In this semester, i was in a studio called “Ready, Camera, One”, which is a studio that covers mutil-cam production and in the end every member in this studio will work collaboratively on design and making a two episode live show. Each member will undertake two different role that we wanted gain experience on. In last two weeks of our studio, we completed two live show called “Midnight snack”. This segment is a script segment however, we would not be trying out these snack before we went live, so we can capture these live moment and reactions. In each episode, we cover current trending news and comedy sketches, special guests and main segment “Midnight Snack Challenge”, it is a segment that we try out different snack and see if it is “Midnight Snack Approved”.

In episode one, my role was director assistant in studio C, which is smaller studio that we cover all the sketches and midnight snack segment. It is my first time doing Director Assistant, which is found quite stressful at first because from my previous experience in observing our people, it is a very crucial role in the multi-cam studio. As a director assistant, i should always making sure if everyone is in place when we are ready for a rehearsal or we are going live and check if everything is in place. However, in our case in studio C i don’t have a headset to talk to everyone, so when i wanted to talk to floor manager director need to help me to deliver the message. Therefore, we had a couple of problem with director have too much work during the show. During our rehearsal we try to resolve this problem with practice. Due to we have two studios so one of the hard part and important part is the switch studio cue, in our first rehearsal because in studio A (our main studio) do not know approximately how long the introduction segment going to be, so the cue that we got from A was not correct and sudden when they cue us. What we decide to do is to take record of how long every rehearsal and every segment going to be and i have a full script from studio A, so even there are some segment going over time we can still know and ready for the switch. I was not counting down from minutes for director, i first start the countdown in 20s of every segment going to end. After talking to the floor manager, i know that if i count down in minutes would be good for everyone in studio so they can know how much time they have before their switch. For example, when we finish our first sketch we switch over to studio A, in the same time we need to change the set and switch talents and ready the props. While the change happen i count everybody down for how long that we left, i learn that this way the floor manager would understand the flow and control the floor easily. After first episode, i think i still need to work on the part of collaboration, although we did work out quite a lot of thing with conversation, but i think there are still some miscommunication especially between two studios, and i think i should communication with other studio more and keep up-to-date with any changes.

I am really happy with what we have during the actual live show, the switch was smooth but the EVS video for the skit played a bit short than we expected i think its because the other studio not sure about how long the intro video going to be and they might switch it earlier. I think we have much more that we could improve on. From the footage of episode 2, i think because we became quite familiar with the tempo and working style in TV studio, everyone collaborate quite smooth with each other.

In episode two, my role was Autocue Operator, this is also my first time operating autocue. I have learned how to use the program and how to control the speed of the script rolling and also speak to director immediately if there is a change that i am not sure from the script that i have. Talking to talent is also important because i need to know which size or speed is comfortable for them so when they reading it minimal the times that missing a sentence or pause when there is a EVS or graphic playing full screen. Also take notes on small changes like how the host like to speak a certain way or a swap between line. This week my main working space is in studio A, which is our main studio that our audience will be in. During rehearsal it reminded me on the reading that we did on week 3 about “sounding live” in a TV studio. It talked about a lot of pre-tape live shows or sit-com will add laugh track or cues for the audience to laugh which can enhance viewing experience and boost the confidence for the host and the talents. In our show, floor manager will go through the script and taking to the audience and warm up the floor and talk them through about cues on laugh or any reaction sound that we need to capture. In episode 2 of midnight snack, it is a boozejelly challenge which is a challenge that we ate jellybean that have same colour but very different flavour. During rehearsals we ask the talent pretend to eat it and went through the script, before the actual show we are afraid the talents could not stand it, so we add a character on the spot call “spit boy” which is the funniest moment in all two episode which is also reflect on the magical of live show. We have structure plan out and script ready but we never know if there is a incident or unexpected funny moments like this. 

I had a amazing and rewarding experience in this studio, thanks to everyone that helped and especially Ruth and Ed.