STUDIO PRODUCTION: PRODUCTION MEETING 2

With our second Production meeting. Myself, George Lock and our 2 Producers, Mel and Katie held a Production meeting with the rest of the crew to discuss the content of the show. Each person had come up with different ideas and everyone had gone away and come up with different ideas for the sections.

Trends of the Week/Steals of the Season
Trends of the week was already in the original pitch, however this section would be difficult if we needed new trends every week as some trends don't change and keep going for a few weeks. It was suggested that we focus on Fashion with Seasons, as when we transmit this programme it'll be close to spring/summer. The idea was to have a VT at the end of this section,  2 ideas came for this VT, one being a reporter going around a high street or having our 2 presenters going around the high street to find each other a style relevant to what we have already talked about in the studio.

STUDIO PRODUCTION: FASHION (RESEARCH)

With making a Fashion Chat show, we need to ask... What is Fashion? 

This is probably the biggest and most unanswerable question you could ask as there isn't a simple answer. Fashion (summarised) is a popular style of clothing/footwear/make-up/hairstyle which is used by multiple people so it becomes very popular. There is never one type of Fashion and trends and popular fashion styles will change for numbers of reasons such as time of year (seasons), up coming events (E.g. Fashion week, Fashion designers new release), celebrity fashion change, or it could be due to your interests. For example, shows which people watch will make them want to buy clothes with branding on them such as The Big Bang Theory, Marvel Films, Rick and Morty, etc. Music is a HUGE influence on Fashion as different genres of music will have many different styles.

STUDIO PRODUCTION: STUDIO DIRECTOR RESEARCH

As well as the previous research I did in preparation for the interview for Studio Director. I wanted to learn more into the role I was taking on. More on the paperwork side at first as I was unsure where myself and George stood in regards to research, preparation and VT production.

Studio Director
Looking online, I found a video by BAFTA which was an interview about Multi-camera Directing by BAFTA Award winning Director Hamish Hamilton. Hamish has been known for Directing huge Multi-camera shows and events such as Music Awards, The Academy Awards and also the London 2012 London Olympic Games Opening Ceremony. Below is the Mini masterclass:

Although the video doesn't show me any of him Directing the different cameras or working within a Studio Environment, it has already got me thinking on aspects I didn't think of which fall under this role. He talks about when he was Directing a show and Robbie Williams was the main performer. He explained that they had chosen to have Robbie performing at Wembley Arena but he couldn't see it working, so he went forward and changed it and got the Royal Albert Hall, a music theatre which instantly brought the performance up. He also had a say in how the set looked as he wanted it to feel like Las Vegas so he also added in LED strips on the stage and had a big RW added which when Robbie came out it would be a HUGE kick to the show and it would get the audience really up and going as well as selling Robbie for the lively performer he is. 

STUDIO PRODUCTION: ROLES ALLOCATED AND FIRST PRODUCTION MEETING

Our roles have been allocated. Studio Director as well as the other roles has become a split role due to the amount of Students we have in my year. The role of Director went to myself and George Lock, with the show being split into 2 sections, A and B so we each Direct 15 minutes of the show. However, me and George sat together and agreed that we wouldn't just work on our own sections during the pr-production stage and that we would work as 2 Directors together to plan through the show, work through the camera plans, lighting, graphics. etc and would only divide our responsibilities when it came to actually Directing in the gallery.

Production Meeting #1
In the meeting, our Producers talked us through the pitch they had presented and talked us through the idea of the programme. They explained that this programme will be one to focus on Fashion of all aspects and not just mainstream. They want this programme to cater for all budgets so not just looking into big name brands but also looking into small independent high street stores. The show has 4 topics and each will include a VT. The ideas they've already had is:

1) Trends of the Week - Looking into popular Fashion trends each week. The VT would round off the section by looking into the trends for the best price for that week

2) Not on the High Street - This section would look into independent clothes store owners and get them into the studio for an interview to discuss the clothes they make which aren't on the High street Fashion. The VT hadn't been written here but we brain stormed and thought of maybe a small intro VT explaining who the owner of the store is and looking around their store.

3) Vintage Markets: This section was focused on the VT and explained that the idea would be to go to a Vintage Market and create an outfit from what was found there OR choose 5 items from there and create an outfit.

4) Wardrobe Dig: This section, we would have a guest in the show and we would go through their wardrobe. Producers explained that they would maybe want a Vlogger, or someone with a quirky personality.

