8. Project Evaluation

For this unit, we were instructed to work on a TV show as a whole year group. This was a challenge because this was the first time we were all working together on one project and I had high hopes that we were going to do well. In this show, I was given the job of Assistant Producer for both the promotional material for the show and the VT's. On the recording day, I was given the role of Autocue Manager, which was a role I had never been taught before so I was interested to learn more.

For the promotional material, I was in charge of helping our main promo producer, Rose, with sorting out fundraising to fund the show's props, costumes, the actor's travel expenses etc. I was also put in charge of running the TikTok as I had the most knowledge on TikTok than Rose did. I was very happy with this as I felt like I could rise to the challenge creatively. However, there was one problem that arose when making the first TikTok. I was told by the main two producers that I didn't have to run everything by them and that they trusted my creative vision, so I assumed I could upload the TikTok without it needing to be green-lit. This meant that someone reviews it and sends a message saying it is ok to post, however, this was not the case. My unit leader told me that if I did what I did with the TikTok in the Media industry, I would have been sacked. I was not told that I had to send it for review to my classmates above me aka. Rose and the two producers. I have learnt from this that making sure that the posts are green-lit before uploading them is something of the utmost importance and I will make sure to consider this if I decide to do this in the future.

The fundraising went better than I expected, raising a total of £65.50, which was over the two fundraising days. Our goal of £50 exceeded our expectations and was put towards the show. With regards to all of the spare prizes, we bought them ourselves putting money into the show's funds, and any additional food that we had we would bring with us to the VT shoots at the dockyard for the cast and crew to eat over the day. When it came to the main VT shoot day, I was put in charge of making at least one or more TikTok's with the contestants and the Gaylien that we had on set that day. I was struggling to think of ideas because I was also busy being a Location Marshal and a runner on the location shoot that I was burning myself out. However, I managed to think of some fun TikToks to do and with the producer's permission, I manage to upload two TikTok's that day, given the circumstances of doing running and location marshalling, which I was very proud of myself for doing.

Before the recording in rehearsals, the team and I assessed the issue of not having an autocue apparatus to put onto one of the cameras, so we decided that I would hold up the autocue near the camera lens so the talent would be able to read the text and still be in the cameras eye-line and manually scroll with my hands instead of setting the speed of the text and just letting it roll through. However, there was one physical problem that was starting to arise. Considering I was holding the autocue up and scrolling physically with my hands for a long time, I was starting to get really bad arm cramps. I didn't think anything of it and I still wanted to do my job when it came to the live recording day. However, this all changed as when I was managing the autocue on the floor, I was told last minute that there was a newer version of the script than what I had previously uploaded on the autocue that early morning. As we only had five minutes before we were doing our final rehearsal, I was getting overwhelmed with anxiety and I started to panic.

Our Floor Manager then told me that our talent, Madame Muumuu who was playing Queen Thunderclap, said that she preferred it when someone else was doing the autocue as they felt more comfortable with them. With the talents preferences, my physicality with my arms and what would be better for the show in mind, I made the courageous and mature decision to let someone else do the autocue and I would rest upstairs watching the Livestream on my phone with the crew that wasn't on the floor and that I would still get credited in the credits for being the Autocue Manager considering that it was the job that I was given at the start of the unit. Even though I would've loved to do the autocue on the day I had to make the talent's needs and my physicality a top priority and step down from the role. With that in mind, if my physicality was not a problem I would have changed some minor grammatical details which were still in the autocue at the time of the live recording, but since I forfeited my role to someone else, it wasn't my responsibility anymore to change them.

Considering everything that I went through in this unit, I am truly happy with my contribution to the team and I am very proud of all of us for coming together and making a truly stellar show that all adults can enjoy.

6. Production Paperwork

Cosmic Snatchers Production Paperwork

Please see above the link for the production paperwork made for Cosmic Snatchers. My own input included: 

• Listing content for TikToks.

• Fundraising Ideas.

• Sourcing locations for fundraising. 

• Working with finance for fundraising. 

• Action plan for social media and promotional material.

