Friday 5 May 2017

Studio Production - Project Review

The unit required everyone to come up with their own idea for a show and pitch this idea to numerous staff members surrounding the course as well as the previous years producer. If successful, the curator would then become the producer for the show while everyone else would be interviewed for various other roles in the production based off their own desired preferences.

My chosen idea was a show called 'Keeping Track', an athletics based talk show which looks at the world of athletics from both a professional and amateur point of view. News on upcoming, major events, updates on professional athletes and major stories will be provided while also looking into athletics as a hobby. The show will be able to teach both aspiring professionals and those just looking to get back into shape the value of athletics and how it can improve their fitness.

Though I felt the pitch was rather successful, the show that got picked in the end was Josh Jones' 'The Big Movie Quiz', a quiz show all about films both old and new with a comedic twist. This then meant choosing three different roles to be interviewed for, labelling each role from most desired to least desired. I had chosen Sound as my first choice, Assistant Producer as my second choice and Social Media/Graphics as my third. Despite having chosen Sound as my first choice, the interview leaned more over to the Assistant Producer, a huge role with significant differences to the other roles I had picked. This would end up being the role that I got.

Being Assistant Producer allowed me to work closer with not only the Producer, but also the Director (Becca) and the Production Manager/Floor Manager (Imogen), as well as oversee all of the other roles in the production. I feel I worked particularly well with Josh, he would delegate me some tasks to get on with which I was perfectly fine doing as I didn't feel overworked at any point but I was certainly kept occupied constantly.

I was in charge of bringing in contributors, such as the host, contestants and the warm up act. As well as this, I was also able to oversee other peoples roles, make changes to both the script (which is not something I did too often) and the show as a whole.

To ensure that everyone was on task, production meetings were held on a weekly basis. Everyone would update the group on where they, provide feedback and in some cases look at resolving issues and suggesting necessary changes. Josh, Becca, Imogen and myself would also group together and form our own little meetings in order to formulate ideas together.

Two things that I wish I could have improved on was my approach to bringing in contestants for the show, and my choice in the warm-up act. There was a major issue in sorting out contestants as the majority of the applicants were male and the only two female applicants to apply, dropped out due to travel arrangement issues. This would mean having an all male cast on the show. This was changed shortly after mentioning the fact that our final two contestants would both be male. Simon put me through to Helen Welsh, a former student who would be interested in participating in the show. I would explain to her what the show's all about, what she would need to do and organised when and where she should come in. The second issue was with the warm-up act. I did not feel that last years act would be appropriate for the show as last year he acted as a children's entertainer/magician. Instead I brought in somebody I had seen before elsewhere, Connor Rochester, an acoustic guitar player as well as a singer. His performance on the show, though well done, was not as exciting and upbeat as Del had hoped for. Despite the fact that I would like to have changed this decision, I do not regret bringing Connor.

Overall I am happy with the work I put in as the Assistant Producer and would love to take up a role similar to this in the future should the opportunity ever come around. Being at the centre of organisation was a positive and rewarding experience and I feel I have taken a lot out of this unit.

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