Test shoots
It was brilliant to be able to get test shoots in green screen and in person with Television News Production and was a great opportunity to make sure that we are fully confident with everything before shooting. I booked out the green screen room for a day for myself, George and Jacob and we experimented with lighting, sound and style of shots. We had many different styles of shots due to creating a News Package, Live News OB, as well as Teaser. These are all different ways to report television news therefore we needed to make sure that our shots reflected the typical conventions for each video.
The first thing that I wanted to consider as the Covid-19 Supervisor, before test shooting for anything, was keeping everyone coronavirus safe. To prepare for the test shoot I read through the Coronavirus safety document that I created and treated all test shoots as if they were the real thing. This meant that myself, George and Jacob all wore masks throughout, unless we were in front of the camera, but then I ensured that the crew stood at least two metres away. The green screen was very good to have for two key reasons; the first is that it allowed us to carry on with creating films even during the pandemic, and the second is because it allowed us to create successful digital news with backgrounds that reflect our brand and aims, however I will discuss this later. When preparing for the test shoots as Covid-19 Supervisor I was researching online about filming with a green screen with coronavirus safety measures in place. Something that I had not considered was that "actors must put on their own microphones" (BBC, 2020). This had not crossed my mind, luckily I had seen it during my research and was able to inform Jacob and George before our test shoots that they must not pass or share microphones as they will become a high touch point. This made me feel that I had fulfilled my role as Covid-19 Supervisor during our test shoots as I put many safety precautions in place and had discovered further safety measurements due to online research. Something that I would have done differently for test shots is distributing equipment beforehand to myself George and Jacob to save time on the day of the test shoots/ actual shoot as "most News Productions work under considerable time pressures." (Chesterton, 2009:202). As George was the DoP, he was the only person allowed to touch the camera, however when filming test shots we were practicing sections where he was speaking in front of the camera which mean that we had to wipe down the camera to make sure it was clean so that someone else could then use it. Therefore in future I would try to prevent issues like this from occurring again. Despite this though the test shoots did go very successfully and masks were worn at all times as seen in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1 Green Screen set up (2020).
Once the set felt Covid- safe we were able to start practicing our shots. At this point our shot list had already been configured and the script had been written so we had a good idea of how we wanted things to look on screen. I had looked into a lot of digital Television news we had discussed as a group how we wanted to format our shots in the green screen. When looking at online examples, something that I enjoyed is that they are in the centre of the frame, and therefore the main focal point for the viewer. Subsequently when filming we ensured to have George in the centre of the frame and to help us we used the grid for the rule of thirds on the monitor, to ensure that he was definitely in the centre. Without this, he may have ended up slightly out of centre which would not have made a big difference during the filming of our test shoots, however when putting a background on it would have caused it to look uneven. I'm glad that we learnt how to position someone perfectly in the centre of the the shot during the test shoot and not the actual shoot. Otherwise we could have ended up with spending unnecessary time doing this in the real shoot, and due to it being Television News we were already on a "tight News schedule." (Mitchell, 2009:120)
Fig. 2 Frame set up (2020).
Another thing that we learnt during the test shoots in the green screen room was making sure that Georges hand movements are always seen. To start with, when setting up the shot we prioritised having George in the centre of the shot as discussed above, however when filming and looking at the monitor I realised that he was using strong hand movements whilst speaking, yet they were not being picked up on the camera as she shot was tilted too high. Due to being behind the camera I was able to see this and find "solutions to problems that the presenter may be unaware of." (Trewin, 2003:28). Because of this we tilted the camera down, still ensuring that George had enough head space, and then filmed again to make sure that his hands were movements were seen. Furthermore, this projects why test shoots are so important because without practicing in the green screen, we may have not considered this on the day of the shoot and then in the edit realised that George's hands were not seen.
