As Live Production - Steal the Style Transmission Day!
The Day Of The Show
Today's the day, I arrived at the studios just before 9am this morning and immediately proceeded to the baseroom in order to drop off my things so that I could head down to the studio and begin preparation for our first scheduled rehearsal at 9:30. We knew that we could save time by leaving camera equipment pre-rigged overnight, that way we wouldn't have to concern ourselves with fiddling with tripods, cameras and batteries first thing in the morning. Unfortunately whilst a lot of the crew was present and set up on talkback for the 9:30 rehearsal slot, some of the contributors were still in the process of being mic'd up, with a couple of people being stuck in a local traffic jam caused by a nearby accident. This was somewhat frustrating as it put us slightly behind schedule, however we quickly got our act together and pulled off the smoothest version of the show we'd done up to that point.
Having our first rehearsal of the morning go so smoothly acted as a nice confidence boost given that things had gotten off to somewhat of a rocky start. Del insisted that we tried to get 3 run-throughs done before we took a break for lunch between 12:00 and 13:00, at which point the audience would begin to be brought into the studio and the show would commence for real. We successfully adhered to that and managed to get 3 rehearsals completed and break for lunch on time. By the end of the last rehearsal you could feel the confidence in the room. Gradual improvements and tweaks were made throughout each attempt, for example I was frequently communicating with Connor W and Katie P who were operators for Camera 3 (to our left), this ensured that during the moments where both of us had to reposition the cameras for a specific shot, we didn't get in eachother's way at all. It really felt like me and Alex had the entire show on lock by the end of the last rehearsal, with each of us knowing eachother''s roles extensively as well as coordinating with the camera cables as each of us repositioned the cameras, that way making sure we didn't catch ourselves on the wires and risk causing damage to both ourselves and the equipment.
One of the points of interest within my portion of the show was the framing of my shots on the feet of the models when they walk out onto the catwalk. George L noted on talkback during one of the rehearsals that the framing was slightly off which confused me, as the script we had listed the shots as having the shoes L.O.F (left of frame). I made sure to bring it up with George L when he came out onto the studio floor after that particular rehearsal, at which point he simply clarified that he wanted those shots C.O.F (centre of frame), thus meaning the entire thing was simply a miscommunication as a result of an inaccuracy within the script. This incident is indicative of an issue me and Alex both had with the script in general. If we were forced to come up with some kind of constructive criticism against the show itself, it'd probably be the fact that much of the script felt much more like a 'rough guideline' rather than something we could actually follow line by line. Much of the dialogue, particularly during the interviews with contributors in the latter half of the show, felt either entirely ad-libbed/unrepresentative of the dialogue written in the script itself, or at some points it seemed that Alfie and Adeline both had different notes on their own cue cards, to those that were reflected in the script itself.
Once the audience began to be brought into the studio, tensions began rising, though I felt sufficiently confident throughout the entire day, surprising even myself during the real thing. It suddenly becomes very real when there's 70+ people sitting behind you, the studio goes quiet and the floor managers begin counting down from 10. As for how smoothly the live run-through went? Damn near flawlessly from what Del and others in the gallery stated. The rehearsal time seemed to pay off significantly, with just about every eventuality being addressed at some point or another, as a team - we had coordinated in a way that allowed for every potential issue to be addressed in an efficient and effective manner. Me and Alex made sure we had a spare battery to hand should we need to switch out urgently, though this proved not to be an issue as we thought ahead and pre-charged the battery we'd been using prior to lunch anyway. In terms of self-evaluation, there was one particular point where I could have improved and that would be on my final shot of my portion of the show; George L asked for my to close the lens slightly to stop the image from overblowing due to the lighting, however I initially opened it up further. Fortunately, I quickly realised what I was doing and corrected myself in time for George to cut to the shot appropriately, therefore I'm not too concerned about it - simply something I deemed worth noting for transparency's sake.
When all was said and done and the show wrapped, Simon came out to greet the audience and deliver a small speech thanking everyone for their hard work, contributions and support for the Steal the Style production. Alfie and Adeline were also presented with their framed show posters which we all signed this week. This was a nice way to thank them for their dedication and enthusiasm towards the project, not to mention the professionalism demonstrated throughout rehearsals and into the real thing. Following that with everyone gathered on the stage, we had group pictures taken as well as the signature selfie from Del that we've all seen from previous years! (pictured right).