5. (and 7) Workshop Outputs (Test Shoots)

One of the workshop challenges that we were to face was we had to make a 1-minute short story and we could choose the genre, I decided to do mine about a young woman finding something in her grandparent's war memorabilia box, the link to this video is below:

The unit's workshops were our test shoots and throughout these workshops, I had the opportunity to try out many different roles that I was interested in, these consisted of the following:

• Floor Manager
• Camera Operator
• Vision Mixer
• Graphics Operator
• Director
• Script Supervisor
• Cable Basher

Out of all of the roles listed above, I really liked being the Director and the Vision Mixer as I felt a lot less stress being in the gallery given that it was very quiet. Another reason why I liked these two roles specifically because I liked the feeling of being in charge of what comes out on screen and I always have a clear vision of the visuals I want for example what shots go where, I also enjoyed talking to the team over the communications as I felt very listened to, making our team even stronger. One trait that I think I need to work on when being a Director is that I am very impatient and I felt like I was rushing people to resolve all of the problems when I just needed to be patient and wait for the crew in the gallery to tell me that they are ready. Dr Thomas Barbian, a doctor with a PhD in Clinical Psychology, states that: "Patience allows you to persevere and make more productive decisions, often leading to greater success." (Barbian, 2017). With this in mind, I would take this into consideration when doing directing in the future.

I liked being the vision mixer because I also liked the idea of helping someone's vision of the shots come to life and I liked working with the Director as I could openly suggest some shot ideas to them and discuss this to aid in what the show would look like. I also liked the Script Supervisor role and for the same reason, I liked the Vision Mixer role. So to summarise, I preferred to be in the gallery than being on the floor. I also would've loved to try out being Sound Operator, however, because it was a very popular role in the class I never got the chance.

The roles I didn't really like doing from the list above were Floor Manager and Camera Operator, I didn't like these specifically because of the added pressure of being on the floor and in charge of something. For the Floor Manager role, I understand that it's quite similar to the Director with the only difference being one is in the gallery and the other is on the floor of the set, I felt an unnecessary amount of pressure and if something were to happen on the floor I'd feel that I would be to blame, even though I wouldn't. It is kind of the same reason for the Camera Operator role, if I was to press a button wrong on the camera, I would feel the same amount of pressure to fix the problem, I am also not that caught up in the camera terminology, for example, 'loosen' to zoom out and 'tighten' to zoom in.

I also didn't really like the Graphics Operator role as I'd think that I would get confused with the graphics and press the graphic an irrelevant amount of times, making the graphic flash on and off the screen. The Cable Basher role was also fun because I enjoyed helping one of the cameramen out by making sure they did not trip over the wires, however, I didn't see it as an important job like the Floor Manager, so I don't think I'd be happy to do this job on the floor of future productions.

Bibliography:

Barbian, T., (2017). The Skill of Patience - Columbia Metropolitan Magazine. [online] Columbia Metropolitan Magazine. Available at: https://columbiametro.com/article/the-skill-of-patience/ [Accessed 28 February 2022].

4. Analysis of the Structure of Cosmic Snatchers

For the logo of Cosmic Snatchers, we want to use purple, pink and white-ish colours to represent a galaxy look and we want the logo to look like Saturn but with a peach emoji in the middle to represent the planet name 'Bundah', which is another word for 'bottom' as it suits the innuendos that we have planned for the show, which is intended for an 18+ target audience. We want to use the font called Keep on Truckin' for the word 'Cosmic' and the Airstrike font for the word 'Snatchers'.

We have planned three rounds to have in the show and each one has a different title screen. The first round is going to be called 'Gaylien's Decipher' which will hopefully be filmed at the Chatham Dockyard. The contestants have to try to solve a Tangram, putting the pieces, that have been scattered around the room, onto the puzzle to try and solve it. We want to use green in the title for this game to signify the alien aspect of the show, however, this would be a problem for the show as anything that is green on a green screen will disappear if not changed to a different colour, so we are thinking on changing the colour slightly to be visible and to be able to reference the alien aspect. We have added the handcuff picture underneath the title to signal to the audience what would happen to the contestants if they were to lose in the show, and we coloured them indigo and silver to stay on brand. With the cosmic theme, with Keep on Truckin', the same font as the word 'Cosmic' in the above logo to stay on brand and to attract attention.

