Mahin Kesore
Video Games Writer/Presenter operating in East London
CCI INTRODUCTION/WELCOME BACK SHOW
My role for our first live show is sound man. I have been tasked to record sound on our recording shoots and to also operate the sound mixer in the Eldon hub downstairs during the live show. I am very confident on sound as I have had practice being sound man a lot in first and second year. I thought I would go for a role I have confidence with to start off the year as I hope to make a good impression to my group and also observe how everyone performs as this will be the first time this group of people will work together. I hope to prove myself in this first show and hopefully next show I can take a different role. Our show is an introduction back to our University's TV channel, CCI.
In this 30 minute programme we have been tasked to make, we decided we will include a tour of Eldon to show off the architecture of the building, students work on display and facilities the university has access to. We decided to interview the Industry Liaison Manager at Creative Careers. Creative Careers are a faculty who help people in the university get work experience and jobs. This will show that people who come to Portsmouth University will have the help of creative careers to get a job and this is a defining feature we want to show people and will definitely promote the building.
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Our first shoot involved us filming an interview and although I had a faulty boom stick that was hard to operate everything else seemed to go smoothly. In the editing process I was then told that the sound was too quiet and a lot of the footage was not usable due to bad recording. We then had to re shoot the interview. I was surprised as to why the sound was as bad as it was. I feel this fault was due to hearing her in real life muffled over how I was hearing her voice in the headphones. This seems like a rookie mistake and it is possible this is due to me being rusty after the summer holidays. I am really questioning as to how this happened as I did pay a lot of attention to the job at hand and I was sure nothing was wrong while we were filming. We have made the executive decision to not use the mix pre as although I have full confidence on how to use it, my group don't trust me more with it.
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This is the first job I have had to do with the group and now I have to prove myself even more now I have already lost the trust of my group. I have retraced my steps and still cannot figure out why sound has malfunctioned the way it did. Wires were all plugged into the right place, batteries were in all equipment that needed them and everything sounded fine through the headset. Even with this I have taken full responsibility for the problem and to avoid this next time I will record a practice question to test the sound then listen back to it in another room so if there is bad atmosphere noise in the room that is unavoidable, I will hear.
The re shoot of the interview was filmed in the Eldon hub but facing the other way so we had students coming into the building in the background to give the video a “busy” look. As we are trying to sell Eldon and make it seem as appealing as possible we decided to film in the morning as this is when Eldon looks most busy and we can catch plenty of people going passed.
This time instead of a boom we opted for a tie mic. This was a good idea as there was no need for a boom pole which quite often were faulty and hard to use. Everything went according to plan. Sound was good and although we had a bit of trouble with light coming through windows everything was fine in the end.
The second VT was very stressful to film. It involved a tour of Eldon with our presenter. This would hopefully show off all the facilities of the building and show off how visually appealing the place is to be. We had not booked a shoulder mount and I suggested if we could spontaneously ask the loan store for one and book one out on the spot. Thanks to my idea we got a shoulder mount from the loan store but it then backfired on us as risk assessments were not filled out to use the shoulder mount so the footage we filmed that whole day is now void. Next time we need to think of everything we need before hand. We did realise halfway through filming so not a lot of effort was wasted but it did demoralize our group a lot. We did also have another problem with sound. The tie mics we were using had gone bust and were now not working. We thought it may had been due to the batteries not working but once replaced they still were not working. We decided to re shoot the next day and ask for a new tie mic. I was not looking good at this moment...
The next day came and we got a new tie mic and now had risk assessments and paperwork done for using the shoulder mount. We then re filmed our VT. After the shoulder mount scenario and the sound not working the first time we filmed this VT, I know I need to prove myself even more now and I hope i'm not seen as the weak link in the group due to these coincidences that make me look bad. I found at times my team didn't listen to my input and then went with my ideas anyway as if they came up with them. I hope me being ignored isn't a trend that continues. I didn't let this demoralize me though as I was more focused at the task at hand.
For me the show went quite well, nothing terrible happened and I am proud with my performance as sound man. As always though after watching back the show I had realized some minor mistakes were mad on my part. There is a part of our show where our 2 presenters interview the audience. We chose 3 people from the audience and mic’ed them up. One of the interviewees had their mic facing the opposite to the direction he was talking to. The same thing happened to our guest half way through the show. I needed to think about the direction they were going to be facing but in the heat of live TV I must have forgotten all about it. At least now I know for next time.
Another mistake I made is that the mics don't go up in time by about half a second at 10:53. Even though I have done sound many times before, it has usually been more for VT filming and live sound is something I'm getting better at. Towards the end of the live show also during the couch interview there was a part when all 4 speakers laugh at a joke and I didn't expect the levels to peak so much as it was so sudden. There wasn't much I could do in that moment as it was so quick, but maybe next time I need to anticipate laughter more.
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In the end I was quite happy with what happened. The show went smooth and I felt like I learnt a lot about the pressures of live TV. With every time we go live I get the same rush of anxiety and panic but this feeling is something I'm starting to adjust and I find myself being more calmer now and without a sense of panic the more I'm getting used to it. Here is a link to the full show below.