I really enjoyed this project as it was really interesting, everybody did such an amazing job, well the people who turned up, did an amazing job. The whole project has been a strange mix of being really easy and yet really stressful, I think, especially this past week, is probably the most stressed i've ever been in the shrtest amount of ime, as opposed to with the Music Video Project in which i was quite stressed for a few weeks, this project i was amazingly stressed for about 3 days, but they were long three days, and i never did sleep properly, mainly becausei just wanted to get work done.
My responsibilities from this project have been many, I've been the content producer for the Quickfire round, I've made a lot of decisions about the size and colours of the set even though i'm not an art director, I've helped paint the set, I made us have 7 boards instead of 5, i don't assume this was only me, as if everyody had wanted 5, we'd have had 5, I've helped sophie with the Dialogue she wanted written, I wrote a 19 page script, and i've basically helped everyone stay on task, and when recording the proper thing i was AFM and then FM. So that's alot of roles, oh and i also had to redo the Cue Cards a few hours before we started recording, so yes, a whole lot of responsibilities.
I think that my contribution to this project has, in a completely not big headed way, has been really effective and quite vital, as sometimes people would rather have paint fights and i've made them work, sometimes people just want to go and mess around instead of work and i've quite made people do things, I also had to wash the Magnolia Bucket out. Which took a good few hours, as we needed somewhere to put our mixed purple paint. If i hadn't of wrote the script, i doubt anyone else really would have, well no, i'm sure somebody would have, just, probably not to such a standard, Ohoho. No, i'm kidding I'm sure one of the better people would have done a good job of it, just if say Marc or Reece did it, we'd all have died. I also made a very rough script to start with that helped everyone see what the whole show would read like, so the VT people would know where the VT's were planned to go for every round, not just individual rounds, however, the cue card people copied and pasted this very rough, work in progress script on to the cue cards, which i told them not to do as it would change, but they did it anyway, and poor sophie didn't know what was supposed to happen next, as it didnt completely match the proper proper script, which i also did, so i then had to re-do the cue cards, while writing out all of the questions again and while reconfiguring the quickfire round, at about 12 o'clock at night on the night before it all had to go ahead, i then really fucked up, as i just had to get to sleep and decided to finish them the next day and go in earlier, i however didnt quite finish in time and peter was in a mad stress and so was i. but that was the only big big issue that i had, and during that time everyone else was just lounging around not doing too much, which really made me feel special.
I learned a lot from this project, i've learned that people do what i say, I've learned how to write a near proffesional multi camera tv script, i've learned to never quite assume that people know what to do, I've learned how to DVD operate, which i knew at the age of 6 anyway but still, this was a refresher course :) I've learned how to Floor Manage; of which i don't think i did a brilliant job as everyone knew what to do, as Declan was floor manager in the first half and had covered everything, and as this was the 3rd rotation all of the audience knew what to do, and also i was just so happy tyo be actually finished all of the paper work. Although i then realised on the bus home that none of that written work was going to be marked really, and i still had a big essay to do, So i guess i'd like to say that i've learned not to leave written work to the last minute, but if i'd done that, i'd never have time to do the necessary written work for the actual doing of the project, so i'm not really sure of what i;ve learned in that respect. I knew to start with that sometimes i get really stressed, but the good kind of stress that you can do something about, not the bad kind of stress like the Music Video one, in which i couldnt control what people wanted to do themselves, so i couldnt do much about that type, this type went away when i woke up last thursday morning, which was unfortunate as i'd lost the urgency to work, but luckily writing all of this makes me relive that stress so i have the urgency to work and that's why i'm doing this now, granted it's late but still, it's getting done :)
Errrm, the technical quality of the finished project i think was brilliant, as everyone had enough practice in there respective role, and yes that included reece's audience role, he was a brilliant audience member! If i had to do this again, i would probably do it one week earlier, i'd have the script finished earlier because i now understand them, as opposed to being handed somehting that genuinely looks like a mental array of words on a page, and therefore, i'd have spread out all of the work that i'd done in that three days, over a course of about 2 weeks, but knowing me i'd still have left it to the last minute, I think I get a sort of thrill out of doing it just in time haha,
But overall i think it's the best we could have done, i regret wasting such time on the earlier incarnation of the Quickfire Round that looked so good on paper, but in reality was basic dog shit.
