STUDIO PRODUCTION: TX DAY

Today was our TX Day. Prior to the call time (9am). Myself and Jemma Cotterell ensured that our talents dressing rooms were set up and ready. We had one of the design team in early to continue working on little parts of the set (touch up on some paint, etc.) and we ensured we had clear signs up for studio entrance and the location of the dressing rooms. Cameras had been left set up after yesterdays rehearsal and the gallery was set up and ready.

Our issue with today was that people arrived late, some crew members didn't turn up until 9:15am and we were aiming to run our first rehearsal at 9:30am-10am. Our models were in late due to the traffic which we couldn't avoid. Alfie and Adeline were straight into make-up when arriving and we went out our Sound Assistant to get everyone set up with mics. Bonnie arrived as did Sapphire so they were set ready. We couldn't start rehearsals until 9:40am due to late arrivers and poorly managed set up. Cameras weren't balanced and set in time but this didn't effect the Live Show.

The rehearsal had some issues, mics coming up late due to Aimeé not being able to see the monitors and which Presenter was about to talk. Cues were missed as we had issues with in-ear talk back. Camera operators had some shaky footage and we also had communication issues with crew either not listening or not paying attention.

Adeline and Alfie were off script now and using the cue cards provided. The photo to the left is the cue cards we had printed for them, we wanted the branding to be consistent throughout this programme so we used the logo with a very faint pink as the background. We then printed what our presenters needed onto the back. As the rehearsals went on, Alfie and Adeline used their cue cards less and less, constantly remembering more and becoming much more relaxed while Presenting.

George and I did change a couple of shots during the rehearsal, this was due to the Steal the Style sign on the set. We found the wide shots looked much better if framed to have the sign in the framing, only a couple of these shots were changed to this however. Another shot which was changed was the final shot of the programme. George Wing (camera 2 operator) asked if we could go right to the centre of the room so the set was right in the middle and then do a tilt up to the lights, when we tried this in the programme and had everyone smiling and waving, it worked so much better than the locked off shot did.

Practicing with the lighting, we had to cue the lighting department to bring up the lighting for Fashion Fails on the audience and also for the Drag Queen performance, as they hadn't been supplied a script and also didn't have time to learn it, they explained it's easier for me and George to cue them in.

With the in ear talk back for the Presenters, we learnt we really had to watch where the Presenters were looking as we would start on camera 1 but them change to another camera and the Presenters wouldn't be looking into the correct camera.


Through and through, the rehearsals went really good. Our main issue was that we were always coming between 4-6 seconds under on transmission time. We were told that under is better than over, However our brief does say a 30 minute episode so we're aiming for 30 minutes dead on.  Testing the lighting, the cameras did need to adjust their exposure but only once as then it was set, the lighting only changes twice (Fashion Fails and Mystery Guest). With the lead up to the live show, I ran through all my graphics.

 I also ran through all of my VT's, stings and couple checked talk back, I wanted to be sure that EVERYTHING was ready for the live show. Leading up, we ensured that all the crew and contributors were set up with microphones and ready. Our Fashion Fails audience members were in the audience and ready and our presenters were aware of where they were sitting. Finally, all our 4 models and 2 Presenters were behind the set, ready to go Live, 20 minutes prior to the transmission so we were all ready.

 During the live show, George's half went smoothly and at a nice steady pace. When getting to the role swap, I was informed that we were 5 seconds over, Producers told us to take the time out of the DIY interview.

Old to New ran smoothly and was mixed perfectly, no mess ups and timing was spot on. Setting up for Bonnie's interview went fine and the intro to her interview was flawless. Bonnie's interview went really well, no issues with anything, some slight mistakes with choice of shots and I did have to ask some cameras to fix their framing VERY slightly, but nothing serious.

The intro to Sapphire went really well, I feel like I didn't cut to the catwalk soon enough as I wanted to get the shot of her entering the set, however I cut as she was walking on. It didn't ruin the shot but I feel it would have looked better to see an empty catwalk and have her walk on then.
During Sapphire's performance, I did have some issues, Camera 2 (I was told after the show) couldn't hear me on talk back due to the volume of the performance music and from this, I had some difficulty as I couldn't get camera 2 to change their shots when I needed them to, for a time I was only working with cameras 1 and 3 however it worked out in the end and the performance went well but this could have seriously messed up the performance.

With the round up of the show, I got Alfie and Adeline to really work the crowd and get them applauding and cheering right through. Everyone hit their cues on time and what's better is that once we cut to camera 2 and got the tilt up we hit the timing and rolled the VT's and hit our 30 minute timing for the show. 30 Minutes EXACTLY.

I personally feel that the Live Transmission was our best run through of the entire show. It ran smoothly and perfectly, all cameras were stable, in focus and listened well. All music and sounds were cued in on time and we hit our broadcast time.

Overall, Steal the Style was a success.