DRESS REHEARSAL & SHOW DAY
Below is a summary of everything that happened on the dress rehearsal and the day of the show:
- There was an issue with the electronic buzzer system we had sourced for the show. Paul our sound guy said it had too much background noise and wasn't going to be suitable for the final show. I came up with a solution where the sound the buzzers made was only sent to the sound room, where it would then tell Sammi the grams op to trigger a SFX manually that would play on the show. Paul liked this idea and so we agreed to go with it. However on the day of the dress rehearsal it was decided it still wouldn't work and so instead we got the set design team to attach too large buzzers to the top of the podiums and when the contestants hit them, Sammi would trigger the correct SFX using her sound programme. This meant it would look like they were triggering the buzzers but actually they were not. I should mention that during the show there were moments when the wrong buzzer was trigger which did cause confusion for George who didn't know who to give the answer too. During those situations it fell to me to tell George who he should go to.
- I spent most of the two days writing and rewriting the script. After every rehearsal something would be changed to improve the show even more. This included cutting down some more dialogue and adding more questions to the script for round 1 and 2 to ensure we didn't run out during the show. I only made these changes to George's 'live script' and informed the gallery team of any changes that affected them.
- Throughout the two days I kept receiving feedback from others about George. As well as me speaking to him, other members of staff also passed feedback onto him. I know that he really appreciated the feedback as it helped him become a better presenter. He also appreciated all of the feedback he got from Del. I'll admit I found giving him feedback sometimes difficult because I didn't want to offend him. However, I do think that eventually he got the message and on the day of the show he was amazing!
- During the rehearsals I found that I wasn't able to concentrate on talking to George because I was too busy keeping track of the scores. I decided to pass this job onto our gallery runner Jack instead. This allowed me to just focus on George during the actual show.
- During one of our rehearsals I was on the studio floor just before the show started and I noticed that George was not there. As the titles began to roll I had to run to his dressing room and grab him because nobody else did. He just about made it onto set on time. I ensured I raised this issue with the floor manager so she could ensure that someone would be on cans and near George at all times during breaks to ensure he is where he needs to be when he needs to be there. This incident was not Georges fault, although he did take his talkback out for which he apologised.
- On the day of the show after our first rehearsal it was suggested that we change the format of round 4. This change would've meant that both contestants are on set when the correct answers are revealed, instead of the current format which involved them seeing it separately. I thought it was a nice idea and I'm sure it would've made the ending of the show more intense, but I couldn't say yes to that change. This was mostly because we had less than 5 hours until the show and this was a big change to make that close to the record. This change would've meant script rewrites which would affect everyone (lighting, sound, cameras, director). I only had 15 minutes until our final rehearsal and that was not going to be long enough for me to make such a big change. We would not have had time to rehearse it, which would've meant the first time we did it that way would've been during the show. I was not willing to take that risk. I had to think about how it affected everyone, not just me. After discussing it with Del, we agreed not to make the change, a decision that on reflection I am very happy with, and willing to take responsibility for.
- Whilst the set team were building the set in the studio I made some small changes. Becca and I agreed not to use the red carpet in the way it was intended. We decided to get the team to put it in the doorway behind the set, instead of on the actual set. I also sourced a black 'flat' for the set team to put behind the doorway so the audience and the cameras couldn't see backstage. Also, we originally intended to draw the numbers and words onto the box office line up ourselves, but the set design team didn't like the idea and so they created the numbers and signs for the game instead. I provided them with the information they needed, as well as the photoshop files for the signs. Finally, we asked them to change one of the numbers on the spinner, something they were happy to do. They replaced the number 0 with a 4.
- During our last rehearsal I decided to set it up so we ended with a draw. I wanted to test the system I had set up for a tiebreak. I didn't tell the gallery team I was doing this because I wanted to see how they reacted. In the end the show ran over by quite a lot. I needed to come up with a better solution for a tiebreak situation. For the show I placed two tiebreak questions on set, one behind George's podium for the end of round 3, and one stuck behind the box office line up for the end of round 4. Those were the only two points in the show were a tiebreak question would be needed.
THE SHOW
- Prior to the show I went around to the dressing rooms to speak to George and the contestants. I ensured George was happy and ready to go and I ran him through any changes that had been made since the morning rehearsals. When I spoke to the contestants I ran them through the show so they knew what we were asking them to do. I also ensured they were happy and had everything they needed. I did my best to get them as excited as possible so we could get the best out of them during the show.
- During the show my main role was to feed information to George through the talkback system, this mostly included scores. I was also talking to George and reminding him of what was going to happen next during the show to ensure he stayed on track. And finally I kept reminding him to ad lib during quiet moments, especially during round 3. During the final part of the show we had to fill about 40 seconds so I fed George some questions to ask the contestants to help fill that time.
- I think the show couldn't have gone better. I've not watched it back yet so if there are any mistakes on my part, I didn't notice them during the show. The show ended up being exactly 30 minutes long which is perfect. I'm really happy with how everything went and I'm very proud of the team of people that helped turn my idea into an actual TV show.
0 comments:
Post a Comment