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Tuesday 24 January 2012

Interview with Production Runner

As part of my research in to the role of director i have taken the time to get in contact with
a production runner that works within the television industry. Unfortunately I could not interview
a director as he was to busy at the time, which is understandable.


Name: Mike Hogan
Date: 20th January 2012
Name of Company: Equinox, Venus, Gate
Job Title: Production Runner

What path did you take to get to the position you are currently in?
 
By getting in contact with production companies with CVs and offering to work for free for the initial experience
Did you go to university or did you work your way through the industry?
 “I didn’t do a university course as I am fortunate enough that I have numerous contacts already in place within the industry
What was your first job you worked on in the industry?
 “My first job was a three full day advert shoot, it was hard work as there is a lot of heavy kit to move around and doing that all day becomes repetitive this was around 42 hour’s work  in three days.”
What path would you suggest to take to get to the position you are currently in now?
Just contact as many companies as possible once a month to inform them about what you want to be involved in, just to get your foot in the door with a company. Tell them about the projects you have worked on and make yourself available for work if they accept you. If you’re freelance, you have to keep people informed that you’re available.”
Have you always had a passion to go into the advertising/Television Industry or was it something you came across later on in life?
My main passion is in the music industry, however this cross references to sound recording for tv and advertising, so that’s the specific path that I want to go down.”
 Have you worked for any large companies in the past such as the BBC, ITV, and Channel M? If so what was your experience like and what did you learn from the company?
  "
I’ve worked on channel M, my experience was that it was smooth running compared to certain adverts I have done. I would say that as a whole the north is a lot better to work in the advert industry than the London area."
What were your feelings on your first day in the current job you are in now?
"I felt like a third wheel, it’s quite shocking at first how much it stops starts, you could be busy  for three hours then just stood around for three, so it threw me off at first. But I am comfortable in my job at the moment. The hour that you are stood around though is a chance to shadow and watch other members of the team."
When working on a project? Do they always work out the way you want them too or do some projects fail? And was it frustrating when they didn't work out?
"Whatever I’ve worked on, it always worked out, however, I’ve never been on a shoot where it’s finished on time, every shoot runs at least an hour late, regardless if you start at 5am or 3pm. So you have to be prepared to work long and late hours."







Wednesday 18 January 2012

Lever Street Photographs


Lever Street












Vision Mixing



Camera 1



Kickback and relax





Directing




Sound Operating



Floor Manager







Tuesday 17 January 2012

Assessment Day at Lever Street 17th January 2012

Setup
During the setup today we faced some problems with the talk back and the vision on the camera. However I took it upon myself to try and sort the vision out on the cameras as I was operating camera one. First of all the cameras on the tricaster were connected incorrectly to the preview monitors. Camera one was plugged into camera two's monitor, so i got those to be switched around. Once we had the cameras in a sensible order i then asked the operator of camera two to see whether the battery was low which may have caused the camera two to go off or not show on the screen of the camera, this wasn't the case. Seeing vision on camera one I then asked the floor manager to try camera ones cable in camera two to see if we could get vision. By using the process of elimination we discovered that camera twos cable was faulty which had to be changed over.

Production roles

Production Role Key
Director
D
Floor Manager
FM
Vision Mixer
VM
Camera 1
C1
Camera 2
C2
Camera 3
C3
Camera 4
C4
Camera 2 Assisstant
C2A
Sound
S
Online
O



Name
Act 1
Act 2
Act 3
Act 4
Ashley Artingstall
FM

C2

Kas Berraies

C2A

VM
Mikael Kurd
VM


C2
Jack Ware
C4


D
Nyasha Tsikai
D

O
C2A
Luke Talbot
C3

C4

Andy Greenland

D

FM
Andy Tabner


C1
C4
Abid Ali
C2A
FM


Matty Jump

VM

C1
Rebecca Quarmby
S

C3
C3
Imogen Howkins
C2
S


Joe Kerrigan

C3


Josh Lloyd
O

D

Fred Velody
N/a
N/a
N/a
N/a
Erin Roche

C4
S

Ezraveng- Christensen

C2
FM

Luis Winder

C1


Danny Jack
C1

VM

Pete Waiting
Examiner
Examiner
Examiner
Examiner


Name
Act 5
Act 6
Act 7
Ashley Artingstall
N/a
N/a
N/a
Kas Berraies
C2
O

Mikael Kurd
FM
C4

Jack Ware

S
C2
Nyasha Tsikai


FM
Luke Talbot
VM

C3
Andy Greenland

C1

Andy Tabner
D

S
Abid Ali

FM

Matty Jump

O
D

Rebecca Quarmby

VM
C4
Imogen Howkins
C3


Joe Kerrigan


VM
Josh Lloyd
S


Fred Velody
C1
N/a
N/a
Erin Roche


C1
Ezraveng- Christensen

C3

Luis Winder
C4

O
Danny Jack

C2
D
Pete Waiting
Examiner
Examiner
Examiner

My Roles

1st Act-Camera 1
For the first act i chose to operate camera 1. During the setup of the cameras we had a few problems which i felt i took control of and sorted out with some of my peers help. We found that Camera one was plugged into camera two's monitor, so I got those to be switched around. Once we had the cameras in a sensible order I then asked the operator of camera two to see whether the battery was low which may have caused the camera two to go off or not show on the screen of the camera, this wasn't the case. Seeing vision on camera one I then asked the floor manager to try camera ones cable in camera two to see if we could get vision. By using the process of elimination we discovered that camera twos cable was faulty which had to be changed over. Also during the setup we had problems as all camera operators were unsure of what the director was asking. He was asking for the cameras to be set to preset. after a few minutes of confusion we were helped by peter who set all cameras to the setting of indoor preset. During the take of the first act I believe i did everything that was asked of me during the take,when I wasn't live I offered the director some creative shots which I received positive comments on during the take.

3rd Act Vision Mixer
For the third act I chose to Vision Mix. As vision mixer it was my job to cut shots the director wanted. It was also my job to cut to shots if any shots were out of focus or unsteady when live. At the start when using the vision mixer desk I wasn't that confident as I had only vision mixed a few times, so when it came to me carrying out the role someone had refresh my memory on how to use the mixing desk. But once Id had a play with the shots on the preview monitor I was fine with how to use the desk.


6th Act-Camera 2
For the first take of the day i was operating  camera 2.I took on this role as camera 2 was being used on a track which i had not used before. However i had used a dolly in previous sessions which is very similar to using a track.  When using the track i think i took direction well and managed to keep shots steady. It was hard to offer to creative shots as i was using the track, although i did try tracking and  slowly zooming at the same time which is quite hard to do.

7th Act-Director
For the 7th act of the day I was directing.I found directing challenging as it is hard to think of creative shots aswell as direct the cameras. But this is an area i need to work on and practice. I also found it hard to cut to shots quickly as my camera operators at times were unsteady with there cameras. But this mostly was my fault as i had to be more direct and louder with direction when talking through the talkback system. However I have learnt to be more direct with my peers and to allow myself to be more organized and shots could be arranged before hand with the camera operator in order to get the best out of them.