Unfortunately, I was running extremely late (what’s new?) for Week 9’s studio and did not arrive until 2:30 PM. What I arrived at, however, was a full-running production with all the crew members busily walking from Studio A + C and also the prop room, fulfilling their duties.
For the first half of the studio rehearsals, I was in Studio A learning how to operate the Livestream machine. Before becoming a Livestream Operator or entering a studio, I was completely ignorant to the fact that “Livestreaming” was a separate entity from the production. What I mean by that is that I did know that it was exclusively its own branding. I thought that livestreaming was already a given on social platforms such as Facebook and Youtube and that a third-party software like Livestream would not be necessary to operate with.
There are multiple uses for Livestream and how I can manipulate the production during the broadcast. For example, the Livestream machine can be used to insert graphics. In the meantime, however, my role as a Livestream operator is to solely press “Go Live” and monitor the views that come in during the broadcast for Midnight Snack.
The second part of the rehearsals was in Studio C for me. I was both the writer and the person controlling autocue. To be completely honest, the beginning of the ongoings of Studio C was not smooth sailing. Half of the crew either went home or completely did not turn up so we have to make do with our current situation. This situation was fixed when I got everyone to go in a circle and introducer themselves and what their role was. Crew members from Studio A were also happy to help which was great!
As a writer, my script was responsible for conducting how the directors and producers were going to play their roles for Studio C. We all collaborated really well and everyone seemed to agree with the script that I wrote which took a weight off my shoulders, thank goodness! I was extremely happy to see my work on an actual screen – that’s something I’ve always yearned for and to see it LIVE and in action was extremely satisfying! This makes me excited for future productions and of course the upcoming episodes for Midnight Snack.
By the end of the studio, we managed to practice the first segment of my script except for the Facebook script which was fine because we still had week 10 to polish everything up. We did come across some problems with the Studio A due to some miscommunications and misunderstandings. One of the other producers changed the schedule of Episode 2, when in all honesty, he’s not even supposed to be responsible for Studio C! Pat (Studio C producer) and I (Studio C writer) felt a bit discouraged about this lack of communication and obviously added more stress and pressure onto us because this kind of information shouldn’t be thrown to us in the last minute and especially not be hear from a third-party. We did manage to (hopefully) solve this issue by Brooke (Studio C Director) making a solid schedule for each episode.
These issues are just minor bumps in the road and all part of the learning experience in the studio. Overall, I am glad to have experienced both the positives and the negatives of working in a studio.