As Live Production - Critical Project Evaluation

We had an amazing TX day, everything went very smoothly and everyone was happy with the results. Everyone came in the morning to prepare for each of their roles, i had to keep in mind to give out all the intercoms (talkbacks) to everyone who needed one.

Everyone kept to their own roles and took charge. I was prepared with my script and talk-back ready for the audience to come it. Ths production was one of the biggest projects i have ever done, within the crew/contributors and content. Going into such a big project i was nervous and scared since i never worked with so many people at once. Because we are such a big group a lot of us were worried that we wouldn't listen to each-other and the show would end up a mess but it was a complete opposite of that. It started off with each one of us creating a pitch in January, we all did a great job but the pitching panel thought that 'Steal the Style' would bring something completely different to the table. I think mine and Callums idea was very well thought out and we gave our best pitch.

I and Callum had the idea clearly visualized, we worked on different game show ideas together merging both of our ideas into one. When we went into the pitch we both were very confident and excited to see what's to come, however looking back at the overall pitch the idea was too much alike 'Mr & Mrs' the pitching panel also mentioned that they wanted to try something different this year and stay away from 'Game Shows'. Even though 'Steal the Style' was chosen I was happy to work on
it.

We only had a day to chose our production roles, i wasn't really sure what i wanted to do since i have never worked on a studio production. Most of the roles i was very confused with because i had never heard of them before and i wasn't confident in many of the roles. Helen and Jo both thought that i would be a great researcher for the pre-production assessments and a great Floor Manager since my personality is 'Out there'. I wasn't so sure about being a floor manager at first, but i was pretty happy with being a researcher. When i was given the two roles i felt like being an FM will be way out of my comfort zone, but i wanted to give it a go!

I first had to focus on my first role that was given to me to prepare the pre-production, i had be the VT researcher. I have done research before for many other projects so i wasn't so nervous about this specific role, i knew where to find certain information and how to cast preferable people. I did go rough some rough patches throughout the research because a lot of the contributors were Boring or not interesting enough for the VT producer. I wanted to make sure that our viewers would be interested in their stories. I only had to research the locations and contributors throughout the pre-production for 2 VT's, we were split into two separate groups. I was in charge of the 'Fashion Fails VT' and 'Presenter Challange VT' both seemed fun and exciting to work on. I had to make sure all guidelines were being followed and the public wasn't being interrupted.

I also had to make sure that the camera operators were happy and that VT producer was getting exactly what he wanted within his VT's. It was great to see my research and location, contributors being included in the output. In both VT's most of the locations and contributors were found by myself, I had to liaise with the charity shops to ask if we could potentially film in their store and I had to double check with the council if it was fine to film in the town center. Most authorities have to be alerted if major film productions are being carried out within the public since this could be a danger to some individuals. I had to be very aware of this!

Between the pre-production we always had rehearsals for our actual studio transmissions, I had to research on the side exactly what a floor manager has to deal with and how they decide to deal with certain situations. I never knew that a FM has to know specific hand signals and verbal commands that have to be loud and clear within the studio, it was difficult for me to grasp this. It took me a few weeks to learn these command and signals since I have never used them before! During every rehearsal I started to get the grip of the production, my confidence grew and I feel like I had gotten better and better each day. During the rehearsals, I and George didn't know how to split each half since both of us were needed all the time by crew and talent. Sometimes I would shout commands and then George would shout them again over me since we didn't have a clear tactic.

We decided to be in charge of 1 presenter each and shout commands each for the 15 minutes, I would shout them at the beginning of the production and George would shout commands during the second half. It did work better but we still messed up a few times and confused others, I feel like this was a learning curb. I always made sure that the presenters were confident and happy with what was happening if there was a problem I had to think quick on my feet to resolve the issue.

I feel like, within the production Me, George and Jack acted as one big floor managing team! It was responsibilities which meant we were all happy in the end. Even though I had to manage the floor and talent I still had to keep the contributors in the loop and make them aware exactly what is happening since they didn't have any in ear pieces or talk-backs. I always checked with the camera operators if they are happy with their positioning and what is happening next within the shoot, I kept asking the talent if they needed a drink of water or if they needed some help with directions.
difficult since we were such a big group we all wanted one role but we had to learn how to share. We decided to split our

I can really say that my confidence has grown a lot during this entire experience; I have gained so many skills and I would have never thought of being a floor manager. We all learned to listen to each other and work in a large group, this was a challenge at the beginning but we all came together. I learned to be loud and effective, I grew more and more confident in my organization skills and thinking quick on my feet if an issue arises. I had to adapt to lighting equipment and crew set design teams and audience members. To me, this was all a big shock since I have never dealt with so many people but it was absolutely brilliant.

It is crazy to me that I was able to contribute a great amount of research within the VT's and being able to command an entire studio floor full of cast, crew and audience. Also dealing with issues such as camera problems, clip mics not working, VT's not rolling. I had to deal with this in a calm professional manner so everyone stays positive.

Overall I am very happy with the way this unit has finished, it started off a bit steep but when everything started falling into place we all did great. The team pulled together one big amazing team to produce a fantastic 30 minute Of Live Production. I have learned so much throughout January till now about how a studio production works, the amount of effort and team work that needs to be put into this production is crazy to me. I hope I can work within this environment again, I really wish to improve my researching skills and give amazing clear command on a studio floor.