TwoFour - Day 3

Today was great Fun! I got the opportunity to go into an edit suite with Kelly an editor and Bernie who is currently one of the directors for ‘Hotel Inspector – Series 5’. They were both in the process of editing episode two of Hotel Inspector.




Being in the edit suite was a fantastic and beneficial experience because I got to see first-hand how T.V programmes are edited together.

I was really surprised to discover that TwoFour use an editing programme called ‘AVID’. The reason I was surprised was because I thought the majority of production companies and broadcasters use ‘FINAL CUT PRO’ But after speaking to Kelly she said it’s only really the BBC that use ‘Final Cut Pro’ although some production companies are switching over to it. When I first heard ‘Avid’ was the programme most production companies use I was a little disappointed because we have been trained in ‘Final Cut Pro’ and I feel that during the last semester my confidence in editing using the programme ‘Final Cut Pro’ grew enormously with the help and support of our lecturers and when Kelly said this I felt this had been a bit of a waste of time. However she did go onto say that she was trained in ‘Final Cut’ and found ‘Avid’ was a similar programme to work with and managed to teach herself the editing programme. It just took her a little more time to edit because she had to find where all the editing tools were situated within the programme. But now she is more employable because she knows how to edit in both programmes. This was encouraging for me, because I then realised my training in ‘Final Cut’ hadn’t been a waste of time and it would help me learn other editing programmes; as the same editing principles apply.





When the programmes are being edited at TwoFour the editors work offline to save space and time, then when the programme is in it’s final stages it is edited online to add any final touches and polish it off to a professional broadcast standard.

Whilst I was in the editing suite I got the chance to help write some voice-over with Bernie. It was really interesting to see how quickly the voice-overs are put together and are recorded throughout the editing process. But the majority of the time the voice-overs are re-scripted and re-recorded by a professional voice-over artist in the final stages of the edit. The voice-overs, which are recorded by the editors, are used as a rough guide for timing issues and a guideline of the information that needs to be said in order to match the programme’s images and structure.

Both Kelly and Bernie were both very approachable and always willing to answer any question I had. One question I asked and was shocked at the answer was How much each episode of ‘Hotel Inspector’ cost to make?
Bernie explained that each episode costs on average around £125,000. The reason I was so shocked was because I knew the programme was being made for Channel 5 and for some reason I thought this was quite high for Channel 5’s budget. But Bernie explained to me that this was one of Channel 5’s biggest investments because it’s one of their programmes that’s gets the highest viewings, on average around 3.2 million viewers.




Hotel Inspector is scheduled to a five-week edit and there isn’t too much time for any leeway because of the programme’s budget, editors and directors need to move onto other projects and contracts and the programme has to be completed in time for its broadcast transmission. However in some cases Bernie explained that the producers sometimes allow extra time if it vital to the programme’s potential. Although the editors and directors have to put up a strong battle and justifiable reasons to get extra editing time and have to prove that the extra time will be beneficial for the programme.

But I was stunned to see how laid back they both were considering they were working to a tight schedule. However they both seemed to really enjoy their jobs and put a great deal of effort into the edits.

I think today was one of my best work placement days because I found it very insightful and learned a fair amount about TwoFour’s editing process and how programmes are edited together for T.V broadcast.

Pictures Source

http://www.bedandbreakfastsguide.com/Articles/the-hotel-inspector-series-4.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/5b/Five.svg/753px-Five.svg.png

http://www.digitalcamcordernews.com/posts/2007/06/final-cut-pro-logo-tn.jpg

http://www.videohelp.com/toolsimages/avid_xpress_dv_76.jpg

23rd February 2009

Day 1

TWOFOUR



TwoFour Group is divided into five sectors these are:

• BROADCAST
• COMMUICATIONS
• DIGITAL
• HMC INTERACTIVE
• DIGITAL BRIDGE

For my work experience placement I applied to work in the ‘Broadcast’ sector to gain a wider understand and some experience about working in the T.V (broadcast) industry. TwoFour is a very well established production company and have offices in Philadelphia, London and Plymouth. They have produced programmes such as:

• Hotel Inspector (now currently filming the fifth series)
• Noel’s HQ
• Make My Body Younger
• 24 Hours with…
• Kylie Exposed.
• Noel’s Christmas Present
• Are you smarter than a ten year old?

Plus many more!

My work placement was based down in Plymouth, when I first arrived at the office I was greeted by Graham Perkins (works in HR) he went through a list of things I would be doing within my placement, through health and safety regulations and gave me a guided tour of the building explaining which each sector of the company did.




After my introduction Graham introduced me to Tom and Becky, who I was working with for the day. My first task was to do some logging. This required me to listen to the tapes and transcribe word for word what everyone says. To be honest at first this task didn’t seem to bad but towards the end of the day I did feel it was slightly boring. However it was interesting listening to the comments the director and camera operators were making and the way different ways the interviewer tried to encourage the interviewee to give long, detailed self-contained answers. The programmes, which I was logging, were ‘Hotel Inspector’ and ‘Make My Body Younger’.

