TV Show: Evaluation 

For this assignment, we had to produce a live TV show as another group project. For this evaluation, I have referred to the Gibbs Reflective Cycle. To begin, naturally, was the stage of generating ideas. I felt like my input was valuable to the group but I didn’t take over as I wanted to follow someone else’s vision. As soon as I knew we were doing a live show, I knew I wanted to be at the vision mixing desk so I made sure to take that position at the first opportunity, prepared to do the graphics for the show in pre-production. There were enough jobs that everyone should’ve had something to do before the day and then a different one when it arrived. However, due to it being a large group, some people took to jobs while others were more laid back which caused a bit of a collision between members. From the start, I think most of us knew having a big group would cause problems and it definitely did throughout the process. It was almost as if we were two smaller groups battling for control, with two wannabe directors and I found myself locked in the middle of the two groups. I don’t like sides at all as they never end well so tried my best to mediate and make sure both lots of people could get ideas heard. Due to this split, it took about four weeks until we had a stable plan. If we are to do another project that is similar, I will make sure to position myself in a smaller group. I think I did a successful job of assisting rather than directing during this stage of development.

The ideas that were thrown around included a cooking show, a comedy show and game show among others. We eventually came to doing a courtroom show which, from my point of view, wasn’t the most interesting and I deemed it being fairly limited. It’s an idea that most wouldn’t choose so we could separate ourselves from other groups but the concept of a courtroom is quite limited in terms of what can actually go on during the shows. While something like a game or news show has been done to death, there is always another way to switch things up and create a different form of show. However, I was happy to go along with this as Alex seemed to have a good concept of what he wanted it to look and feel like which I could execute well from a graphics and editing stand point. One of our issues came with what to do for a pre-recorded element, which the brief asked for, as no one wanted to create a VT of evidence or something tied to the case. Jess and I instead came up with the idea to throw in a series of adverts that could tie into the case in strange ways. To do so, in the research stage, we wanted to look into a more comical direction for the courtroom’s structure overall, following something like SNL by having a host introduce it and the adverts act like other smaller sketches within the show. Another issue with the courtroom was that for it to be successful the script needed to be convincing to seem like a real case so we needed a good pack of research in that area to assist a script writer. This would also involve choosing a good case that the show could focus on. Overall, for this section of the process, I don’t believe everyone was onboard with one concise idea, wanting to take it their own ways, so there was a lack of connection that lost us several weeks due to discussions.

The next stage of the assignment was pre-production. During this time, everyone carried out various pieces of research to compile. It seems that we worked best when everyone was doing their own thing that we could assemble. This was great when it came to the prerecorded section as we chose to produce a series of adverts, with everyone having their own that they could take ownership of. As well as doing my stationary and film trailer ads, I was asked to edit the chocolate and life insurance ones. Editing wise, I need to work on my colour grading and experiment more with a succinct style. It was my idea to link the adverts together in a separate story parallel to the main show, which was made easier by my editing across a few of them. The main issue we hit with the pre-production stage was that people were too comfortable and distracted doing their ads that focus was lost from the main show. The set was loosely planned out by the lads working on that but no clear direction and the script for the main feature wasn’t written. In my case, continuing the trend from all previous assignments, I read through and made a list of my research topics links and quickly moved on to devote my time to graphics. As our ambition was a show within a show, it needed lots of graphic elements. The most difficult trouble I had was deciding names for the show and trying to reflect our target audience with its design. I think our issues came from not sticking all the way to one idea to develop. This stage, generally, worked better as everyone could have their own vision for their research and pre-production element. 

However, this would later cause us problems as good ideas were being generated but communication between everyone was where it should’ve been. This meant that certain major jobs, such as writing a script, fell through the cracks and weren’t completing. One of the reasons why this problem arose was because people would do the job they wanted before leaving everything else, knowing that someone else would eventually have to do it, due to the large group. This left me with a few jobs like show rundown and script which I knew I could get done but wasn’t sure to the quality. I will hold my hands up and say that I definitely need to improve my scripting skills by, and not limited to, carrying out more research into the topic in question beforehand, rather than just reading through. This will be an area I spend a lot of time on during the FMP but for the assignment I only ended up doing it because no one else was getting it done. Thankfully, Jess went through and edited it to seem less robotic and more like the characters. We worked decently well together and Jess had some amazing ideas that I tried to push to the front of the project. In the case of the show rundown, I got down the separate sections of the show, where would be live and where would be VT, so we had an overall look of the show. However, what it didn’t have was a more in depth like at camera positions and shot types at points in the show. There were too many voices and, due to my confusion of what it was to look like, I just left it with less detail. In hindsight, it would’ve been easier on the day if we had a concise show rundown which everyone was onboard with so the production could run smoothly.

