Evaluation of Studio Production

Our task here was to create a television show, in the style of an interview,
magazine programme. We chose music to be the theme for ours, as we all have
a great interest in that subject and were confident we could deliver an interesting
show on that theme. To begin with, we researched other television shows, so we
could draw influence from them and hopefully make ours successful. Some
shows that we looked at included The One Show, and The Graham Norton Show;
the format of these shows was
reasonably informal, and
included multiple guests and a
relaxed atmosphere; they were
also created in a magazine
format, which we wanted to
mirror with our production.
Additionally, by looking into
these different shows, we were
able to decide on a style of
presenting and interviewing that
we were all most comfortable
with, as shown below. We settled
on creating a slightly more
informal show, with a light
hearted atmosphere, and the
aim to make the guest
comfortable and engage the
audience with what is happening
on screen.
Overall I think that our research of different styles of presenting and television
show was very successful, as we managed to unanimously decided on a style
that we felt best suited us all, and this style was well put across in the editing
and presentation of the show. However, in regards to execution of a relaxed
television show, I think the first interview was probably least successful as it was
awkward to watch and the interviewer and interviewee seemed quite
uncomfortable, rather than
emulating the relaxed, comfortable
atmosphere that we were originally
aiming for. The second and third
interviews were more successful in
regards to atmosphere etc., as all
participants seemed to be put at
ease quickly and engaged well with
each other.
Another section of research we
conducted was on the behind the
scenes roles of people (right) on
live television shows, which gave

us a clearer understanding of what we would need to plan when it came to

actually
shooting the
programme.
After
researching
and deciding
on the style
and format of
our show, the
proposal was written up (shown below), which disclosed our aims concerning the
programme, I was responsible for writing up the proposal, and am very happy
with it as it gives plenty of information on our intentions in regards to creating
and marketing the show, including the socio-economic band of our target
audience, and a detailed description of the format that we felt best linked into
our intended audience. When we were planning the script and questions for the
show, the main focus was usually how the audience and interviewee would react,
and we made sure that the questions would be interesting for everyone involved
and also with potential for expansion and conversation between the presenter
and interviewee.
When looking at our management of time during the pre-production process, I
was satisfied with the groups general progress, however I feel that we could
probably have finished the pre-production booklet sooner so we could spend
more time rehearsing for the final programme, which
would have been incredibly useful, especially in
regards to the introduction and the first interview, as
these parts clearly couldve used some more
rehearsal to improve the final outcome. Separately to
this however, we did manage to rehearse mock
interviews with each other (on the right), without
which I think the final production might have been
quite significantly worse.
Another aspect of our team which I was relatively
unsatisfied was the actual teamwork. Although the
second interviewer managed to successfully film and
plan her

interview, on top of completing the

pre-production booklet and filming
the next time footage, the first
interviewer completely failed to
organise his guest and interview,
which resulted in me having to plan
and organise his interviewee for
him, and also organising travel arrangements with the interviewee at the last
minute. However, when it came to the pre-production booklet and script, we all

managed to more or less evenly distribute the roles within the team and
complete everything to a high standard by the required deadline. If we were to
re-do this project, then I would make sure that everyones guests were available
and had time throughout the day to rehearse, in order to prepare more
thoroughly for the final shoot.
In order to prepare successfully for our interviews, we contacted our relative
interviewees (left), and established whether they would be available for our
recording slot, and also sent them the questions (below) that we intended to ask
them, so that they would be prepared to answer everything confidently.
Obviously the first interviewer failed the first objective there, but when I had
organised a new interviewee, he completed everything else required to make
sure that the interviewee was prepared to be interviewed. When liaising with my
interviewee, it went incredibly well and we managed to organise everything
quickly and efficiently via email (shown below) so that he would be available for
rehearsals, and also ready for the interview.

When it came to organising

everything with my client I
dont think that Id do
anything differently, as it was
overall very successful with
no major problems that
would have affected our
filming schedule.
Additionally, before going
into the interview, I made
sure that he knew what was going to be happening, and we also had a couple of
run-throughs to make sure that everything would be okay when it came down to
filming the programme.
In regards to my role in the whole production, my main job was to present and
interview, however I also sorted out the editing together of the inserts. I was very
happy with how I performed all of my roles, as I
feel that my interview was one of the more
successful parts of the show, as my interviewee
seemed to be very comfortable and any
feedback that Ive gotten has been incredibly
positive, for example, in the final survey that I
took of people for this evaluation of the
programme
(https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7FKRTCP),
100% of the people asked said that my
interview was the one that they enjoyed most
(left), in addition to this, the sections that
people said they enjoyed most were mostly
made up of things that I had contributed to and
been responsible for i.e. title sequence and credits. The live vision mixing role
was given to our on location interviewer, who did a really good job at managing
to cut everything neatly and keep the format of the programme interesting. This

