Tuesday 11 December 2012

Multi Camera Evaluation

Multi Camera evaluation                                                                           Andrew Sharp




Talk show: Paranormal investigators
Our first show was a paranormal based discussion/talk show in which we had a professional medium come on the show to talk about her experiences. the show started with our host (Scott) introducing the basis of the show and then introducing the first guest  The show had a set which was split in two to accommodate a walkway in the centre in which our host and guests would walk through. There was a raised platform towards the back of the set in which a number of guests were placed who volunteered to speak out about their own experiences e.t.c. the set design was very well done on such short notice for our original plan didn't work due to a lack of material. The end result was a very dirty, grimy looking wallpaper with cobwebs and stains on the wall to make it seem more like a haunted house or just generally something creepy to suit the theme of the show. The set was designed by georgie mould who thought of the idea of using tea bags and ripped wallpaper to give the set its grimy look which worked extremely well in my opinion.

we had a bit of a tight schedule due to the change in idea late on so we had to work fast especially with booking a guest onto our show, we needed someone that we could consider a professional to come on and talk about paranormal activity for it is a rather loose subject which is subject to conspiracy. after several rejections and 'thanks but no thanks' replies from various local mediums and exorcists we finally booked our professional medium gilly H who was more than happy to come on and talk on our show. The pre production stage was a bit all over the place, we had debates over who was doing what but eventually scrapped a fair share of work between us (sort of). We then filmed a pre-recorded segment which would be put into our show which was a film of 8 people going on a 'ghost walk' around Royal Victoria Country Park which is supposedly haunted. The second pre recorded segment was our opening title sequence which was pictures of our guests and host edited into a background with the title eventually emerging at the end.


On the day we had between 2-3 rehearsals which all went relativity smoothly and we were confident that our show was ready. We all knew what our roles were, mine was a camera operator my job was to follow the host and capture his performance throughout the show. I didn’t have an incredible amount to do but I feel like I did enough to earn my PASS grade. The actually show itself didn’t run as smoothly as we would have hoped due to our V Ts not projecting properly causing us to retake a few shots. The show was an overall success and everyone agreed that we did well considering our late change of heart to do a paranormal based show. Our director very deservedly revived a Distinction grade; she was calm and reserved but was also very clear to what she wanted.



Improv show: Think fast


For our second show we knew straight away that we needed to have an idea and stick to it. We threw around a couple of ideas to start with for example me and Seb had the idea of a movie quiz based show and a couple others. we eventually decided that we would like to do an Improv based show due to the interest Tim had in a show called 'Thank god your Here' which puts people into scenarios in which they have to make up a character on the spot and be as funny as they can be. we had a clear early vision which was a high and I decided to take up the mantle as director for Tim wanted the role as floor manager (he was first choice as director) we had a lot of meeting to discuss mainly the set design of our Improv show, we had the idea to have several sets within our show which would be sectioned off into three or four. We decided to have two sets with a walkway through the middle so that our host could come through the centre and then when it was time for the first scenario the cameras would track over to the left or right to capture the action. We knew what improvisers we wanted as seb who does acting at the local theatre suggested them and stressed that they would be a good choice. 


we had a bit of controversy when I made the decision to step down as director for I didn’t feel like I had a good grip on the concept of the show and didn’t have the drive to boss people about and overlook everything that's going on. This was entirely my decision and we quickly discussed it together and georgie took up the role of director and we had a good few days of intensive work done in which need catching up on. We then had another issue when I couldn't reach our actors and we had no other actors to play the scripted parts. Shortly after our designated painter dropped out meaning we had yet another thing to sort out. We had too many meetings and didn’t focus on what really needed doing. We had a lot of conflict between us and didn’t talk and some of us didn’t show up to college which messed up the show for most of us. We had a big heart to heart meeting to discuss what had gone wrong, this did temporarily cause even more falling out between us but we just gritted our teeth together and got on with it. The threat that our show would be pulled if we didn’t produce it in two days really got people to start working together again.


The show itself was so by the skin of our teeth that it can only be seen as a work of art. i had the tricky job of lighting and sound so I was busy and effectively didn’t stop for two days. i had a pretty solid lighting plan for our show which required a quite complex format because I had not only to light one set but three all at different points in the show. On top of this we had no time for a full rehearsal so the actual show itself was a big risk for me. Also on the sound side we had a problem with our lapel microphone (tie mic) for our host which were giving back too much feedback and eventually didn’t work. To accommodate this I had to set up a shot gun mic literally at the last minute to make sure we had some form of sound to compensate the lack of lapel microphones. We had a mic in the centre to capture the whole set which also meant we could hear what was going on in the gallery. The show was such a gamble and worked incredibly well it was just as good as we hoped it would be before we were put on the edge of being cancelled. I am very proud that we pulled off this very ambitious show and it is a huge bonus to hold the mantle as the lighting and sound operator on the best Multi camera show of the year.  


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