Unit 23 and 4 Studio Production Diary

• Last week we had 2 rehearsals in the studio to get everyone used to their own roles and to help them understand how to use the equipment and technology. During this time I found that I was quick to understand the camera and how to use it effectively, the headsets I found really useful but they were a bit noisy at times. Being a camera operator my job is really important which is something I liked as I can take instruction well. 

• In the production folder I was responsible for writing a risk assessment for the studio and I was also responsible for collecting the right research needed to make our production. I feel that my commitment to the team is good as I'm always able to come in I'm always committed to doing any tasks needed and I'm easily adaptable to work in a group environment. 

• I like the idea of the production as it's like a cross between Saturday Night Live and the AMC Review Show. I like the idea as it appeals to more than one target audience and talking about films is something that I like to get involved in. As part of the production is based on discussing The Avengers I find this part especially good as superheroes are something that I am passionate about. 

• In the production meetings we have discussed what pre-production work would need doing and we've been able to delegate work to different people we've also discussed the shot list and script so that everyone knows what they are doing which will make rehearsals run smoother giving good practice for when we actually film our production. 

• In rehearsals it's been useful to run through different segments allowing everyone to adjust to their individual roles, it has allowed me to practice moving from different shots and it has given me skills in how to frame someone well and to look at what different shots would look like. 

• So far there hasn't been any problems that I am aware of. 

Unit 23 Assignment 2

                                                                                           

Research on topic and similar products.

• The programme would feature a parody of Batman which comes from inspiration from programmes such as: The Office. 
• The most popular films varied throughout this year the superhero styling's of Guardian's of the Galaxy and Captain America: The Winter Soldier
• To comedies such as 22 Jump Street and The Other Woman. The highest viewed films being Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America 2, The Lego Movie, Transformers 4 and Maleficent.                   -all being of a fantasy genre.
• The most popular MARVEL movie is The Avengers Movie made in 2012. 
• Opening Weekend: $207,438,708 |Total Domestic Gross: $623,823,910 [est.]
• |Worldwide Gross: $1,514,357,910
• Total Budget*: $300,000,000
• The film is the first to break $200 million in three days. It destroyed the mark held by the previous weekend record-holder, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. 
• It blew away even the superhero-record $158.4 million posted by The Dark Knight, and raised the bar considerably for the Batman franchise's upcoming adventure, The Dark Knight Rises, due out July 20. 
• The opening-weekend audience was evenly split between the young (under age 25) and the older (over age 25), polling data showed. It was watched by women (40 percent) almost as much as men. It worked as a date-night movie (55 percent of ticket-buyers were part of couples), and a family movie (24 percent were part of a family group). 

                                                                                                                                  

• The most popular DC character is Batman closely followed by superman. 

From watching things similar I gather that the target audience would be ranging from teenagers to people in their mid-thirties making our target audience a younger demographic. Younger people like comedy and a lot of young people watch films making them interested in films in general. People of this age could be watching these programmes before or after the 'watershed' depending on the style and genre of the programme. From this I would say that the programme would be viewed after the watershed just to be on the safe side.

• Review videos such as 'What The Flick' and 'SourceFedNERD' are good examples of the types of programmes or films that people review.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2014/jul/02/the-10-best-films-of-2014-so-far

The guardian says that the best film of 2014 so far is The Lego Movie. 

Opening Weekend

$69,050,279 (USA) (9 February 2014) (3,775 Screens)
£8,051,140 (UK) (16 February 2014) (547 Screens)
HUF 49,975,608 (Hungary) (9 February 2014)

                                                                                                                                                                

Movie Talk

These types of programmes usually start with a presenter giving a brief introduction on what the show is by welcoming who they have on the show -guests who then begin to explain the topic they are discussing. 
The debate then begins having one person start with their opinion, whilst they are opening next to them is a photo graphic with a photo linking to the topic -the photo usually changes depending on what the person is saying. They tell us their main points in a limited amount of time before moving on to the next person's point of view. Their is usually a graphic on screen telling us who the person speaking is and what their argument is. 

During the debate the other person often objects like in a jury allowing the presenter to mediate the argument and decide whether to agree or disagree with the statement. 
At the end of the two debates the presenter then asked the 2 apposing sides close their argument in 45 seconds. Then the presenter told the audience to vote in the poll on who's argument was better and who won the versus that week. 

I think that this program was able to remain interesting as it had two people with opposing opinions which made it funny and relatable which helped the audience keep engaged with it. The topics had a big following and they were topics that  different people have several opinions on. I think it's simplicity is something that makes it quite interesting as you're not focusing on anything distracting you from the dialogue happening between the people so it feels more personal.

