Saad

Contributors

finding the right contributors for the show was a challenge at the start as we as a team needed to find people that were happy being filmed and also be joyful and cheery on screen, as thats what makes the show interesting, otherwise it would just be boring. The first pair of contributors were good on the camera, they spoke clearly and both had conflicting views with each others program. But when they were watching the show there was not enough reactions and chatting happening, all we got were mere facial expressions and a few giggles. Once we headed back from filming, we watched the footage back and it just was not good enough to use as part of the TV show.

So I had contacted a few people after we decided we needed new contributors, so I had Andy confirm he was available to help us and do the show, but he could not get one of his friends to come with him, which meant I had to quickly find more people, so I asked my own friends that if they would be up to do the show, which they both happily said yes, as they were both up for it, I knew how to make the show work, giving them a pep talk and showing them previous footage, showing and telling them how I wanted them to act and they had no problem with it, 3^rd time lucky we found the perfect contributors, with more than enough reactions and chat. 

Location

Initially I had messaged a person I was in a Facebook group with, the group has creators all over Scotland from professionals to amateurs and also people who owned studio spaces, I had messaged Michael who was offering studio spaces near the barrow lands in town, but of course we did not really have a budget for the show, so I politely asked if we could borrow his studio space and make a little set for the show, I explained we were students and that he would get credited for it, but it just was not happening as he denied us access and rejected the idea, so we had to move on and find a different space.

There were 3 spaces available, Reece’s House, Cameron Packer’s House and Hannah’s House, but Reece made a map and measured if it can be shot in his living room, which was the final location we used, after moving the whole living room around we made a nice set up for the show, which enables us to use 2 cameras and a full lighting kit, making sure we got the best looking image for the show.

Effective Camera work

As I was assigned as Camera, I had a vision of how the show would look and piece together, so the show it self was shot with a double camera set up, camera 1 was the only camera that was moving, getting both the contributors, panning and catching all the reactions of whoever was reacting at the time, making it the main camera. The 2^nd camera was a mirrorless 4K Sony Camera which was a stable camera set up behind the TV screen that the contributors were watching, catching a wide shot and the reactions of both the boys. 

I had also gone in to town to get b roll footage of the city centre, as this would give the editor a choice of b-roll clips to slot in where he thought would be correct.

I actually really enjoyed shooting in the gym at night with the 2 boys as they were more themselves in front of the camera and were not shy as they are my friends, so catching them on camera having fun and working out, was a fun shoot, it was a really important shoot as well as the sequence was being made to put in the start of the show as an introduction to both of the boys. Shooting in the gym gave me a good idea of what time to go in and shoot as I have a few friend who are wanting to create content for their PT Instagram pages, it was an overall good experience.

Editing Style

When doing research, we watched Gogglebox as we were emulating that type of show so we studied the VO actor, the camera work and the transitions of how they move from one guest to the other, however we only had 1 pair of contributors making it easier in someways and difficult in others.

The show itself is cut slowly, having a few seconds with the contributors, then moving on to the show, then showing the reactions and chat of what they thought of what they have seen so far. We initially had the idea of Contributors>Short Scene from show>Contributors Reaction> Long Scene from show> Contributors reaction.

That is the way we imagines it as that is how Goggle box edit their, but as we carried on the editing, we have chosen to show more cuts and keep a nice balance between the contributors and the scenes from the show.