, Alfie and Adeline which made things a lot easier as they were able to practice their lines and we were able to practice having them there as if they were presenting the real thing.  The directors and producers also taped out a layout of the set on the floor to make blocking more straightforward.  I was also able to work out some more complex aspects of the mixing desk than just cutting between cameras.  One of the first things I did was apply a colour key to the graphics, so that any astons that we wanted to appear on screen had a transparent background and could overlay onto the programme.  I did this by going into the control panel and selecting the colour to key out (chroma green) and applying the key to the graphics input.

I also set up a split screen with a border by pulling the T-bar to a half-wipe on one of the mix effects buses and cutting straight to that bus on the main programme bus.  I then went into the control panel and added a matte with a thickness of about 0.75 to create the border effect.  Learning these things early on proved very useful, as it meant we could practice framing up for the split screen before every rehearsal so we were ready for the actual show.

In the next set of rehearsals, we had some more of our contributors in the studio, mainly models, which made rehearsing so much easier.  We also had all of our VTs ready during this block of rehearsals so we could effectively run through most of the show.  Del noticed that some of the VTs faded to black (including my Old to New VT), which was a big no-no, as I explained in most editing post.  He said that mixing to and from black looks very sloppy and makes the audience very aware of the cutting - therefore Aimée and I will need to go back to the editing suite to amend this.

During the studio interview with Bonnie, there were points where her handmade clothing items are discussed, therefore Del suggested that we get graphics to show on the plasma screen of these items.  This is something that the graphics department needs to sort out but it will be my job to punch it to the plasma.  Therefore I discussed with the technical staff how to make one of the mix effect buses output to the plasma screen on set, and they set up the screen so I was now not only controlling what went out on the programme, but also on the on-set plasma screen.

Something I am particularly pleased about with this rehearsal was that I now had a frame memory captured with the show logo to leave on the plasma screen.  This meant that we had a placeholder to leave on the screen when there were not graphics on the screen.

On the topic of plasma screens, I inherited responsibility for the plasma screens on set.  I noticed that the on-set plasma screen was very bright on the cameras.  This is something that would change when the lighting was rigged, but I still wanted to try to fix the lighting issue with the screen.  I went onto the set and manually adjusted the backlight, brightness and contrast on the screen so it was not too bright on the programme, and this fixed the problem.

Aside from this the main issues were with blocking and practising how to shoot some of the segments, which largely fell to the directors, but of course I needed to practice how I was cutting these segments as well, under their direction.  For example, during the 'fashion fails' segment, camera 1 heads in to the audience via handheld, which we usually cut too late so we saw some very clunky camera movement on the programme (which was not the operator's fault, but mine and the director's for neglecting to cut to a steady shot).

Del also suggested that the lower third graphics were left on screen for longer to allow the audience to digest the information - again this was something for the directors to consider but since I was pulling the T-bar, this was also my responsibility.

We were coming up to the final rehearsals and the set and lighting was now rigged.  The first rehearsal did not go well at all - there was a lot of miscommunication between the gallery and studio which meant the presenters and models were missing their marks and the cameras were not framing up as they should be.  As the day went on however, things got a lot better and the final rehearsal of the day was almost perfect.  There were a few minor details to fix - for example, I was cutting from the stings ever so slightly too early, so I needed to wait for the text to appear then disappear before cutting.

Simon and Danny (graphics department), as well as the directors and myself also agreed that rather than animating the lower thirds, I would use a still image to mix in.  This was due to a problem with the graphics machine which processed the graphics very slowly and made the graphics look very cheap as they were animated on screen.  It was a shame because Simon's animated graphics looked great, but due to the limitations of the software, we had to sacrifice this.

The show has come a long way through the rehearsals and I am nervously excited for the live show.  I have gone from knowing almost nothing about vision mixing to being able to mix for a whole 30 minute show and I can't wait for transmission.

As Live Production | Editing the VTs

The editing process for the two VTs lasted a lot longer than I would usually expect an edit to take.  This was largely because we found we needed to make minor tweaks throughout the rehearsals that meant the  edit was constantly being changed.

'Old to New'

This VT took the form of a montage of shots of two models showing off different outfits based on different eras.  I edited the sequence together under George's direction and created a rough cut with the sequence in order:



I am happy with the overall pacing but I feel I could make some of the cuts a bit faster, particularly in the 70s section.  At the minute it feels a bit awkward for the shots to last so long, especially as I had not yet got around to adding the prices and details about the clothing items - I aim to do this by using motion tracking as the camera pans and tilts and overlaying the text over this.

The 90s section also needs a lot of work.  At the minute there is no real sequence to it, it is just random clips which I will need to sort out in the next cut.  I feel the music goes on for too long as well - it is quite a slow track, and leaving it on the same track for two minutes leaves the viewer feeling bored to some degree.

I will also need to ensure all the audio tracks are muted other than the music bed in the next cut.



In the fine cut I had added the motion tracking using Adobe After Effects as I had intended and I feel this makes the piece seem a lot more professional.  Looking back at the font, and with feedback from Helen and the producers, I agree with them that the fonts do not really fit in with the VT.  There are too many fonts going on and they are not aligned very well with the items so they look a bit clunky.  I will reconsider the font in the next cut.

I do however really like the glitch effect, I feel that I need to add more of an audio cue for that to come in otherwise it feels uncomfortable to just happen without any change in audio.

The 90s section has also improved dramatically - in a similar way to how Dan James cuts for Top Gear and The Grand Tour with the 'hold and release technique', fast cutting between the dark moody shots with the pricing shots works really well to break up the flow and looks a lot better aesthetically.

In the next cut I will address these changes, and I feel I need to change up the music a bit as it feels a bit boring for the moment.