Tom and Becky were both really friendly and loved to chat which was really nice because it made me feel welcome. This was great because I got to find out about how they got into their current jobs. Both of them were part of the Graduate intake where the company employs a select amount of graduates and gives them a six-month contract as runners. Something I may look into applying for after my third year.
Both Tom and Becky said they loved and enjoyed their jobs and were gaining an enormous amount of experience but the pay was fairly low. In fact one of them had two jobs to be able to earn enough to pay rent and live comfortable and one of them relied on their partner’s income for support. This was quite discouraging too hear because they both were putting in long hours for little pay. However both of them said they really enjoyed it and had lots of opportunities to travel to different places with work; plus in this industry you need to start at the bottom to work your way up the career ladder and the key thing is to network and gain as much experience and skills as possible.

24th February 2009

Day 2.

The following day I did pretty much the same thing – logging tapes for the programme ‘Make My Body Younger’. However it was great being in the downstairs office again because everyone is really friendly and chatty it’s a nice environment to be in.

ACROSS THE POND

Across the Pond.

Today we started in the afternoon at 2pm. The original plan was to film at the Blakehay Theatre but Brendan and Javier wanted to film some script alterations outside in Landemann Circus first. The scene didn’t run as smoothly as everyone had hoped. A few technical issues occurred with the sound. (Although this was very annoying for everyone – it was really good to see how the problems were resolved because I had experienced sound problems in my own individual film.) Eventually all problems were sorted and we managed to get the shot Brendan was happy with.



We then all moved onto The Blakehay Theatre where the other actors were waiting. When we first arrived everyone got straight into their job roles – setting up sets, lighting, etc. I still had the role of Stills photographer. I found this to be a good role throughout my time on the project because I got to move around the different groups of people taking photos, by doing this I got to see what everyone’s job role entailed. I personally think that the Continuity role would be one of the hardest jobs because it’s your responsibility to ensure that everything and everyone is in the correct place. Whilst watching them handle continuity Sarah was constantly taking photographs of the set, scenes as they were acting just so she could remind herself.






This project has been a good opportunity for me to see what a real project requires I was actually quite surprised to see how many different job roles are actually required for a project other than just the basic ones like Production Assistant, Director, Camera Operator, Sound Operators, etc.

If I’m honest I don’t feel I would be best suited to working on a film set because I found the waiting around to be very boring. I like to be constantly busy, always having something to do, but the good thing that has come out of this project is I now know that and can start to focus my own career in a direction that’s best suited for me, which was one of my aims to get out of work experience.

Pictures Source

http://picasaweb.google.com/acrossthepond.pilot

ACROSS THE POND

Today was an early start for everyone. I arrived at the meeting location at 8.15am, like on the previous day I was unsure of what my job role would be again today. The crew was slightly smaller and some job roles had to be juggled about to get the most use out of the crew and their skills. The original plan was to film at the Bed and Breakfast (B&B) first but because of a small mix-up with times this was altered. Once the cast arrived everyone headed over to the B&B and crew members began setting up the set. To save wasting time Brendan decided it would be best to get some re-takes of James and Angie in the street. (This was originally scheduled to happen later in the day.)





Across the Pond






































Again Javier gave me the role of Stills Photographer. This meant returning with a few crew members and cast to the previous location. While Javier and Charlotte (James and Angie) were getting ready to film the re-takes I got the chance to talk to Sam Morris (Camera Operator) about his previous experiences and how he came about doing this project.

Brendan, Sam and Kayleigh were discussing a variety of different ways to film the re-take. Javier had made the decision he wanted the road sign ‘Landemann Circus’ in the shot. The shot had to be taken a number of times because of some traffic and public interruptions.


Once we had completed the scene, the cast and crew went inside for cups of tea and coffee to warm up before heading back to the B&B.

The B&B was fairly small, with very little space for crew to move kit about. While the bedroom scene was being filmed only Sam, Brendan, Kayleigh and the actors were allowed in due to spacing issues, the rest of the crew remained in the hallway and on the staircase. Because the spacing was an issue I was unable to get some good action shots of the cast because I was unable to get near the set, but I managed to get some pictures of all crew members at work.





I personally think Javier and Brendan had a great crew volunteering on the project because everyone worked extremely well as a team!

Pictures Source
http://picasaweb.google.com/acrossthepond.pilot

ACROSS THE POND

Across the Pond

Today was an early start for everyone. I arrived at the meeting location at 8.15am, like on the previous day I was unsure of what my job role would be again today. The crew was slightly smaller and some job roles had to be juggled about to get the most use out of the crew and their skills. The original plan was to film at the Bed and Breakfast (B&B) first but because of a small mix-up with times this was altered. Once the cast arrived everyone headed over to the B&B and crew members began setting up the set. To save wasting time Brendan decided it would be best to get some re-takes of James and Angie in the street. (This was originally scheduled to happen later in the day.)

Again Javier gave me the role of Stills Photographer. This meant returning with a few crew members and cast to the previous location. While Javier and Charlotte (James and Angie) were getting ready to film the re-takes I got the chance to talk to Sam Morris (Camera Operator) about his previous experiences and how he came about doing this project.

