Wednesday 30 May 2012

Project Evaluation

Project Evaluation

Today was our final project for the News Room Operations assignment, we begun the day by setting up the studio. As I was enrolled in the Camera Operating role, I set up the camera I would be operating during the live shoot. This involved setting up the tripod to correct head level for the presenter, then mounting the Panasonic P2 camera to the Tripod. The next step was changing the tripod setting to my personal preferences so that the tripod moved the way I wanted it to move without it dragging, which affects the shot during the live mixing sessions. The next stage was applying the correct settings to the camera to give to best quality picture available, these settings were: Aperture, Focus, Shutter Speed, White Balance and Gain.

Secondly, after I finished setting up the camera in the studio and the director was happy with the picture quality, I started helping out on the studio floor by marking our hazards with the correct hazard tape to highlight any risks of hazards such as tripping over cables. I made sure cables mats were used on the studio floor and in the appropriate places so that it didn’t leave any stray wires. During this point I felt that the studio floor was safe for the crew to do their roles. The reason I took this responsibility is because the designated floor manager wasn’t present at the time because he was late on arrival, so I took matters into my own hands and took responsibility for this roles as health and safety is a top priority on the studio floor due to so many hazards that can occur.

After I finished making the studio floor safe, I checked for any hazards in the gallery room where the Tricaster is located and I found that the whole room was very untidy and a lot of loose and stray cables were scattered everywhere, so I also took responsibility for the safety of this room and tidy the room immaculately. I then got rid of any stray cables that we not needed during the production and packed them away appropriately. I then managed all the cables that were needed for the production and made everything safe using duct tape to tape the loose cables to the floor, near tables and walls to ensure no hazards of tripping can occur, I thought I did a very good job with the motive of health and safety in mind.

The next job was getting ready for the production, everybody got in position with his or her role responsibilities, then the director said over the talkback communication that Camera 2 was a very good picture quality and the camera operator for that camera couldn’t correct the problem so I took responsibility and changed the camera settings of camera 2 and then the director was pleased with the final picture of the camera after I applied the correct settings, I changed the aperture so that the picture wasn’t too dark and applied a white balance so the camera understood what the colour white should be as it was confused that is a blue colour. This made the camera look like the other cameras and there were no differences with the cameras. I felt that I did a very good job by saving time and improving the quality of the final production.

After the cameras have been sorted, it was time for a rehearsal before the final shoot, we got through the rehearsal without any problems until towards the end, because we had a sports presenter, we had to schedule which cameras would be next up so that no interference got in the way of the continuous live production. As a group we identified this problem and

The next stage was the actual production; the production was 30minutes long and after doing research of various news shows, I found that there wasn’t a lot of action between the camera as it stayed to on camera for the majority of the time, the only time there was action between the switching of the camera was when there was a guest or interview involved. During our production we had a guest on our show so this is when my camera came into use and took orders from the director, other than that I stayed focused on the presenter incase of an emergency safe shot if a problem occurred with the main camera. So before we shot the production, I used the viewfinder of the camera to make sure everything is perfect as the viewfinder gives you the correct information rather than using the LCD screen, I was happy with the picture in the view finder so after that I used the LCD screen because I didn’t need to frame any other shots due to the research I gathered and the running order that was present at the time.

During the whole production, I felt that I was consistent during the whole show because I also felt that I could have paid more attention during the points when the VTs were running, I should have been focused more on my camera instead of taking on other responsibilities which the Floor manager didn’t notice, for example the monitor in the background which presented the title graphic of the news show went idle, so I noticed this problem and then solved it during the interval of the VT which stopped the problem from occurring and I was able to go back to my camera without any problems.

Additional help I offered to my group during production was providing important documents on the studio wall such as: Floor plans, Running order, Reece location survey, risk assessment, production call sheet and healthy and safety documents. They were there to help the crew know what hazards to look out for and any additional information that everybody needed to know. I thought this was a good touch to the final production and was happy with my own involvement.

Overall, I thought that I played a good part of the production in my group during the role of camera operator and taking the floor manager role into account as they wasn’t present during the morning, I made sure health and safety was the main priority on the studio floor. The only downfall to our performance was that our group had to cut out the last VT so that the whole show fitted into the 30 minute scheduled gap. This problem occurred due to the Tricaster crashing making the VT’s buffer during the production therefore losing time in the total cumulative time during the production, I think there could have been anything to prevent this but for the group to be aware that problems can occur and that we need to prepare for problems and be organized.




            

Monday 28 May 2012

Detailed Production Roles




In the television industry, you have a variety amount of production roles, which need somebody to take responsibility and carry out there duties so that the production runs smoothly, especially during a live broadcast. Here is a list of production roles you will find in the television industry: Director, Producer, Vision Mixer, Floor Manager, Camera Operator and Runner.

The directors responsibilities during a Television production is to supervise the camera operators and give them orders of the types of shots he wants so that he can command the vision mixer who he is working closely with to switch to the next camera. He is also responsible to maintain order for the rest of the crew on the set and in the control room. He must meet key requirements of specific shots, which the producer asks for, the producer is the one who co-ordinates the whole show.

The producer’s main responsibility is to overlook everything the television show has to offer such as idea development, budgeting and hiring the crew. The producer can work with the director to decide upon the set design. The set design can be set up to look however the television has been pitched with a good budget and it can also involve certain designs to help position cameras to give a really good shot. Another responsibility of a producer is to keep everything scheduled and that the television program doesn’t fall behind.