I think that the Quickfire round is basically the easiest round to plan for, you just need loads of questions, I also enjoy how we inadvertantly made the questions really quite difficult, as we always said we would as Group A has lost both times in the others quiz show, I genuinely think that our quiz show is far superior to both of theres and it was quite well referenced to the title of Media Circus, and i watched it on Wednesday and just thought, How strange, we orginally were gunna paint it Red and Yellow, and yet i couldnt imagine anything being any different, and not in a bad way, it quite made me feel happy, that we'd done the best that we could, well atleast i know that most of us did :)
I think that all of the editing, the mise-en-scene, the sound, the narrative, and the representation were brilliant and the best they were ever going to be, The Circus Theme fitted in so nicely, the logo needed work as on camera it looked a bit brown, and it was kind of Lucy's pet project that she didn't let anyone else touch, and yet complained that when she didnt turn up for a week somebody else had touched it, It all fitted nicely, from the title of Media Circus that Jack thought up, to Sophie's costume, which i silently wish had been red, but i appreciate that that would have melted into the background, so black is better, from all of the circus references we;d squeezed into the script, i also am really happy that the whole "Ladies and Gentlemen etc etc" got put in, even if we had forgotten to do that, which really wasn't anyone's fault, we'd just all forgot, but it was on the script, i dunno, i think we just overlooked it.
I think our ideas came across excellently too, everyones group had there own round, and all of the rounds worked together really well, the only round i found the weakest was the celebrity round, but thats only because it basically had one question repeated 4 times in several different ways, it just felt a bit short and a bit, lacklustre, although still it was brilliant, just more simple than the other rounds.
Our audience loved and envied it. I don't really know, i didn't ask, but they all laughed and seemed to get well into it, whih is why we did it, during all the rehearsals we were all so sick of it, i can probably tell you all of the questions and answers, i practically didn't need the dialogue script while writing the proper one, but when the audience were in and the panellists were there, it all fell together so well, it actually surprised me that peter said that he was worried and had a moment of not thinking it would happen, because i genuinely knew all the way through that it's happen, even when running amazingly late on doing the cue cards, i knew it was going to happen on time, this is either blind faith or just that i knew that we were all fine and knew what we were doing.
I think everything went right in the end, a whole lot went wrong, well not wrong, but unplanned during the making of it, firstly we were going to have it Red and White, although i and a few others wanted red and yellow for the set, peter than told us to have something darker, so they said Red and Purple, i was like OMG thats going to look awful, what circus' are purple and red? even though i adore those colours and are usually wearing them, i just didn't think it would work, We also ran out of paint, alot, Our first purple was horrible, and the Art people were so unhelpful to us, they wouldnt give us any more and not much of it was done, so then we ended up going for a darker more purple purple anyway, although we didnt have any money to buy any, we just found some glossy pink paint and some matt blue paint and mixed them together in the magnolia bucket that me and sophie took about an hour to wash out, i really wasn't convince that A, it would be enough and B that if we ran out we'd never mix it to the correct colour again, although it was fine and perfect, we also then had issues with the Red; it was too light, but Jo came to the rescue and bought some darker red paint, and shes a star for it, i was yet again convinced there wouldnt be enough, i think that I must be preoccupied with falling short on something or other as i also wanted a big table, but that was fine and we got that, then we had issues because people liked to have paint fights and got purple in the red, of which it didnt come off or paint over very easily, but with the darker red it was fine, we also then had to use masking tape to make sure the lines were even and straight, and paint over them yet again, i swear thta they had about 10 coats of various colours. Then we had the big major issue of the script, that Kate was pestering me to write, but i had no idea how, Peter showed me how and that was fine, but then the script didn't match the cue cards as the idiot people; and i won't name names because that's cruel (How strange that i'll offend them but not name them? Double standards i think.),
But anyway, they stuck on word for word the entire basic dialogue script of which i told them not to, which in hindsight doesn't make sense, but whatever, it was a lapse in judgement, but i got them done about an hour later than planned, but ready in time for the show, i also had to redo the quickfire round, but that was fine as it was just to simplify it, it just took ages to write up all 56 (Reece lost 4) of the questions and format them so that when i printed them at college they would fit on the cards, of which they did but we also couldnt find any scissors and glue anywhere, but luckily Declan and Laura went to the Shop and bought some Glue, but apart from that i had to cut them all out myself and Laura helped stick them down, and we actually had one card too many, which was good, because i did so worry that we'd not have enough. It was just all so hectic and i can not even express how stressful and mental these few days were.
