As Live - Initial Ideas

 Initial Ideas

Having worked well together on previous projects, Heather Wallbanks and I decided to partner up and collaborate on the pitch for the As Live unit. 

Heather and I brought together and discussed our ideas that we had thought of within the unit briefing. It was discovered that both of us wanted to make a game show of some sorts. In the UK, game shows have always held a presence on British TV, with the earliest evidence of competitions/game shows in broadcasting thought to be 1926 (Holmes, 2008). With this in mind and our enjoyment of game shows, we decided upon pitching a game show. We wrote a list of potential game show ideas ranging from an outdoor obstacle course at a waterpark, to a scavenger hunt. We felt that with As Live being shot in March, the weather conditions might not be suitable and could put both cast and crew at risk, with maximum temperatures predicted to reach 13 degrees celsius in Kent (Accu Weather, 2022). A scavenger hunt was therefore more feasible. We thought about conducting it within a supermarket and getting the contestants to go around fetching items within a time limit however, we realised that the TV show ‘Supermarket Sweep’ uses this format through getting contestants to answer various questions and go around collecting items within a time limit (IMDB, 2022). It was also felt that a scavenger hunt probably wouldn’t be enough to stand alone for a half an hour live TV show and would start to lose the audience’s engagement if the whole 30 minute show was a scavenger hunt. As a result of this, we decided to have a few challenges for the contestants to partake in and the scavenger hunt be a segment within the show. 

Due to the popularity of Ru Paul’s drag race in the UK, “with the first series of Ru Paul’s Drag Race UK racking up over 12 million viewers” (Chakraverty, 2021), an increase of more than a third of members of the British public identifying as part of the LGBTQ+ community in four years (as of 2020), and a decrease in those identifying as heterosexual (Robinson, 2020), we felt that the idea to make our show LGBTQ+ friendly is current and also will aim to help others gain a bit more of an understanding of aspects of LGBTQ+ culture. With drag culture being current and popular partly due to Ru Paul’s drag race and partly due to changes in attitudes in society, with the UK being a more “diverse and tolerant society” (Government Equalities Office, 2022), we want our idea to be very glamorous and camp.

Bibliography:

Accuweather (2022) Weather for Kent in March 2022. At: https://www.accuweather.com/en/gb/maidstone/me14-1/march-weather/328972 (Accessed 20/01/2022)

Chakraverty, M. (2021) ‘Ru Paul’s Drag Race UK: ‘I spent five years plucking up the courage to try it out’’ In: iNews 12/01/2021. At: https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/rupauls-drag-race-uk-bbc3-series-two-start-date-contestants-826828

Government Equalities Office. (2018) National LGBT Survey. At: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/722314/GEO-LGBT-Survey-Report.pdf (Accessed 20/01/2022)

Holmes, S. (2008) The Quiz Show. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. At: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucreative-ebooks/detail.action?docID=380401# (Accessed 20/01/2022)

IMDB (2022) Supermarket Sweep. At: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0180384/ (Accessed 20/01/2022)

Robinson, G. (2020) ‘Number of people who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual at UK high’ In: The Guardian 06/03/2020. At: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/mar/06/number-people-identify-lesbian-gay-bisexual-uk-high

As Live - Unit Briefing

 Unit Briefing

The briefing for this unit is to pitch, develop, and create a 30-minute As Live Production Pilot (Glazier, 2022). 

The TV Pilot should be something that is new and current. It is often hard to come up with an idea for a TV show that hasn’t been done before so I will be trying to think about how I can put a “fresh spin” (Brown and Duthie, 2016) on an as live production for this unit. Furthermore, as the production is not taking place at within the studios at Maidstone Studios, the location will have to be found and will be done as either “an OB or a flyaway” (Glazier, 2022). When thinking about an idea for as live, the location will need to be carefully considered and taken into account, especially in terms of its viability and whether the budget would be able to cover it. 

With digital streaming becoming increasingly popular (Spilker and Colbjørnsen, 2020) and the fact that the as live show isn’t commissioned by a broadcaster, the show will be live streamed online. Through doing this, it is enabling us to keep up with technology and trends as well as mean it is easily accessible wherever you are in the world. 

Whilst contemplating upon ideas for the as live production, it will be important to keep three key things in mind in terms of the aims of the show. The show should inform, educate, and entertain the audience. In addition to this, ensuring that the concept of the show is viable also plays a crucial part (Glazier, 2022). Looking at current trends and seeing what the general public are interested in currently will hopefully allow myself to come up with a current and relevant show that will hopefully appeal to an audience. 

Communication is key within the media industry as well as in life in general. Through having clear and concise communication with the cast and crew, it will help the production run more smoothly and ensure that any decisions, particularly the quick, split-second decisions allow for a good execution of the production (Screenskills, 2022). The as live production will be multi-camera directed which will also mean that the director will have to clearly communicate their vision and instructions to the cast and crew (Screenskills, 2022).

With the show being multi-camera directed, it allows for the performance and everyone on screen to be captured (Glazier, 2022). This will hopefully allow for back-up shots to be available if anything goes wrong. Ensuring that there are multiple cameras capturing multiple shots on the as live production will be key. 

When developing ideas for the as live production, I will try and take all of this into consideration. 

Bibliography:

Brown, L. and Duthie, L. (2016) The TV Studio Production Handbook. (1st ed.) London: Bloomsbury. At: https://www-bloomsburycollections-com.ucreative.idm.oclc.org/book/the-tv-studio-production-handbook/ch1-introduction (Accessed 12/01/2022)

Glazier, J. (2022) As Live lecture series. [Kent: University for the Creative Arts 11/01/2022].

Screenskills. (2022) Screenskills Unscripted TV Producer. At: https://www.screenskills.com/job-profiles/browse/unscripted-tv/editorial/producer-unscripted-tv/ (Accessed 12/01/2022)

Screenskills. (2022) Screenskills Multi-Camera Director. At: https://www.screenskills.com/job-profiles/browse/unscripted-tv/editorial/multi-camera-director/ (Accessed 12/01/2022)

Spilker, H. and Colbjørnsen, T. (2020) ‘The dimensions of streaming: toward a typology of an evolving concept’ In: Sage Journals Media, Culture & Society 42 (7-8) pp.1210-1225. At: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0163443720904587 (Accessed 12/01/2022)