Before filming our test shots I watched a student Television News video from last years cohort and analysed how they used the green screen and backgrounds. As it is news the focus should be on clearly informing the audience of information rather than distracting them, however with the video shown below from last year they have a very busy background and I feel that this completely distracted me whilst watching it and took the audience away from what they were actually saying. This is definitely something that I wanted to avoid when using the green screen and backgrounds as it is Television News; suggesting that the News and the Presenter should be focussed on, and the background should just add to the branding rather than being a complete distraction. Therefore when completing our test shots we had a discussion about backgrounds and as our graphic designer I had already decided on the backgrounds for our green screen sections and that they would be simple with still images of slow movements. Something that I had not considered was the amount of frame that our presenter would take up. Doing the test shoots allowed me to see in the monitor the amount of space that remained in the background, which then allowed me to re adjust background designs. If we had not have done test shoots, I would not have considered this and therefore we would have had issues during the edit process. In future when shooting with a green screen I will make sure that I consider framing before designing as it took up unnecessary time that I could have saved, and with Television News there is a "quick turnaround." (Mitchell, 2009:120)
Something that was a great help for test shoots was having the Television Monitor attached to the camera monitor in the green screen room. Due to Social distancing, the three of us could not gather around the camera monitor when deciding how we wanted a shot to look, therefore using the HDMI cable to connect it to the television allowed us to all see the set up of the shot. If we did not have this, the test shoots would have taken a lot more time as we would have had to have taken it in turns to look at the monitor on the camera. This made me feel happy as our COVID-19 Supervisor as I could ensure that social distancing was being maintained. The fact that it also saved us time was great as with Television News time is very limited.
For the online interviews for our New Package, George (our director) wanted me to film an over the shoulder shot of me as the reporter speaking to the contributors via Zoom on my laptop. I decided to film on my DSLR at home as I am confident with filming on it and have the equipment easily accessible at home which is crucial with the current coronavirus circumstances. Also due to lots of Television News being filmed from home at the moment it was a good opportunity to face the challenge of setting up and recording an interview on my own without even leaving my home. George created a document which was a great help for viewing how he wanted me to shoot the interviews. I wanted to make sure that there were no issues with the setup, therefore the morning before the shoot I set up my camera, tripod and lighting and practiced framing the shot so that it matched George. Despite this, something that I had not considered was that the tripod legs would not fit in the space where they needed to. This meant that I had to move around some furniture in my room to make space for the tripod, however this was quite time consuming and meant that I was then running behind on the schedule and joined the online meeting with the contributor just on time. As Producer this made me feel a little overwhelmed as I wanted to follow the schedule but the test shoots had taken up to much time, and I wanted to minimise stress and maximise creative output (Mitchell, 2009:120) . This taught me a couple of valuable lessons, the first being that I should have done the test shoots on a different day to the shoot, and not underestimate the amount of time they will take. The other being that it is okay to be stressed and work under tight time pressures as that is the way that it is in Television News. Something that I struggled with when setting up the test shot was achieving the correct lighting, I was filming myself sitting at my desk, and this is right in front of a window, there was no where to move the desk to so I had to try to make it work. The test shoot was a great opportunity for me to work out how to solve the lighting issue. I started by playing around with lighting that was already n my room, for example lamps and main lighting sources. Once I had found the best combination I then set up my LED lighting panels. I found then that another issue was reflecting light, as my desk is white wood and has a shiny coating on it which meant that light easily reflected off of it. To solve this, I placed the LED panels about a meter away from the desk and either side of it and faced them slightly upwards to ensure that they did not reflect onto the desk. This was a challenge however I felt very satisfied once I had figured it out, and in future I will remember this and try to avoid using furnitures that could reflect light unless it is a necessity.
In conclusion, these test shots were a great opportunity to trial all that we had in mind before our production time began. However in future a change that I would make as Producer would be to add extra time in our schedule for test shoots due to "most News Productions work under considerable time pressures." (Chesterton, 2009:202). This is due to them taking longer than I anticipated which led to time pressures that would not have been there if more time was scheduled for them initially.
List of Illustrations:
Fig. 1 Emmerson, S. (2020) Green Screen set up. [Photograph] In possession of: the author: Kent.
Fig. 2 Emmerson, S. (2020) Frame set up. [Photograph] In possession of: the author: Kent.
Fig. 3 Emmerson, S. (2020) The Television Monitor. [Photograph] In possession of: the author: Kent.
Bibliography:
BBC Entertainment and Arts (2020) Green Screens and Social Distancing- TV industry publishes guidelines to resume filming. At: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-52704584 (Accessed on 25.11.2020)
Chesterton, F. (2009) Broadcast Journalism: A Critical Introduction. [online] At: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucreative-ebooks/reader.action?docID=362312 (Accessed on 23.11.2020)
Trewin, J. (2003) Presenting on Tv and Radio: An Insider's Guide, Oxford: Focal Press.
Mitchell, L. (2009) Broadcast Journalism: A Critical Introduction. [online] At: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucreative-ebooks/reader.action?docID=362312 (Accessed on 23.11.2020)
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