The dress rehearsal would prove to be the biggest challenge yet as we now had to communicate with the lighting team, the sound team as well as the set design team in order to get the very best out of the show. Unlike the other rehearsals, the aim was to consistently hit the 30 minute mark dead on every time, and every time this did not happen, something would have to change, whether it be the script or the way in which George would present the show.
There were a number of issues that we all ran into along the way, issues that we had not come across in previous rehearsals due to the different nature in which we were managing the show.
In one rehearsal, Josh had to alert George that the rehearsal was about to start while the opening credits as he was still in his dressing room as it was all going on. This was something the Floor Manager had to look out for in future.
Another issue was that Josh was unable to concentrate on two roles at one time, communicating with George while keeping track of the scores was something that became very difficult to manage as one role would get in the way of the other. Gallery runner and first year Jack Whitely was then put in charge of monitoring the scores.
A change was also suggested for the fourth and final round on the day of the show after the final rehearsal. The suggestion was that both contestants would be on set at the same time when the final answers are revealed as opposed to playing at separate times. The change was deemed too risky seeing as we weren't able to put this idea to practice given that the next shoot would be the final show.
One challenge I experienced was being able to manage the contestants and the warm-up act while keeping in the loop of everything else that was going on around me. Though I feel I managed the situation pretty well given that this was my first and only real experience of doing this, I feel that prior preparation would have helped a lot more by liaising with the crew in regards to the contestants and warm-up act.
Despite these issues, the rehearsals, generally speaking, went very well. Everything seemed to fit into place as it should and the rehearsals clocked in at 30 minutes almost every time, with others being just a couple of seconds out at the most.
The live show itself also went very well and was probably our best take so far, it was also George Sesays best take with a near flawless performance. He seemed at his most confident. As far as I could see there were only a couple of mistakes throughout the show. One being an image accidentally placed over the top of a VT by the vision mixer, Laura, and the other being a camera error by one of the camera crew. However these mistakes were managed very well by both the director and those that made the mistakes as they were resolved very quickly and did not reflect on the rest of their performance despite being under the pressures of shooting the final take.
As for my role as Assistant Producer as well as the VT Operator, I am happy with the results I put into the show. The VT's played as they should and were all perfectly timed. The contestants knew exactly what they were supposed to be doing throughout the show, so I'm happy that the instructions I gave them about the show was as clear and concise as it needed it to be. However Del did have a problem with the warm-up act as he was concerned with the lack of an upbeat and exciting atmosphere. Despite this, I stand by what I think about his performance, that being that I felt he did a good job of keeping the audience entertained and I feel that this was reflected in the final show as the audience remained full of excitement throughout. If the warm-up act didn't create the excitement required from the audience, he certainly didn't kill it.
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