Media – Multi-Camera Production Evaluation

By Alysia Sharman

The Brief Our task was to produce a 30 minute magazine show aimed at the audience of 14 – 20 year olds

mainstream British audience. The show would be live on E4 and would be filmed using the multi-cameratechnique.

“E4 want the show to be a landmark in the schedule and as such it has to have high production valuesand be a fresh take on a traditional format. They feel the best way to do so is to produce a daily live show which

will include the best of British music scene with reviews, videos, interviews and an audience reaction.” - The Brief

How Did We Do It?We had to use the music videos we had crated in our magazine

show and find a way to include the audience. We all pitched ideas and at heend voted on which one would be the main ‘template’ for the show, bringing inother ideas from other pitch ideas.

Trap star?I feel that the final production of Trap Star worked out well ,

even though there was a lot of difficulties at the beginning. For example, therewere trouble with set, lines, sound and other items, but overall, I feel that theshow turned out well.

The Team?Overall I believe that the teams we were in and the roles that we

got were good and we were pleased with what we got, which as a whole madeit easier to work as a team. There were struggles at the start as people weregetting used to their roles and some people had difficulties working it out, buteveryone helped everyone and the show turned out well in the end because ofexcellent teamwork.

My RoleI had two jobs in this unit which at first I found really hard to take on,

especially as I was away for quite a few lessons because of my exams. But when Igot back on track and up to date, I found it easier w/help from the Floor Manager(Raees) who helped with one of my jobs.

Lighting Director and Set Design

The two jobs I had to take on were the Lighting director and The SetDesign. Which meant I had double to tasks to complete, and less the time.

I fell that I did work to a near professional standard with my lights,I made sure there were no trip hazards by taping then down and making surethat all of my dimmers were next to each other so I would not be a hazardmoving around the room all the time.

One on my main troubles with the lighting was learning how to change them and turn others on in a short space of time. In the show the4re was a point where I had to turn one light on, and one light off, at the same time, while we were live. During one of the live practices, this went wrong, but I saw where and I changed this for the next time.

Being in control of the lighting, meant I had to have a knowledge ofthe equipment I would be using. I had to have a number of skills, such as havinggood colour vision and having an excellent knowledge of the rules and safetyregulations, I knew most of these things, however, I did have some trouble. Forexample; I knew how to set it up, how to change the gel pads…

This is a picture of me changing the gel pad in on of the lights, while were live, but a VT was on. IO

had only a short amount of time to do this.

Lighting Director and Set Design

The two jobs I had to take on were the Lighting director and The SetDesign. Which meant I had double to tasks to complete, and less the time.

One of my other jobs was Set Designer. Which meant I was in main control ofhow the set would look, what would go where, what props would be of use, why?... I had aback up, however, which was the Floor Manager, Raees.

I had to undertake a lot of duties for this particular job role, such as coming upwith multiple plans of how the set would look, and more than ne for each location, I had tocreate a hazards log, noting down what the hazards were and how I would overcomethem, I also had to create a props list, which I did not have time to do before the deadline,so Raees helped me with that.,

I feel that I met the expectations for my job by planning out everythingmultiple times to make sure the set was finished and suits what we all had planned.However I did have some difficulties as most of the set design was changed last minutewhen I was not in lesson, so I wasn’t up to date and therefore had to create an all newset design with no clue of what they had changed.

However hard I found these job, I feel Igained some skills. With the Lighting, I feel I havelearnt how to set up the equipment correctly andwithout help, and I also feel I know how to create aprofessional looking atmosphere to suit the mood of theshow with the lights which s something I didn’t knowhow to do before. With the Set Design, I feel that I nowknow how to set up a near professional looking show setup with no assistance.

Analysis - Final Production

For the actual live day, I also helped out on camera two, although I didn’t do work and research for this, it was

another job while going live.

I feel that the final production of Trap Star was a good one, we did four live shows as well as onequick practice run through. It was filmed using multi-camera, which I feel worked better than if we wee to use asingle camera to film.

Practical Reasons For Our Show;

#We used a multi camera set up as it would make filming easier and quicker, also giving us moreopportunities to catch something spontaneous or by accident. We also used multi-camera because we werefilming in three different locations.

#We used the set design as we did because it was easy for the presenter to get up and move over tothe Rate and Slate wall, as well as making it look like a professional set up. I feel it look similar to the simplesofa and chair design from Alan Carr.

#We had used multiple locations for our live day to get more use out of our multi-camera, alsogiving the presenters time to move around more.

Aesthetic Reasons for Our Show;

#We used the multi-camera technique as it would make our show look more likea real show, a more professional looking show which would also be interesting to the audience.

#The use of the hallway location was to again create a more eye-catchingshow, having the different locations will make show less boring.

#The use of musical instrument in the background of out show, communicates tothe viewer, before the actual show starts, that it has something to do with music, and alsomaking the set look more interesting.

#The continuous change of lighting creates a more creative effect to the show,keeping it alive and not dull, as well as setting a certain mood for each colour used.