The second round is going to be called 'Feel It Up', this round will hopefully be in the studio live. The contestants have to reach into a box and they have to 'feel' the item and guess what it is. Some of the objects might be a little bit cheeky and some very messy. The graphic for this round is keeping this idea in mind with the hand aspect 'feeling' and the same pink colour used throughout the graphics used for the show. On the hands, we decided to draw nails on them to reference the feminine and drag aspects of the host.

The third round is going to be called 'Riddle Me Musk', this round is going to be the final game and the second scheduled VT with a two-minute advertisement segment before the round. In this round, the contestants will be given a word, that is all symbols, that they will have to decipher using an alphabet decoder at the other side of the room, and the first contestant that deciphers the code will win.

For the graphic, we wanted to use the same font, Airstrike, to keep on-brand with the main logo and we wanted to keep the same colour palette as the logo to reference the space theme, we also added a lightning cloud to make the round more suspenseful as is it the final round of the show. The two primary colours used in the show were purple and green. Furthermore, in terms of the spirituality with the colours we chose, Marc Green states that the colour purple signifies: "wealth, royalty, sophistication, intelligence" (Green, 2021), we really wanted to get the point across that the main protagonist was a Queen aka. a royal, hence why we went with the colour purple.

In contrast, in popular culture green is associated with aliens as being 'little green men', which seemed a popular colour choice for Cosmic Snatchers. Mindy Weisberger, explains that: "In science fiction, use of the phrase "little green men" dates back to the 1940s, with the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction tracing the first usage to the story "Mayaya's Little Green Men" (Weird Tales, 1946) by Harold Lawlor." (Weisberger, 2016).

In my role as Assistant Promotions Producer, I am in charge of making the TikToks for the show, so I need to take into account the colours used in the logos to reference the galaxy aspect and to stay on brand with the logo and with the theme of Cosmic Snatchers. 

Bibliography:

Green, M., (2021). SBFAQ Part 5: Using Color Effectively. [online] Visualexpert.com. Available at: http://www.visualexpert.com/FAQ/cfaqPart5.html [Accessed 28 February 2022].

Weisberger, M., (2017). Why Do We Imagine Aliens as 'Little Green Men'?. [online] livescience.com. Available at: https://www.livescience.com/55370-why-are-aliens-little-green-men.html [Accessed 28 February 2022].

3. Analysis of a TV Show relevant to Cosmic Snatchers - Ludus

I chose the CBBC TV show Ludus as the TV show relevant to Cosmic Snatchers because it has the same general theme of space and the contestants win a ticket to leave the planet. In Ludus, the three contestants are playing to win their family members who have been turned into holograms by the main antagonist of the show Ludus. Before each game, they are shown who they can play for and if they win the game they can get their family member back, but if they lose then their family member gets uploaded into Ludus's game forever and won't be able to return home with them. In the final round, the three contestants face one more game and the prize for this game is a ticket home to planet Earth. The ticket is underneath a spherical object which Ludus calls 'a tick', however under the other two are Ludus's bugs meaning that if they choose a tick with a monster underneath it means that they lose and are stuck with Ludus for all eternity.

In this show, there is also an option that no one returns home and only the holograms of their family do, which I find quite tragic. I would argue that Ludus isn't a kid's game show as the concept of 'losing a family member' can be quite disheartening, even though little kids are the contestants. Some of the main differences between Ludus to Cosmic Snatchers is that the target audience is different as Cosmic Snatchers aims for a more mature audience, regarding the references to mature themes that younger audiences might find disturbing. Another difference is that Cosmic Snatchers has one definite winner of the shows to make it fit into the scripted parts of the show. 