But eventually it all got done and it was fine. I think i've given enough examples to back up my points.
I think our project compares naturally quite amateurly to real examples of proper TV programmes as they have bigger budgets, studio cameras, instead of location cameras and alot more proffesional people, who arent quite sure what they are doing but are trying there best as they don't want to get shouted at, And the studio is small, How i would have loved 9 flats and an even bigger table.. but that'd just a pipe dream! haha, I'm so strange. Things like that make me happy though.
I really do think however, that we all did such a superb job on it, even though 5 or 6 people were unreliable and never or rarely turned up, or did the wrong thing or got quite crazy because somebody was doing "their" logo, even thought they'd drawn it really wonkily anyway, I'm quite a perfectionist really, and even though some things were a bit like the shaky sets out of 1970's programmes, i don't think that matters, we've just made a 1970's style circus quiz show. And it's fucking fabulous :)
My god do I talk crap too much.
Monday, 29 March 2010
Project Diary
First Week
In the first week we were organised into our production teams, in my team were George, Lucy and Marc, Marc wasn't there for the first week so we decided the roles that we wanted, I was Content Producer, which means i made sure everything got done in my group, George was The Technical/Editing Man, and Lucy was Art Director. Marc unfortunately never really got involved so George did his job, which was fine and he wasa good at it.
We then decided what round we wanted; I, originally, wanted the Celebrity Round and Lucy wanted the Music Round, we then ended up with The Quickfire Round, which was fine.
We decided to do 20 questions each, I did mine surrounding Celebrities, George did his about Film and TV and Lucy did hers about Music.
We also had decided on an overall title for out show which was Media Circus, which we were all fine with.
Second Week
During the Second week, because i was waiting for Lucy to be done with her questions, as George and I had finished with them, and there no VT's to sort out in our round, i decided to help with the painting of the set, Which was good.
Once we had actually found the appropriate amount of paint, thanks to Kate's large tub of Magnolia, we got started. We decided on doing Seven Boards instead of the 5 that the Other Groups had done, because we thought there set's looked a bit small, I also pestered everyone into getting a bigger table, which i got, which was good.
Now On Wednesday's we actually got some time to use some of the equipment, as we'd brought in 10 questions each and we took it in turns to be different people, well in reality we rotated only a few times but it helped everyone get a gist of things.
Third Week
I can't really remember much about the third week, so i'm guessing we practically just did painting, but we were still way ahead of where the other groups were at this point, me and sophie were basically finished with the Dialogue parts of the script, so that was good. And On Wednesday it was the Norwich Trip, In which I sat in Costa with Sophie to plan our radio show,
Nothing out of the ordinary happened during this week, apart from we had Peter's usual lesson on a Thursday instead of Wednesday, we were still doing our tiny ten question quizzes, which was benificial.
