Unit 7 : Studio Production
Lesson 1 & 2 - Learning Studio Production :
What is studio production ?
Studio production is when you film on a studio set which is built for purpose like a game show or tv show or news channel. This is all controlled and monitored for continuity purposes.
List studio based productions :
Grand Tour
The one show
Dragons Den
BBC News = Live
Who wants to be a millionaire
Gogglebox
Coronation Street
24hrs in A&E
Holby City
Love Island = Pre - Produced
Emmerdale
Jeremy Kyle = Live to Tape
Types of studio based productions :
Live = On air
Live - To - Tape = Looks like its live but its not
Pre - Produced = Filmed and edited with transitions etc
Task 1 : Analysis
Identify and explain each of the important elements that must be consider
during the production of your studio production.
During my Studio Production there was 4 elements used these were, Wardrobe, Lighting, Sound, Control Room. The reason these are the most important for my Studio Production is because we decided to do a podcast, Harry & Robert were discussing things that they both really liked talking about and me & Alfie were the behind the camera team and mainly focusing on camera work. However i did take on a few more roles like Producer, Director, Camera OP, Audio technician, Lighting and Partial Editor, i provided my skills to Harry to help him edit and complete the editing for this Production. i also did some editing myself too, but mainly helped Harry and provided him with tips & tricks allowing him to get through more editing than he thought by using the multi cam editing tool in premier pro, this made editing a breeze and took about 2-3 hours less because of this trick and if i didn't tell Harry about it he could have been editing for a long time unnecessarily.
Wardrobe was completed mostly by Robert as he decided he wanted to wear a nice suit for the production while on the other hand Harry decided to go for a more casual attire as Harry was technically the guest on Roberts Podcast, this is also another reason why we got Robert to dress up a little more professionally. Robert also added in some cool additions like his old school hat this went well for our studio production as it looked very professional having the host wearing the correct attire.
Lighting was completed by me, i got everything set up initially for everyone's arrival to my office / studio where we would be undertaking this shoot as it was available and it gave us the chance to film outside of college hours and not on the college campus, it also allowed us to use non college equipment, this meant that we could really get to grips and push our knowledge on everything we have learned so far.
Sound was completed by me, i was mixing all the audio live while Robert & Harry were discussing and making the production, i made sure all levels were correct and had the microphones adjusted to their voices specifically to ensure for continuity purposes it sounded really good across the board between both microphones and their was no audible difference other than the tone in their voices.
Control Room was completed by me & Alfie we took care of everything on set behind the scenes and made sure all tech was running properly, i was showing Alfie what all the equipment did and how it worked as he hadn't worked with any other equipment besides the college equipment so it was fun to teach Alfie a little bit of stuff with different cameras, and in general it was cool to explain to the team how everything would eventually come together and why we needed to do certain things on set of the Production as i knew what would be best as i've been using my office / studio for all client and personal uses so i knew exactly what to do and how to do it so it just meant i was showing the team on how to do it too as it was their first time being on the set externally.
How can you fulfil these for elements for your Studio Production ?
As a team we were able to fulfil these by ensuring we had two camera operators watching the main two camera angles which helped with focusing and visuals on the cameras as they were both shooting in raw manual mode and needed to be adjusted at certain times throughout the production. Wardrobe was completed by Robert who had his outfit selected beforehand and turned up in it so we could get straight to work and get on with the production. Lighting was done by myself and i managed to get the lighting setup perfectly so that we could have a perfectly lit scene as well as having some ambience lighting in the background to give a little depth to the image as we were quite close to the wall. For sound we made sure we used the best microphones possible and had them set at the correct levels in the mixing interface which is kind of overlapping into Control Room too, this allowed the audio to sound really good and have no hissing or buzzing interference while filming meaning that the audio was successfully done properly. The audio was actually recorded separately meaning Harry & myself would have to synchronise the audio to the recorded clips and i also taught Harry how to synchronise clips and audio in premier pro.
Overall this is how we were able to fulfil our important elements for our Studio Production and we also made sure they were done properly and no corners were cut for our production as we had a clear plan and understanding of what we wanted to achieve for the production.
What are all the elements and why are they important?
Overall for Studio Production there are 9 elements, which are :
Make up
Make up is used to further define the facial structure of ones face while performing or being on stage or on set like in a set studio environment. This is typically worn so the audience can see exactly what the actors faces are doing to understand a situation in a particular scene, in Studio Production the presenters can wear make up to look more professional and improve continuity throughout filming, BBC News can be an example to support this, all their presenters wear make up so that throughout the years they look similar to just help with the continuity factor as it's TV in a studio based environment and this can be a controlling factor.
