Evaluation
The task for this unit was to create a 30 minute As Live Studio Production pilot episode (Glazier, 2022), which I believe we successfully achieved.
Link to the Cosmic Snatchers live stream:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AtyDMj621k&ab_channel=UCATelevisionProduction
As production manager, I was in charge of managing the budget. I found this fairly easy to do after I had set up the spreadsheet, the Monzo bank account, and the fundraising page. Ensuring that money is raised and budgeting for the show is key to the making of a show (Brown and Duthie, 2016). Managing the budget pushed me in some ways in terms of being more confident in standing my ground when it came to having to say no to some requests for the budget that we couldn’t afford. For example, we had an issue with one of the gayliens’ transport, which meant that rather than them driving (they had offered to pay for their petrol), they would have to take public transport, which would’ve cost around £60 per day. As we needed them for at least two days, it would’ve blown a big hole in our budget. He also had covid and wasn’t sure whether or not he’d test negative by our shoot dates so, I put my foot down, saying that we couldn’t have him as a gaylien anymore, and instead proposed the idea of having one gaylien. Initially, we weren’t sure about this, but it worked out in the end and made us come to the realisation that the show was actually better with one gaylien and that two gayliens would’ve been too many. The increased confidence and ability to fundraise is something that I will use in future projects
With one of our key members of the sound crew unwell with Covid-19, as producer, I had to step into the role of GRAMS operator. Due to my interest in sound and my want to support the production in any way that I could, I was happy to step into this role. Within a couple of days I had to learn how to operate GRAMS, put sound effects into the software used (SpotOn), and how to fade the GRAMS in and out live. Initially, I struggled a bit as the sound files for the GRAMS weren’t renamed and still had their downloaded file names, so I had to sift through and rename them. I also had to figure out where it felt right to add in the GRAMS, which was made easier in the dress rehearsals as I tried to match up playing the GRAMS in with what was being said. For example, upon the word “sewers” (Cosmic Snatchers, 2022) I decided it was fitting to play in the toilet flush SFX. Throughout rehearsals, I made notes on my script in pencil (so they could be easily changed) as to what GRAMS and BED tracks I was playing in and when. This proved incredibly useful and by the live show, I had memorised where the GRAMS and BED tracks were within the show. With the script constantly changing right up until the day of the live show, I had to keep adapting the script and inputting the GRAMS into the script. In addition to this, I also had to find sounds that both myself, Ryan Perry (sound operator), and my co-producer, Heather Wallbanks, felt were missing when carrying out the rehearsals of the show. I found various sounds online as well as through sound banks kindly provided to me by the lecturers. By stepping into the role of another, it gave me a greater sense of empathy and showed me how different departments worked in tangent with everyone, which will be useful when going forward.
With regards to the VTs, I was a runner for the day, which involved getting the cast’s lunch, running to get anything that was needed, setting up the locations, helping to look after the talent, and cleaning.
The production had incredibly high stress levels and there was tension at points. In order to ease this tension, we had a couple of trips to the pub and played some of the games for the show, which seemed to help somewhat.
As I live with my co-producer, Heather Wallbanks, I found it hard at times to have down time as work was always being talked about. In order to combat this, I tried to set boundaries about when we could discuss the show and that we wouldn’t discuss the show after 8pm in the evening.
It is not healthy to work all the time every day of the week, so I had to make sure that I balanced both my work life and my social life. Initially, I found this hard as there was a lot of preparation involved with the show, particularly as Heather Wallbanks and I had to take on more responsibilities with people not meeting their deadline and achieving the work that we had asked them to complete, so it was hard to find down-time. However, as myself and others around me realised that my mental health was deteriorating because of this, I took a step back and ensured that I had at least one day off from doing work a week. At points, I had to reiterate to my peers that it was perfectly okay for me to take a day off as I had received some rather unpleasant messages from my peers. As Kellison (2008) states, a “mental break” is needed at points when working on a production, particularly as a producer, who often have large workloads (Kellison, 2008).
Afterwards, I talked things through with one of my peers, who had not understood my need to take at least one day off, we both tried to understand where we were each coming from and agreed that it was okay for me to have some down time.
Mental health within the media industry is an increasingly prominent issue that there has been a lot of discussion around in recent years. In a study conducted by the University of Surrey, it was found that “mental health prevalence rates are far higher than the national average” in the entertainment industry (Hanna, 2022). Furthermore, in response to the “major mental health crisis” within the film and television industry (Ravindran, 2020), petitions have been going around campaigning for better working conditions and mental health support within the entertainment industry as well as The Film and TV Charity as well as various productions companies setting up support for their employees (The Film and TV Charity, 2022) (Ravindran, 2020). Due to the show having an affect on my own mental health and being a producer, I felt that it was important to ensure that I was regularly checking in with the cast and crew to see how they were doing. Whenever they were in, I would have a private conversation with each of them and catch up, if I hadn’t seen any cast or crew member for a while, I made sure to send them a message. This appeared to prove somewhat useful as people expressed their feelings and views to me.
Upon discussion with Program Director, Mike Rymer, it was proposed that in future projects a contract is created to establish clear boundaries in terms of those working on the project sticking to their agreed deadlines, and ensure that people are allowed to take days off. I feel as though this is a good idea going forward and will use it in future projects.
