As Live Production - TX and Final Rehersal

Today was the day we were all preparing for! 'Steal the Style' went live!

Everything egan shart at 9:00am, since the lighting and set team had to come in early to get started. Most of the work had to be completed way before the transmission hour which was 14:00. First thing me and George got to doing is setting up talkbacks and giving them out, these have an effective communication between everyone within the gallery and floor.

Everyone was set and ready to go with final rehersals that started first thing in the morning, during these rehersals we were feeling confident. We were hitting our 30 minute mark and nothing had gone wrong. Everyone was ready our presenters, contributors, models, techs, first years etc. Both me and George had to make sure that all camer ops recieve a talkback and each one of us (Me, George, Jack) as the floor managers. We had a spare talkback which was given to Harvey Amiees sound assistant. We had one talkback that was broken and couldn't be used. 

When we finally had set up everyones talkbacks and changed them to the correct channel the next thing we had to focus on was to talk to the director to find out when we go live. The director had to make sure that firsty the cameras all looked the same, checking the aperture.exposure iris etc. If one camera was different or down me and George would have to step in and help, fortunetly we did not have these issues.

As i have researched before many floor managers have to focus on Health and Safety within the studio. There was a lot of cables on the floor that i had tried to hide, we were given a floor plan and a risk assesment the day before. I started to tape down loose cables and other hazards in the studio so that noone would trip over and hurt themselves. I kept checking with the Gallery to make sure we have everything prepared before going live, i feel like me and George really got our voice going everyone listened and worked with us on the floor. 

I have already introduced myself many times to the cast and talent and they were aware of all the hand signals me and George have been doing throughout rehersals. I also explained to them what is going to happena and who to turn to if they need anything at all, George had given them blocking and directuon as to where they should stand and move to. Jack was in charge of the models behind the stage as me and George had to be in charge of the front stage crew and talent. 

We also had a first year who was helping us with the mannequin to get it on and off stage, this was used to introduce outfits for the presenters and Bonnie. It would have been much better if the mannequin runnr had a script since in the rehersals she kept getting confised with when to place the mannequin on stage and when to remove it, i know George created her a little note so that she remebers exactly when to place it on and remove it. Jack also was taling to the runner since he was backstage with her, he double checked that everything was running smoothly. Jack also was checking if all the models and guests have arrived, some were late due to the traffic but we luckly had 3rd years as stand ins. 

When the presenters were framed up and ready to go, we had to double check that there was enough seating for our audience. Del told us to add a more chairs since you never know how many audience members will show up so we added 15 more chairs to the overall number. Once everyone was happy and ready to go it was time to go live. 

The main problem that we encoutered was the runner took the mannequin out way to early and too late in some secttions. It took time to get it sorted correctly. Also some cameras irisis were little bit off and the directors wasm't happy with that. In total we had 3 rehersals, most were better than others. During the second rehearsal the models all arrived, we all introduced ourselves once again. The models were not dressed in their outfits prepared for the liveshow, this caused small concerns. Me and George had issues with overshadowing each other, we both kept doing our own thing and this needed to get established before the transmission day. Before we started our final rehersal i double cheked with everyone that they were happy, if there were any issues at all it would be my responisbility to get it sorted. We had a small problem with the handheld mic, it didn't worked as well as we hoped. The batteries didn't last long or they were forggoten about. Saphire also had a clip mic attached and it kept falling off during her peformance, this had to be taped to her body. 

The final rehersal went superb me and George worked so well together, our floor managing skilss were very effective and our commands were loud and clear. Before we broke up for lunch i had to double check that all talkbacks were put on charge and all cameras were ready to go. 

After lunch me and George had to make sure that there was enough space for the audience and we had to keep track of the numbers and talkbacks. Danny was assisting the audience and it was important that he had a talkback on hand. There was a musician who helped warm up the audience with excitment. 1 problem we had was that the ticket told the audience to arrive 1 hour later than expected this gave us a small problem but nothing we couldn't resolve. We had a runner ready outside just in case any late audience members arrive. When the audience finally arrived and took a seat George gave them a safety briefing. We couldn't do this together so i decided it would be a great oppertunity for George to give it out, i stood nexto him and answered any questions the audience may have had. 

I also walked around and asked any of the audience members if then needed anything, i also decided to move one half of the audience to the right hand section since we have a handheld camera focusing on the right side (it looked empty) since it looked empty it had to be filled with more audience memebers. Everyone was happy, Jack took charge of the models and made sure they were all dressed in costumes and miced up. I focused on getting the presenters backstage so that no audience memeber see's them. Then we went LIVE! 

I took charge in the first half of the show, started the control over having clear and loud commands. The presenters and talent all focused on me, i walked over with the presenters cuing them correctly. I was checking all cameras making sure that they are all happy, with a script on hand i was checked if the runner and Jack are happy backstage and if their ready to cue. I stood nexto whatever camera the presenters had to focus on, this is a tactic we came up with and it worked great. Everything went smoothly and noone forgot their lines or no cameras went down.

To finish off the entire day, we all came out for a big applause from the audience. We had a few photos taken, Simon and Del gave us a de-brief and we went home after clearining up the studio and de-rigging the cameras.