Earlier in the week, Troy and I returned to the Building 12 Studio to confirm and make an official booking, on behalf of our group, for all the props we needed for our seminar. We gathered all our props consisting of a couch and seats for the guests, a stool for Conor our seminar host as well as some bookshelves, plants, a rug and a coffee table for the mise-en-scene of our domestic living room set.

After attending the recent Non-fiction documentary seminar, our group wanted to collectively head down to the Props department at the RMIT studio in level 2 building 12. Troy and I showed our group of all the props that we had already selected for the mise-en-scene of our stage/ set. After the group was happy with our choices and were done exploring the props room for additional items, I went down to the AV loans office in building 8 and confirmed my booking for the camera and lighting equipment, just incase. It seems like we’re all prepared for our seminar next week.

By the end of the fourth week, our group managed to secure our four seminar guests, consisting of Anna Gregory (Executive producer at Fremantle Media), Jeff Shenker (Line producer & production manager at Ch.9), Ron Frim (senior News director at ABC) and Lucy McLaren (Producer at Renegade films). Surprisingly everything seems to be moving along well for our seminar preparation, especially after the confirmation of our professional industry guests, who all seem to be quite experienced in network TV.

After little deliberation, our group decided that the stage theme of our seminar would resemble a domestic living room, which would correspond to our “breaking in(to a house)” theme. As we collectively made a brief list of essential props needed for our staging, I ensured everyone that everything on our list can be obtained from the props department next to the RMIT studio located in building 12, as I was familiar with the studios facilities from having classes there previously while studying the screen & media course at RMIT. After the group meeting, Troy and I paid a visit to the props department and took a look around, finding extra props that we could make use of. We then approached the studio manager and asked him whether or not we could borrow the props for use in building 7, who told us to go back to the studio, closer to the date of our event, in order to confirm the props- due to the fact that studio productions there have priority over the props.

Seems Promising…

So its week 3, with only 3 more weeks to go till the big day of our television seminar. It feels like we have a long time to go until the day of our event, however I bet the time will go by fast, and before I know it, it’s showtime. This week, I’ve managed to secure a booking for the production equipment courtesy of the A.V loans office in Building 8. The technical equipment that I’ve booked include a Canon 5D Mark 3 DSLR with a couple of excellent lenses such as the 24-70mm zoom and the 50mm prime lens that will allow us to capture some aesthetically pleasing shots with a shallow depth of field when recording. I also managed to book in three LED flat panel lights, which is a better alternative to the redhead lights, as the LEDs are lightweight and don’t have the tendency to overheat. And what use is all this equipment if you don’t have anything to put it on? I’ve booked Stands, and tripods so we’re all covered in regards to the essential tech equipment. I also nominated myself to be responsible for the post-production/ editing of the five minute seminar highlight reel. Since I’ll be shooting the event on the day and will have access to the clips, It seemed rather logical to take on the role as video editor.

Our group has also managed to create a shortlisted group of people, who we’ve either started to contact or will attempt to contact, in order to attain the seminar’s guest speakers. Quite a nice list of potential guests consisting of  Elspeth Iredale (Producer/Production Manager), Jeff Shenker (Producer/Production Manager), Brendan Campbell (1st Assistant Director/Line Producer/Production Manager), Samantha Strauss (writer), Ron Frim (Senior News Director at Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Lucy MacLaren (Producer at Renegade Films), Josh Thomas (actor, comedian, douchebag), Nicole Minchin (Producer / Executive Producer), Antony Cirocco (Producer / Writer / Director) and some more people who I cant be bothered writing down. Seems promising, now all we need to do is contact them all and get a response from them..

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Alright, I’ve found myself a group and we’ve established our topic; Network television production. Great! It’s an industry I hope to work in hopefully in the near future and am passionate about. This is always good, to be involved working on a topic that your actually care about. Anyway we’ve decided to stage our event in week 6 since week 5 became quickly taken by the non-fiction  group. So hopefully we’ll be able to learn from the documentary group’s mistakes to stage a better event (I hope that didn’t sound too harsh). Straight away I nominated myself to be in charge of all the technical aspects for the event, which requires me to manage duties such as booking all the camera and lighting equipment, as well as operate one of the cameras to film our event video. I knew this technical area of the event staging would be the best area of focus for me since I’m more than capable in video production from my prior involvement in various quality film and community television production and my skills and knowledge gained from studying the Screen & media production course at RMIT. Although majority of my skills revolve around cinematography and camera operating, I hope I’ll be able to assist whoever decides to help out with lighting on the day of the event.

Also, I hope that we’ll be able to get some interesting guests to the event to boast a prolific experience in the Australian television industry, as that’s my main concern at the moment. Whether or not we can actually find decent guests!