Journal Week Twelve - Research

I decided to chuck in the basic job description of the two studio roles I have in the kids show, stage hand and VT.

A stagehand is a person who works backstage on a theatrical performance. Their duties include setting up the scenery, lights, sound, and props for a production. Stagehands are often on the path to becoming a Designer or Director.

The VT Operator cues and prepares video inserts into a programme. Heavily used in sports programming, they are also responsible for action replays and quickly editing highlights while a show is in progress.

Pretty much thats the basic outline that wikipedia gives you, and it's basically what we were told by Pat and Bruce, just not as in depth.

I've also put the descriptions of the two roles I had in inserts, camera and sound.

As the head member of the camera crew, the camera operator uses the camera as coached by the director. They are accountable for maintaining the required action is correctly filmed in the frame, and needs to react instinctively as the proceedings take place. If the camera operator is also a cinematographer, they also help establish the theme and appearance of the show.

A sound engineer is responsible for making sure that audio is recorded in the desired way, and also that the quality of the audio is as good as possible. A sound engineer may also use a boom microphone in some circumstances to record audio.

Journal Week Eleven - Lighting and Sound - Student

This week the class learnt a lot more about Lighting and Sound, and we were split up into two groups, once with Bruce to learn about Lighting, and once with Pat to learn more about sound. It was good to learn the different kinds of lights, and what they were nick named, so hopefully if ever I have to do something to do with lighting I'll have a bit more of an idea, no doubt I will never forget about Bruces "Brown bums and White bums". I also learnt that if you need more light, or are going for a different look or style, you can always chuck in a coloured light, and it isn't a big deal. One thing that I never really understood until this lesson when it was presented in such a visual way, is how males can handle harsh lights without looking any worse than usual, but girls do really need softer lighting or otherwise they will look really bad, and "You never want to be the one responsible for making a woman look unattractive".

The sound lesson with Pat was also really good because I learnt more about slightly more in depth patching, and also the big scary control desk which I am still not completely comfortable with, but now I'm not fussed to sit down in front of. I learnt more about routing how to send sound out to the floor without everyone else getting it, or the opposite. Lastly I learnt how to use the computer as an alternative to the control desk which seems a bit more user friendly.

Camilla let me know that in a fortunate turn of events for me, and unfortunate for her, that she would be unable to do her sound role in shooting one of the inserts, so really we both just swapped inserts, because its the same job. Now I will be doing sound on the first aid/ambulance insert, with Ryan and Alana.

Journal Week Ten - Cooking Show - Camera and Stage hand

This weeks friday class saw us try something different, we did a show that involved a cooking segment and another ad lib interview. I was on camera for this one, and it was different then Hello Riverina because with the cooking show there were things like ingredients and bowls that you had to provide a lot of different close shots for so the audience could see what was going in the food and what was going on. Initially there was a lot of confusion over the placement of cameras, sets, and cables, and although the people in the studio knew what the problem was, we were having trouble communicating this to the director, and it wasn't until they came on the floor that they realised what we were talking about, but it was all ok in the end. I was a stagehand for the second run through, and I didn't make the mistakes that I made the first time I was placed in this role. The second run through seemed to go a lot smoother than the first.

In respect of preparations for the Kids Show, people are starting to talk about having large group meetings to make sure everyone knows everyone and our respective roles, which I guess will be really beneficial if we do have the meetings because we really do need to prepare for the Show. I have been working with Final Cut Pro a lot during time off to acquaint myself with it better, and get used to using it. It's good becuase I'm beginning to learn a couple of cool tricks with it, and I've also found out that it can do a lot more than I initially thought it could, such as super-imposing and altering images over footage, and a lot of complex colour corrections and things like that.

I still haven't found out whats going to happen with the insert that I missed, a couple of guys were talking about possibly reshooting it, which would mean that I could just do my original role, but people are pretty busy with the Kids Show at the moment, so I don't really know if we'll be able to find a time that is suitable for everyone.