also meant that the final editing process was much easier as the shots had
already been decided by the vision mixing.
When we first began planning everything, as
stated earlier, we decided on a more informal
mode of address in order to make our programme
more accessible to our target audience. We were
more or less aiming for a style similar to relaxed
chat shows such as Alan Carr: Chatty Man (left),
where he is very funny and chatty with all of his
guests, and tends to avoid more serious issues.
Additionally he also has very positive body
language which helps in engaging the guests and
the audience, and puts them more at ease with him.
This was reflected in our presentation style and also in the style of our questions
and interviews. Regarding my interview, I think the style of the questions and the
actual interview fitted well into this theme, as its style managed to be very
chatty and comfortable for both myself and the interviewee, and also managed
to result in finding out a lot of different opinions and information which was
another overall aim for the programme. I am also very happy with my mode of
address in the interview as it is very relaxed, and enabled both of us to chat
comfortably even in a format which is often viewed as quite uptight or formal.
The main verbal techniques that I used in the interview were simple slang and
humour, which added to the relaxed atmosphere, and also my own idiolect which
is generally unavoidable when someone is speaking in a format where they are
able to talk freely; there is also clearly the use of inflections etc. e.g. when both
of us are speaking about vinyl records; inflections are used to relieve a
potentially monotonous voice (which is often a problem in interviews and other
situations such as university lectures) and make things more interesting to listen
to and watch. They also increase the
appearance of interest in a topic; however
they more or less always tend to come
naturally to most people when they are
talking about things they are interested in,
again in the case of the potential of my
interviewee to get his CD cut onto vinyl.
Verbal techniques such as these are
incredibly important to make an interview
more interesting and are also key in putting
an interviewee (and also the audience) at
ease with the situation. A good example of
an enthusiastic host, which we researched quite thoroughly, is Graham Norton
(right, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxGKYGENy4g), who always manages
to entertain the audience and his guests, whilst additionally finding out more
about the guests. An example of his use of positive body language and verbal
techniques is in the link above, where he gesticulates and laughs along with the
guests and makes everyone feel comfortable and also is able to make people
laugh and enjoy themselves at the same time, with his presentation style and
personality. Other ways of making the interviewees and audience engaged in
what you are saying include non-verbal or visual techniques, such as open body
language and smiling. I am also pleased with how I did when it came to visual

techniques, as I feel that my body language was very open and indicated interest
in what my interviewee was saying: leaning into the person and making sure that
your arms are uncrossed are sure-fire ways of achieving a comfortable and open
posture when interviewing someone and I feel like I did both of these things
successfully. Additional non-verbal techniques which indicate interest and an
overall feeling of relaxation are general smiling and eye contact; Im really
pleased with how successful I was when it came to making eye contact, as
although I generally find it very uncomfortable I think I managed to make it seem
natural and a comfortable thing to do. Another visual technique which is
regularly used in television is speaking to the camera, or inclining your face to
the camera (which can often be viewed as the audience), this also includes the
viewer in what is happening on screen, which was one of our main aims when it
came to planning the production.
Concerning the structure that we planned for the programme, I was also very
pleased with this, as it changed very little from
our original plan, and was effective in
presenting everything well and in an
interesting way. When originally deciding how
we were going to organise everything, we
decided that the on location footage should be
the second section of the interview segment,
as it would be a refreshing break from just
sitting in the studio on the sofas. As the
process continued, we decided that the VT
(left) should go before the final piece of music
on the programme, as it would give the viewer more time to appreciate the live
music rather than having to be waiting for a clip of next time during the
performance. I was really happy with the production of the VT and the music that
was used for it fit well and made it a funnier piece, which worked well as an
addition to the show. This format of adding in live music nearer the end of the
show is similar to that of the Jonathan Ross Show, where he introduces bands to
play during the outro of the show, so the audience is able to enjoy them more
rather than having to pay more attention for another interview or feature. In
regards to the actual interview structure, I stuck with the traditional format of
confidence building; developmental questions; key questions; summary and sign
off. This format enables the interviewer and audience to get to know the
interviewee better through the confidence building and developmental
questions, and also manages to deliver the information that the interviewer is
aiming to find out about their interviewee. It also means that the interviewer can
move smoothly into the next segment of the television show via the summary
and sign off, which means that the whole programme flows better and is easier
to watch and edit.
In regards to the green screen and title sequence, I was much happier with the
latter than the former, as it gave the
viewer a clear explanation of what
was going to be happening in the
show and also had a backing track
(Nordal Rumba) which fit in really
well with the overall folk/festival
theme of the programme and, as it is

quite a cheerful, light-hearted piece, also managed to set the tone pretty well for
the rest of the show. The green screen I was less happy with (see right), as it
looks quite grainy and unprofessional in the final cut. This is probably because I
wasnt very confident about using the green screen and also probably paid more
attention to choosing a better background to work with and making sure the
lighting for the show was more consistent (which wouldve meant the green
screens shades of green didnt vary throughout the programme). However
considering the first interviewer and myself werent very good at editing the
green screen, I think it couldve looked a lot worse.
In conclusion, I was incredibly happy and also quite surprised at my performance,
as I managed to successfully execute my interview along with all of the preproduction and organising an additional interviewee for the first interviewer, all
without ruining anything and negatively affecting our filming and production
schedule. If we were to re-do this then I definitely would have made sure we had
time to rehearse more, so that our first interviewer could become more
comfortable in front of the camera, and be able to confidently introduce the show
without muddling any words. Additionally I would have double-checked that all of
the equipment worked correctly, as during the on-location shoot, the microphone
equipment didnt work and as a result the sound was quite muffled and the
strong wind meant that a few parts of that interview were barely
comprehensible. As a final improvement I would make doubly sure that all the
interviewees were able to take part in the live shoot, instead of just assuming
that everything would be alright and then causing quite a large amount of panic
nearer the time of the live shoot when we found out that the first interviewee
couldnt make the final shoot.