With the concept of winning, in Ludus, it is all up to the final game to see who goes home, which does show a similarity with Cosmic Snatchers as there is a final show of who won by an egg reveal. In the plastic glittered eggs we were thinking of having blue tinsel for the losing eggs and in the winning glittered egg was gold tinsel and the tinsel would be the fuel for the contestant's spaceship to get home to planet Earth. Scott Manville, a former development executive of Merv Griffin Entertainment states that: "Those moments of drama always teeter on a CHOICE the contestant must make, and not always just on getting the right answer." (Manville, 2022)

I think the contestants choosing the eggs they choose and with one of them having the winning colour in is purely based on luck and how the cards are dealt. Dan Kowalski, a blog writer, states that: "Luck adds an element to games that allows for a worse player to have a chance at success against better opponents." (Kowalski, 2022). This is why I think luck games are crucial in TV game shows as it adds that necessary suspense which is what I like about TV game shows. 

Bibliography:

Kowalski, D., 2022. Dan on Luck In Games: Should the Best Player Always Win?. [online] Nerd Herd. Available at: https://nerdherdgettysburg.com/blogs/news-events/dan-on-luck-in-games-should-the-best-player-always-win [Accessed 28 February 2022].

Manville, J. (2022). Creating & Pitching Game Shows for Today's TV. [online] Available at: https://www.tvwritersvault.com/creating/creatinggameshows.asp#.YkxMOxPMLDE [Accessed 28 February 2022].

2. TV Production Roles - As Live

For this unit, I was given the task to pitch an idea (as described previously) that could possibly get chosen to make. I produced a PowerPoint presentation, and the link to it is down below:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ddySfmMsZZaNBxVh17OCIAMdoBDhQ53g/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=111638406977183413344&rtpof=true&sd=true

For this unit, I decided to apply for Promotions Producer, for my first choice, VT Researcher, for my second choice, and Promotions Sound Operator, for my third choice, for our chosen group TV show called Cosmic Snatchers.

For the job of Promotions Producer, according to creativelivesinprogress.com, they: "come up with ideas to promote television shows. Looking to engage with audiences, a good trailer has the potential to attract new viewers." (Promo Producer, 2022). Having had some experience with promotional material from making my short film promoting the course itself and I also helped out with making promotional material for the Makeup and Hair Design students for one of their units, I am very confident that I will hopefully get a job somewhere in this field. You can see these videos below:

For the job of VT Researcher, according to screenskills.com, they are: "key to any production because they find the people, the places, the facts, figures and stories that are at the heart of every TV show. In other words, the content." (ScreenSkills.com, 2022). I liked this role because I know of some contributors that could be beneficial to help with Cosmic Snatchers who would work for free. I also liked the idea of coming up with ideas for the story to make Cosmic Snatchers entertaining and fun for everyone.

For the job of Promotions Sound Operator, it's their responsibility to: "assemble, operate and maintain the technical equipment used to record, amplify, enhance, mix or reproduce sound." (Sound technician, broadcasting/film/video job profile | Prospects.ac.uk, 2022) Considering I have little experience with sound operating I wanted to challenge myself with a role that I wanted to try and give a go and see if it will be something I am good at in the future when I enter the Film or TV industry after graduating the course.

When it came to the interview, I thought I did very good, considering I had some training for how to sit and speak in an interview in secondary school, which I used to my advantage and I was very confident that I would get a job in either Promotion or in the VT's. And to my surprise, I got both, being made Assistant Producer for both the Promotions and for the VT's for Cosmic Snatchers, and when it comes to the recording day I have been made Autocue Manager. I am very happy with my roles, as my mentors stated in my feedback that they felt that I would be too stressed being the main producer and they see me as a team player.

I agree with my mentors and I am glad they are looking out for my mental health which I am making a top priority off, along with the shoot and pre-production stuff for Cosmic Snatchers. According to careerssearch.bbc.co.uk, an Assistant Producer: "assists the Producer in all stages of a television programme or series, with direct accountability for the execution of a programme intention to a specific brief, referring when necessary on editorial matters." (Assistant Producer | Jobs and careers with BBC, 2022). But in this case, I will be specifically helping out the Promotions Producer and the VT Producer for the show.

