Talk Back and Protacal

It is very important to have the use of this equipment to communicate whilst filming live, if problems arise. If there are any problems talkback is a very easy way to get in touch with the director or floor manager (FM) by using the cans (headset), this also means that your able to stay in your position and job and give the correct person a quick brief of your problem,keeping time and disruption to a minimum. It is also important the director and FM an estimated time of how long is needed until the problem is solved. Talk back is used frequently during production by the director as a way to tell the cameras,shots, who shots going to be used next and for encouragement.

crew . . .

Director - the head of the production/ in charge

Assistant director - Helps the director, keeps other people in order so that the director can for fill their job as best as possible

Camera man - the person who actually operates and controls the camera

Camera operating assistant - is a person standing behind the camera operator and carries the cables from the camera over their shoulder to insure they don't get damaged or entangled round the camera ped or operator. (See post below for more!)

Floor manager - 'Is the directors voice on the floor'. using *talkbacks the floor manager is able to have direct contact with the director before,during and after the production. The floor manager is also in charge of everything and everyone in the studio and makes sure that everything is running smoothly on the floor.

Floor managers assistant - is much the same to the Floor manager as what the Assistant director is to the director. They make sure everything is ok, pick up any extra jobs if the Floor manager has to much to handle and generally make sure the floor manager is able to do their job to the best of their ability.

Vision mixers - control/switch what shots are show/what cameras are online based on the directors orders

Sound operator - Has control of the audio mixing desk, mixing the levels and making sure that all the mic transmissions do not bleed over 0 dB.

Secondary sound operator - normally used to fix a sound problem with a mic if something goes wrong.

Lighting crew - they control the lighting of the set, they also decide what lights to use, the brightness and where would be best to place them.

Talent - the people in front of the camera, hosts, hostess, contestants, news reporters etc.

*Talkbacks/ commonly know as 'Cans' - Headsets with buttons allowing for communication to all wearing or listening to them. Mainly worn by FM/Floor Managers, assistants and all Camera operators, once on 'Cans' they are not allowed to be taken off other than when the director says its ok. The Vision mixing and the sound room also have talkbacks but they are in the form of inter-coms not head sets.

Camera. . .

Parts of a camera:

Pedestal is what the camera sits on, its much like a large tripod with wheels allowing it to be moved easily around the studio and so that the operator can achieve smooth tracking and crabbing shots.

Tally light is a small but bright red light on top of each camera above the lens and turns on when a camera is online allowing the talent and operator to know what camera to speak into and when not to move the camera.

Locks, there are two different locks on the camera to ensure that there is no movement of the camera when its mot wanted. These locks are called Tilt lock, this is on the top of the pedestal and allows the camera operator to move the camera up and down. The second lock is the Pan lock located lower down the ped, used to move the camera from side to side.

Camera Terms:
There are certain terms that are used in the industry to describe camera movements and shots:
Pan- This is when just the camera is moves/looks from left to right or right to left
Tilt- This is the movement of the camera looking Up/Down
Crab- The whole camera and tripod is moved from side to side.
Track-The movement of the camera backwards and forwards
Zoom- In/out
Exposure Control - Bright/Dull
Focus Control - Sharp/Soft

Camera assistant
At first I'd didn't have much to do as a camera assistant but as time went on and the camera operators got more confidante and moved more then there was more to do, it sounds easy but being the assistant is very important as it allows the camera operator to be free to get the shots they need to get.

Lights and Lighting

Small Spot Lights: These are usually the light focused on the Talent as the have and adjustable concentration. Although they do used a lot of energy.

Soft lights: These are the opposite to the spot lights, the used up little energy to power and 'Barn Doors ' which are like metal flaps on each four sides of the light to help direct the light into the desired direction.

Flood Light: This is one of the most important lights as for it comes most of the general light in the studio. These lights do not have barn doors on however, making it harder to control.

Lighting panel - This controls brightness of each light. Its much like the audio mixing desk in how it works to ajust the levels. There is a computer screen near to the panel enabling the controler to see the floor and effect of the lights.

Pre-Production and Preparation

Our first rotation was Live TV shows, our aim was to create and film a live Tv quiz show. Our show and its questions were to be based upon different aspects of Media, as a group we decided the five rounds that made up the show would be Music, Internet, Television, movie and Quickfire. First our class was split into five groups and were allowed to decide on which round we would like to create, my group chose to be in charge of the Music round. Within the groups there were four different roles, content producer, technical producer, post production producer and art director. I took on the role of Content Producer, this meant i was in charge of the scripting of the round and its questions, because our music round was first in the shows running order the script also had to include the host introduction. Not only was i in charge of scripting and questions but also making sure that everything worked, was finish and in order to ensure that our round was complete and the best it could be.
We decided to used a range of questions involving audio and video inserts (VT), the first set of questions would be instrumentals of well known songs and the two teams would have to answer who the artist was and the title of the track. For the next set of questions we used a JLS and a Girls Aloud music video, frosting out the face of one member from each group. I found the videos we wanted to used on YouTube, worked out the ideal timings and position for a freeze frame on the frosted face and then handed the information over to our Post Production Producer who was able to download the video and trim it to my timings. These originally were are only questions but when it came to making our rounds running order with estimated timings we found we had time to add some more in. We decided these would be bonus questions at the end of the round based on the previous bands used in the VT's.
I had already began several versions of the script but when we had decided on what was to be the final questions I began on a more final script. Unfortunately I was a way for turning my final script into a official TV show script so the technical producer who at the time didn't have much to do was able to step up and copy mine script into the correct format but late I was able to look over it and make any corrections if neeed (which they weren't).
I also was able to help out the art directors team with the painting and putting up of the set to alow them to have more time to concentration on the complicated design.