We had the opportunity to work with the Design for Theatre and Screen course at UCA Rochester on our show. This was an amazing opportunity to gain some understanding of what it is like to collaborate with set design on a project. We had some idea of what we potentially wanted the set to look like in our pitch for the show; however, we needed some assistance in making this happen. Heather Wallbanks (Producer), Ellie Beckett (Styling), Anouk Jansen (Studio Director), Katarina Sengstaken (Executive Producer), and I worked with the set design course to turn our vision into a reality. We had an initial meeting where we discussed what we wanted and shared ideas. After that initial meeting, the set design team then went off and created the set for the show. A recce also took place, where we worked with the set design team to ensure that the set would fit within the location, would be within the frame of each shot, and was how we wanted it to be. Right from the initial meeting up until the live show, I was in contact with the Art Department Coordinator ensuring that communication was kept throughout and that our ideas were brought to life.
Fig. 1 The podiums for Cosmic Snatchers being made (2022)
Due to the short notice and set design course’s availability, they could only design and create the set for the live show and not for the VTs. In addition to this, they had a few members of their course drop out of this project, meaning that we had to take on the role of ordering and conducting the draping of the show as well as doing the set design for the VTs. We decided upon using floor length silver silk curtains with tulle draped in front of it. A few of my peers and I stayed behind after a day of rehearsals and did the drapery for the show.
Fig. 2 Elsie Potter attaching tulle to the ceiling of the studio (2022)
I thoroughly enjoyed collaborating with the course and look forward to working with them on any future projects.
When the clock hit the agreed time of broadcast (3:00pm), we ended up enduring some technical difficulties with the streaming platform, Youtube, which delayed the live stream until 3:15pm. There was nothing that could’ve been done to prevent these technical issues with Youtube, so I remained calm and updated some of the audience that we were experiencing technical issues. Eventually, the technical issues were somewhat resolved and the livestream of the show was able to go ahead. However, upon watching the livestream back, Youtube had caused some glitches, which was frustrating as we weren’t aware of these until we watched it back on Youtube as it had appeared fine in the gallery. Luckily, we had recorded the version that we were seeing in the gallery so have a glitchless version of the show.
In future projects, I think that it will be important for the talent to have earpieces. We didn’t have access to earpieces for this show, which meant that the floor manager had to communicate with the talent using actions, which the talent (mainly Queen Thunderclap) struggled with occasionally. In addition, it would’ve also assisted the runners in ensuring that we could get hold of them when we needed to rather than having to rely on them answering their mobile phones. Through having an earpiece, it would enable a discreet method of communication between the cast and crew (Harley Street Hearing, 2022)
Fig. 3 Earpiece (2022)
To conclude I now have a better idea of who I do and don’t want to work with going forward based upon people’s work ethic and the treatment of people. As a result of stepping into other roles, I also found other roles that I potentially want to explore in the future. I believe that I was somewhat successful in my role as a producer, having overseen the production throughout trying to ensure that it ran smoothly (Brown and Duthie, 2016), which it mostly did. I feel as though the show was successful, but still has some room for improvement in terms of the challenges. I learnt a lot throughout this unit, which I will be taking into future projects.
Bibliography:
Brown, L. and Duthie, L. (2016) The TV Studio Production Handbook. London: I.B. Tauris. At: https://www-bloomsburycollections-com.ucreative.idm.oclc.org/book/the-tv-studio-production-handbook/ch8-game-and-quiz-shows (Accessed 12/04/2022)
Cosmic Snatchers (2022) [Online Video] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AtyDMj621k&ab_channel=UCATelevisionProduction (Accessed 12/04/2022)
Fig. 1 Hollis, J. (2022) The podiums for Cosmic Snatchers being made. [Photograph] In possession of: the author: Rochester.
Fig. 2 Potter, E. (2022) Elsie Potter attaching tulle to the ceiling of the studio [Photograph] In possession of: the author: Rochester.
Fig.3 EarpieceOnline. (2022) Earpiece. [Photograph] In possession of: EarpieceOnline: Poole.
Hannah, P Dr. (2022) UK Technical Backstage Entertainment Industry Mental Health Evaluation. [Thesis] University of Surrey. At: https://gsauk.org/sites/default/files/2020%20Images/UK%20Backstage%20Entertainment%20Industry%20Report%20%286%29.pdf (Accessed 12/04/2022)
Harley Street Hearing. (2022) Presenter Earpieces. At: https://harleysthearing.co.uk/what-we-do/hearing-protection/presenter-fittings/#:~:text=TV%20Presenters,their%20ear%20comfortably%20and%20discreetly. (Accessed 19/04/2022)
Kellison, c. (2008) Producing for TV and New Media: A Real World Approach for Producers. (2nd edition) Oxford: Taylor & Francis. At: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucreative-ebooks/reader.action?docID=535177 (Accessed 12/04/2022)
Ravindran, M. (2020) ‘U.K. Film and TV Industry Faces Mental Health Crisis: “Seismic Shifts Need to Happen”’ In: Variety 12/02/2020. At: https://variety.com/2020/film/directors/uk-film-tv-mental-health-crisis-film-and-tv-charity-1203502271/ (Accessed 12/04/2022)
The Film and TV Charity. (2022) Support For You. At: https://filmtvcharity.org.uk/your-support/ (Accessed 12/04/2022)
The Film and TV Charity. (2022) Through the Looking Glass: Charity Launches UK Film and TV Industry’s Largest Ever Mental Health and Wellbeing Study. At: https://filmtvcharity.org.uk/news-event/through-the-looking-glass/ (Accessed 12/04/2022)
Youtube. (2022) Youtube. At: https://www.youtube.com/ (Accessed 12/04/2022)
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