In this fine cut I added colour grading to the different eras.  I opted not to go too heavy on the grading as I had in the mockup as I did not want to distract from the clothing, which George agreed with.  I also refined the text a great deal, ensuring each title sting was interesting a relevant, and that the other text elements fit in with the style of the VT.

I also added some camera shutter sound effects so that it is not just like a music video - this added to the narrative elements in the piece.  These sound effects also add another level of depth to the VT and it feels more real.

I improved the glitch effect a great deal as well by making it transition into another audio track as well.  I am pleased with how well this cut works and it reinvigorates the VT which was coming up a bit dry by this point in the earlier cuts.  I also aimed to cut more in time with the music, though I did not let the music drive the visuals.  As I have learned in my research, this makes the audience well aware of the cut and feels less natural.  By editing to the beat in a more subtle way, this adds a level of finesse to the edit which I am very happy with - to the point where I feel this was ready to feature in the show.

I made one tiny change to this VT during the rehearsals and that was to remove the fade to black at the end, and instead made the final clip last a few more seconds.  This is so that I had more time to mix or cut back to the studio cameras on the mixing desk, otherwise the VT would land on a still frame which would look very unprofessional.

DIY

This edit was much more straightforward than the Old to New VT.  The main issue I had at the start of the VT was cutting down the interview to fit into the time we had available.  I was aiming to cut the VT down to 2 minutes, but having made the sync assembly, the interview came to about 4 minutes.  Therefore I had a lot of dialogue to cut out.

I transcribed the audio, and with the help of the VT Producer, Conor, we went through and cut parts of the interview that we did not need.  We also liaised with producers, Katie and Melissa to see if there were any questions we asked in the VT that could be asked in the studio (as Bonnie was being interviewed in the studio after this VT as well).  I was then able to cut the interview down into a much more manageable sync assembly:



Now we had the sync assembly, the edit became a lot more manageable and I was able to cut between the interview and Bonnie's demonstration of making her top.



I am glad that we prepared as much as we had by shooting as much coverage as possible as I was able to cut in almost anywhere I needed with GVs.  I also recorded and added a voiceover with one of our presenters, Adeline, that Conor wrote to add more context to the GV when it appears in the show.  Some of the GVs did not quite fit in, they come in a bit too quickly or slowly and it makes the VT look a bit clunky, so I will alter these in the next cut.

The audio levels are also not quite consistent which is something I will need to rectify in the next cut.  George and I also agreed that we needed some sort of music track in the background because the VT feels a bit dry at the minute.  Adding a music track for the sections that Bonnie is not talking will help to maintain interest throughout the entirety of the VT.



In the final cut I had ensured that all the dialogue matched in terms of volume - speech should stay around -6dB and should not peak and I have ensured that this is true throughout this VT.  I have also tidied up the GVs so that they fit in better with the pacing of the VT.

I am particularly happy with how I have cut the music in during the first actuality shot after Bonnie speaks (when she is threading the sewing machine).  I feel this was a very natural cut and amplifying the music in time with it gives a very nice and steady flow to the VT.

Another last minute change was adding the lower third graphic in to the VT.  I was not sure whether or not to add this before as we introduce her with a lower third graphic in the studio, however upon conferring with the directors and producers, I added it in the VT as well as this would be the first time the audience sees her, and so I needed to signify who she was.

Overall I am very pleased with how the VTs have turned out.  Both of them were shot very well thanks to George's direction and Alex B's camerawork.  George and Conor also worked very hard on getting the research together to make the script and find the locations and contributors altogether making these two very strong VTs for the show.  I feel things may have run smoother if I had thought to do certain things earlier - such as liaising with Simon to get the lower third graphics, which I had almost forgotten about until the weeks leading up to the show.  Despite this I am happy with what myself and the VT team have accomplished here.

As a small thank you to Bonnie for helping with the show, I have agreed to tweak the final edit of her interview so she can use it for her own social media purposes.

Transition | The Pitch

Katie, Melissa and I had each agreed to go forward with a 'Cunk on Britain'-style mockumentary.

Our film would be a 3-4 minute long scene from Moments of Wonder from Charlie Brooker's Yearly Wipe, but I would rewrite the scene in my own style.  We would aim to keep the same subject matter and facts but change the character and I would add my own jokes.  The character would be naive, like Philomena Cunk, but with a different personality.  Here is the scene we would be adapting:



Alex (Writer/Director)
I would be responsible for a number of things in the project, in particular, writing the script, planning the shoots and directing the project during production and post-production.

Melissa (Editor)
As editor, Melissa would be responsible for editing the film under my direction, including organising the footage, colour grading and audio mixing.

Katie (Director of Photography)
Katie would be working with the cameras, and was in charge of deciding how to shoot the scenes, in terms of lighting, camera movement and framing, again, under my direction.

We would all be taking a level of responsibility with regards to producing the film, as we did not have a producer.  Therefore, locations, scheduling and budgeting would be a group effort.

We researched into the mockumentary genre, looking at 'Cunk On...', Charlie Brooker's 'Yearly Wipe', 'Come Fly With Me', and arguably the first mockumentary, 'This is Spinal Tap'.  The main realisation from our research is that the comedy came from how the directors stuck to style of a documentary overlaid with the obscure characters which took real or believable facts you would expect in a documentary and added colourful and naive characters for the humour to shine through.



After pitching our idea, we got some useful feedback to take forward with our idea.

Simon suggested that for me to get a better taste of writing, we should come up with our own subject matter and research for our film instead of just re-writing the original scene.  He also made it clear that it was vital to cast actors that could deliver a funny and believable performance for the comedy to shine through.