Catering
Catering in Studio Productions / Film Productions is the provision of Food & Drink something you would find at most events or places of work. This is required if the shoot is really early or going to be running throughout the day, this is a really good addition to any production as it helps reduce people leaving set meaning people are always in the same building or on the same location so if they are needed they can just be called or found within a matter of minutes unlike allowing the people to walk off and find food at the local Mc Donalds, having catering on set is a huge bonus and can help productivity and time management throughout the shoot.
Wardrobe
Wardrobe in Studio Production is the organisation and discovery of clothing items that may make up a particular outfit for a scene or event that will be filmed. This is great for studio based productions as having a set outfit already made for an individual helps with the overall organisation of the production. This allows people to understand what everyone will be wearing in a shoot, this can be for more serious based productions like the News (Which is an example of a Live Production) where they are given an outfit on arrival and they change into the clothes provided to do their 5AM news before heading home again when someone else will come in and do the 10AM and then so on throughout the day, people will alternate and change outfits to accompany the change of events or reactions depending on what it is that is being filmed.
Green Room
Green Room is a place where people who are waiting to come onto stage / set to do their scene or part in the production. The green room allows these people to relax or prepare themselves for a shoot, they can get drinks and snacks here, it is not as full spread as a Catering Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner but it does the job throughout the day to allow participants to get a quick bite to eat before or after being on stage / set.
Security
Security is the protection of all Cast & Crew as well as all equipment at ALL TIMES (24/7). Someone already provided will be in knowhow of everything that is happening at location weather this be a remote studio production in a built set or an already permanent location set that it in a building. The security will always know who needs to be on set or on the premises and can alert authorities if needed, but generally these people keep the place under control and away from anyone who tries entering the production to meet their celebrity hero.
Lighting
Lighting in Studio Production is used to display the current mood / environment to the audience to further impact their feelings while watching. Lighting is a huge part of any production and without it, it can really make an impact in a bad way, the lighting will make something look really good and give it that depth effect and help improve the connection between the production and the audience as they might be able to feel it being relatable or give them flashbacks to their experience so with this it allows more stages to the storytelling experience and give off a more involved production for those in studio or at home watching through the screen.
Staging
Staging in Studio Production is where items such as props and other bits of design will go on set for a particular production. This also effects people too, actors & presenters will have to follow the rules given by the director to position them correctly in frame as well as on set too, this allows the production to look better as people will be in the right positioning for the right event to happen like a reaction to a line from another person, people can be in the right position to react to this.
Sound
Sound in Studio Production will make or break the end result. Having good audio and making sure it is crisp and clear will allow the audience to watch for longer, without good audio people wont be interested in watching as they want to hear everything and everyone clearly at a levelled volume so they wont have to keep readjusting their device volume which they will be watching the production on.
Control Room
Control Room in Studio Production is where the composition of the outgoing program takes place. This just means in simple terms, while on set in a studio production you can have all the cameras on live mode broadcasting to the web or TV network where people join in to watch and you'll have either a PCR (production control room) or SCR (studio control room) this is where everything get's mixed together and edited and synchronised properly, this allows us to make a studio production possible in the first place.
Task 2 : Research
Our Group Research Documentation :
For our research we did a power point with all applicable ideas generated and information we had found this was a mix of photo and text too. This helped us gather further ideas as to how we should organise the props and other things on set to make it look visually appealing to the audience.
The document provided below also further discusses the information about our piece, we had generated some ideas from general knowledge and google to allow us to improve on the first development ideas as to how / what we were going to do, we had a lot of sit down discussions together as a team and we were able to generate ideas as well as do some off the fly research to support our ideas to make sure what we wanted to do was possible and thankfully it was. With my existing knowledge on making a Podcast Production i had already found myself in a good position as i knew roughly what we needed to make it work as i do that for work, so doing it for this was no different i was just in my element making sure i could show the others what to do and how to do it so they could learn a few details on Podcast Production.
Our main focus was to get research on the topics for our podcast and we made sure to do that primarily, there wasn't too many examples of a podcast that did the same thing as us so we just had to get on with it and just use the info we had available at that time.
THIS IS THE GROUP PRE-PRODUCTION DOCUMENT -> Google Drive Document
Task 3 : Planning
Our Group Pre-Production Documentation:
For our Pre-Production documentation we only needed a few documents as for our production we didn't require other actors and people we just had pre-arranged roles set out for us beforehand to allow us to do everything seamlessly.