STUDIO PRODUCTION: CHOSEN IDEA AND INTERVIEWS FOR ROLES

Feedback - Arch Roomies
The feedback from our pitch was very high. They found our idea very original and creative, we were told that this was the first Sitcom that had been pitched on the course for Studio Production. We were told we had very clear branding and style and we had really researched and thought through our idea. What let our pitch down was our set, the feedback for this was that it was far too complicated and they didn't feel the course would be able to produce this. I argued this and justified it by explaining that this is the sort of thing we have all been learning to do and with regards to the set, our design looked more complicated than we intended it to but this was due to the design being made on an online website rather than us drawing it out ourselves which really knocked our pitch. We explained this at the end when it was questioned but it didn't help. 

Chosen Idea
The chosen idea was pitched by Melissa Moore and Katie Joslin. The programme is called Steal the

Style, "A fashion chat show exploring the antidotes to the mainstream played out fashion trends. Targeted towards normal working men and women with average budgets" was the tagline for the programme. It's a fashion chat show, aiming more towards everyday people and away from mainstream which would make this stand out more from others as big shows such as This Morning will use big brands.
Melissa and Katie were put up as the Producers and we were then given a lift of roles we could sign up for to which we would be interviewed for. 

I looked at Lead Camera Operator/Locations Researcher as I've done a large amount of camera work and I was interested in operating a camera in a Studio Environment. As well, I've always enjoyed doing location research for my projects in both College and University. My communication skills are excellent and I'm always keep to discuss and try and get the best deal possible. 
However, the role of Studio Director interested me as I've done Directing for both Documentary, Short Films and 1 Music Video, but Studio Directing is something completely different to on location Directing and this could be my only opportunity to Direct live TV. We were told to research into the roles prior to the interviews. 

STUDIO PRODUCTION: THE PITCH

Preparation
In preparation for the Pitch. Simon and I decided we would not only brand the pitch, but we would also try and do branding ourselves by wearing Superhero T-shirts for the pitch. Simon also suggested we dress smart casual so we also added suit jackets and rehearsed the pitch over and over till we knew it all the way through. We then wrote up our Proposal and finished up the script and sent them off to the Pitching team. Our Proposal is below:

Arch Roomies Proposal

Script
When writing the script, we struggled as this did involve having to come up with gag after gag. We also decided to make this a family friendly show. So trying to create a comical script with no swearing turned out to be rather difficult as the usual type of comedy I watch involves a lot of swearing and sexual reference (e.g. Mrs Browns Boys, Russell Howard, Frankie Boyle, etc.) however, we felt we got the right balance. Although, we didn't have time to have the script looked over but if chosen, it would have been at least a first draft. Below is the script:

Arch Roomies Script (Draft)

The Pitch

With the presentation, we stuck to the colours that we had set the logos as. Red for Duke Hammer and Green for Viper. We had some basic logos made and we also chose to go with the classic comic book font "Adventure" to continue the theme of a Superhero Sitcom. We chose to start with our research, then explain the sitcom and the characters, then we found this is where we would ask "why is this relevant?" so we went with our reasons for making the sitcom and followed with the info on the VT and the set design. Finally we added in how we would light the set, after contacting the Maidstone Studios we asked what lighting we had available for the programme and tried to put together an idea for how it could be lit and finally how we would use the sound.

Arch Roomies Pitch

STUDIO PRODUCTION: ARCH ROOMIES

Simon and myself finally decided and planned out a Sitcom which we want to pitch.

Summery
The Sitcom is about 2 friends. Sam Jetty and Jason Sage. They are roommates living in a small studio flat in Brixton, London. They're both good friends and get on, but with a secret. Sam is secretly a superhero/vigilante called Duke Hammer who fights crime and protects the streets. He has strength as his power, not super strength though, so he couldn't stop a car but he could lift a couch (for example). Then there is Jason, his secret is that he is Viper, a hypnotic villain who steals from Jewellers, shops, electronics, etc. He has the power to hypnotise people but he can't take over free will. For example, he can get someone to walk away, leave a scene or to hand over money. He cannot command them to kill or harm themselves. Jason studies the way Hypnotism works and always tries to improve his ability. Although currently he can only do it to one person at a time.

These two are actually arch-enemies but have no idea. They constantly miss the signs that they are enemies and in the flat they are the best of friends.