Manchester Cathedral Christmas Carol Live Vision Mix

The shoot was a Live Vision Mix which got streamed on to the big screen in exchange square. We orignaly had a crew of 6,however only 4 of us turned up which took longer to set up equipment as there weren't as many bodies as we have normally. The broadcast started at 12:30 and finished around 2:30.

I saw this as a brilliant opportunity so I volunteered to help out on the day.The day was a chance to practice using and setting up the cameras on location.When setting up the cameras and the cables,we also had to work out the safest way to feed the cables to the cameras as there would members of the public walking around the Cathedral. i think we did this effectively,quickly and efficiently. When live it was hard work behind the cameras as we were filming for a long time but it was very enjoyable experience.

Production Roles for the show

Today we discussed the roles that everyone will be doing on the day of the show on the 18th January 2012. In previous lessons as I haven't taken on the role of director and maybe shied away from this particular role. I took it upon myself to put myself forward for this role as I felt the opportunity to push my confidence further and to take on a much more demanding role. Below I have outlined the production roles and the members of the group who will be taking on each role.

Productions Roles

Director-Daniel Jack
Vision Mixer- Andy Greenland
Floor Manager- Daniel Ainsworth
Producer- Nyasha Tsikai

Director-Daniel Jack
As director it is my responsibility to produce documents needed on the day of production. Such as the program proposal this document defines what is going to be done from start to finish. I will also be putting together the running order for the show outlining what will be happening visually and verbally throughout the running of the show. The camera scripts are also my responsibility within this document i will choose the shots i will be using for the show and will put them in an order. I will hand the camera script to each camera operator on the day to ensure each camera operator knows what i intend to do visually. I will also have the decision of what title sequences to use and what graphics will be used in between shots.

Vision Mixer- Andrew Greenland
The vision mixer also works in the gallery with the director. The vision mixer is in charge of mixing the shots when then shots are called by the director during a live broadcast. The vision mixer is like a backup for the director. For example if something obscene is viewed on the television screen the vision mixer can quickly cut another shot without problems occurring. It’s the vision mixers responsibility to discuss the running order of the show with director to ensure the broadcast run smoothly. The communication between vision mixer and director is vital as they both need to be organised. The vision mixer is also responsible for any title sequences or graphics used in the broadcast.


Producer-Nyasha Tsikai
the producer works alongside both director and floor manager to produce the content for the broadcast. However producer most of the time take care of budgets and contracts. Producers are also involved in other activities such as screenwriting, set design and casting. The producer has to confirm and changes that take place with directors so are in constant communication. The producer is responsible shooting schedule a documents outlining a schedule of shots. They are also responsible for call sheets and contact lists which the floor manager should also have a copy of. Finally they produce the floor plan document showing the outline of the room and also the positioning of the cameras and anything else that is important on set.


Floor Manager- Daniel Ainsworth/ Nyasha Tsikai
The floor manager is head of the floor. The floor manager is in constant contact with the gallery through talkback system. It is the floor managers job to greet guests as they enter the set and ensure they are looked after well. When the director calls for a live take the floor manager has to get everyone silent and do a countdown to ensure that the talent knows when the live broadcast has started. If there is a problem on the floor the floor manager is the person to go too. If the director wants anything changing on set or a camera to be moved it is the floor managers role to get that amended efficiently and quickly. The floor manager has the responsibility of carrying out a risk assessment. A risk assessment is an assessment of any risks that might take place whilst on set. The risks need to be made aware of to ensure the safety of everyone on set. The floor manager will work with the producer to create a floor plan. The floor manager will also have a copy of the call sheet and contact list in the case of emergencies.

Equipment List and Self Critique

Aims


self criitique of past weeks work
begin paper work

• write full equipment list  

watch back two different takes write a paragraph on each one

include-

camera work

direction

vision mixing

explain what you liked and disliked?

how could this be improved?