The vision mixer is only present during live television due to the fact that pre-recorded television will require an editor to put all the different camera shots together. The vision mixer works closely with the director and communication and understanding is very important between these two production roles. The main responsibilities as a vision mixer is to switch between live video sources, which will be linked to the cameras being used, and to switch to pre recorded footage, title sequences, ending sequences, graphics and nametags also known as lower thirds. There is a lot of responsibility during this role and there is no room for mistakes as mistakes will be noticeable to the viewing audience.

The floor managers main duties within the industry is to work closely to the director based in the gallery room and regurgitate any information or instructions from the director, to the talent and crew on studio floor and then give the final outcome or result to the director. Other duties the floor manager has to carry out is to ensure that all equipment on the studio floor is working correctly before the shoot and during the shoot, if any problems are found, the problems must be solved by the floor manager as he is responsible for any technical problems on the studio floor.  They must count down the crew and talent so they have full understanding about what is going to happen next.

The floor manager needs to ensure that health and safety is always present on the studio floor and that regular check are always carried out so that any hazards are present which may cause injury.

The camera operating roles is in charge of their specific camera equipment. They are responsible of capturing the right shot bearing in mind the framing and other aspects, which affect the picture quality. They are also responsible for setting up their equipment before the show including tripod, camera, camera settings, cables, they will be guided by the director through communication via talkback systems. Camera operators can also offer shots, which may be creative or useful to the director.

The runner role is usually a junior role to help them gain experience on a studio floor. Runners carry out a vast amount of small responsibilities during a production such as carrying equipment, fetching equipment and doing odd jobs such as making drinks for the crew or talent until the runner has learned and gained experience to take on a bigger responsibility during productions.





References:




Sunday 27 May 2012

300-word pitch

Target Audience


My target audience will be BMX enthusiasts aged between 16-24 years of age. They must also be interested or entertained by the Olympic games as BMX has recently been introduced into the olympic sports.


Idea for my VT


The idea of my VT is to record my VT at the location 'Platt Fields in Fallowfield' I choose this location because Olympic contestant Shanaze Reade trained at this particular BMX track and I thought it would be a very good idea to film at this location and at the same time talk about the history and the up coming talent this particular BMX track is bringing to the olympics.


Structure


The structure I had in mind for my final VT was quite advanced and researched. It would be difficult to pull off as a lot of research will be needed and a lot of technical skills during post production will be needed as well.


The structure is the following:


- Establishing shot of the track
- Piece to camera walking towards the camera, which will be located on the BMX track whilst the bmx riders are going around
- Voiceover a long sequence of general views of the riders racing around the track
- During the voiceover, a graphic will appear in monochrome to show statistics of the popularity of the sport of BMX
- Interview with the a BMX enthusiast
- Fade into the three voxpops needed, the questions will related about BMX and the Olympics
- Shot list of a bmx bikes
- Piece to camera, presenter giving a final summary or conclusion of the question.


News Related


The reason I want to choose this idea to film as my VT is for the reason that the 2012 Olympics is coming up and the VT will be perfect as it will be current news which is great for a news show because it will interest more people.




My presentation can be found at: http://prezi.com/malejg8tviwz/pitch/



Tuesday 13 March 2012

Production Diary Week 5


13/03/2012

Today we were told to come up with ideas on full studio sets for our live multi camera shoot. All the idea's we generate will be put into one idea which will be our final set design for the shoot. The find idea's I would have to do primary and secondary research and most probably create a document with all the final ideas together to show the final set design. The things I have in mind for my set design is to be Unique, Professional and Creative.

We have been told to start creating a treatment for our live multi camera shoot, this will become very useful before we actually decide our final set design because we will need to know the target audience, after knowing this information you can choose specific equipment for the set which will entertain the target audience. The treatment will let you know what kind of show we will be shooting and what type of music will be playing which can also give us a big clue on what to decide for our set design.

Production Diary Week 4

06/03/2012


Today we generated ideas for new props which would be suitable for our live show. The props needed to be suitable with the music which was going to be used. You could use a microphone on a stand if someone was going to be singing solo. If there was a drum set, piano and other musical instruments that were not going to be used then it would be an unsuitable for the set design. I then started to focus on the set design and I used a studio catalogue called 'Main Catalogue 18' to look for stage equipment, accessories and lighting which can be used on set for the live show.

  • Lasers
  • Smoke Machine
  • Audio Systems (Speakers)
  • Stage

Production Diary Week 1

14/02/2012


The Class was shown a range of creative composition photos which have been nominated for the Pulitzer prize and that have won the Pulitzer prize. We then learnt how to create creative composition photos by applying specific rules such as 'rule of thirds' and 'depth of field'. We was then given a task of finding a creative composition photo and had to talk about how the author of the photo had applied the rules. The photo I used was by Banksy which is an anonymous graffiti artist who is very popular and is very well-known. The photo I used from this artist was called  'Flower Bomber' this photo represents replacing war and violence with love and peace. The whole picture is in monochrome and only the flowers are in colour to emphasise that the thug is throwing a bunch of flowers instead of a molotov which represents anti-war.

Production Diary Week 2

21/02/2012


On the 21st of February, we was divided up into groups of 5 and had the task to film footage to be edited into a 30 second intro for a live music show. We was given the Panasonic P2 cameras. Before we went to film footage for the intro, we were given a full tutorial on how to use these P2 cameras and Peter went over the techniques we were familiar with but to make sure we understood all these techniques which really helped as it helped refresh my knowledge on the cameras. The techniques he went through was;
  • Gain
  • White Balance
  • Iris/Aperture
  • Shutter Speed
  • Zooming Techniques
  • How to use a tripod correctly
  • Exposure
We then went out recording footage using these techniques correctly and bearing them in mind and the results were a better standard. After we went out capturing footage, cutaways and general views, we then log and transferred instead of log and capture because we used the P2 Media Cards instead of Mini DV Tapes ready to edit for the next lesson.