Assignment 3 brought my perspective and experience with TV production to a whole other level. As mentioned before, I didn’t have much contribution to the pre-production planning stage other than keeping myself on task with what the show was about, what was supposed to go on and for how long.

During the class itself, Marcus ( our producer ) handed us run sheets and a copy of the script and I took my time breaking down each segment. I familiarised myself with what part of the script correlated to the run sheet and took notes for how long each segment was to go for. I then made marks along the run sheet and script as to where I should cue my audio person and graphic people.

I then coordinated with Francesca ( our director ) as to what tasks she was about to do before we started rehearsing. Her main focus was to brief the talents and to set up the cameras according to how she envisioned it. While I made sure Francesca was on task, I also had to take note of the time as we were only given 20 minutes to set up, 10 for rehearsal and another 10 for filming. I went around counting down the time for rehearsal and checked up on everyone to make sure they were on task. I also provided assistance wherever possible.

During the rehearsal, everything was in chaos. We did not know what to expect and did not know how to react to our mistakes. Ruth made a good point of just running with the rehearsals and making a mental note of what went wrong during it so that we could fix the problem before the actual run. Some problems we faced during the rehearsals include, uncoordinated graphics and audio and lack of audience interaction.

I managed to prep my audio guy and cue him as to when to start playing the voiceover, which occurs around the middle of the production. However, because I was too flustered with the job at hand, we did not manage to solve the audience interaction problem which, in hindsight, could be blamed for our lack of coordination with the Floor Manager ( and when he should cue the audiences to laugh or clap )

Overall, as a DA, it felt like I had to micro-manage everyone in the team. I spoke a lot with Jaie ( Floor Manager ) during the set up stage to ensure that we had our lighting set up, which was something we all almost forgot in the midst of everything. Going into this role, I didn’t understand fully what my task was, however if I were to look back on the events yesterday and cancel out my role, it’s very easy to see the significance of having a DA present. DA’s have to keep track of the time, and ensure that everyone especially the director, is on task. DA’s have to know specific cue’s for audios, graphics and even audience interaction and coordinate these with the respective crew members. In retrospect, DA’s act like the glue to every production.