As a unit, this has perhaps been the most enjoyable, rewarding thing I've taken part in during my time at UCA. It's been an awesome feeling to be part of such a large, ambitious project and manage to not only pull through the other side, but do so flawlessly. Del further emphasised when we returned to the baseroom that it was the smoothest and most professional production he's ever been a part of as part of his contributions to the TV Production course at UCA, so high praise from the man himself! We're currently waiting on the recorded cut of the full show to be uploaded, but rest assured when it is, it'll be featured on this blog, as well as all social media profiles for Steal the Style. It's been an honour to not only get to work, but also bond with so many great people on the course.
Today's the day, I arrived at the studios just before 9am this morning and immediately proceeded to the baseroom in order to drop off my things so that I could head down to the studio and begin preparation for our first scheduled rehearsal at 9:30. We knew that we could save time by leaving camera equipment pre-rigged overnight, that way we wouldn't have to concern ourselves with fiddling with tripods, cameras and batteries first thing in the morning. Unfortunately whilst a lot of the crew was present and set up on talkback for the 9:30 rehearsal slot, some of the contributors were still in the process of being mic'd up, with a couple of people being stuck in a local traffic jam caused by a nearby accident. This was somewhat frustrating as it put us slightly behind schedule, however we quickly got our act together and pulled off the smoothest version of the show we'd done up to that point.
Having our first rehearsal of the morning go so smoothly acted as a nice confidence boost given that things had gotten off to somewhat of a rocky start. Del insisted that we tried to get 3 run-throughs done before we took a break for lunch between 12:00 and 13:00, at which point the audience would begin to be brought into the studio and the show would commence for real. We successfully adhered to that and managed to get 3 rehearsals completed and break for lunch on time. By the end of the last rehearsal you could feel the confidence in the room. Gradual improvements and tweaks were made throughout each attempt, for example I was frequently communicating with Connor W and Katie P who were operators for Camera 3 (to our left), this ensured that during the moments where both of us had to reposition the cameras for a specific shot, we didn't get in eachother's way at all. It really felt like me and Alex had the entire show on lock by the end of the last rehearsal, with each of us knowing eachother''s roles extensively as well as coordinating with the camera cables as each of us repositioned the cameras, that way making sure we didn't catch ourselves on the wires and risk causing damage to both ourselves and the equipment.
One of the points of interest within my portion of the show was the framing of my shots on the feet of the models when they walk out onto the catwalk. George L noted on talkback during one of the rehearsals that the framing was slightly off which confused me, as the script we had listed the shots as having the shoes L.O.F (left of frame). I made sure to bring it up with George L when he came out onto the studio floor after that particular rehearsal, at which point he simply clarified that he wanted those shots C.O.F (centre of frame), thus meaning the entire thing was simply a miscommunication as a result of an inaccuracy within the script. This incident is indicative of an issue me and Alex both had with the script in general. If we were forced to come up with some kind of constructive criticism against the show itself, it'd probably be the fact that much of the script felt much more like a 'rough guideline' rather than something we could actually follow line by line. Much of the dialogue, particularly during the interviews with contributors in the latter half of the show, felt either entirely ad-libbed/unrepresentative of the dialogue written in the script itself, or at some points it seemed that Alfie and Adeline both had different notes on their own cue cards, to those that were reflected in the script itself.
When all was said and done and the show wrapped, Simon came out to greet the audience and deliver a small speech thanking everyone for their hard work, contributions and support for the Steal the Style production. Alfie and Adeline were also presented with their framed show posters which we all signed this week. This was a nice way to thank them for their dedication and enthusiasm towards the project, not to mention the professionalism demonstrated throughout rehearsals and into the real thing. Following that with everyone gathered on the stage, we had group pictures taken as well as the signature selfie from Del that we've all seen from previous years! (pictured right).As a unit, this has perhaps been the most enjoyable, rewarding thing I've taken part in during my time at UCA. It's been an awesome feeling to be part of such a large, ambitious project and manage to not only pull through the other side, but do so flawlessly. Del further emphasised when we returned to the baseroom that it was the smoothest and most professional production he's ever been a part of as part of his contributions to the TV Production course at UCA, so high praise from the man himself! We're currently waiting on the recorded cut of the full show to be uploaded, but rest assured when it is, it'll be featured on this blog, as well as all social media profiles for Steal the Style. It's been an honour to not only get to work, but also bond with so many great people on the course.
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