Week 8 Kids show

For the last children’s show exercise i got Vision Mixer first up. Pete was directing. It seems like a bit of a high pressure job but its relatively simple you just need to be really switched on. I found for the first few run i was trying to be aware of what was happening and watching the preview screens and listening to the presenters. All that plus noise from the other people in the control room and people talking over comms makes it very busy and hard to concentrate so i took the approach of just focusing on the director and it was a lot easier. There was one little confusing bit early on where the stagger through hit a wall and Petes call was indecisive and i made a switching error, but it was only in an early rehearsal and then from then on it was smooth sailing. I enjoyed the role a lot and will hopefully do more on it in time to come. My next role was staging. It isn’t as exciting as VM but is still an important. I made sure all the cables were bashed and helped out with any little jobs. As a group we did really well today and have kept our higher standards up. We have come along from our shaky start. We all understand the roles and operation of the studio quite well now. There are still that i want more experience on like CCU and some aspects of sound. We work together more efficiently as a team now. We should be capable of overcoming any issues that the kids show throws at us.         

Week 7 Childrens show

First Week back from the Break. I was ready to get back into it and i think everyone else was too. As a group we really stepped up today. People worked well as a team and everyone had a handle on their roles. I started as talent. Once again in front of the camera. We did some cooking. Being talent is good to sit back and observe the floor. You can view it all and not haveto focus on your own role too much. Apart from that i dont think ill be making an attempt to break into presenting anytime soon! For the next role i was camera 1. I’m really enjoying being on camera. I’ve really tried to take in all that Bruce has said. my first few goes on camera in the first semester were pretty lacking. I feel now i can see shots better and am gaining better control of the camera. There are times in the studio when i feel i dont belong to a role, like sitting behind a sound desk or as a DA but when im on a camera i feel like i should be there. Im going to really push myself on camera both in the studio and on location ove the next two years. Im going over shot sizes all the time and trying to understand all the ways of shooting. I think that when you shoot you need to be aware of your space and be constantly reviewing and thinking about where you are going. Pete was directing and i was offereing him shots during the cooking and trying some shots like panning and pedding in and out.  

Week 6 Tutes lighting/sound

For the last week of term we did a lighting/sound tute with Bruce and Pat. But before we got started we had a very frank talking to by them. Everything they said was recieved loud and clear by all of us and people are picking their acts up which is good. Although it wasn’t fun they really sank in and it shows that we have the privillige of being taught by lecturers who are passionate about the industry and who want to help us as best they can. In the tutes i learned a lot. It was good to sit in the audio room and Pat talked us through the desk and Burce ran thorugh the lighting with us. I prefer lighting for TV a lot more than theatre lighting now. It seems more practical in some ways and you can do cool things creatively. We got told about Walter Graff by Bruce. I read about him and his background in TV. His CV is amazing and he would be the most passionate person in the whole industry. I found it informative to read about his work in technical fields like his lighting and shooting techniques but i became in a way enlightened in a way about just how much you can do and how far you can go in the industry if you work your ass off. Its encouraging to read and hear about what people can and have achieved in the industry. It has made me all the more focused to get stuck in and learn all the technical knowledge i can while im here and push my skills as far as i can.    

Week 5 Childrens Show Exercise

Sound is the avenue that I have felt i need the most work in. I have always underestimated my abilities in sound. For the childrens show exercises i had to mic up the studio talent. We ran the boom mic and two radio mics. It always seems a lot more complicated than it really is. Just run the leads to the wall and patch them through into the sound desk. Once the desk was operational we got some levels and then were ready to go. As Pat explained in the past tutes you have to map out the show on the desk. Through the rehearsals i got it cued up so i could fade the mics in and out smoothly and not get any noticable mistakes like clipping the start or end of someones dialogue. I really felt like my skills and confidence have excelled since the start of the year. I still have a while to go until im as good as i would like to be with operating the desk and knowledge of the technical aspects. My second role was talent. People shouldn’t put me in front of cameras. All logical though disappears and i go crazy.    