The documents we needed for our production only concluded of, Risk Assessments, Floor plan, Equipment List, Props list, Cast & Crew list, Script, Shotlist. These were all required to make our production possible and without them we couldn't have been as organised as we were on set during filming, the documentation was good to fill out as we have done this a few times over now so making Pre-Production documents are like second knowledge to me now, which is one of the things i wanted to improve on from my early assignments / units and i'm happy that i worked towards that and got stuck in making the majority of the important documents like, Risk Assessment, Equipment List, Floor plan.
Throughout making these Pre-Production documents we discovered that we didn't need certain ones, like the storyboard and makeup requirements and casting documentation, this is because we weren't using external people from the acting course, and we only needed two people so we just used Harry & Robert as they were enthusiastic about this topic and it this made it more natural like a conversation rather than a staged pre decided show where we knew what would happen while filming, me & Alfie just left Robert & Harry to talk and discuss their choice of topic with the notes / script they had made beforehand and me and Alfie just monitored the cameras and adjusted various things while their conversation flowed naturally.
THIS IS THE GROUP PRE-PRODUCTION FOLDER -> Google Drive Folder
Task 4 : Production
Engage in the Production process :
For our production Process we had Alfie as Camera Operator, Me as Producer, Director, Camera OP, Audio technician, Lighting and Partial Editor, Robert as designated document maker and executive creative planner for set design as well as being the Host , Harry as the Editor and Guest on the Podcast. I did touch on this earlier but these were all our roles throughout the whole process.
Our team worked seamlessly together and we all had an amazing time and i would happily do it again, this team has definitely been the best i have worked in, everyone pulled their weight across the board and no work was late handed in, we all made sure we hit made up deadlines for documentation to be made and when editing had to be complete and etc.
You can see below some of the photos on set while filming the Podcast, this was really useful to have a pre made set by myself in my office, without this it would have been difficult but everyone was learning and adapting to using different equipment especially Alfie he did a great job on Camera Operating.
Here is photos of the team working hard during the production process :
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Here is some screenshots of our Editing Timeline from Premier Pro :
Task 5 : Evaluation
My Evaluation on Filming Process & The final Product itself :
While planning how to make the Podcast we also had other ideas beforehand to make a 5 a side football match and make a studio production of that but unfortunately it was too expensive and due to weather we couldn't get it done so we had this podcast as a backup option and it worked out well to have it in place and thankfully this went smoothly.
But overall i'm really happy with how we were able to take something from paper documentation as just an idea and turn it into a really well produced podcast with high quality audio and video too which could be uploaded to YouTube or Spotify or any other social media / streaming service if we wanted too.
Throughout making all documentation for our Pre-Production for the planning of the podcast we were able to turn it into a final product which you can watch above, with everyones equal help and hard work we were able to pull this off and everyone is very grateful for each person and what they did.
The research that was made definitely helped Robert & harry with what they wanted to discuss during their podcast episode, just in general everything went hand in hand and made everything a breeze to do as we had the correct plan and preparation for anything to go wrong and we were aware of any things that we needed to be aware of too.
During filming we had plenty of setup to do and as i was already there to prepare for everyones arrival it made their days easier as i said that i would just setup beforehand and get everything done to eliminate wasting time as we were filming on a Saturday, this meant i could go pickup all the guys and get them into my office and just get straight to work. This was a huge bonus as when we got in i showed everyone how to use stuff and why we would be doing certain things on set because they would have a relation to the final video edit like using 3 cameras at once was a new thing for the guys as normally we just re shoot everything 3 times on one camera but we used 3 all at once and synced them up using a clapper board which they finally understood why it made a clap and what it did in the editing software and why it was important to have it so we could sync up all audio files from every camera and external audio input to my mixer which had enhanced audio lossless files.
Discuss what went well and what could be improved on for next time :
Personally everything went well, all the work was handed in on time and nothing was done to a low - quality standard either, it was all done professionally and done correctly. From Pre-Production to Production to Post-Production everyone was their through every step making sure that people needed help or assistance or just general support while making documents or even completing blog work too, like getting images sent off to everyone and making sure has links to the google drive documents etc, this is all apart of caring for the team and making sure everyone had a good role within this production and it is safe to say that this was a huge success and everyone was a huge factor in it.
As for things that can be improved there is always something even though it was basically perfect, for myself as a target and goal i will set myself is to make more detailed documentation as i really want to strengthen that sector within my work as i just always like to make sure i have good written work as it shows that you are not only creatively intelligent but good literacy skills and showing that you are good making documentation as well as getting all the boring stuff done too, as if you can show that you have strong sides on both playing fields like creatively and legal wise for all the documentation you may have to provide for a task in industry or for an assignment.
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