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.
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