Fourth Week
I think that the fourth week was quite productive, as by the end of it, the set was basically finished and I'd pestered everybody sufficiently about the big table and by the Thursday we had it, In Peter's Lesson, we were practicing the last group's Quiz Show, just to get a feel for what it'd be like. And Kate was pestering me to do the script, but i was having issues as i really didn't know how to, so i went to see Peter, who basically did the first sheet while i was watching which was actually really helpful as suddenly it all clicked into place and I understood what it all meant. We also then decided that we needed more rehearsal time on the Tuesday, and i was to Email Peter the finished script on the Monday Evening.
Fifth Week
I enjoyed this last week alot, I was stressed off my feet, but it was the good stress that made me do things, not the bad panicky stress that makes you die inside. On the Monday, I drunk too much caffeine so i was in an odd mood, however this helped as Me and Hannah were to do the Script, and from 10 o'clock until about half 2 we sat in the Library and Digital Suite and wrote it, Hannah replaced Sophie, as Sophie wasn't there that Day, but my god i am glad Hannah helped me as she kept me sane and laughing, and by 3 o'clock on Monday I emailed Peter the 19 page finished script.
On the Tuesday, we basically ran through the whole thing, The Quickfire round needed a lot of reJigging as Originally we were going to have Ducks with the Categories and Fishing Rods and it looked so good written down, but in practice it was awful, I also had a few bits to re do in the script concerning Track Numbers. and i also had to Redo the Cue Cards as They had the wrong script on them, so i went home and Mother helped me rip off the old script, i also re wrote the script and emailed it to Peter. I then also wrote down all 60 questions for the quickfire round to stick to the cards on the next day
Now Wednesday was the day of the actual recording, and i was in mega stress, as i was all a bit unorganised, as i didn't think it would take so long. I came in at half 9, as i had to write the Dialogue bit of the script out and stick it to the cards, which actually took the best bit of 2 hours, and i was in a crazy state byu then as i thought it'd take about half an hour, I finally finished the cue cards, but not the Quickfire round, and i was doing this all on my own. Peter came in all like "Where's the script?!" and i was like AHH i emailed it to you last night, and i printed off a copy that Sophie had gave to him in the morning, but he said that he couldnt use this as it was double sided, i think John Dempsey could see how stressed i was and told Peter that he'd Photocopy from it a few scripts, which i was so thanful for, as i must have forgotten that he'd asked me to do this. By 1 oclock i had finished the quickfire round cards, and then i new it was going to be alright, because as a group we all knew what we had to do really.
After a few rehearsals in the afternoon we were ready to go, I was Assistant Floor Manager in the first half, which basically i was doing scores, but after a hectic morning i was glad of something so menial, and i was Floor Manager in the second, which again was basically no work, as sophie was a brilliant host and we'd all rehearsed it so much everyone knew everything anyway, Also the audience kind of applaused when they needed too anyway so i didn't even have that to do, all i did was basically make sure Marc wrote down the right scores and tell Sophie when the 60 seconds were up for the Quickfire round, which actually worked so much better in it's new more Mastermind-ish type set up as opposed to its idiot predecessor version.
And after that it was fine.
In the first week we were organised into our production teams, in my team were George, Lucy and Marc, Marc wasn't there for the first week so we decided the roles that we wanted, I was Content Producer, which means i made sure everything got done in my group, George was The Technical/Editing Man, and Lucy was Art Director. Marc unfortunately never really got involved so George did his job, which was fine and he wasa good at it.
We then decided what round we wanted; I, originally, wanted the Celebrity Round and Lucy wanted the Music Round, we then ended up with The Quickfire Round, which was fine.
We decided to do 20 questions each, I did mine surrounding Celebrities, George did his about Film and TV and Lucy did hers about Music.
We also had decided on an overall title for out show which was Media Circus, which we were all fine with.
Second Week
During the Second week, because i was waiting for Lucy to be done with her questions, as George and I had finished with them, and there no VT's to sort out in our round, i decided to help with the painting of the set, Which was good.
Once we had actually found the appropriate amount of paint, thanks to Kate's large tub of Magnolia, we got started. We decided on doing Seven Boards instead of the 5 that the Other Groups had done, because we thought there set's looked a bit small, I also pestered everyone into getting a bigger table, which i got, which was good.
