STUDIO PRODUCTION: MOCK-UP BLOCKING

Helen wanted us to get some practice for the Studio Production and asked us to do a mock up of 1 section of the show. We figured that this would work best if we did it with Steals of the Season as this is our biggest section of the show (that we are aware of) and what has the most contributors involved. Since the script isn't finished yet, we all pitched in and quickly wrote up a mock up script. Del had told us that this year we only have 4 cameras to work with and George Lock and I haven't figured out the camera plan yet.

For the Mock up, we agreed to go with 4 Sony cameras and have them set up, 3 over at the soft area and 1 over at the catwalk, we would then need 2 cameras to move to the catwalk when one of the presenters walks over. Keeping one camera at the soft area for the reaction shots from the other presenters. We emptied one of the lecture rooms, brought in some couches and marked out a rough catwalk for us to block this through. George and I planned through the entire block through and how it would work, when models would come on and what cameras would shoot. However, for the actual filming of the Mock up, there was also a Production meeting which they needed a Director and Producer in there so we decided to split. George Lock and Melissa Moore went and filmed the Mock up while Myself and Katie Joslin ran the Production meetings. Below is the Mock up:

I think with this, we know we could do this section with only 4 cameras and although this was a short mock up, it's helping us see how it could work. We want the presenters to enter the set via the catwalk for the opening of the show and before the mock up, we had discussed with Helen having a "coming up" section which is a small VT with snippets of what will be on todays show. Often used in many chat shows. 

I think how we blocked the presenters would work, the pan needs improving and George and I agree the cuts work well. Positions of the cameras for the catwalk needs improving but the overall blocking worked really well.