Another creative aspect that I was in charge of dealing with, was the set, sound and lighting in the planning stages and on the rigging and record days. I really enjoyed dealing with all the departments and learning more about each one of them.
Set Design
For the set design, right at the begining of the project, my producer and I worked on mood boards, creating the look and atmosphere we wanted for the show. It was quite urban, intimate and "loft" like. For the majority of the project, the producer dealt with the set, and I ocassionally spoke with the CAFT team and visited them to see how it was coming along. Unfortunately due to miss communication on both sides, it seemed that the set desginers had been working to the plan below, and had not completed an acoustic stage, a day before they were due to rig the studio. I got in contact with Ben, and managed to sort out a black floor for the acoustic stage, so that we wouldn't have the horriable mud colour of the actual studio. When they came into rig the set on the Tuesday, I also managed to negotiate hanging the beauituful bottle lights on the acoustic stage, as per our orginal plan, to create the atmosphere I was looking for. In the end i think the acoustic stage looked great, and in some respects had the most tone and warmth.
When the set was being installed, and after we had been rehersing, I felt the curtains Lauren had asked them to design, weren't working very well visually on camera. I know that her vision, was to have them much longer, but unfortunately the CAFT team couldn't deliver this. I therefore suggested that they were either removed of made tighter, to look more like a part of the set rather than curtains, I also suggested that they were made tighter and that they were lit differently, as people had made comments that they looked a tad like dust sheets, and because of the dirt and creases, looked quite tatty. The CAFT team were notified and came back on the record day to help sort it the issue for us, and they did a great job in doing so!
The Design the CAFT team had been working from
I helped CAFT to position the sofas, floors and flats exactly where I wanted them, which enabled me to have the true creative freedom I was after.
CAFT building the final pieces of the set
The Final product, The Main stage. I loved the twinkle light back drop, it looked great on camera, and really added to the atmosphere of the show. I felt it fit with the brief and time the show is to be aired. I was slightly worried about the hanging paper lights, but in this photo, I can see they add warmth and another dimension to the set.
Lighting Design
I had an absoulate ball working with this department. I felt it was the one area I had total creative freedom all the way through, and really enojyed seeing my designs and plans, go from paper to reality. The two riggers, were the most nicest people, who gave me lots of encouragment and advice. We had my plans, and worked through them together on the day. I was there to work with them on nearly every light they installed, asking me where I would most like to position them, where the presenter would be standing, in what points of the song would I like the colours to change, and when a spot light should be on the lead guitar etc. I learnt a lot about depth of field, and lighting from behind so that people don't look unsual or terribly lit on camera. We really worked as a team and was so grateful that they made me feel comfortable and not out of my depth. I showed Danny, the main rigger, my inspiration from the Ed Sheeran performance on Graham Nortan, and how I wanted to recreate it for our acoustic stage, he had a look paused for a second and said "Well that's going to be easy, I rigged that actual stage and performance, I normally work on Graham's show!" I was flabbergasted, and just knew it was a good sign for the rest of the production!.
My lighting plans and ideas, with the picture of Ed Sheeran's lighting on the Graham Nortan show with the hanging lights.
The Acoustic Stage Starting to Come to Life!
Originally the CAFT team had decided to light the sign with LED lights that you manually had to click on form inside the box, we quickly realised this wouldn't work, so the lighting team and myself figured out where to position the sign, so that we could lit it from in front, but still give it the look that it was lit by itself.
Sound Design
The sound team were incredible! Rory, Paul and Jo worked so hard, and always were the first and last out of the studio. The team put in so many extra hours and should be thanked personally for this. They supported me thoughout the whole pre production process, with endless meetings at pubs, phone calls and emails, I was confident they knew exactly what was going on, what was needed and how best to ahiceve what was asked for. I worked closely with them at the beginning, intially with Paul, sorting out what was needed, I then got in contact with my old friend Rory, and he was a God send! Supplying us with all the equipment we needed for a great show! I had such fun with them, and Jo helped me a lot by taking over the euipment lists for the bands the week of the record, as it was proving extremely hard to get any confirmation or response. As we were making a music programme, sound was extremely important, and there was A LOT of equipment in the studio, but it went smoothly, with only one issue with a bass guitar, which they did they best to sort out. I was so proud of this team, with the can do attitude, anything I threw at them was dealt with ease. I would love to work with them all again in the future!
Rory's beautiful desk.
The super duo
Final Sound Checks
Rehersing Shots
One of the CAFT members (you can just get a glimpse of in his red jumper), showed a great interest for lighting on their first rigging day. So the lighting technicians took him under their wing, and he became our a official lighting assistant, as no one from our course seemed to want to take on the role, which was a shame. He said that it was something he had always wanted to try, and looked like he throughlly enjoyed himself. At the end of the show he found me personally and thanked me for making him feel a part of it, and that it was one of the best experiences he has ever had! I'm so glad he was there, he really proved invaluable and helped control the lights during the actual record!! It just proves again that this industry is always about being there at the right time, and showing willingness to put your hand to anything!