All the equipment listed below will be needed for  the rehearsal on the 6th December at Lever Street Campus Manchester College


Equipment list


X3 Cameras- Panasonic P2s
X6 Batterys fully charged
X3 Battery chargers
X3 Tripods with spreaders
X3 Three camera attachment plates
Connectors and Components Box
X3 Composite connetors (Red,White,yellow) Use yellow for video
X3 50m BNC cables
X4 RCA cables
X4 50M XLR 5pin (Talkback)
X2 50M XLR 3pin (Audio desk)
X4 Talkback headsets and packs
X4 Dual stereo jacksplitter
Spare extention cables
gaffer tape/hazard tape
floor matts
X1 Dolly tripod
Tricaster pro
X1 Headset
X1keyboard
X1Mouse
Y-C Cable(S video cable)
X1 Tricaster controller
X1 Laptop for streaming
X1 Laptop power supply
X1 50M CAT5 cable for internet connetion tricaster
X1 RCA and Mono Jack
X5 power supplys
X1 Speaker Monitor
X1 CAT5 for internet from laptop to tricaster pro
X3 Broadcast monitors
X1 Television monitor
X3 Patch BNC
X1 Tool Kit


Self Critique


Review of take 1-Andrew Tarling


I have chosen to review the broadcast stream of Andrew Tarling. I will indentify both positives and negatives of this particular stream. First of all i will talk about the camera work to asses what  worked well and what could be improved on. To start off with there was about 40 seconds of streaming time that could have been avoided by starting the record stream later when the act started or we could have faded to black at this point so we couldn't see the act proparing before going live. However throughout this particular stream the camera work was consistent throughout,there was particial movements and a little darting around but on reflection of this the head room between cameras was excellent. Going on to talk about the direction of the cameras i believe that there were some creatives shots offerd to the director,however there was camera movement when cameras were live.The director may have chosen these shots whilst streaming the content which was great. The vision mixing was great however i think shots could have been cut to much quicker or shot could have been cutaway from when there was alot movement with cameras.


Review of take 2- OB 8th Nov
I have also chosen to review the live OB on the 8th November of Josh Lipman. During this take i thought the camera work was near to perfect there were alot of close ups of the talents face and his guitar which made the content look intermate. The camera work was great,but there was slight movements when cameras were live,to improve this i think cameras should just pick a shot and stick to it just before they go live. When they are not live they should then pick a creative shot depending on the directors decision during shooting. I think the direction of this footage was well executed. However there is always room for improvement, there could be improvements on the camera work and generalie just thinking about being creative with the camera. I think the vision mixer did well to cut quickly to shots throughout this take. Overall i think this was one of the best takes that we have done upto now.

Open Day For Prospective Students

Today was a very useful lesson because we had prospective students come in, who were joining us in the lesson to have a look at what we do during the first year of our course. This was the chance to perform our roles in the studio with the presence of a small audience.  So to start with we decided that we were going to set a plan out for the day.

The Plan
As two groups are doing projects on student finance/student life and alcahol abuse. We saw this as an oppurtunity to shoot the interviews with the prospective students as we would gather reliable thoughts and information by doing this. Also as my group needed to gather some statistics so we saw this as a good oppurtunity to collect some statistics on student funding by handing out questionnaires on the topic. This was a good responce as everyone that entered the room filled a questionnaire out.

Personal Performance
As my group was taking control of the studio as it was our content we were producing. We took on the leading roles. I took on the role as director and Neysha was floor manager. We also allocated Matty Jump the role of presenter as we felt he wasn't so shy infront of the camera when it came to it. Matty also had a sense of humour during the live interviews which made the guests at ease.

Third Live Multi Camera OB shoot with guest... Michael Devaney

Today was the third week of filming the bands in preparation for the assessment at Lever Street. We started off by setting up the equipment and choosing production roles for the day. As I had not worked on the sound of camera roles I chose these two roles to carry out through course of day. Below I have outlined the production roles for each take throughout the day.