For the role of Autocue Manager, otherwise known as the Autocue Operator, according to ScreenSkills, they: "control the teleprompter on studio shows and some location shoots." (ScreenSkills.com, 2022). The website also states that they: "format the computer files of scripts to be displayed correctly on the prompter and operate a computer that’s linked to the prompter during a recording. They check with the presenter what font size they would prefer and, during rehearsals, assess the speed of their delivery so they can move the script down at the right speed." (ScreenSkills.com, 2022).

I'm, as I have stated above, I am very excited to be a part of this project and I can't wait to contribute my skills to make this TV show the best that it can be.

Bibliography:

Careerssearch.bbc.co.uk. 2022. Assistant Producer | Jobs and careers with BBC. [online] Available at: https://careerssearch.bbc.co.uk/jobs/job/assistant-producer/8351#:~:text=An%20Assistant%20Producer%20assists%20the,when%20necessary%20on%20editorial%20matters. [Accessed 26 January 2022].

Creative Lives in Progress. 2022. Promo Producer. [online] Available at: https://www.creativelivesinprogress.com/job-roles/promo-producer [Accessed 26 January 2022].

Prospects.ac.uk. 2022. Sound technician, broadcasting/film/video job profile | Prospects.ac.uk. [online] Available at: https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/sound-technician-broadcasting-film-video [Accessed 26 January 2022].

ScreenSkills. 2022. [online] Available at: https://www.screenskills.com/job-profiles/browse/unscripted-tv/editorial/researcher/ [Accessed 26 January 2022].

ScreenSkills. 2022. [online] Available at: https://www.screenskills.com/job-profiles/browse/unscripted-tv/technical/autocue-operator/#:~:text=Autocue%20operators%20work%20with%20the,and%20planning%20meetings%20as%20required. [Accessed 26 January 2022].

1. Whodunnit? - An analysis relevant to my TV show Caught in the Act!

I chose to do a murder mystery game show series because there hasn't been much of them lately, the only one being Whodunnit?, the show that I am analysing that aired from 1972 to 1978, making it the first-ever murder mystery game show in the UK. I see this show being fairly similar to the show I want to make, for example, in both Whodunnit and Caught in the Act, the judging panel or in Caught in the Act's case, the contestants will be given clues as to who the murderer is to make the show a bit easier for the audience.

According to a blog writer, Joslyn Chase, in her blog about the importance of clues in mysteries, she states: "When we plant clues, we’re unwinding a ball of thread for our readers. If they follow the correct thread, it will lead them out of darkness into the light of the mystery’s solution." (Chase, 2022). However, in Caught in the Act, the contestants would only get a clue if they got a certain amount of questions right in the games. I added this aspect into my show because I thought it might make it a bit more challenging and suspenseful, I also had an idea of giving out sympathy clues if for some reason the contestants did not win any of the rounds or have been doing very poorly. I additionally had an idea to give out fake clues as well to make the show more challenging but I thought that might be too unfair on the contestants as I don't want to make the show too hard to participate on. 

In terms of the structure of the shows, they are quite different to each other, with Whodunnit mostly being cut scenes between VT's or pre-recordings, and a little time on the actual judging panel. Whereas with Caught in the Act, there will only be at the maximum 5 VT's, one being the introduction to the cast and their interactions with the victim, three being clues that the contestants can win and one is a commercial break of two minutes after the second round of games.

I think that an advert is crucial to a television show especially for a game show as it allows for the members on the floor to set up anything that would be needed for the next round and for the cast and crew to have a bit of a break before going back on the air. Improvemarketing.co.uk state that an advert: "can drive market share, people trust TV and it provides scale and reach. It also provides you the ability to buy the exact amount of ratings (or numbers of viewers) that you need." (improvemarketing.co.uk, 2022)

Bibliography:

Chase, J., (2022). Mystery Clues: The Ultimate Guide to Clues and Red Herrings. [online] The Write Practice. Available at: https://thewritepractice.com/mystery-clues/ [Accessed 25 February 2022].

Improvemarketing.co.uk. (2022). Benefits and Advantages of TV Advertising. [online] Available at: https://www.improvemarketing.co.uk/single-post/benefits-of-tv-advertising [Accessed 25 February 2022].