Now On Wednesday's we actually got some time to use some of the equipment, as we'd brought in 10 questions each and we took it in turns to be different people, well in reality we rotated only a few times but it helped everyone get a gist of things.
Third Week
I can't really remember much about the third week, so i'm guessing we practically just did painting, but we were still way ahead of where the other groups were at this point, me and sophie were basically finished with the Dialogue parts of the script, so that was good. And On Wednesday it was the Norwich Trip, In which I sat in Costa with Sophie to plan our radio show,
Nothing out of the ordinary happened during this week, apart from we had Peter's usual lesson on a Thursday instead of Wednesday, we were still doing our tiny ten question quizzes, which was benificial.
Fourth Week
I think that the fourth week was quite productive, as by the end of it, the set was basically finished and I'd pestered everybody sufficiently about the big table and by the Thursday we had it, In Peter's Lesson, we were practicing the last group's Quiz Show, just to get a feel for what it'd be like. And Kate was pestering me to do the script, but i was having issues as i really didn't know how to, so i went to see Peter, who basically did the first sheet while i was watching which was actually really helpful as suddenly it all clicked into place and I understood what it all meant. We also then decided that we needed more rehearsal time on the Tuesday, and i was to Email Peter the finished script on the Monday Evening.
Fifth Week
I enjoyed this last week alot, I was stressed off my feet, but it was the good stress that made me do things, not the bad panicky stress that makes you die inside. On the Monday, I drunk too much caffeine so i was in an odd mood, however this helped as Me and Hannah were to do the Script, and from 10 o'clock until about half 2 we sat in the Library and Digital Suite and wrote it, Hannah replaced Sophie, as Sophie wasn't there that Day, but my god i am glad Hannah helped me as she kept me sane and laughing, and by 3 o'clock on Monday I emailed Peter the 19 page finished script.
On the Tuesday, we basically ran through the whole thing, The Quickfire round needed a lot of reJigging as Originally we were going to have Ducks with the Categories and Fishing Rods and it looked so good written down, but in practice it was awful, I also had a few bits to re do in the script concerning Track Numbers. and i also had to Redo the Cue Cards as They had the wrong script on them, so i went home and Mother helped me rip off the old script, i also re wrote the script and emailed it to Peter. I then also wrote down all 60 questions for the quickfire round to stick to the cards on the next day
Now Wednesday was the day of the actual recording, and i was in mega stress, as i was all a bit unorganised, as i didn't think it would take so long. I came in at half 9, as i had to write the Dialogue bit of the script out and stick it to the cards, which actually took the best bit of 2 hours, and i was in a crazy state byu then as i thought it'd take about half an hour, I finally finished the cue cards, but not the Quickfire round, and i was doing this all on my own. Peter came in all like "Where's the script?!" and i was like AHH i emailed it to you last night, and i printed off a copy that Sophie had gave to him in the morning, but he said that he couldnt use this as it was double sided, i think John Dempsey could see how stressed i was and told Peter that he'd Photocopy from it a few scripts, which i was so thanful for, as i must have forgotten that he'd asked me to do this. By 1 oclock i had finished the quickfire round cards, and then i new it was going to be alright, because as a group we all knew what we had to do really.
After a few rehearsals in the afternoon we were ready to go, I was Assistant Floor Manager in the first half, which basically i was doing scores, but after a hectic morning i was glad of something so menial, and i was Floor Manager in the second, which again was basically no work, as sophie was a brilliant host and we'd all rehearsed it so much everyone knew everything anyway, Also the audience kind of applaused when they needed too anyway so i didn't even have that to do, all i did was basically make sure Marc wrote down the right scores and tell Sophie when the 60 seconds were up for the Quickfire round, which actually worked so much better in it's new more Mastermind-ish type set up as opposed to its idiot predecessor version.
And after that it was fine.
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