Programmes like this target their audience by appealing to their personal opinions. Their audience are normally people who like film; the mainstreamers and aspirers as the films discussed usually have a fanbase and they are normally watched by a lot of people. Aspirers look for something new and exciting to get involved in and a lot of the films mentioned and debated about in these types of programmes are just that. They're your Spiderman's, your Ironman's and your Avengers.

Thinking about this programme compared with the one we hope to make I would say we would follow some of the structure of this programme but we will include more humour and it will be more relaxed instead of a formal debate it will be set out more like a discussion. We would also include more VT's and possibly more graphics to make it more light-hearted and interesting.

                                                                                                                                                                   


https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2nvmOdQeGmuWUhESWt1STJjYXc/view?usp=sharing

Pre-Production Folder

Unit 23 and 4 Studio Production (Planning)

Each person in the group needs to come up with their own idea and needs to write a blog post using the bold headings below

                                                                                                     

Topic/Issue you want to deal with and what you hope the program will achieve. Pick a creative and well thought out idea, using found images for your set/presenter/themes etc,

• Lies/excuses that people tell. -chat show
• Relating to people -topics that are funny, relatable. 
• It would be like a chat show making fun of the ones that have serious debates, almost like a parody which allows people to tell funny stories and talk about excuses that people tell to avoid doing something or the lies that people tell you to get you to do something or explain something to you. It could then move from joking around to something more political or controversial. 

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mikespohr/lies-parents-tell-their-kids#sh3uta

http://www.multiplemayhemmamma.com/2013/01/lies-kids-tell-their-parents.html#sthash.481DlOUF.dpbs

                                                                                                                                                                

Research the target audience what kinds of people watch similar programmes to the one you want to make? Give a list of  reasons for why your idea would be popular with audiences through linking to viewing figures

I would say that the people who would watch similar programmes to the one that I hope to make would be from teenagers onwards, the programme that I hope to make is like a cross between mock the week and the world debate. I would say that they would like my programme because it will be a debating show which people of these ages could find it interesting and it would hopefully have a bit of a comedic element to it. 

Some reasons as to why my idea may be popular with these audiences may be:

• Teenagers like something that makes them laugh. 
• People of these ages may find the topics relatable and feel as though they're involved. 
• It would catch people's attention and keep them engaged as there would be apposing opinions and the topics would change constantly.
• Similar things that would involve debating such as Question Time got 7.9 million viewers in 2009. 
• Things such as Mock The Week regularly attract 3.5 million viewers. 

                                                                                                                                                                  

Constraints: List some things that might cause problems for your production (time/personnel needed/the sort of set/knowledge of the studio equipment)  explain how you might get over these problems

Some things that may cause problems for the production could be:

1. Lack of knowledge of the studio equipment.
2. Scripting the show -it's hard to script debates and make them look natural.
3. Finding people to act in it. 
4. We don't have a big set.

Although these may become a problem when coming to make the production then we could find some ways around them. Lacking knowledge of the equipment in the studio could be solved by having practice with the equipment and trial runs to help improve our technical skills. The issue with the script could be solved by only having a rough script to go off and letting a bit of it be improvised to get the right balance so that people aren't going off topic but they don't look like they're reading completely off of a script. Finding people to act in it may be quite a big problem as we want it to look believable, this would take time and we'd have to ask around within the people in our team to see if they knew anyone who would want to be in it and people who would be good in it. Finally the fact that our set wouldn't be that big or creative would be an issue however we would just have to work on what we'll have, we would have to rely on the cast to make it funny so that the set wouldn't be as important. 

                                                                                                                                                                   
Genre what type of programme is it, what are the typical conventions of this sort of programme, what are you going to do to yours to make it more creative the program 


I would say that the programme would be of a comedic genre and a factual programme. 

• The typical conventions of a comedy are...
• There is usually a lot of sarcasm, wit and wordplay with people (characters)
• lots of bright colours
• there is usually a VT 
• There is lots of varying types of humour. Matching different types of people. 

To make mine a more creative program I shall follow the generic conventions and have bits of different senses of humour. 
                                                                                                                                                               
Guests/Crew needed Make a list of people you will need in the studio (presenter, participants, vision mixer, camera operators, number of microphones) What sort of people would you need to be in the programme? 

1. 2 or 3 participants and a presenter
2. 2 vision mixers
3. 3 camera operators
4. 2 or 3 microphones (and maybe a boom pole if more sound is needed)
5. Director
6. Floor Manager
7. Sound operator
8. Production Manager

                                                                                                                                                                

VT needed You need a pre filmed piece that you can edit into your production. What can you film and how will it fit into the programme?

