Camera Operations:
This was the role I wanted to do most as I had missed the last session due to my illness. This is my role in the studio segment of the show. After rigging the camera, I got on really well with the equipment and I started on the track for my first attempt. I enjoyed using this, but it did get tedious after a few slides left and right. I know this was not a proper shoot and it was only practice, but I feel that I could have done better with this test run and gotten more from it.
I then had a number of runs on the other various cameras we had. We had four cameras in total and I managed to get a go on all of the angels. We all used the talkback devices which I'll talk more about later, but something I was doing to help the director was constantly getting new shots framed up when my camera was not on air. This meant that the director didn't have to ask me to change the framing as I was doing this already. I actually felt good that I had picked up this right away as I could see that it was helping the director. The director on those takes also mentioned it later which was nice!
As for the talkback.... I was dreading this, as I had mentioned in an earlier post. However, after a few runs of being the camera operator and having this talkback, it did start o feel natural. Even though some people shouted through it and others where softer, you could generally adjust the device to something that was not too overbearing and not too quiet.
It will still take some getting used to, but the talkback runs have calmed my nerves somewhat. That was one of my biggest worries going into camera operations and I am glad that I know this early it's not as scary as it looks!
Being Talent:
Now I have never coped well with being on camera with a large group of people around, but over the last few months and last few projects in which I have presented, my nerves have somewhat calmed. I know this is a role that nobody will be doing come to the actual show, but it is useful to know what help they may need come shoot day. As soon as the camera comes on, everyone else is focusing on their jobs so in reality, there I nothing as a presenter you can do apart from doing your best. While making up subjects for this practice was tough and somewhat awkward to get a proper conversation going. I feel like this gave me a better understanding of the pressures of being a presenter, and the do's and dont's!
I only had one go as the floor manager, and that was shared with George Nicholls who will actually be a floor manager on the day of the recording so I wanted to make sure I didn't get too much in his way. I didn't particularly fit this role as I am not really a loud person, but I gave it a go and it gave me an understanding of what George and Sonia will be doing on the actual shoot. I realised you need clear and precise information from the director and the PA to be a successful floor manager. I do not envy this role as there is a lot of pressure of making sure all is communicated clearly to the floor. I think the two-floor managers will work really well in this role. Even though personally, I wasn't very good at it. This opportunity gave me an idea of what will be going through their heads on an actual day. I know there will be a lot of talking through the headsets and they will have to do their best to communicate that to all on the floor.
Camera Assistant:
There was not too much to this role in the test shoots as all I ever did was hold the camera wires while the tracks were being used. However, in camera set up, it was important to work together as we had two people setting up one camera. I didn't find it useful that Connor wouldn't let me look at the camera for a while as he wanted to figure it out. Once I talked to Ferg and someone else on the floor, to I managed to get the camera in the right settings. This experience will help me on an actual day as I think Jason and I will be on a camera together so it will be important to learn who will be doing what in the camera set up phase especially. Come to the shoot it would be mostly monitoring wires and also battery levels etc.
VT Operator:
Into the gallery, and for this test shoot the VT operator basically had to press the space bar on a keyboard to get the VT Intro clip to play at the start of the show. This in itself was not hard, but I know come to the actual shoot there will be many more clips and timings will be very important to get right. It was hard to appreciate this job in this scenario, but I know come the actual shoot day there will be a lot of pressure on the VT's playing correctly and on time.
Vision Mixer:
For me, this was my favourite job if the. Making sure I cued and cut the clips at the right time was a lot of pressure but at the same time was very rewarding. I had not done this in the last session as I was ill. Without sounding too smug, I did manage to get used to it rather quickly. It may just look like pushing some buttons, but listening to the director and waiting for the correct times to change was a lot of pressure, even in a test run. Making sure to not press cut instead of cue was my first issue, but I managed to sort that out before we actually did a test run. I think Alex.H will be really great at this job and he showed that in his runs as the vision mixer. I would have liked to have tried more complicated roles with the mixer but realise we wanted to make sure everyone could have a good take.
I would love to try vision mixing again in the future and I feel like there is probably a chance to do it before I finish university. It was a surprise to me as going into the project it was one of the jobs I would have never wanted to do, but now it is up there with one of my favourites! As Helen and Simon keep telling us, keep your mind open to new jobs as you never know which one you will enjoy!
As I mentioned earlier on when talking about being the floor manager, I am not the loudest person. So when it comes to making yourself heard, I am not always the greatest. However, this being said I wanted to give the PA a go as it was originally my second choice. It was not a really tough job in the test shoot as it was only a 3-minute show and only required a few countdowns. However, come to the live show I can see this being very tough and there being many calculations to be sorted out before we start practising. I actually enjoyed the pressure of calling out the right numbers and I feel by the end of the day, I was doing a pretty good Job. Del seemed to think I was clear as well as making constant updates 45,30,20,15,10-0 seconds as well as on each minute.
Saying this, I am rather glad I am a camera operator rather than a PA for this shoot as I feel camera operating better suits my talents and I think Jemma and Victoria will be much better at this role that I would have been. I will definitely understand the pressure they will be going through when we actually shoot, as it is a very intense job when the numbers start building up.... And they will have at least 10x the number of countdowns that I did as the actual show is 30, not 3 minutes!
Probably the scariest task of the day was being the director. Over the day we all pretty much got the chance to be director but with the way things played out, I was second to last. In a way this wasn't a bad thing because I could watch and lear, but the nerves definitiely built as the day went on!
Once I got in the chair, I didn't feel as worried as I had thought. Del gives you the first 45/50 seconds with help and then leaves it to you. I think the worry was looking at four cameras plus what is going live all at the same time, it was a struggle at the start. As the three minutes went on I tried harder things like getting cameras to change position and focusing on different subjects. I also tried to cut straight away instead of cuing some clips so we got the reaction shots. I feel this went ok, I am by no means the best at this role but strangely I did end up enjoying it!
Conclusion:
The most important thing to take from today is that we all have our role but we now all understand the pressures of being in each of the other roles. This will be helpful as it should mean we can work together better as a team and understand what is happening if something goes wrong. The opportunity of going in each role also gives us an understanding of the pressures that each one of us will face and I think it is important that we know that now! This was actually one of my favourite days at university and I am really happy I pushed myself into trying new roles that I did not think I would enjoy!
No comments:
Post a Comment