As Live Production - Set Building, Lighting Rigging & Final Rehearsals

The Final Rehearsals

Up until this point it was always presumed that there would be limited studio time available to us throughout the duration of the As Live unit, therefore we had to make the most of all the rehearsal time we could get. Despite initially expecting to only get an hour or two of rehearsal time today, the lighting and set design team were ahead of schedule, meaning we could get in and begin setting up equipment and preparing contributors, presenters and the gallery for full rehearsals.

We managed to get 5 full rehearsals done - 2 being in the morning, and the other 3 occuring after lunch before heading back up to the baseroom for a debrief with Del. Our first rehearsal of the day didn't go too well as Del noted numerous errors, inconsistencies and general issues from the gallery. This included things such as camera operators moving abruptly while on air, microphone audio and stings being faded in and out inaccurately as well as an issue with a cable which lead to the first 2 rehearsals being without Camera 3. Fortunately, things began to pick up after the first rehearsal and the production began to run much smoother; I attribute this to everyone being away from the cameras for just over a week, getting back into the swing of things so to speak, not that it's an excuse of course haha!

Me and Alex have begun to work particularly well together during this project, with us both on Camera 4, we've done our best to learn and understand each of our sides of the show so that we can aid each-other regardless of who's turn it actually is when it comes to operating the camera. We decided that I would cover the first half of the show with Alex taking the latter half. It's worth noting that Alex's portion of the show (the second half) doesn't consist of as many shots as my half, with a total of 2 shots as opposed to my 8, however we both got a fair amount of screen-time in each side of the show, with Alex's parts being the camera the presenters directly address during the majority of the second half of the show.

It's important to understand that due to the scope of the project that we're working on, as well as how many people are involved, it's only natural that there may be feelings of being under-utilised, though I've found this process to be incredibly enriching and rewarding on a personal level and am eagerly anticipating doing it for real tomorrow afternoon!

I also wanted to note how much more cohesive the group felt today, I think it's starting to become clear to everyone that we're all striving to make this one thing as great as it possibly can be, and through that passion a sense of teamwork has genuinely flourished as we approach the end of the ambitious undertaking we set out to complete 4 months ago. It was great to be able to get direct feedback from Directors, Gavin & George L. Their feedback has been crucial to smoothing out the entire process on our end, as camera operators. Laura, Connor W and Katie P have all been great in terms of both professionalism and coordination, allowing for us all to work effectively to produce a variety of different shots, whilst adhering to both the directors instructions and the script in hand.

On a personal, unrelated note; I made the decision to spend the night in Maidstone this evening, staying at a local hotel. I believed that this would be the best option given the distance at which I commute during my days at Uni. This allows me to get a sufficient night's sleep and get in tomorrow for the 9am call time, fresh, fed and ready for the show! Looking forward to it!