Assignment Two: Post-Production
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Assignment Two) ~ Director POV
I feel as a whole, our team worked really well together! Being the director, was a challenge for me (I had never done it before!) and I found the hardest thing was focusing on different elements and being ahead of the ballgame as well as communicating with different people in the control room and on the floor. I found because our scene was quite ‘chop and change’ it not only made it harder but we felt succeeded in the result. After a couple of rehearsals and three live takes, it was easier to get a feel for what we were meant to do and getting in the mental space for directing. The different roles are quite intertwined and everyone has to be on the ball with communication and using their headsets to make sure people are getting the correct information, otherwise, you won’t be producing a show that you’re happy with. Even though this was a minute take, it was still quite stressful and fastpaced, so it will be interesting seeing what longer takes are like.
As an audience member there is a lot of waiting around, which sounds silly, but between rehearsals, getting ready and prepared to go live whilst the cast and crew are preparing. For a short take, we were sitting for around half an hour for each group, with five minutes of ‘live takes’ – however, I can imagine this would be different for a major live production.
Shooting scenes in a single camera I find is so much easier as you only need to focus on the singular module that you’re shooting for – although, saying that you have more creative freedom in the multi-camera set up rather than the single shoot camera, as you’re able to have more angles that you can work within a short time frame, rather than shoot everything in segments from different angles. In singular camera, you might be shooting singularly, however, I think it’s nicer to work in a team and feel accomplished.
If you don’t have solid communication on the floor and through all of the team, accidents and mistakes such as the Academy Awards ‘stuff up’ between Moonlight and La La Land can arise where, because of their lack of communication, they were given the wrong envelope and in turn, read out the wrong winner live in front of a national broadcast (one that is highly watched due to the nature of the program). Although mistakes happen, they often give rise to media talk and a stronger engagement because everyone assumes ‘s live tv will run smoothly. The reading “At a Loss for Words: Televisual Liveness and Corporeal Interruption” by Alla Gadassik states that “Our experience of television liveliness is connected to our “unscripted” effective moments when words fail and something else breaks through: gasps, pauses, tears, silences, aggressive eruptions, etc. Television forms reluctant alliances with “authentic” somatic acts; they can captivate viewers but also can become difficult to manage and contain” – this reading reflects the notions that people almost want something wrong to happen (must to the directors and the crew’s dismay) as it’s unlike most live television shows where everything runs smoothly… luckily for us, our live presentation did, which was a relief.