In this reflection, I’ll be reflecting on my roles and time in the TV Production studio for Ready Camera One. For our final production, we decided as group was to produce a late night show with breakfast show elements, which ended up in being called “Midnight Snack”. We were asked to produce 2 episodes and we were given different roles for both episodes. In episode 1, I was one of the writers for the show and in episode 2 I was the Director Assistant for Studio C. Because I was a writer for the first episode of our production, specifically a writer for Studio C, I was really involved with the pre-production team. As we had to decide what kind of show we were doing and what kind of format and style of content do we want. Our biggest question to begin with was how were we going to incorporate both studio A and C into the mix. In the end we all decided studio A was going to be the main studio, as it was a bigger studio where we can fit our audience, was going to be use as the main studio for the main cast to be in. And in studio C, we were going to have skits being played and acted out for the audience to see via a monitor. As a writer for studio C, I collaborated with mainly the Producers and other writers to gain a sense of direction of where we were going with our show. Because I was in studio C, I was in charge of writing the skits we were going to do in studio C. At first initially we were asked to write an infomercial sketch, because we wanted to incorporate breakfast show infomercials into the late night show format. So I wrote a fake advert on a piece of paper, which was meant to be played out as a scam for the viewers, but at the same time, it is a sketch that is suppose to funny and have comedy entertaining enough for the audience. And so was the birth the first sketch in studio C, episode 1, Pete’s Paper, a sketch about a con-artist trying to sell paper that is too good to be true. At first we weren’t sure that we were going to use this as, at the time we might’ve been scrapping the infomercial idea. But we still wanted to keep a fake advertisement in there, so my sketch that I wrote, worked fine since it was meant to be a fake advertisement in the first place.

However since the sketch was really random, and didn’t really fit with any topics with our show, it was just suppose to stay as a random sketch in the middle of show. The sketch I had to write, had to relate to one of the stories the hosts were going to talk about. So given the content the hosts were writing about I had to wait and see what was going to be the main story of conversation. And in the ended, it ended up with one of our other writers/host was going to be talking about the Royal Wedding, which was set to take place on the weekend after our first episode airing. So because our main and big story for the show was going to be about the Royal Wedding, I had to write a sketch relating to the Royal Wedding. At first I had no idea what to write about, as I knew very little of the Royal Wedding and had very little interest in the topic at hand. But in the end I try to imagine what was it like for the two to be wed couple situation of inviting celebrity guests to the wedding. So with that in mind, I wrote about Harry and Megan talking about who they were inviting to their wedding, by using references to make jokes out of the people who they were inviting.

When it finally came to production, we needed some talent. I offered to be talent for the first sketch of Pete’s Paper, because for one I wrote the script and knew how Pete’s character was going to be, and it would’ve made things easier in the studio. Another reason why I volunteered, is because as a writer, I have very little to do during the actual production, as all my main jobs are during pre-production. I acted as as Pete for the sketch along with another production member. We rehearsed many times during the production to get it nailed down. It was also because of the many rehearsal runs, I was able to see the flaws in my sketch and be able to fix some of it. There were some parts they I should’ve proof read to see what makes sense and smooth out. In the Royal Wedding sketch, I was noted by the producers, that some of the jokes would be better, if I had someone else say the words. So by taking feedback from the producers and multiple people of the team, I went back to drawing board and re-wrote some parts of the sketches to make flow smoother and make more sense. In the end I was also able to extend the duration of the sketches, because some of them went by too quick. Because I was in charge of the writing during the sketches, I also worked in collaboration with the graphics to give an idea of what graphics were needed for the sketches. They went to me and asked what I had in mind for graphics, and I simply told them what I want, and when I want to, so they were able to display on screen. Same with working with the props, as they needed to know what was needed for the filming of the sketches.

In episode 2, I was in the Director Assistant seat. I didn’t have much pre-production to do as I was relying on what producer wanted. After getting the run sheet from the producer on the day of production, I immediately looked at the schedule and looked at the entire script of the show, to get an idea of when our time in studio C was going to be live and when EVS should be taking place. At first it was kind of messy, as I didn’t have access to communicate with the other studio, so that made my job much harder, as I couldn’t really do my job, when I don’t know when we were going to go live in the studio. I asked one of the technicians to fix me up a comm for the Director Assistant of Studio A. And once I was able to communicate with the Director Assistant of Studio A, the production went a lot smoother, than episode 1 in my opinion. My main aim was to make sure production runs smooth and on time. I worked with the Director of studio C to make sure out show runs smoothly. Because at first she had to do my job as we couldn’t communicate with the other studio properly, so she had to time when were going live, which was putting too much pressure on her and loosing focus on the directing. Because I was able to time and communicate with the other studio, I could let her focus on directing, which made the production flow much smoother. I worked with the EVS to get the timing down with each segment and EVS being used, which led to a smooth transition between EVS and the studio. As Director Assistant it was my job to make sure everything went smoothly and on time, I timed ever rehearsal we did to get around an average of how long the sketches were going for, allowing me to tell the other Director Assistant when our segment was ending.

By the end of the production I was really satisfied of what we were able to to pull off. Most of my job involved pre-production and it was great working with the producers and other writers on what our show was going to be. When you’re given that much power of what a show can be, it can be a fun experience. Luckily for me, I have written before, when I did a production at Deakin at few years back, so I had an idea of what to do. It was also a great sign, when my production members, like my work and give me feedback on how to improve. And when I was working as a Director Assistant, I felt much more involved during the production, by getting on the same level as everyone else in the studio, going through rehearsals and going through the members, working and collaborating together to make a production we can be proud of.  Being able to work in a team in environment, really sets and help us grow in a workplace environment, and this production felt like that, we were thrown into a live environment, and we made mistakes and we learnt from it.