Morning Takes(AM)

Roles for Take 1

• Director               Rebecca 
• Vision mixer       Andy
• Sound mixer       Abid
• Floor manager     Nyasha 
• Cam 1              Mikael
• Cam 2              Danny
• Cam 3             Kassem

for the first take of the day i was operating  camera 2. I took on the role as camera operator because i didn't feel comfortable setting up the camera. I was unsure of what connections to use, the names of the cables and the components that I need in order to set up the camera. By taking on this role i was able to ask others in the class or my tutor for help if unsure of anything. Once i had set up the camera I took pictures so I could recap on the connections and components. Below I have displayed pictures:

Operating the Camera

When Operating the camera i believe followed the directors direction. I also offered creative shots to try and make it easier for the director to cut shots. However when the director needed me to focus on a shot i believe i did this effeciently and quickly.

Pictures

I took pictures so I could recap on the connections and components:

50M BNC Cable connected to composite connection

Buttons to operate the Camera including the settings for Focus,Gain,Iris and White balance

5 PIN XLR Connection

Roles for Take 2

• Director              Andy
• Vision mixer     Mikael
• Sound mixer    Danny
• Floor manager   Rebecca
• Cam 1               Nyasha
• Cam 2               Fred
• Cam 3             Matt

For the second take of the day I was working on the sound desk. I took on the role as sound because this was also a role i didn't feel to comfortable doing as i only had a brief idea of how to use the sound desk.As I was unsure of how to use the sound desk i asked andy who was also in the gallery to show me the basics of how to use the desk as he had used the desk on previous rehearsals. I quickly picked up the basics of the sound desk and continued to practise setting the levels of the instruments and the musicians vocals. Once i had the levels i wanted, i set them so i could just use the master fader to bring the volume level up or down if the music got to loud or if instruments got louder than the vocals. During the take I allowed the levels to go slightly higher than they should have which made the sounds to loud on the take in parts. However i took note of this and made sure on the  second take that the levels were at a reasonable level. Below I have displayed pictures of my operating the sound desk:

Operating the Sound Desk

Sound Levels

To make sure i do not make the same mistake again i took a picture of the sound levels that were slightly higher than they should have been during the song.

Afternoon Takes(PM)

Roles for Take 3

• Director              Luis
• Vision mixer      Mikael
• Sound mixer       matt
• Floor manager    Fred 
• Cam 1               Nabeel
• Cam 2               Josh
• Cam 3               Ashley 

Roles for Take 4

• Director               Nyasha
• Vision mixer       Luis
• Sound mixer       Danny
• Floor manager     Fred
• Cam 1                Abid
• Cam 2                Mikael 
• Cam 3              Ashley

For the fourth take of the day i had the chance to jump on sound again as there was no one to take on the role. As i needed more practise at setting the sound levels and keeping the levels at reasonable level i took the sound role on for a second time. During this take i believe i did better than the morning as i was keeping the sound levels a lot lower than i was previously. This ensured a a clear recording.

Mike Devaney

Teleprompter

Teleprompter

A teleprompter is an electronic device used to display text and cues for on-air newscasters. Use of a teleprompter has replaced the need for handwritten cue cards or other off-camera prompts as it is placed behind camera it is not seen in shot. However studios still use cue cards as a back-up or emergency communication method. Early teleprompter's were only used when the actor was required to speak directly to the camera, as in the case of live news presenting. Now teleprompter's are used more frequently.

News Package show

When presentung the content for our own news package show we may consider to use a teleprompter to prompt the talent. We could also use cue cards with the questions on that were going to be asking the guests. We will do this so that the presenter is not looking straight at the camera and is looking in the direction of the guest when asking the questions. If the presenter needs to look into camera the can turn and read from the teleprompter.

Second live multi camera OB shoot... with guests Kane Stanfield and Tom Bleakley

Today was the second week of filming the bands in preparation for the assessment at Lever Street. We started off by setting up the equipment and choosing production roles for the day. As I had not taken on the role of director I put myself forward this role as I wanted to push myself to do more of the leading roles. During the afternoon I chose to operate camera two along side Nabeel. Below I have outlined the production roles for each take throughout the day.


