Assignment Two: Pre-Production
“This could be your thoughts on translating these scenes from single to multi-cam, or reporting on group planning sessions, thoughts on the studio tour, expectations etc”
I’m the type of person who essentially likes to get stuff done – so going into an assignment that is fresh + new (and being put on the spot with these sorts of things) for me is quite a daunting task. I’d never been in the new media studios prior to last week, and it’s amazing with how expansive it is, and the quality of the equipment (not to mention how overwhelming it was as well – I was thinking to myself “am I going to be able to learn how to use all of these?”) hopefully, by the end of this studio – I would have some more knowledge of how live-ness actually works from a technical perspective, after all, that’s why I chose the course.
The script that we were given for our two minute scene is from Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (which I’ve never seen, so I was hopeful for Parks + Rec) – in some ways, this element of surprise and not having a pre-conceived notion for the show allows us all to create a diverse and unique scene, without it being a comparison or similar to the original script. When going through our group and discussing roles, we all went with things that we wanted to do. For me, my top “three” choices are the director, camera operator, and floor manager – just because I feel like you get to try your hand at being in the control box and calling the shots, on the floor being practical or being hands-on in making sure everything is running smoothly. In the end, we settled that I would take on the director role, which is slightly scary for me – although I would consider myself an organised person. As the director, you are involved in switching between cameras, running the whole scene as well as directing people on the floor to achieve your vision. Although it will be a hard job, to begin with, I think throwing myself into a harder situation for the first assignment will give me a new challenge – I’ve done a little bit of camera work (single camera, not multi-camera) but challenging myself in a new way will be exciting and new for me!
I think the challenges for me will be working with a multi-camera set up and realising that I can actually just use multiple cameras to achieve what I desire in a scene (I’m used to having one camera only, so it will be interesting to see how that turns out!) as well as making sure everyone on the floor is calm, collected and ready to work. Keeping calm in stressful situations is also a challenge, but I think our group is collectively good at communication, so as long as we keep that in check, we should be good to go.