Brendan, Sam and Kayleigh were discussing a variety of different ways to film the re-take. Javier had made the decision he wanted the road sign ‘Landemann Circus’ in the shot. The shot had to be taken a number of times because of some traffic and public interruptions.

Once we had completed the scene, the cast and crew went inside for cups of tea and coffee to warm up before heading back to the B&B.

The B&B was fairly small, with very little space for crew to move kit about. While the bedroom scene was being filmed only Sam, Brendan, Kayleigh and the actors were allowed in due to spacing issues, the rest of the crew remained in the hallway and on the staircase. Because the spacing was an issue I was unable to get some good action shots of the cast because I was unable to get near the set, but I managed to get some pictures of all crew members at work.

I personally think Javier and Brendan had a great crew volunteering on the project because everyone worked extremely well as a team!

ACROSS THE POND

Across the Pond

When I first arrived on the the project had already been in production for two weeks so the majority of the cast and crew knew one another and knew their job roles for the project. When I first got there everyone was waiting for a production meeting to start and I found it a good opportunity to chat with a few crew-members to find out their roles, their previous experiences and just generally getting to know them. I found sitting in on the production meeting to be quite interesting, all though I was unsure of what my job role would be in the project it was really good to hear how the project was coming along, problems they had encountered, how they tried to resolve these problems and also what the next task was.

The first location we were all at was ‘The House’ filming interior and exterior shots. Javier gave me the role as ‘Stills Photographer’. My role involved taking photos of both the cast and crew in action to get some behind the scenes photos.





The first scene being filmed was outside on the drive. Whilst the crew were filming this scene they had a few lighting issues. The scene was being filmed early in the afternoon on quite a dull day, this was causing a few problems because the shot was fairly dark and the trees were blocking the sunlight. This problem had to be resolved quickly before the sunlight was gone completely; this meant slightly altering the arrangement of the shot and making the use of some big reflector boards. This shot took a few hours to get right and to be honest I was so glad once they had it because that meant we could move onto the next scene which was inside away from the cold!

The next scene was taking place in the hallway and this required a fair amount of lighting. Once the set was all ready Brendan and Javier had a brief discussion of the best way to shoot the next scene and got straight to work. The schedule was slightly behind due to the previous scene but this shot delayed the schedule even further. This was down to one of the actresses couldn’t act the right emotions and expressions for the scene causing some frustration among the crewmembers. At this point Brendan decided it would be a good time to have a break. I was asked to run to the shop to get a whole load of ‘essentials’ theses included cigarettes, chocolate, sweets, and chewing gum. When I returned and handed them all out the mood suddenly changed everyone become very upbeat, the frustration seemed to fade away and everyone was happy to continue for a few more hours.

Finally when the ‘Hallway’ scene was completed everyone got stuck into some food Sam had put out. This was great because everyone all sat down and ate together giving everyone some time to relax and get to know each other some more.
After dinner we moved onto the second location ‘The Dining Room’. As there was such a large crew transport seemed a bit of an issue. But everyone pulled together and everyone who had cars took as many people as they could.
I really enjoyed my first day on the project, everyone made me feel really welcome and it was great experience to see a ‘real’ project in production.

YEAR 2 - SEMESTER 2 - Work Experience

Now we are in Semester 2 of our second year the blogs are back!
This semester we are required to complete fifteen days of work experience and write a reflective blog about the various placements and experiences we encounter.

As I personally have a strong interest in pursuing a career within journalism I decided that I would like to complete some of these days at a newspaper. I contacted the local newspaper ‘The Weston Mercury’ about completing some work experience with them and they agreed to a week’s placement in March 2009.









I also contacted the ‘The Bristol Evening Post’ and they agreed to allow me to shadow a reporter for two days in April 2009.





Although I feel I want to achieve a career within journalism I wanted to get as much experience from this module as possible so I decided to apply for a week’s placement at a Production Company who my tutor suggested – ‘TwoFour’. ‘TwoFour’ agreed, allowing me to complete my work experience during the week commencing the 23rd February 2009.





Whilst I was researching for another placement to complete my remaining three days, the project ‘Across the Pond’ came about. One of our class members – Samantha Simmonds her partner Javier Ronceros is a film producer / director and is currently working on a project titled ‘Across the Pond’. Javier and his co-producer / director Brendan Flannery were flying over from L.A to work on this and needed crewmembers to assist with the project. Sam mentioned this to me and I volunteered to help with the project. This was great timing and a good opportunity to be able to have some involvement with a real project outside of Uni.
Once my work experience days were all organised all that was left for me to do was complete them, trying to gain as much experience and understanding of the working media industry as possible. All in which will help me try and focus my career in the right direction that’s best suited for me.

Picture Sources

http://www.nzedge.com/newzedge/newzedge_clare/logos/weston_somerset_
mercury.gif

http://www.thewestonmercury.co.uk/content/twm/flatfiles/PrintEdition/
assets/WestonFront.jpg

http://www.papercutproductions.org.uk/images/bristol-evening-post-
logo.gif

http://www.twofour.co.uk/img/twofour-logo2.gif