TV Studio Production Skills - Learning Diary

TV Studio Production Skills is one of the modules I am studying this semester, it is a Level 4 module introduces me to the technical craft skills of television studio production.

I will gain skills in the use of camera, sound, lighting, vision-mixing and Autocue equipment, as well as other roles in the production process. I will also explore in detail the specialist language and grammar of the TV industry, its professional culture and the need for team working in programme making as related to TV Studio production.

Week 1

In this week’s TV studio lesson, I began exploring all aspects of television studio. I began by getting an understanding of the studio floor and the equipment and roles that go with this. I learnt how to handle the cameras as well as how to position myself to ensure that everything runs smoothly. I learnt that there is a floor manager that keeps the communication between everyone allowing for a smooth run through. I then underwent an introduction into how the sound room is used as well as roles that go with it. I learnt that there are two roles in sound, one being the sound producer and the other being sound assistant. After considering sound, I then went into the studio itself where the director instructs the rest of the crew whilst having close eye on the screens. I learnt how to use all the equipment that is based in the studio and learnt what each role is responsible for. This helped my understanding as before I didn’t know what each role meant and what was consisted.

After going through all the equipment and roles as well as health and safety of the studio, we then began practising ourselves. This consisted of recording a three-minute chat show, we completed this three times and each turnout was different as each student switched roles each time. For the first ever run through and attempt of recording a live TV show, I chose the role of Director. I chose this role as I was intrigued as to what it’s like being a director, it consisted of me ensuring the camera angles were perfect and then followed by me deciding what shots would appear on the screen next. This job came with pressure as I oversaw everything that happened.

For the third recording I chose to be floor manager, this differed to being director and I believe was a harder job to an extent. This is due to the communication factor, and the difficult job of ensuring the presenter can see you count-ins and count-downs.

Overall, I enjoyed my first TV studio lesson as it gave me all the basic information I would need to record a live TV show. I also learnt about the health and safety rules and what I can and cannot do when in the studio. The arrangement of the seminar worked very well as I was able to gain an understanding of every role involved in filming television shows.

Week 2

In the second week of TV studio production skills, we began exploring shot sizes and getting a basic understanding of the type of shots we could use for our final production. The lesson was split into two parts, the first part was to gain an understanding of the shots and the second was more practise in using the studio ourselves.

During the first part of the lesson we explored camera shots. The shots that we looked at were:

• Extreme Close Up or Big Close Up

• Close Up

• Medium Close Up

• Medium Wide Shot

• Wide Shot

• Extreme Wide Shot

Once gaining an understanding of the shots, we then went to explore the Rule of Thirds. Rule of Thirds divides the frame into thirds both horizontally and vertically. The points where the lines cross are the aesthetically pleasing spots to place subject.

Week 3

In the third week of TV studio production skills, we briefly went over the requirements for our project and also noted down the key dates, that involved our production days and deadline days.

Once this was completed we watched a few examples of a kids art show where they teach the audience how to make something. With this in mind, we were then told that we would re-create a show similar but teaching the audience how to make a paper aeroplane. We were told to get into roles and I chose the role of presenter. This consisted of me first learning how to make the paper aeroplane and then moving on to practicing how I would show this to the audience.

As we all had roles, there was a specific group focussing on writing the script that would appear on the auto cue. Once all preparation had been completed and the set was ready, I began presenting the show. I found this particularly difficult as I was following the script rather then improvising for myself, which I believe would of enabled me to feel more comfortable in this role.

In conclusion, i really enjoyed this lesson as I was able to try out different roles. I have found out that I would prefer a studio/gallery role instead of a presenter role. This will help me in my decisions coming up in week 5.

Week 4

In the fourth week of Television Studio Skills, I was unable to attend due to family issues, but from research on moodle and conversations with fellow classmates, I gathered the understanding that this lesson was an introduction into camera scripts and running orders as well as getting an understanding of the basic roles that will be needed for our production day.

Week 5

In week five, we began generating some real ideas for the show we were going to create. We decided that we were going to shoot a game show. This lesson consisted mainly of discussions about what we can and are going to do. Many ideas were brought onto the table and a game show was the most favourited one so we chose this.

We did some brief research into other quiz shows and got a basic understanding of what we needed to do in order to create a successful game show. We decided that the show would consist of three games and one quick fire round. Once this was set in stone we then discussed with the help of our tutor how we could make it more interesting. This is when we came up with the idea of setting each game in a different time zone. For example, the first round would be 1900's and the second would be 2000 - present. This idea was good and allowed for their to be a little twist to the show. Once creating this idea we came up with the name which was 'Flashback Friday'.

We then generated a list of things needed for the production including pre-production roles. For example we had a team of producers which consisted of me and four others, we had a team of set designers, a team of script writers and a team of researchers. We all created groups on Facebook/Whatsapp so we could keep in the loop and genreate ideas together.

Week 6

In week six we had the basic idea for our show as well as a basic script and a basic set design. This lesson was to mainly tighten up our production and also consisted of having a experiment with a different type of game show, a music game show.

The first part of our lesson consisted of us being in our chosen groups. I was mainly working with Caroline on our production schedule which was marking what roles were to be completed by each person. This took alot of time and was quite hard to perfect. We had to ask everyone what they wanted to do and what they didn't want to do and then with this information create a schedule covering the 8 takes deciding on who will do what on each take.

Once we completed this, the script was finalised and the set design was completed. We then had a practice attempt at a music game show provided by our tutor. The show was very interesting and my role was Director. I wanted to be the director in our show so i decided to take this role to give me some prior experience.

Week 7

In week seven, we focussed on our show and completed everything that needed to be completed prior to our production day. The scripts were finished and people knew their roles.

This lesson was also a chance for anyone to have further training on a role that they did not know about. We planned to have at least one rehearsal towards the end of the lesson and it worked.

Our first ever rehearsal of our show went better then expected and it was recorded and later uploaded on YouTube. We chose a date before our production day to meet up and rehearse even more to ensure that it all ran smoothly. We also decided on a production call time and started generating documents that were to be put in our production folder.

Week 8

This week was our production week and it all went smoothly. We were in the studio from 9am. - 6:30pm. and was a successful day!