Episode two of The Charlie Show is complete! The production of the second episode felt like a whirlwind, with such a fast turn-over from the previous week’s shooting of episode one, alongside all the additional challenges we were presented with on the day. However, I believe we have come out on top, and produced a successful final product! Additionally, it feels as if the quick turn-around allowed us to have a real taste of the live television production landscape as it exists today, building on what we’ve viewed as a class of long-running live productions such as SNL, and their speedy, stressful, but ultimately extremely rewarding production processes. With this, I feel we have been prepared well for our media careers outside of university!
(NBC) (the high-speed turn around of our production reminded me of this video we watched in class! We often joked that we were in training for our future careers at SNL because of the rapid, chaotic, and in some moments unavoidably last-minute nature of our production!)
For episode two, I was assigned the additional role of EVS operator on top of my writing obligations, which I was extremely excited about, after having thoroughly enjoyed trying out EVS operation in the practical class activities in previous weeks. However, I was also very nervous, as the technical side of media production has never been within my comfort zone, preferring to opt for communicative or creative roles, such as writing and DA, as I performed for episode one. Given my nerves, I wanted to ensure that I was very well prepared for the shoot. As such, I spent extensive time running over the script (in its many iterations), planning EVS cues, and developing a simple and easy to follow EVS checklist for the shoot day. In this, I designated all the EVS clips we would need on the day, their respective cues from the script, and a ‘DONE’ check-box, so I could keep track of what EVS had already played in the shoot, in case I became confused. This was all of course in addition to following along with the script, and acting according to the direction of the Director and DA.
I learnt on shoot day that no matter how much one prepares, there can always be unexpected challenges, and we as media-makers must always be prepared to address them! When we arrived in the control room on Thursday, we found that the studio A mac desktop had been removed, to be used for another broadcast. Additionally, the EVS computer itself malfunctioned for a large portion of our rehearsal time, preventing us from uploading/ingesting the EVS footage, meaning we weren’t able to practice cueing and running EVS for the majority of the script. We tried multiple methods of fixing the issue, such as using media-encoder to alter the file types for all of the clips, and changing strategy for ingesting the EVS clips. Regardless, it became apparent that it was an issue that only the techs could solve. Despite this, I was able to practice recording live content with EVS, as we recorded the infomercial and the musical guest on the day due to an inability to access studio C or D for a live-cross. I believe this was a great skill to learn, and it allowed me to continue to feel useful throughout rehearsal, despite the technical difficulties.
Luckily, the studio techs were able to fix the EVS issues, and we were at last back up and running for the real take! Not having had the opportunity to practice a full run-through with EVS, I was apprehensive for the final take and our collective ability to cue all clips seamlessly. We were quickly able to run through some of the tricker techniques before the take, such as the fading-out of the title sequence (allowing the full EVS audio to play, but cross-fading the visual into the live camera feed), as well as the cutting-off, fast-forwarding, and returning to the musical guest for the credit reel.
During the take, the DA, vision switcher, and myself worked closely to cue the EVS footage. I believe that under the circumstances – in the EVS malfunction and lack of full rehearsal – we performed well, and the final product is of a good standard! Of course, I am disappointed about the small errors we made, such as not having the audio department bring up the EVS volume for multiple clips, and for some small errors in EVS cueing, such as not beginning the clip at the exact same time as when the vision switches to it, resulting in a somewhat disrupted effect or missed seconds from certain clips. Regardless, I am very proud of my efforts as EVS operator, as it is a role that is unlike any other that I have previously taken on, particularly in such a high-pressure collaborative endeavour, and hence it challenged me in new ways that will certainly prove beneficial to my media skills as a whole. As such, this shoot greatly improved my confidence in my own ability to work under difficult circumstances, and to navigate unanticipated obstacles. This training is something I really appreciate, and it has broadened my scope of potential career interests, and increased my passion for working in close-knit, supportive, synergetic production teams such as ours!
This clip shows the very beginning of the episode, when the audio for the EVS clip was unfortunately not brought up at the same time as the clip beginning to play, so the first few seconds are silent. While it remains possible to edit this in post before the episode is distributed/screened, it is unfortunate that we didn’t achieve a seamless intro in the live setting.
This clip is an example of a cueing error which occurred when EVS was cued, so I began to play the clip, but the vision had not yet switched. As a result, the first second of the clip is not seen, and the already obscure video makes even less sense. However, as the clip is intended to be confusing and strange, it was not a fatal error.
References:
NBC. Creating Saturday Night Live: Control Room. 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpAyaJuyN8s&t=319s&ab_channel=SaturdayNightLive. Accessed 26 May 2022.