The Final Blog Post and the end of The Charlie Show
Upon reviewing The Charlie Show, I hope audiences are engaged through its comedy but ultimately the lore of the story. I really believe that the writers created a well fleshed out script and story. The integration of inside jokes and foreshadowing key plot points (Baby Cj being ‘Caleb Junior’) from the start of each episode to the end of the episode and between the episodes alike makes for and in depth and layered drama/soap opera show. I think also subverting the expected conventions of what the audiences understand to be a late night talk show will be shocking and unexpected. The swearing and the personal drama between Johnny, Caleb, Stephanie and many of the other characters is nothing like what I have ever seen on a real Late Night Television show, and that is what I believe has made for a very engaging final product.
I believe that if I was to continue to polish The Charlie Show, I would work to integrate the minor characters into earlier scenes more fluidly as I felt that Sam the Intern appeared out of thin air. Whilst we tried to resolve this by including Sam with Juan Direction, I think some serious character development and profiling would elevate the show and protect the continuity.
Collaboration this semester has had its ups and downs. In a strange way I think after many weeks trying all of the roles that Studio A offered, the collaborative tensions diminished. I believe this is because individuals were able to find where their skills best fit in the class dynamics, meaning that we often saw the same people working in the same sort of roles over the last few weeks. This not only meant that everyone became skilled, reliable and comfortable in their role, but were able to create working dynamics with those in their specialised roles around them.
Collaboration in the multi camera studio was pivotal to the final performance. There was one small key moment that I felt acted to demonstrate this. In the final taping of the final episode, Maya on camera 6 began coughing and had to leave her camera. Multiple people were able to communicate her absence and in a matter of seconds, we were back on track. I believe this demonstrated the degree to which the team understood how each role was crucial to the completion of the task and outlined the teamwork and dedication to polishing the final episode.
In the entire 12 weeks, whilst filming was an excellent demonstration of our developing collaborative skills, my favourite moment of cooperation were the table reads. It was a very gratifying moment to have everyone surrounded at one table, reading the same material and working towards sharing the same vision for the final shoot. This group time, which is not always achieved in the studio as we were split between Studio A and the control room (as well a Studio D and C), helped everyone share ideas and ensure that checklists (things to complete, props to bring, run sheets etc) were finalised. The environment was exciting and I thoroughly enjoyed this time with my classmates.
Thank you Ready Camera One!
(and thank you to Ruth for the Photos!)
Before filming the last episode of The Charlie Show, we were told we could not use Studio D, meaning we could not use the second space for the musical performance.
In this clip of The Graham Norton Show at 3:55, Louis Capaldi leaves his stage to rejoin the main cast. I believe this transition from one stage to another would be an effective solution to our issue but provide a recognisable convention of late night television. I felt in the first episode that many of the live cross to studio C (infomaterial and particularly the musical performance) felt disconnected or alienable to the original production. All this time had gone into working with two studios for these segments to look prerecorded which is why including this two stage set up for the last episode may enhance continuity rather than worsen it.
The addition of so many additional characters to the episode two script worries me as it may be too much for audiences to follow. Less is more. And would allow for fully developed characters. The new characters appear after the musical guest and I believe if we were to organise the studio space in this duel set up, the new characters could enter the set during this time, allowing audiences a buffer period b between important dialogue to understand the introduction of these characters. In hindsight, I don’t think this would be as much of an issue of these characters were effectively foreshadowed in the first episode, but we can’t change that now!
Again, as demonstrated in this video, by The Graham Norton Show, despite the odd collection of celebrities on the red couch, they are introduced at different times to create different dynamics, and to allow the audience a slow introduction to each character. And whilst it is extensive, I believe this would be beneficial for The Charlie Show.
In week 9, those of us who weren’t writing The Charlie Show were working on set and lighting design. This links back to one of the earlier classes on designing space. Despite the slower nature of this class, I was greatly impressed by our final set design. By utilising the cityscape panels, I believe we were able to replicate the late night television talk show conventions.
(thank you for these photos Ruth)
However, I struggled to think of how the soap opera genre set conventions could be executed. The only soap opera I had grown up watching was The Bold and the Beautiful. It felt as though the lush ‘house like’ set design was impossible to pair with the late night talk show.
And thus, I felt that the soap opera conventions would have to come from the camera movements and how they would interact with the space, therefore achieving the blend of the genres still through a visual way, but in two different ways. This could include dramatic close ups, slow zooms in and fades between shots.
I think I’ve only ever been exposed to the soap opera genre through pastiche or parody – which I guess is what we are making, and I’m not sure if this hinders my ability to help create this show. Does consuming a parody of something fully inform you of the original piece and how to recreate it? Whilst it does exaggerate the necessary traits/conventions required to recreate the genre, am I only consuming an disingenuous version of it? And will this distance from the original genre translate into The Charlie Show?
Anyways, the combination of the genres was The Charlie Shows most attractive, and I am very excited to work with Jack on these camera movements, whatever they may be (I’ll need to do some research) to translate this. I think it will be very exciting!
(photos by me!)
The Charlie Show is in progress! I have been assigned Director’s assistant for the first episode and camera operator five for the second episode – and I couldn’t be happier with this allocation. I knew I wanted one major/leadership role and one laid back role and I believe that is what I have been allocated.
At this stage in production, my role has been minor and my only challenge thus far has been… waiting… during the preparation stages. As my run sheets and script edits not only rely on others’ prior work and planning but also any last minute changes close to the day, I was very much kind of… hanging around for the last two weeks.
I discovered that listening has been really important. I think I have a tendency to want to jump in anywhere I can and try to help, ultimately making this worse, so just learning restraint and listening to their progress has been a really great exercise. I have so much faith in the writers and producers and they have made steady progress over the last few weeks demonstrating that as a directors assistant (or a person in a role later down the production line) I can trust them and know that they are not only producing well written and engaging work, but well written and engaging work on time.
This has been a major development over the course of this class. As I have become friends with my classmates and as I’ve seen them fulfil their potentials I feel very confident in everyone. On this line of thought, despite not having much to do at this stage, I feel the collaboration has been fluid and transparent. Making use of our shared folder, our group chat and our use of class time, I feel well informed and up to date, and very much in the loop. I’m very grateful that we have built trust in this class as I feel confident moving forward.
In Week 8, we began pitching our ideas for the final assignment. When listening to the other groups pitches, I prioritised three key characteristics when choosing which show to vote for. I looked for a show that would easily fit the two 30mins episode model that the final assignment would require of us. I feared having to create a repetitive show with little spark of creativity. I wanted to produce a show which did not resemble any show I had seen live to air before.
There were three other more minor characteristics I decided my vote upon. I wanted a show which allowed for a lot of creative freedom beyond the first pitch (aka: a show that was not fully formed yet), a clear identity/brand/direction to follow (I wanted the show to have a clear presence) and storyline which I could really fall into the easter eggs off and lose myself in the story. I think I may have set some high expectations! However, they were very much fulfilled!
It’s funny, in hindsight despite having all of these requirements, I did not produce a pitch with these characteristics. And I think that’s why at the time of voting, I had these prerequisites in mind as they were the concerns I had for my show. I was worried that Tropic Like Its Hot had little creative freedom and would ultimately be too repetitive – which our feedback did reflect.
It was clear that The Charlie Show had these special qualities that I had hoped for. The combination of the genres Late Night Talk show and soap opera was very appealing. The Presentation was well fleshed out and had a clear direction. The presenters’ conviction when presenting a totally unique idea made the choice easy – even if that meant investing in a show which had few real life predecessors like it. And this was a risk I was willing to take!