Morning Takes(AM)

Roles for Take 1

• Director      Jack    
• Director assistant        Danny J
• Vision mixer        Nyasha    
• Vision mixer assistant     Rebecca
• Sound           Nabeel          
• Sound assistant         Imogen.
• Floor manager           Kas  
• Floor manager assistant     Matt
• Camera 1     Mikael
• Camera 2     Ashley  
• Camera 2 assistant    Abid.
• Camera 3     Josh 

Roles for Take 2   

• Director        Danny J    
• Vision mixer  Rebecca         
• Sound          Imogen.  
• Floor manager   Matt
• Camera 1     Mikael
• Camera 2     Abid.
• Camera 3     Josh 

Directing

For the  takes during the morning  i was Directors Assistant on the first take  and for the second take i took on the Directors role. I took on the role as Director as i haven't  had the chance to carry out this role previously. To start off with I was slightly nervous about what to do and unsure about how to call shots and instruct the vision mixer through the take. As Jack was directing before me I shadowed him and quickly picked up the language he was using in order to direct the cameras and vision mixer. When it was my turn to direct I did a quick run through with the vision mixer to ensure that i was moving the shots along at a reasonable pace. I felt that i had a good try with this role today. However to improve and to gain confidence in the directors chair i will have to try and practice this role as often as possible.


Pictures

Kane Stanfield

Afternoon Takes(PM)

Roles for Take 3

• Director-    Joe 
•  Director assistant    Abid.
• Vision mixer-    Imogen      
• Vision mixer assistant    Nabeel.
• Sound mixer-     Mikeal    
• Sound mixer Assistant   Kas.
• Floor manager-   Josh    
• Floor manager Assistant   Nyasha.
• Camera 1-   Dan A 
• Camera 1 Assistant  Andy
• Camera2-   Nabeel  
• Camera 2 Assistant Danny J
• Camera 3 -   Andy

Roles for Take 4

•  Director    Abid.
  •       
• Vision mixer   Nabeel.
  •   
• Sound mixer    Kas.
  •    
• Floor manager    Nyasha.
• Camera 1   Andy G
• Camera 2 Danny J
• Camera 3 Andy T

Camera 2

For the takes during the afternoon i was operating  camera 2. I took on the role as camera operator because i didn't feel comfortable using the cameras. As I was camera twos  assistant for the first take of the afternoon, whilst the camera operator was away from the camera I tried to refresh my memory with the functions of the camera. However I did not change any of the settings I just used this time to refresh my memory. During the first take I assisted the camera operator by keeping the wires from under his feet and moving the direction he wanted to move in. The second take of the afternoon it was my turn to operate camera 2 this was an opportunity to refresh my memory on the camera. When live i believe i did well offering shots to the director and taking directions well when asked to do something quickly. However as camera 2 was on a dolly and this was the first time using a dolly i found it hard to keep the camera from moving around when live,so there was slight movements on the take. I now know next time when i use a dolly to be a little more careful with movements.

Pictures

Tom Bleakley

Assignment Module Handbook (Ricardo)

During this mornings lesson we discussed the assignment brief and what has to be done to achieve the maximum out of the project.

There will be a written assignment and a practical assigment that will have to be carried out. Below i have taken the outline from the module handbook of what has to be done for both stages of the assignment. I have done this so i can look back on this at a later date to ensure that i have included everything that needs to be:

The Brief:

Basic Studio Operations Assignment 2011-2012

FD TV Production Year One

Written Assignment 50%

1500 words

For your written assignment you will:

• Identify one studio role of your preference that you believe you would like to practice in a future job. You will research in depth what duties and responsibilities come with that studio role and how it relates to the other roles in the studio. You will research what skills, personal attributes and experience are required for this role at an entry level job.
• You will then draft a map of your actual skills and aptitudes, together with a map of your desired skills and aptitudes.
• Finally, you will put together an Action Plan to get that job in the industry, considering all of the above. The Action Plan will cover the time period between now and the first day of work at your chosen studio job.

You must submit your written assignment in the following formats:

-       digital format (.doc or .pdf) on a CD,

-       post it on your own personal blog, under the label/tag “Basic Studio Ops”.

