G. Test Shoots.

                                                           As live' test shoot

Introduction
When thinking about what we wanted to achieve from our test shoot, we thought we would concentrate more on the lighting aspect and what the lighting would look like, as being a technical director that is one part of our job.

The lighting director designs and lighting plot showing the battens, or lighting grid, each of the lighting instruments on the staging plan (Owens 2016:221) so having a test shot on lighting gave us the advantage of playing with the lighting on our acts and seeing what worked.

On the day the focus changed from lighting to using multi-cameras and blocking. The test shoot was filmed with two cameras, Mani (see Fig.4) was stationary on a tripod and Ewen was filming handheld, Mani was set on a wide shot to was able to capture everyone in frame and Ewen was able to get in on tight one-shots on both Ruben (see Fig.1.) and the contestants (see Fig.2). Considering the space that we had to work in (Lecture room 1) the shots looked clear, believable and shops clean.

It is virtually impossible to shoot well with just two cameras but can be pulled off if you have a very capable interviewer/presenter who doesn’t mind working to different cameras throughout the program (Fairweather. 1998:104)

Relevancy from the test shoot to our show.

On our commission show, the presenter will be working with three cameras (Minium) so this test shoot was important for us to have a practice on how it was going to look and gave us the opportunity to communicate with the Camera Operators.

Blocking
One of the many challenges about any production is been able to block your talent (see Fig.3) and making sure that the cameras are in the positions on the studio floor, blocking helps everyone know where they need to be from start to finish so is very important and vital that the directors have this plan in place from the rehearsal stages so then 'on the day' everybody knows where they need to be and at what time they need to be there.

The worst that could happen is getting profile shots in which the audience in the studio and at home cannot see what’s going on on the set.
This practice test shoot helped us position the contestants and the presenter (stand-ins) and place the camera to where they need to be and at the point of the ins and outs of the script, the needed to be facing.

Critical evaluation of the test shoot.
If I was to critically evaluate the test shoot I would say that I wish we had more time to plan and prepare for the shoot, it would have been nice to have a different backdrop as well so we could play with the depth of field. Without stand-in artist, we would not have been able to block as we did. Also, I wish that we had learned more about how to create a lighting plan so that we could play with lighting colours and filters.
It was a short space of time that we got to prepare for this test shoot but I do feel that we did gain some knowledge about how to block and how to use two different cameras and it also taught us about directing styles whilst working with multi-cams.

Fig. 1 YouTube: Carla Buckingham (2020)

Fig. 2 YouTube: Carla Buckingham (2020)

Fig. 3 YouTube: Carla Buckingham (2020)

Fig. 4 YouTube: Carla Buckingham (2020)

                                                          The complete test shoot.

Bibliography

Fairweather, R. (1998) Basic studio directing. Oxford: Focal Press.

Owen, J. (2016) Television production (Ed. 16) New York: Focal Press.

Figure 1. Carla Buckingham (2020) [YouTube Channel] At:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S1UPq-iqHg (Accessed on 22 February 2020)

Figure 2. Carla Buckingham (2020) [YouTube Channel] At:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S1UPq-iqHg (Accessed on 22 February 2020)

Figure 3. Carla Buckingham (2020) [YouTube Channel] At:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S1UPq-iqHg (Accessed on 22 February 2020)

Figure 4. Carla Buckingham (2020) [YouTube Channel] At:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S1UPq-iqHg (Accessed on 22 February 2020)