Studio Production - Del Brown Workshop #3

In this masterclass, we looked at a number of the roles we would be performing in the final show in more detail. Every member of the group would have a go at each role. These roles included camera, graphics, vision mixing, directing, floor managing and sound.

Seeing as the first person on each role would be setting up the equipment, the role in graphics became especially difficult. We would have to set up the computer and configure the settings appropriately. There were a lot of fine details that I struggled to grasp onto in this role. Fergus would show us how to use the graphics software in great detail and seeing as i had never used anything similar to this I could not take to this role so well.

Though difficult at first, I felt pretty confident in the vision mixing role and I was able to respond quickly to the directions given to me. What was especially challenging however was setting up the mixes on the screen, as you had to be very quick in doing this. I do feel that if I went back to this role again I would do well. This was probably my favourite of the roles shown in this workshop.

Directing was a good experience as well. Like with vision mixing, you had to be very quick and very well coordinated as there was a time to keep to. The timing was done by a production assistant, another role I enjoyed doing and something I took to quite quickly. Though it was not something I had to do in this masterclass, I understood the importance of timing should something go over the run-time allocated to it. All of this was explained to me by Del Brown in great detail.

I've never been the most confident in using a camera, however with the directions given to me by the director, I felt reasonably confident in this role. This role not only involved prepping your own camera, but would also at times involve assisting with other peoples camera, to ensure that the specifications between each camera match up, though the director would often explain this to us anyway.

I enjoyed mixing the sound and understood the process of adjusting the volumes on the sound desk pretty quickly. However setting up the sound desk became especially complicated with various cables leading to different places and a great detail of buttons and dials to remember. Alex would often assist with any complications in setting up and would explain how to use the sound desk, going into detail of what each dial does.

The worst role for me however was the role as Floor Manager. Being able to conduct the cameras, sound and everyone else on the floor was a particularly difficult task as I couldn't keep track of where I was supposed to be and who I was communicating with. I would frequently forget to speak to certain people on the floor and would often forget to use the hand signals provided.

This masterclass gave me an even greater appreciation for everyones role having explored each and every one of them.