Practical Assignment 50%

Divided into groups, you will develop, produce and broadcast on our Ustream channel, a Manchester Collage News TV Program.

Each Program should include a VT (produced at the News Package Production Module), studio Guest(s) and a News Agenda Item.

The programme should be five minutes long.

All students must present the following relevant paper work for this Program:

• program proposal
• signal pathway graphic
• running order
• production diary (minimum of 6 entries in your blog under the tag/label “studio diary”)

The assessable roles for this module are:

• Director
• Producer
• Floor Manager
• Vision Mixer

Depending on your studio role you will need to provide the following paperwork:

The DIRECTOR is responsible for:

• Program proposal
• Running order
• Camera scripts (x3)
• Title sequence/graphic

The PRODUCER is responsible for:

• shooting schedule
• call sheet/ contact list
• studio floor plan
• guest(s) release and consent form

The VISION MIXER is responsible for:

• Running order
• VT log sheet
• Copy of VT (CD or DVD)
• Copy of any graphics used in tricaster

The FLOOR MANAGER is responsible for:

• Risk assessment
• Studio floor plan
• Call sheet/ contact list

Your Program Proposal must include:

• Program outline
• Program duration
• Program broadcaster/ time it will be aired
• Program broadcast video format
• Target audience
• Content
• VT subject
• Guest questions
• Production style
• Title sequence
• End credits
• Set design

All forms’ templates will be given to you. As a group you will have an opportunity to rehearse your broadcast. The Program will then be broadcasted live once, and recorded, on our Ustream TV Channel, for assessment purposes.

I will follow these guidelines to achieve my full potential within this first assignment.

First live multi camera OB shoot.... With Guests Elliot Beese and Josh Lipman (Peter)

Today was the first day of shooting live bands. We had two acts perform, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The first act was Elliot Beese acoustic artist and singer accompanied by Josh Lipman Electric Gutarist. In the second half of the day we shot Josh Lipman on his own playing a funky guitar solo which was streamed to Ustream.com. As shown in the post on the 1/11/11 named setting up the studio. In the setting up the studio post I also so briefly outlined the roles we could choose to take on during this session of shooting. I chose the role of floor manager as I had done this in a previous lesson, but I wanted to challenge myself and try it again so I could explore the role a bit further. As floor manager it was my job to make sure that everybody on the floor new what they were doing. Using talk back systems around the studio also made this alot easier as I could communicate with the director in gallery to ensure everything was set up correctly on the floor and to check that everything was fine with the Director. I also had the responsibility of filling out a risk assessment form for the producer.The risk assessment identifies the risks or hazards from low to high,for example(1.cables running around the studio 2. Hot lights should be left to cool down).
Below I have outlined the roles that were assigned in the morning (AM) and the roles the were assigned in the afternoon (PM).


Roles (AM) - Act 1 Elliot Beese- Acoustic Guitar
Director- Josh
Vision Mixer-Mikael
Sound OP- Andrew T
Floor Manager- Dan J
Camera 2- Erin
Camera 1- Imogen
Camera 3- Jack
Camera Assistants 1- 
Camera Assistants 2- Rebecca
Camera Assistants 3- Ezra
Gallery Assistant- Nabid


Floor Manager
For the  takes during the morning  I took on the role of floor manager as i had carried out this role before. In previous sessions I wasn't to confident carrying out this role. However as I had carried out this role previously I wanted to improve on the faults that I made in the previous sessions. From the previous sessions I noted that as floor manager you have to be loud and direct with people. As I am quite a shy person and don't like shouting at people, I found this quite hard at first. But the more I did this the more confident and comfortable I became in carrying out the role. As floor manager I also had to ensure the safety of the floor to make sure there were no hazards or potential hazards that may occur during the course of the day. In the previous sessions i did not notice hazards as I should have done. However if I saw hazard this week I made sure it was fixed and safe, such as wires and cables that could have been tripped on. As floor manager I think I did quite well at organizing people and dealing with any problems they may have had. I think the floor manager role is a role i would like to work on and a role i would consider taking on within the industry.

