Day 3 - Workplacement 28/9/11

Time Started - 9:30
Time Finish - 6:30
Total Hours - 9

Self Assessment Report -
Uniform: 4

Punctuality: 5

Initiative: 5
Cooperation: 5
Work Standard: 5
Development of Skills: 5



An auto cue similar to the
one in the studio



Today at workplacement I was sent to studio 1 where Kerri-Anne, The today show and the 6pm news is filmed. I get to stay back till 5.30 today so I can watch the 6pm news being filmed. Once again I took the train and the bus to the studio and also walked up the huge hill. In studio 1 I was greeted by the technical director Graeme who is responsible for the maintenance of the auto cue's and all the cameras used mainly their colour and focus. Graeme showed me around the control room and the studio floor where at that time they were filming the end of Kerri-Anne or KAK for short. In the control room there is a long desk up the front of the room where the director, assistant director, switcher, lighting director and technical director sit. Behind them on another desk are the producers. Beside them in a seperate booth is the audio director. Unlike studio 3, studio 1 does not use robotic cameras but rather the cameras are controlled by camera operators. Three cameras are mounted on tripods and two are roaming cameras.

The control room

 During a commercial break Graeme sent me to an outdoor section of the studio were a cooking segment with Alvin from mastercheif was being filmed. Outside there were 2 mobile cameras filming along with the floor manager.  Graeme told me that for large scale demonstrations, the crew film these segments outside in a seperate part of the building such as the bistro or the car park. Upon making my way back to the control room I was fortunate enough to run into Kerri-Anne in the corridor and have a brief conversation with her. She looks so young in the flesh only because she cakes on the make up.

 

Lighitng Desk similar to the
one Stewart uses

Once back in the control room Graeme introduced me to Stewart the lighting director. Stewart is in charge of making lighting plan, all the lights in the studio and he is also responsible for making the host look as good as possible while reducing how much light and glare they are exposed to. Stewart is also responsible for coordinating his two lighting assistants. The lighitng desk that Stewart uses controls the brightness and colour of lights as well as any diming or fading out that needs to be done.



Fresnel Light



Stewart was able to show me the master lighting plan of the studio which had an array of par cans, fresnel lights, soft lights, flood lights and profile lights. He also showed me some specific lighting plots used for different segments that were filmed ie advertorials. These lighting plans show things like behind lights and direct lights. While with Stewart he also showed me a lighting plan he was completing a performance the next day involving a piano.

During a commercial break I was allowed to go onto the studio floor. There I watched the crew film an segment called "ninja nanna" about a 85 year old great grandmother who was learning karate. For this segment a large unfurnished section of the studio was used meaning that news lights had to be used and tested and the position of a couple of cameras had to change. Below is a video of the segment.

The Kerri-Anne Set

Once the filming for the Kerri-Anne show had finished the crew had to set up the studio to film an editorial that would be played in future episodes of Kerri-Anne. The advertorial filmed today was for a rotating hair iron which included 4 models. In order to set up for the advertorial the set used for Kerri-Anne had to be taken down and replaced with a special set specially used for advertorials described as the fluro set. The people reponsible for moving the sets are refered to as stagies who also are responsible for placing props, furniture and aditional visual features such as flowers and vases.

In advertorials the lighting also had to be changed by Stewart and his lighting assistants. On the walls of the studio are various cables used in lighting, audio and vision. The lighting cables connect into inputs on the sets so that they light up and can be used as backlights. Safety with the lighting cables is full maintained with bumps being put over cables that run through pathways. The cables are also coiled in a figure 8 style and duc taped down to the floor.

The actual lights on the ceiling have to be manually moved by Stewart and the lighting assisants making it the hardest and most time consuming process. The process was made especially more long as the set kept changing. At first there set comprised of a glass table and 5 seats, two for the hosts and 3 for the models as that is the standard set used in advertorials. Stewart and his lighting assistants used a long reaching pole to adjust the lights by tilting them, focusing them and adjusting the windows so that the lights did not reflect off the glass, the light matched the skin tone of the host and there wasn't too much glare in the hosts eyes. To test the lights a touch screen panel was used to turn specific lights on and off and control how bright the lights are. A volt reader was also used to read how much light was being exposed to one section of the set. It is used by holding it up behind a persons face, pointed towards the light and pressing a button to get the reading. The lights had to be perfect which is why the process took so long.

But as soon as the client arrived at the studio they decided they wanted the set changed to allow movement and space. Instead the table was taken out and a level was used to seperate the hosts and the the models. The lights once again had to be changed. While the lights were being changed I was lucky enough to be able to talk to the assistant audio technician called Dan. Dan told me about his jobs as an audio assistant and also how he got to that stage in his career. As an audio assistant Dan is responsible for setting up all audio equipment and also for microphones on the studio floor and any problems that may occur mainly with the clip on microphones. Dan said that most of these problems mainly come from the cable, pack or earpiece. He also told me that the ideal position for placing a microphone on a person is in the middle of the chest in front of any jewelrey or fastenings on clothing. All the mcirophones used various people also need to be at the same height so the volume is balanced. Dan's careers path was very different to Jason's as he started out studing physics and the theory behind sound and then did a coarse specially designed for audio in multimedia.

Once filming for the advertorial began Dan gave me a communication radio so I could listen into the conversations between the stage manager, director, camera operators, sound crew and audio assistant. Most of the things discusssed included angles, switching cameras and count downs. On the studio floor the stage manager was responsible for cueing in the hosts. The advertorial overall took a very very long time to film due to how complex the product was and how perfect the client wanted the advertorial. The importance of customer service as really stressed today. Filming for the advertorial lasted until 2.30 so after it was done I went to lunch. Below is another advertorial shot by someone else for the product.

One of the Huge TV's

After I came back from lunch the production were finishing up filming a shoot of just the product alone. After this set up began for the 6pm news with once again the sets and lights being changed. While the studio was being set up I was put into the hands of Graemes 3.00 replacement, William. While it was quiet William let me have a play with the color and brightness effects of the cameras. For basic light and dark all you have to do is move the joystick known as an iris.The colors are split into six different knobs 3 for the white settigns of red, green and blue and 3 for the black settings of also red, green and blue. Out of all the colors green has the greatest effect on the picture. The main point of the colors is to adjust the vision compared to skin tones. One of the other things William is in charge of is the huge TV's that have images played on them during broadcasts such as a harbor backdrop or the weather.

While there was time to spare I went into the audio booth and had a talk with the audio director Bill and audio assitant Jason who I meet on Monday. Bill briefly explained to me how the audio mixing desk worked. Unlike the one in studio 3 the desk is digital meaning that ant eq manipulation can be seen on a screen. But like the desk in studio 3 sound effects and music are part of the audio job. The music and sound effects are controlled through a touch panel and are played on cue from the director. The music that is picked to be played during a show is picked by the executive and usually matches the scene being filmed. Accroding to Bill it is the nicest mixing desk in the complex. Jason's job as the assistant was very similar to Dan's being he was resonsible for the microphones.

Peter Overton

Before filming for the news began a promo was recorded to be played during a commercial. While doing the first take the audio became very bouncey due to how hard the set was, so the promo had to be recorded again. The news host for tonights broadcast was Peter Overton. Because of his low voice the eq in audio had to be adjusted quite a bit. During the broadcast there were no serious problems in audio or lighting but there was a bit of a problem with the vision during the weather as the graphics were out of sync with the autocue. Beside this the broadcast was a success and the news was quite enjoyable to watch. Tommorow I'm hoping to see a lot in news edit.