Hello Riverina Recap 2 week 4

For this run through of Hello RIverina i was camera 2. I was excited to be on camera again but i had done camera 2 before. It was a good way to see how my skills had developed and i felt very comfortable and confident with the camera. I feel i take to being on camera with more ease than some of the techo roles. I get the crip with them eventually but im quicker at picking up things on the camera. Im looking forward to developing my skills on camera work.        

Hello Riverina Recap week 3!

It all went pretty well considering the last time we did it was many weeks ago. Everyone slotted into their roles quite well. I was on tapes. I went well but made one stuff up in the first stagger through. I put a one minute commercial break on instead of a two minute break. It was a silly mistake but at least it happened early and i fixed it up. All the inserts were cued up pretty well, but sometimes Rods countdowns were a bit messy and then the Director would cut in, but they got it sorted and should do well for W!CKED. I have a pretty good handle on tapes now so i feel confident as it is one of my roles for the coming assesment.

Final Assesment

Psotion – Telepromter

The last run through of Hello Riverina was probably the best. The notes Pat and Bruce made about us coming alive when Jeff started adding in the live cross was very true. Everyone snapped into gear. It was great fun. Teleprompter was pretty straight forward. I ran through the script fixed up any mistakes and then tried to keep on the ball during the staggers and then the record. It isn’t the most exciting job but it has to be done of course and it wasn’t too bad, you have to keep on the ball the whole time otherwise you will have talent with nothing to say, staring blankly into the camera. Its very exciting now that the kids show is around the corner. It is going to be lots of hard work but we can do it. Hello Riverina was a great assesment. Im confident on most of the roles in the studio now although i never got to do ccu. From the shows i realised how much i still dont like sound and that i really enjoy being on camera.  Bring on the rest i say.   

3rd Assesment

For the third Assesment i was VT. This was the role i have been daunted by the most since the start of the year. It seemd complicated and like there was so much room for error. But once we started it was nothing like i thought. I dont know what i was thinking. I got a handle on it very early and managed well throughout the run. The role was enjoyable; cue up tapes wait for call and hit play. I really enjoy being on the floor a lot more than tapes and sound. I guess i like to be where the action is, but it was worth while and im no longer dreading doing tapes.  Our show on friday wasn’t as smooth as it has been in the past but they can’t all be perfect iguess.   

2nd Assesment

This time i was Presenter, or ‘Mr Pres’ as i liked to call myself.  Obviously i wasn’t getting assesed but i used the time to observe the floor and the different tasks people were carrying out. Presenting was fun but im more of a behind the camera sort of guy. I was a bit worried because i woke up feeling like crap but it all went smoothly. I look forward to never acting again. Thats all im going to write, theres not much else to talk about. Im looking forward to the next assesment.     

First Assesment

My role was camera 2. I was pleased to get this role first up. I am interested in camera the most at this stage of the course. This will probably change but i am enjoying camera work and being on the floor during shoots. For camera 2 i had to start of with a MS of the guest and then move to the graphic cards then back over to the interviewer. Camera 1 had all the tricky stuff. Im not bitter im just heartbroken. I wrote a song about it. It was interesting during the interview as the director Jeff (who did a freaking good job) called the shots. I felt like i was on the ball for the shoot. I wasn’t corrected on my shots very often at all, the only changes Jeff made were when he wanted it to change from a MS to a MCU on the interviewer. At the very end Jeff called me to get a wide shot of the studio, cameras included. It took me by suprise a little bit but got the shot he was after. I got a lot of confidence out of the exercise and some very useful instructions from Pat and Bruce (and Jeff). I feel that i can control the camera and the pedastal so much more effeciently since we started and i can now spot better shots easier and understand the aesthetics a lot more. I felt as a group we worked really well and we continue to better ourselves.