Pictures

Role (PM)-Act 2 Josh Lipman - Electric Guitarist
Director-Ash

Vision Mixer-Kas

Sound OP- Andy T

Floor Manager- Abid

Camera 2- JO

Camera 1- Dan

Camera 3- Luis

Camera Assistants 1- Luke

Camera Assistants 2- 

Camera Assistants 3- 

Gallery Assistant- Nyasha

Act 2 FINAL TAKE STREAMED TO USTREAM.COM

New Project Proposal Idea Continued....(Second Idea)

In previous posts i have discussed several ideas for the news package production with Dave and The news show with Ricardo. However our original idea was to produce and showcase the idea of student funding. In the mean time we had a change of thought and came up with the idea of producing a show on student life in general,but this idea was axed. So we continued to go along with the student funding idea.


As discussed with Neysha today and also with Andy and Dan on previous occasions we have decided to gather our own statistics as we see this as being reliable. We will do this by creating a questionnaire and giving the questionnaire out to A level students that come to the Manchester College on the 23rd November 2011 for the open day. By collecting our own statistics we see this as a reliable method of collecting information. However this can also be unreliable depending on the questions asked and whether we decide to use, open ended or closed ended questions within the questionnaire. By choosing a strong method to use we will be able to collect reliable information, as participants tend to lie when taking part. Also by building trust and rapport will determine the truth of the answers.


I have taken an example of open and closed ended questions from the link below as part of my research: http://www.mediacollege.com/journalism/interviews/open-ended-questions.html


"The ability to ask open-ended questions is very important in many vocations, including education, counselling, mediation, sales, investigative work and journalism.

An open-ended question is designed to encourage a full, meaningful answer using the subject's own knowledge and/or feelings. It is the opposite of a closed-ended question, which encourages a short or single-word answer. Open-ended questions also tend to be more objective and less leading than closed-ended questions

Open-ended questions typically begin with words such as "Why" and "How", or phrases such as "Tell me about...". Often they are not technically a question, but a statement which implicitly asks for a response."

Examples

Closed-Ended Question		Open-Ended Question
Do you get on well with your boss?		Tell me about your relationship with your boss.
Who will you vote for this election?		What do you think about the two candidates in this election?
What colour shirt are you wearing?		That's an interesting coloured shirt you're wearing

We will also interview several students by either using one to one interviews or group interviews. Personally i think group interviews will be a better way of conducting the interviews as there is more room for discussion and debate between the group. This will hopefully give us several opinions on the subject of funding. Once we have collected the information we can then start to put the VT together for Dave and the News show for Ricardo.


We also had the idea of interviewing Colin Ralph to gather his thoughts and prospective on the increasing rise in tuition fees and how it is going effect the college as a whole.


We came up with several questions that we might as Colin in order to obtain the information that we need.


Questions to ask Colin Ralph

1. Are there concerns about whether your going to hit the numbers to sustain the course?
2. What steps will be put in place in 2012 to recruit the numbers you need on the course?
3. Will departments such as business,medical and construction attaining funds from private companies?
4. Will departments such as media and are be seeking a similar business model?
5. Do you have links with businesses to help students coming to the end of their course into employment?

Structure of the Idea

Introduction

• Introduction on fees
• Facts, Figures and statistics flashing up on screen
• Margaret thatcher Quotes

Target Audience

• Future Students
• People who are unsure about study
• Tutoring Staff
• Targeted at 14+

Interviews

• Interview with Colin Ralph
• Interview group of students (A Level)
• As A Level students what course they are looking to do and whether it interested them?
• Also ask A Level students whether they want to go into higher education to do something that interests them or whether they are going to get away from home and to experience the social side that higher education has?
• Interview the head of finance for the college
• How many of your friends or peers are questioning going into employment or going into higher education?

Creative Shots

Close up Shot - Money being passed and certificate being passed back symberlising paying for tuition fees.

Close up/Extreme Close up - Student taking cash out of cash machine

Medium Shots- Students walking around Manchester Town Centre

Close up Shots - Shot of Bank