During the Easter break, I was given the opportunity to work on the last in the series show, for Frank Skinner's Opinionated, produced by AVALON television ltd, for the BBC, being filmed at Maidstone Studios. I started at 11am, and was taken straight to the production office, the hub for the show. It was extremely nerve wrecking at first, except for the other two studios runners, no-one knew I was a television production virgin!
I was given a pass, Access All Areas ( I did have a little grin on my face at that point, I think), and introduced to Sara Ryan, the script supervisor. It was interesting to talk to her about the script writing process, as it is something I recently found a passion for. She did explain however that with Frank Skinner, you can pretty much throw the script out the window, it's more of a "guideline". I was then asked to make thirty copies of the running order and script, bind them and then distribute them to all the crew that needed one, (I cannot tell you how excited I was to see my name at the bottom of the first page!) This was my first chance to be on the studio floor, as an actual member of a production! It was amazing! Everyone was really friendly, and seemed pleased the scripts were being delivered.
I was taken to the gallery and introduced to the Director, Lighting director, Vision engineer, VT engineer and Vision Mixer. Again they were all really friendly, bit it was quite daunting at first being in the darkened room, and seeing just how masterful you would need to be in order to operate any of the equipment.
After getting to grips with all the different rooms that were being used, including the edit suites and dressing rooms, and making sure I was familiar of where everything was and who to contact if advice was needed, I was introduced to the Avalon's own Production runner, Peter James. He would essentially be my first port of call in knowing what I was needed for, throughout the day.
It turned out that I would be working closely with him, and was responsible for looking after Frank Skinner, Alan Davies and Katy Brand, as and when they arrived. This included showing them to their dressing rooms, making sure their dinner was delivered on time, and guiding them to make up/ wardrobe/ the studio.
I was also asked to look after the contributors as they arrived. These were essentially members of the audience, but researchers had already found them weeks in advance, in order to provide the show with an interesting story or opinion and to add more content. Towards the late evening, I was asked if I would look after two children in the green room for half an hour, one 7 the other 8, as their mum was required on set. The room had a live stream from the studio, so we could watch what was being filmed. It turned out that the primary school children I had in my care, were still being breast fed! Well that was certainly an experience!
I was also required to make numerous "gallery runs" during filming. This meant asking everyone in the gallery, sound room, lighting and vision rooms if they wanted tea or coffee, and making sure they got what they wanted! Again at first it was really daunting, all these people (around thirty) were sitting in the dark, concerntrating on the screens, and relaying information to the studio floor. I had to interrupt them and ask if they wanted tea or coffee? eeeeeeek! but after my first stab at it, the nerves went :)
The day finished, which a small wrap party, were I was able to drink champaign, mingle and talk to all the people involved with the show. I cannot stress how nice everyone was to me, including Alan Davies who is one of my secret pleasures from his Creek days. In fact when it was time for me to leave, everyone based in the production office gave me a hug, including the Line Producer, Chris Iliffe, (who I at first thought was rather scary), thanked me for all my help and wished me well in the future. I left the studios stupidly happy!!!