The next stage to look at is the creation of the adverts and other VTs in more depth. This seemed to go pretty smoothly for a change, with everyone getting on with their own filming and sometimes editing. In a couple cases, as mentioned before, I was asked to edit and these were times where I was given a vision by who ever made it that I could complete. It also helped as I draw up the story boards for most of the adverts that they would then go away and develop further. My physical drawing skills aren’t great but they get the point across for concepts and we could all understand them. Tilly did a great job organizing who was to complete which ad and we had many group discussions so everyone could get on the same page. The main issue we found here was that it distracted from the main live show. If we are to do it again, I would divide the team to have one group working on the VTs and pre-recorded package while the others carried out preparation for the live filming day. With the adverts, I believe that each advert was different and achieved a differing style, in accordance with the research we carried out as a group. From a filming point of view, the issue I had was that people weren’t taking direction and the general process was slow. To solve this, I need to be more assertive and make sure to give everyone a clearer vision form the start. As I wanted to edit it as well, I blocked people out maybe too much so a couple of them would be confused as to the overall look and framing of the video. Another issue I had with editing the VTs was when pulling them together they weren’t seamless and didn’t quite function as a full advert break. My solution to this arose after a day of work experience I had at a sound post production studio which taught me more about the importance of sound, in separation to music. This allowed me to underlay a beat of the next video to have them connect overall.

Another aspect of the VTs that we decided to have was the host’s introduction stage were Tilly appears on screen. We had this prerecorded as Tilly was going to be our floor manager on the day of live filming and it would be one less thing to worry about. I synced this up with the two graphic title sequences and lower thirds. Jess and I filmed a test run to get a gage of Tilly’s position and get a feel for the dialogue, which Jess and Tilly wrote together. However, due to time constraints, we had to pack up and come back another day. For this, disappointingly, I was too focused on getting the graphics and adverts done as the live day was quickly approaching so a few of the lads went with Tilly instead to get the final footage. In retrospect, I should’ve gone with them to make sure Tilly was happy and the final footage worked as it did in rehearsal but, other than a slightly blurred video, the lads seemed to do a good job.

Subsequent, was the set design. From the initial concept, we all knew that the best way for this to go was to have a full court room aesthetic, with a decorated desk for the Judge and stands for the defendant and representative. Initially there was a plan a live audience to sit in frame but this was dropped when it came down to space. The set design was only ever plotted out on rough bits of paper, never with a confirmed plan, although the dimensions were all sound and well thought out by Vi and Alex. The main issue with the set arose when it came to sourcing and building it. Generally, there were many miscommunications that lead to it not being up and ready to go for our intended live show date. Consequently, we were pushed back a week and the entire group helped to put it together and source props in the short time remaining. Learning for next time, we need to make sure the set is prepared with more structured plans earlier on as a priority over pre-recorded elements. Also, we didn’t order enough wood wallpaper for the flats so a couple of them were painted to an amateur degree. In future, I must make sure to have all the equipment and slightly more prepared in case there are any issues. 

This brings us to the main stage of this assignment: the live filming day. Following set construction in the morning, which took a while as no one there had a complete picture of the plan, I set up in the gallery and everything was as expected from research so I felt well prepared. Extra to the planning before the day, we were able to use the autocue and overall the set looked decent. Alex, who was the director in the gallery, wasn’t around in the morning during the rehearsal so Jess jumped in and was doing a great job, although the guys on the cameras were more interested in the next break than each rehearsal. The first rehearsal was a walk through to map out where the cameras would be pointing and I got the hang of using the preview and program monitors to test all the sections of the show. It was here that we decided to record in smaller chunks, due to the separation of the ad breaks that would later be added in post, so that the cast could look at scripts in between takes easier. After lunch, Alex returned and we were good for action, the first take being a recorded rehearsal before moving into doing two takes of each smaller section. Over the course of filming, in retrospect, there was a slight lack of communication between the gallery and studio and I would jump in instead of Alex every now and again rather than parsing information down a monkey chain from the morning rehearsal. What I should’ve done was walk Alex through everything fully in the lunch break before filming rather than loading information while we were there. In an ideal world however everyone would’ve been there all day. During filming, the main issues were focus and reading from the script. We had a deadline time in the studio which we relayed to the rest of the team but even with that there was still no immediate urge to get things done quickly and well. By this point in the assignment, the group wasn’t functioning as a whole and it made this, the main part, more difficult to complete. In the afternoon, as filming went on, I became a bit of a tyrant, wanting to get jobs done myself to move things forward to hit the day’s deadline. In future, as a group, we must make sure there is a stronger direction that everyone is onboard with so jobs will truly be carried out. 

Following the filming day, I took the footage to be edited the next day as planned. This show fits the brief well in being a pilot as there were many issues that would need to be sorted in the future but I am still happy that we had footage at the end. Part way through the show day, I wasn’t sure if that would happen. In editing, I put together footage from all the individual section recordings to find the best takes of each section. In a true live tv production this wouldn’t be possible but if that were the case we would need to make sure cast had learnt lines and everyone in the group were more aware in advance. This does mean that the finished recording has a few continuity errors and points are jumpy to hide inconsistencies between them, such as the inflatable hammer moving. With the live and pre-recording sections put together I think the complete result works overall, albeit the problems I have stated throughout. In conclusion, when working on our next live production, I will make sure to work in a smaller group and follow a clear direction from someone else as initially intended. As the production went on and jobs weren’t getting done, I would quickly jump at them to help out but I think I began jumping in too much and strayed away from the position I had set out to do. A different solve to this is to formally take on a directorial position, but that defeats the point of what I’m trying to achieve. I need to learn that in this industry I need to be more willing to working in a team and letting other people have two hands on the wheel. My teamwork skills are great as a leader but I need to learn to follow instructions better. Finally, I do feel slightly let down by my group as everyone decided the group dynamic wasn't working and chose not to do anything about it, meaning that collecting information from people to display together was more difficult and the production itself had challenges.