Production Talkback - TV

[paulears]

In this topic, I put up a link for an audio file of a show being called, as people wanted to hear how other people did it. I didn't expect many people to be interested, but the response was brisk, I think I've sent out 80 or so to interested people.

 

If anyone is interested in the differences between how we do it and how TV do it, I have another file that people might like to listen to.

 

Essentially - it's an outside broadcast from a theatre - one of those 'an evening with ..." shows that I was involved with. Cameras and cranes all over the place and celebs dotted around in the audience. The recording starts just before the curtain up, and lasts about an hour an a half - so it's a marathon listening session.

 

For those not familiar with this kind of production - you'll hear the Director doing the TV version of calling the show. Her comms is hardwired to the cameras, who rarely talk back, and her comms circuit is also sent to a UHF transmitter and people who need to hear her, such as the floor manager - the TV version of our DSM(almost) and maybe lighting and sound if required. Their radios can transmit back on a different frequency, and their voice can be heard in the truck, parked outside.

 

You'll find the accents a bit tricky, but you can follow what's going on. Some of the action had been rehearsed in the hour I removed from the beginning - but was mainly seeing what kind of shots could be set-up - not a rehearsal as we would do in a technical or a dress.

 

One thing to note is that wherever possible, the show was recorded as live - but pretty severe editing took place, with the final edit bearing little resemblance to the planned content. Mainly because some of the acts, featuring National and Local celebs had no idea what they were doing. On top of this, some of the celebs got their questions wrong resulting in the wrong answers. All this was fixed in the edit.

 

If you're not interested in this kind of thing - it's not worth listening to. Far too dull - but if you have an interest in OB work, then the comparison between theatre and TV can be useful to have, in case you ever have to work on TV.

 

 

Last time, I posted a password protected link, but this caused grief for many people who couldn't unlock it - so if you want to hear it, just drop me a pm and I'll send you the link.

Paul

[Bobbsy]

I haven't heard Paul's link but it's worth saying that different directors have different ways of working and crews have to be adept at adjusting to their peculiarities.

 

One position that Paul hasn't mentioned is the Production Assistant who tends to sit right beside the director. On any show that is pre-scripted and rehearsed, the PA tends to do the "stand by" call and the director just does the "Take" or "Mix to" call. Typically, the PA might say: "Stand by Camera 5, shot 52" and, when he wants it, the director just says "Take 5". The PA is also responsible for all the timing information, pre-rolling any inserts and counting them down, counting out to ad breaks or out of inserts, etc. etc.

 

On a "wing it" show, the director will be giving instructions to cameras on the fly, as in "Camera 4, get me a close up of the cards, then be ready to pull back to a 2 shot when I tell you". The PA will still be handling timings and count downs.

 

I mention this because, if we're comparing TV and theatre jobs, the PA is almost as involved in "calling the show" as the director.

 

Of course, in and industry run by accountants, sometimes the try to combine director, PA and vision mixer into one job!

 

Bob

[Maddison]

This

contains the director talkback for a Eurovision broadcast in 1977. By all accounts it was one of the tamer ones from this director.

[paulears]

Stewart Morris was a legend - adored by the turns, and somewhat scary to be directed by if you're behind the cameras. I was only working on one OB where he was directing, I'd unloaded the tender and ran out a few cables, and made tea. Can't remember when exactly - probably mid 70s-ish. In a Gerry Cottle tent, a Seaside Special or something. I never heard him direct, but others seemed to be a bit in awe of him - and it wasn't good to be a new cameraman.

[timsabre]

It's amazing anything happened properly at all with him yelling at everyone like that. I wonder how come the recording has survived and made it onto youtube?

I really hate doing unrehearsed shows when you get some stress-meister in charge. There's enough stress without having someone yelling down the intercom at you as well.

[LeeStoddart]

A great example of TV production talk back in a live to air situation is from BBC coverage of Formula 1 last year is to be found on Jake Humphrey's blog here (only available to UK viewers) This is the editor's talkback to Jake as he conducts the post race interviews and analysis. You can clearly hear the PA's timekeeping "15 minutes to stop talking" There is quite a scramble in terms of which post race interviews they use and in what order. I love the countdown on the final words from Jake - he really does have the ability to talk to time.

[mackerr]

It's amazing anything happened properly at all with him yelling at everyone like that. I wonder how come the recording has survived and made it onto youtube?

I really hate doing unrehearsed shows when you get some stress-meister in charge. There's enough stress without having someone yelling down the intercom at you as well.

 

Best stay out of live TV production. That was pretty calm and civilized compared to some of the sports TV I've done. I wish there were recordings of Sandy Grossman directing 51 cameras on the NFL SuperBowl games back in the '90s.

 

Mac

[Bobbsy]

At the other end of the spectrum, I recall Lou Volpicelli from ABC's Wide World of Sports being up in Calgary for the World Figure Skating championships. They were using a KING mobile as the main production truck and our mobile for VTR and replays. I'd expressed an interest in how he worked and, on the fly, he was planning and calling shot sequences 8 or 10 shots in advance--and still finding time to turn around and explain to me why he was doing it that way.

 

I don't think I've ever been so impressed with a director in the intervening 40 years!

 

At the other end of the spectrum, I wonder if anyone else ever worked with Diana Edwards-Jones from ITN? She was the senior programme director there and good at her job--but able to use a certain profanity starting with "F" as noun, verb and adverb in the same sentence. When she switched to Welsh swearing, you'd KNOW your were in trouble though!

 

Bob

[Maddison]

Couldn't find it yesterday, but there is another

of Mr Morris directing the opening of the commonwealth games.