Rehearsing with cameras the day before the record, figuring out the best way to direct live music.
Alex's first performance with the band the day before the record put a smile on everyone's face!
Figuring out how to script the songs effectively has without doubt been the hardest aspect of my role. I had plenty of hints and tips from all different directors, and spent lots of time researching how to do it properly online, with the BBC guide, but I think I'm going to need to use aspects of all of them and create my own, in order to figure out the way that best suits me and my camera team.
First of all I started by getting all of the songs we are having in the show, and getting a good recording of each of them with the correct lyrics. Each song took me a day and a half to break down ( A lot more than I thought) The process started by listening to each song a few times to really feel the music. I then broke the song down with bars in between each of the lyrics, so for example The Soundcasters opening looks like this:
12 3
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
Who do you think that you are,
cause your boy mate has a car,
does it mean that you can flirt with him
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
I come to see you one night,
Its like your wanting a fight,
By pinching and poking at him
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
I don’t think that you know
That we had propositions too
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
This helps to show me the breaks we have to show other instruments, whilst the singer is not singing, and how long this will last for. Abbi my PA will be counting the bars throughout the song, so I can hear the beats I need to work too, and inform me what section is coming up next.
I then needed to create another collum, with the seconds breakdown, so I could listening to song, pause it when I heard a drum solo, and correspond that to the time on the script so I knew exactly where to script in a CU of the drummer, as counting the bars for this is impossible.
I listened to the song over and over again, and wrote in another column at each bar what was happening in the song, i.e. Singer? Bass? Guitar solo etc. From this I worked out my camera floor plans, and figured out which camera could cover what.
Then I assigned a shot and camera, to each piece of action for every bar. After practising with this in rehearsals, it became clear, that scripting a shot for every bar, with the best will in the world, simply does not work. Here's a video showing the first attempt of working to script of standing on giants, and you can see that the timings change, which could happen on the record, so we needed to figure something else out;
This is a video I used of Standing on Giants to help me script
It was impossible for me to look at the script and cut and change positions of cameras every couple of seconds, therefore I decided to leave in the script exactly what the action was, and only script the opening and closing of each song, and the rest As Directed, with a few scripted segments in between.
However on the record day everything went out of the window, and I felt more comfortable, standing up dancing, cutting to the beat, and directing the cameras with what I was feeling at the time. This created a lot more energy, and creative freedom. I felt confident just concentrating on the song, and listening out for sections in the song and creating how I wanted it to look visually. I felt this worked the best and although I did so much prep before, I'm glad I learnt the best way for me. Here is the script I worked from on the day, but as I said, the songs were completely AS DIRECTED in the end :)
Our rehearsal days in the studios in the weeks leading up to the record day have been invaluable.
We have been able to get a good idea about timings for the day by seeing how long it takes for the bands to arrive and set up. Unfortunately due to issues beyond our control, every rehearsal has not started on time, in fact for one we were running two hours late to start off with. But it has been a great learning curve.
The first band we rehearsed with were called The Jacs, as unfortunately the We were due to The Soundcasterscouldn't make it. We also had a lovely lady called Zoe come in for the day to help man and set up the PA. She is involved with running the Fringe Festival, so it was great to have a chat with her and get some advice. The band were fantastic and professional, we had plenty of practices with the cameras, and recorded a few takes so that I could look back and see what went well and what didn't quite work, here is one of the records:
The promo team had a great opportunity to take some footage and photos for the website. I was really proud of all the camera ops and assistants, who bared with me as we changed shots and positions throughout the day. I began to learn that scripting songs is extremely hard and will have to have a few attempts at working out he best way to proceed with this for the record day.
I kept the same people on cameras as I thought this was working well, and Alex and Jane did a fantastic job as camera supervisors. I think we may have some issues with Jane's track, as it was hard for her to get the shots I needed without falling off of it so I will work out a good solution.
I also got a good idea of spacing and how things will fit in the studio. As we were only working with one stage, it is clear that with three stages and a full crew, it's going to be tight, so I am waiting to get the set plans to scale, in order to figure out exactly how many audience members we are likely to fit in, without causing health and safety issues.
So as the record day is fast approaching I have been focusing on researching my role more, learning he ins and outs of directing in the studio, the correct terminology and working out what shots and camera angles I would like to use.
Geoff from the Studios very kindly learnt me his book, which he would refer to when directing Top of the Pops, and it has helped me a great deal. It has covered all the basics such as Interviews, Lighting, Sound, Presenter to Camera, Legal Problems etc, and how to deal with situations in a professional manner:
I have also been using the book Helen recommended, "basic studio directing", which really has become my bible, and has given me a starting point for my floor plans, scripts, camera cards etc.
The key part of my research has been watching plenty of music studio shows, such a Jools Holland, The Old Grey Whistle Test, Graham Nortan and Johnathon Ross. By watching these I have become familiar with the types of shots and movements used, as well as starting to learn how to cut to the beat.
Dakota, by the Stereophonics, performed on Jools Holland, has become a great source of inspiration, from the links, to the cuts and movement of the cameras.
