Technical rehearsals

A brief for the programme is given to the director. The programme making team decide on the format. This would be the seating and layout of the studio floor. The set design team then come up with an idea for the set.

This is given to the director who then draws out a floor plan of the studio. He needs to consider the talent positions, set design, audience seating etc. From this he will be able to position the cameras accurately and add them to the floor plan The floor plan is copied and given to the lighting, sound, camera and staging technicians for their own uses.
Camera operators will check shots using spare people.
Sound operators will check VT inserts and audio levels.
Staging technicians will decide where to put the set.
Lighting technicians will check where the lights should be placed and what lighting to use.

After the technical rehearsal, the proper rehearsals begin with the talent. They will do a run through using the script and a ' stop/start' rehearsal. This type of rehearsal means they run from the beginning until a mistake is made, or the director decides he wants to stop. It is then run from the beginning again. This continues until it is flawless.

Scripts and Calls

The script is the most important part of the show. It guides everyone involved in the programme and is a communication tool between the floor and control room. It helps the director know what shots he needs to get, it helps the sound operators prepare the VTs and the vision operators will know which camera to cut to.

Planning and lighting the set

When planning to light the set you need to use Three Point lighting. Three Point lighting is when you use three lights to one person two hard light and one soft light.

The Back light is a hard light used to light what's behind the person being filmed so use can see the background.

The Key Light is a hard light used to light the person being filmed so they can be seen clearly to don't fade into the background.

The Fill Light is a soft light that used to elminate any shadows on the subjects face.

Three Point lighting can also be for Studio Shoots in Photography as well Multi camera production.

Planning and designing a set

The art directors come up with their own individual ideas, which they put together to produce a final set. They need to consider how the colours work with the lighting, the format, theme of the show and the size of the studio.

Our final set design was a city theme as the title of the show was 'Culture City'. We chose a night scene as the darker colours worked better with the studio lighting. We decided we wanted a trapezium desk for the talent, as this was slightly different to other set designs. We used five flats in total as a backdrop.

Talk-backs and their use/protocol

Talk backs are used for communication between the director, floor manager, camera and sound operators. Director always has his mike open and should anyone wish to contact the director they should make themselves known and wait for his response. Cans should remain on at all times unless told otherwise.

Planning audio coverage

Radio mics are given to the talent and microphones are positioned on the rig so that they can pick up audience applause.