AS LIVE - Rigging, Set Design, Sound and Lighting

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!

AS LIVE - CAMERA SCRIPTING

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 :)

Camera Script Real

AS LIVE - Rehersals

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 Soundcasters couldn'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. 

AS Live Research

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.

Just a few documents to help our rehersal tomorrow run smoothly.

I would like to start with these cameras and operators:

Camera 1 - Main hand held  - ALEX

Camera 2 - Second Hand Held behind stage - NEIL

Camera 3 - Track in front of stage - JANE

Camera 4 - Fixed Tripod Left of stage - DAVE

Camera 5 - Fixed Tripod Right of stage - NIKKI

Camera 6 - Fixed HIGH ANGLE Tripod behind audience. - SAM ELLIS

The camera shots are just to help with framing, obviously we won't achieve the look due to lack of audience, lights etc. But it just gives you an idea of what I'm looking for tomorrow and for the record day :)

Avaliable Shots for Rehersal Rehersal Shot Sizes

Adaptation - Finished Product

Wow it's all over! So glad we had this unit! The freedom to truely create what ever we felt the poem meant to us, was so freeing and creatively liberating. I was so impressed with EVERYONES work, so many beautiful films and we have all stepped up our game! I really think the cannon 7D has made the world of difference, the films are just in another class to some of our previous work, simply because the quality of the footage. I particular love the filmic quality of Alex's, Zee and Dan's, there shots and stories are fantastic, and would make for excellent show reels! I also love Lauren Woodfall's and think she has achieved so much with her photography skills and patience for editing perfection!

Overall I couldn't be happier with this unit, I started out a bit distant from it, mainly because I was so focused on AS LIVE, but I really feel I have found my experiemental side, and learning things from each other has been vital. Watching others' work today has really spurred me on to learn and develop more!

The Listeners

Adaptation - Bringing it all together

With most of my work, I have always found the editing to be the most rewarding. I love being able to take images, and transform them into something better with music, cuts, effects, colour correction and transitions. This piece of work, has been by far the most fun to edit. I really went for it, and experimented with all types of effects and colors.

I started by rough cutting, and placing the clips in the order I had roughly sketched on my storyboard. I then started to play with colour correction. For the nightmare and dream sequences I decided to add plenty of contrast, and pinks, green and blues, to create a fantasy effect. For the shots of my character drinking and have DT's in his room, I didn't need to do much, as I had spent time lighting these well during my shoot, I just added my contrast and smoothed out some of the grain in the darker clips. I also used effects like mirror and negative, in order to create a more surreal feel, 

One of the hardest tasks was making my tracking shots in the Bearsted wood and with the candles look as smooth as possible. I started by making sure I took my time when shooting, and used the tripod and Figrig, but this did not eliminate all of the shaking. I therefore decided to slow the clips down in the edit and place the steady cam effect over the top. If there is a lot of shaking, this effect sometimes makes it worse, but I was really lucky that it gave me the desired effect. With lots of colour correction and changing of contrast and brightness, I really feel these shots are the best cinematography I've achieved to date. 

Adaptation - Creating Sound

I've been working really hard on building my soundtrack recently. Right from the very start I always had the song in mind I was going to use, Hurt. But I found the original Nine Inch nails version instead of the Johnny Cash one, really fitted my piece, especially when I applied more strings and drones to it. 

The song makes for the base of the sound, creating the mood, tension and drama. I have also added some sound effects to make the images come to life, such as the bird qwarking and the breathlessness of the man as he is running through the woods.

My main challenge was the voice over. I decided that the poem was quite dramatically visually and I didn't want to take that away from the piece with my original idea of on screen text. So instead I decided to use voiceover, but as I had my heart set on the music, I needed to record it and edit it to make the two work well together.

