THE NEWS IS A JOKE: Weeks 11 & 12 Class Reflection

Week 11:

The 4th of October, the much anticipated (and maybe dreaded) shoot day has arrived. Although the week 10 rehearsal hadn’t been necessarily bad, we certainly felt unprepared for the coming week.

We began the day rehearsing in chronological order, meaning the segment I was directing was first up. The nerves had certainly kicked in as I felt the pressure to ensure not only I was pleased, but everyone in the class. At this point, I was familiar with the script (which was now complete) and had a vision in my head for how I aimed to bring it together but I knew there was still some minor issues and tweaks I would need to make.

The rehearsal was certainly crucial in perfecting the presentation of ‘Vegans and Vaccines’. I consulted Hao, my AD for the duration of the rehearsal, ensuring both he and I were clear on the structure of the segment and the flow of the script. Before we knew it we were rehearsing and after just one rehearsal I was able to pick up and clearly see some issues. Vision switching was certainly not on time, and from hearing the script read out loud by Ryan (the host), I could immediately recognise structure issues. I then decided to take some time before the next rehearsal to make adjustments to wording in the script, as well as the pacing and placement of graphics and camera changes, speaking to Hao (AD), Trista (Vision Switcher), Julian (EVS), Auto Cue, and essentially anyone else in the control room and studio to ensure we were all on the same page. Once we had run through the segment a couple times, I was relatively okay with how it went and it was already time to hand things over to Darcy who was directing Segment 2 – Bendigo, which I was only camera operating in.

Skipping ahead a couple hours, after some sushi, frustrating phone calls and anxieties building, it was time to film ‘Early Afternoon’. As I sat down in the director’s chair and put my headset on and glanced at the script in front of me, I felt the perfect combination of anxiety and excitement. I believe we only did two takes of Vegans and Vaccines, and sure, there were some slip ups with out of time graphics and a few stutters from Ryan, but other than that and a slight issue with EVS, I was happy with what we got. My personal favourite part of my whole segment being our open with a gradual zoom in on Ryan turning around at the desk with cool blue lights beaming in the studio, it was the perfect open to Early Afternoon and I’m proud of myself for it hit I’m honest.

Once Vegans and Vaccines was out of the way, I handed the headset over to Darcy and I hopped into the studio to jump on camera. The segment went well, although there was a lot of graphics and a couple mix-ups here and there, I think it ran relatively smoothly. Segment 3 is where the bulk of a show is with it containing the sports segment and fluff piece. Originally I wasn’t in this segment, but due to attendance issues and such, I hopped onto camera yet again, which required me to do a simple slow pan at the end with Ryan and his fluff piece on Kim Jong-un. I hadn’t originally been too familiar with the sports segment, but as I’d sat in the audience during rehearsal, I was definitely able to get a sense of the comedic aspect and I certainly felt more immersed in this segment then the others, which may have been because I wasn’t overly familiar with it and wasn’t working on it.

Week 12:

Week 12 was definitely a much calmer and shorter week. With the bulk of the show recorded in Studio A last week, all we had left to film in Studio C was the ‘Political Climate’. I originally was camera operating this segment, but with us only needing one camera that someone else was operating, I decided to jump in as AD for Darcy as his original AD was away. Before we began shooting, I worked with Darcy and Ryan (the writer of the script) in breaking down the script further to cue in graphics as we needed the timing of the graphics to match with the timing of the script. Throughout the rehearsal and filming of the final takes, I worked with Anhar in assisting her in presenting in the ideal comedic way we aimed for.

I definitely spent a lot of the class running back and forth between the control room and studio floor, transmitting messages between the control room crew and Anhar. This segment was the only one of ours that required the use of a green screen as in the other segments we had used the cityscape. As we’d never used a green screen before, it did take a little while to position both Anhar and the graphics correctly, but we got there in the end. Although we were ready to shoot the segment, it did take a number of takes to nail it. With a lot of running back and forth from me, we were making constant alterations and minor changes to the segment. Initially, we had a part where Anhar was handed a raincoat to put on, but due to issues with the audio muffling, we decided to scrap it and instead stick with just adding the storm audio in post-production and having Anhar shiver in fright. Unintentionally, Anhar was often clapping and moving her hands around the mic whilst presenting, which resulted in further distorted audio, so again I was running into the studio to help Anhar with perfecting her presentation and use of mannerisms. In the end, we ended up with a good take with well-timed graphics, little audio issues and a steady enough pace to transmit the information but also come across comedically.