We could film a theme tune for visual effects and have it at the beginning. We could also have another VT relating to the topic of someone speaking or making a joke of some sort.
                                                                                                                                                                
Outline structure  Roughly what will happen, a draft script/step by step/three act structure outline of the programme is needed.

Roughly the programme will start with an introduction by the presenter telling us what the topic today is and who the participants are. 

Then the participants will have a chat and debate about the topic.

It will then branch to a different topic and it will continue like this. 

It will basically continue like this. 

Unit 23 Assignment 1

Multi-camera Production is where something is filmed using multiple cameras to simultaneously film something. They usually are broadcasting live and it is often filmed on a set. 

Programmes such as: Celebrity Juice, Friends, This Morning, Jeremy Kyle, Sporting Events and news programmes are all examples of a multi-camera production.

Single Camera Production is a method of filmmaking where a single camera is used to film each individual shot to make up a scene. However sometimes on single camera productions more than one camera is used to film something such as a chase or an action scene as it would be hard to get it all with just one camera.

These sorts of programmes such as: The Inbetweeners, Grey's Anatomy, Pretty Little Liars and Coronation Street are all examples of single camera production.

The Pros and Cons of a Multi-Camera Production

The following websites talk about the pros and cons of multi camera production...

• http://videoproductiontips.com/one-camera-technique-vs-using-multiple-cameras

• http://lisagg2.wordpress.com/2012/11/22/the-pros-and-cons-of-multi-cam/

• http://www.studio-lights.com/blog/studio-method-vs-field-production.htm

From these websites I found that the most common pros and cons of multi-camera production were:

• Using multi-camera production is time saving.
• As some events are live you couldn't go back and shoot it again, things such as: sporting events or live performances.
• It would be easier to set up as you wouldn't have to constantly move the cameras around which would make it cheaper and in some ways more efficient. 
• The company would save money on editing as you would mix it together live using a vision mixer.

However...

• It doesn't allow much shot variety -if you wanted a different shot like an over the shoulder shot it wouldn't be possible to move the camera set up.
• If something goes wrong whilst filming you couldn't film it again. 

The following types of broadcast use multi camera set ups: 

• Studio News

• Panel Shows

• Quiz Shows

• Morning magazine programmes

• Sports Events

This Morning uses multi camera techniques. The time code 00:57-1:02 shows how the camera changed from being a two shot of Holly and Philip to a mid-shot of Katie Hopkins. We then see the camera zooming out into a wide two-shot of Katie and Anna on the couch 1:09-1:13. They had to use more than one camera to show the different responses and people without the movement looking too quick or jerky.

Celebrity Juice is another example of a programme that uses multi camera techniques. 2:08-2:15 shows the camera change, from one being a side angle of Louis to a side angle wide shot which zooms in and pans slightly to show more guests. They couldn't have used a single camera because there are a lot of people on throughout the show and it would institute a lot of running back and forth which would take too long and you might miss some of the action on screen missing people's reactions which would make the show less funny.






Football Matches are a different example of programmes which use a multi camera set-up. In this programme we see it change from a wide shot high angle at 0:50 to a high angle close up at 0:55. This shows that it is a different camera as it is looking from a completely different viewpoint. This type of programme would not have worked as a single camera production as it involves too many people to keep note of and the camera operator would be constantly running back and forth to keep with the action.

  Alan Carr Chatty Man is the final example of a programme that uses multi camera set-up. At 0:14 we see a wide shot from the left of the set which then moves to a mid-shot of Katy Perry which is more central of her looking into the camera this shows how the vision mixers have flicked from one camera to another. A chat show style programme is good in a multi camera set-up because they are usually live and it feels more personal as it allows the cameras to get closer more precise shots and it includes the audience which we see, the direction of several cameras allows the audience to see everything a guest is saying without missing it because it wasn't close enough.

When you look at the football match coverage compared with that of the camera styles of This Morning they have both made successful uses of a multi-camera set up allowing the audience to follow the action. In my opinion I believe that This Morning works better, the shot changes look smoother to me and seeing the reactions of the different guest and Holly and Philip gets me more interested in the topic whereas with the football it feels like the movements are jerky. I think the best use of multi camera is in Celebrity Juice, the camera moves to show us different people's reactions which makes the show funnier it wouldn't have worked as a single camera production as it needs VT's and there are so many things that needed to be on camera that it would have been too hard to film it with just one camera. Lastly I think that Alan Carr could have been a single camera production as it mainly focuses on one area of the set so you wouldn't necessarily need more than one camera to film it.