I started by recording my actor, Phil reading the poem. It was a good recording, but his tone of voice did not fir the tone of my poem. It didn't have underlying pain or torment or even the haggard emotion I was looking for. I therefore decided to import the song into Garageband and see what elements could be changed to make it work. First I decided to lower the pitch of Phil's voice, my changing it down a major third, then adding a "Southern Voice" effect and slight "monsters effect". I then decided to overlay it with another track. This would be the same recording but changed to a panning echo of multiple voices, that repeat elements of the poem's words throughout. I really felt this added to the atmosphere of my poem, relating to the "listeners" and different voices in the man's head. However I still felt both these tracks overlaid were missing something, they were fighting each other, and didn't seem rounded enough. I therefore decided again to take the original recording and use the "male to female" effect, so that I was actually left with a reading of the poem by a "women".  I feel this really completed the voiceover, and all three tracks work well together, creating a three dimensional voice, similar to what the alcoholic would hear, "himself, the need to stop and the want to carry on"

I was also happy that the new tones, had slowed the pace down slightly, and created dramatic tension and sadness at the key points in the poem and song, so in my mind all elements are in harmony, the score, voice over and visuals. 

Here is what the tracks looked like on garage band:

Adaptation - Working on the narrative

I am changing the way the poem is perceived, by adding my own personal experiences and relating it to someone suffering with alcoholism. Any poem will always have a different meaning to different people, but there are guy lines and themes in the poem that made me relate it to the struggles, nightmares, guilt, broken promises, loneliness, DT's, withdraws and demons,  that an alcoholic must battle throughout their lives, especially when they try to put down the bottle or relapse. Key lines of the poem stood out for me: 
"Is there anybody there?"
"Hearkening in an air stirred and shaken"
"By the lonely Traveller's call"
"'Tell them I came, and no one answered, that I kept my word', he said"
"From the one man left awake"


I will use these as key moments of tension and drama in my piece. I want my film to have a "mood" rather then a strong narrative. This is because an alcoholic's mind is a very dark, lonely and abstract place, it often makes no sense and they suffer extreme withdrawal symptoms which cause hallucinations and terrifying nightmares. I want to capture this in my piece, and so have drawn up some more story boards to help with the development and editing. 

AS LIVE - Lighting Research

 I'm making a start on Lighting, by doing plenty of research and getting to know the ins and outs of lighting a studio, especially for music. Below are notes and pictures of what I want to achieve.

Notes:

1. Light for the camera, not your eye. Your eye can handle a huge range of detail in contrasting light. Standard definition NTSC video can reproduce a contrast ratio of about 10:1. That means if you hope to have any detail in the shadow side of a person, you'll need more light on it than you probably suspect at first glance.

2. When lighting a person set a key light, at about a 45 degree angle up and to one side of the nose. Use a fill light to minimize the shadows caused by the key. Back lights are used to separate subject from the background, adding three dimensionality to a shot.

3. A focused source like a fresnel produces a hard light. Aim it first with the carriage pulled back in the housing then flood it to create the desired effect by sliding the carriage closer to the lens. Lamps like broads or soft lights are more diffused and are used as fill lights. Lekos are hard spots that can project a pattern called a cookie or cucalorus on a background.

I really like this video on Jools Holland, as it sums up the back lighting I want for the acoustic stage, (where is shines on the singer form behind), as well as the uplit floor lighting that will reflect on our transparent hanging material. I also like the small lights the have placed on the stage, to add another dimension. I like the use of blue and white. 

 
This video of Labrinth, is not the style of music or pace that will be on Unsigned Live. However when I saw this on Johnathon Ross the other day, I really enjoyed it, and wanted to use some of the elements. I really like the use of spotlights behind the ensemble (We could use our studio kits for this) as well as the spolights on the floor. I'm not sure if we can get these from the studio themselves, but even if they are ones that are fixed, four or five at the front of the stage would give a great effect! I also like the shot used right at the end, where the camera is slightly above Labrinth, and he comes into shot on a MCU, it really brings the audience in on the action, and would like to try this with one of our cameras! 

This performance of Ellie Golding, is very similar to the look myself and Lauren are trying to achieve. We want to have the smoke machine, the twinkly lights at the back are being made by our set designers, I like the use of them on the floor, and the colors are exactly what I wants, Orange, Blue, Purple, Turquoise. It creates such a nice mood and atmosphere, and I will be studying it to try and get the ideas and lights that we need! 

 


This Coldplay performance is just insane! The lighting is the best I have EVER seen for live music. We would never be able to get anything close to this, but I couldn't help showing everyone and it is a source of inspiration. 

