Tuesday, 23 January 2018

As Live - Preparation for Roles

We failed to get our show commissioned by the studios however we have now been given the option of choosing our roles i have decided i would like to pursue the roles of Casting Director and Assistant Floor Manager.

Below i have done some background research so that i can go into the interview ready and with some knowledge of the role already.

Casting Director:

Casting Directors organise and facilitate the casting of actors for all the roles in a film or TV Programme. This involves working closely with the director and producer to understand their requirements, and suggesting ideal artists for each role, as well as arranging and conducting interviews and auditions.





In order to do their job, Casting Directors draw on years of artistic taste, imagination, knowledge, research and political expertise – all this before the collaboration with the Director, Producer, writer etc begins.

It is a job that requires an understanding of psychology, artistic taste and style, interpretative taste, current and historical social politics – and also, of course, knowing our core subject thoroughly – the different levels and styles of national and international actors and acting. We have to assess the limits to which actors can be pushed artistically, when to take a risk, when to cast against type. It is our job to know them intimately, and to use our knowledge of the wide variety of their skills to conjure up an acting company for a project that allows the visual story to be told.

It is an extremely artistic job and without the Casting Director a film, theatre or television drama would be much harder to produce.




Assistant Floor Manager
A floor manager has a liaising and co-ordinating role between the many people involved in a production, such as guests, the audience, presenters and the director. The floor manager ensures that events go according to a set plan and that people taking part know their particular roles and how it fits in with whatever else is happening. They also have responsibility for ensuring that the studio is a safe working environment for all those taking part.







Assistant Floor Manager is a junior member of the production team involved with the practicalities of the production. In drama, will collect actors, look after them, prepare props, reset them after takes, wash up etc as necessary. On studio shows will look after contributors and assist the floor manager with similar duties to those above.


An Assistant Floor Manager (frequently abbreviated to AFM) is responsible for setting a stage and prompting contributors on the studio floor and ensuring that everyone knows their place in the script, freeing the Floor Manager for other duties. They often oversee a team of Runners. Increasingly, Assistant Floor Managers are being asked to assist with the design and preparation of props, as well as setting and resetting the action on the studio floor.

Thursday, 18 January 2018

TV Live Pilot Show pitch

Project Brief
- In pairs develop a pitch for a 30 min pilot show to be recorded live in the studios.
- The best pitch will be given the green light and the whole course team will then work together to
   produce the programme.

Peramiters
- Must be two distinct halves
- Must be something different, unusual and push boundries
-  Avoid programmes with under 16's, animals, dangerous equipment or cookery programmes.

Technical Elements

- How many cameras
- Autocue?
- Sound methods
- vision mixing live
- Studio GFX live?
- Set layout/ cameras
- Stings/ idents played in during the show?
- Music bed used throughout?
- Lighting?


Politically Incorrect - Pilot Show

Our show or at least its themes would be an amalgamation of a Top Gear presenting style coupled with the political topics/ news that are in shows such as Russel Howards good news, last leg and mock the week. However we also would like to incorporate the comedic style of Brass Eye, whilst maintaining an informative manor when projecting news stories etc to the viewer. The first thing we did was create a mock up of the set with the sorts of things we wanted on set prop wise as well as the general feel of the show, it was a sort of mood board/ set design.




Inspirations

Brass eye
Have i got news for you (logo/ intro)
top gear
two ronnies - john cleese



When we were determining where the audience would be placed, we decided to follow suit of Top Gear and have them placed within the set as well as having them in the classic formation behind the cameras. We looked back at previous shows that had been chosen and couldn't see that this had been done before so we thought that it would be a good idea to "push the boundaries" with the audience positioning. On our cardboard shoebox model we placed red X's where we wanted to place the audience.



Following this we decided that we would need relatively large numbers of audience to fill the studio, so we looked into sourcing audience members from outside of just friends or family. After searching through a few websites we found ApplauseStore.com which is a company that gives out tickets to people who register with them. They are an international company who branch out to Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. We saw that they work along side shows such as the Grand Tour, Take Me Out, Britains Got Talent, Celebrity Juice and many more, so at first we were unsure about approaching them. However We decided to call them and just explain what we were doing and at the end of the day all we could do is ask. So george gave me the phone number and i called them. A secretary answered and i explained how we were students and for one of our units we had to come up with an idea for a TV Show to be recorded "as live" and i told her the name of the show and she said that she would talk to her boss Mathew and get him to phone me back. So the next evening i got a phone call from Mathew (who i had researched and found that he was Mathew Firsht the CEO of the company) and i told him what the show was about and that we study at the maidstone studios and after about twenty minutes of chatting he said he liked the idea and that he would love to help. I told him that it would depend of course on whether our idea was chosen so i left it that i would let him know in the 18th.


While i was doing this George had gotten in contact with someone he had networked with on Watchdog when he did work experience with the programme. Her name was Niki Fox and she was a Presenter for the show, so we thought that we would ask her to make a celebrity appearance on the show. George emailed her and not only did she say yes but she also said she would ask the two other presenters if they would come on the show too! This was great news and we were very exited with the prospect of having three celebrities on the show.