Here are a few performances from Orange and T4's unsigned act. I have chosen these ones in terms of the closeness to our set and lighting designs. The first video is very similar to our set, quite simple, with "Balls" hanging down. We will have transparent curtains and more lighting and colors, but it gives you and idea: 

This video also shows how the space they have, which is quite similar to ours, and how well they use it!

AS LIVE SOUND QUOTE

I've been in contact with Rory, a friend from long ago, who would be excellent for our sound engineer! He has ALL the equipment we need, and would be charging us night time rates, instead of full days. With all the hire and his time he has quoted us £435, which is brilliant. I just need to know from Helen or Simon if we can go ahead and book him? I don't want to email them over Easter because I don't think it is fair, any ideas? I've included the full quote on our Gmail Documents, and Paul is going over it with me to double check we don't need anything else :)

AS LIve - Directors Check List

This is a list of everything I know/ need to know/ want to make the show work well and look visually AMAZING on the day. (of course this will swap and change as we go)

Music:

Source music, lyrics and good recording of songs, to start breaking down chords changes/ bars, and prepare shot list and camera script.

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Floor Plans:

I need to get a floor plan of the studios and place the dimensions of the set on it. I will need to talk to the CAFT team and Lauren W to get the measurements 

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Lighting:

Emma has suggested that we will need a rigger/electraician ( That was Danny last year) and a consultant op to programme the lights and operate them on the day.

She said we shouldn't need to hire things in as long as it isn't over complicated, and I don't think lights thats "move" are available.

What We Know We Need So Far:

Smoke Machine ( From Fergus at Campus)

Floor Up Lights - To reflect onto transparent curtains, in Turquoise and Purple

ALL of our 9 x Studio lights ( Kits in Base Room) To create "Industrail/Loft" atmosphere.

CAFT are making "fairy light" style pieces to create more style and effect

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Sound:

1 x Radio Mic and Ear Piece for presenter.

2 x Mic to interview bands with, one to be passed round, one to be fixed on coffee table.

3 x Mics on Audience (Possibly one on a boom?) 

Talk Backs: 

5 x Camera ops

2 x Floor manager and Assistant. Fran is to use her talk back to communicate between gallery and ALL runners. 

1 x  Assistant Producer

Equipment Needed For Each Band:

Charlie Rivers Band:

3 x DI boxes for 2 acoustic guitars and 1 bass

3 x Vocal Mics

1 x Mic for Cajan and Percussion.

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Cameras:

List of Cameras and their equipment:

Camera 1 - Lock of high/ Wide Angle Lense Attached / Master/ Safety Shot

Camera 2 - Fixed Camera - Tripod attached to Wheeled Base ( Available from studio)

Camera 3 - Fixed Camera - Tripod attached to Wheeled Base ( Available from studio)

Camera 4 - Camera on Track/ Dolly ( Pick up from Campus) -Wide Angles Lense Attached - In front of the Main Stage

Camera 5 - Master Handheld to follow presenter, pick ups from presenter/ in audience/ track hand held shots of acoustic stage.

Camera 6 - Handheld - To get amongst the action, follow the band from behind, nice shots of audience, quick pans

I also want EVERY camera to have a cable basher/ assistant to always make sure settings are correct, white balence, frame rate, SD (We don't have ability to shoot HD), and from . This is EXTREMELY important for the hand held cameras and dolly camera. The ONLY camera to stay in the same postition for the whole show is the one locked off on the rig, so it is important we rehearse positions over and over again. 

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Questions I need to ask/ get done:

1. Emma would like a list of the weights of ALL the things we would like to hang from the rigging

2. Emma has also requested floor plans and lighting plans.

3. Paul our sound guy wants to know if we are recording on multi track for sound, to help us edit, but not sure if this is possible due to memory card being used?

4. Paul also has suggested that we need him to mix the record in the gallery, but someone to mix the sound and the PA for in the studio.

5. Contact Fergus about smoke machine

6. Get dolly booked for rehersral and record from campus

7. Get list of ALL sound equipment needed from bands

8. Find out from Emma/ Alistar 

9. List of lighting changes 

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For List For Budget (To be Worked on):

1. Floor Lighting

2. Staging for The Drummer / Interview area.

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My Contacts

Standing on Giants Simon: 07792445162

The Soundcasters Tom: 07990 872303

Charlie Rivers, Steve (guitarist) 07838933647