Employment Opportunities

Different Employment Opportunities

Full time/permanent – Full time is permanent work.  These are usually people that work in a long-term contract work on programmes such as BBC Breakfast or This Morning. People that are in full time permanent jobs are usually the producers/directors and usually very skilled in what they do and are every good at their job. And example of job roles that can be permanent/full time are floor managers, directors and producers. In order to employ people in these sorts of jobs they would be recruited through personal contacts and networking. As this is a high demand job they would need to be good at managing people, creative, aware of financial situations and have good technical knowledge.

Part time/temporary – A part time/temporary job is when an individual does not work as many hours as someone who is full time/permanent. They are more likely to do shifts/working along side ones else due to the amount of hours that they are working. Cameramen are sometimes part time as they will share their work with many other people who are also capable of doing the job. They are usually recruited through networking, personal contacts or word of mouth. They would be trained to use many different cameras/equipment and would have lots of technical knowledge.

Freelance – these are people who create a piece of work either photographs or reviews or short videos and then sell them onto another company, they usually work for themselves and their only income in from the products that they sell. An example of a freelance worker would be a writer, graphic designer or a journalist. For example a writer could write a script for a media production and then sell in to a company, and if it they like the idea then they will earn money. They would have to have a creative background behind them. Being a freelancer usually contains 24 hour work and they are constantly working in order to collect some money from selling their work to companies hoping to get recognition.

Shift work – this exists for people that are filming TV shows 24 hours, such as programmes like Big Brother. The cameramen would take turns with other camera operators to film the production. Due to the long hours this is why shift work is vital in the filming of programmes like Big Brother.

Voluntary – voluntary workers are usually runners. And they will do this to gain experience in the industry and try and work their way up to the top. They usually do the same sort of repetitive jobs day in day out depending on what show they are working on.

Sky v BBC

BBC – Public Broadcasting

The BBC – British Broadcasting Corporation, it was set up in 1922 under the BBC Royal Charter Agreement, and is funded by the public through people paying their television license. Which is £145.50 a year and they promise that the BBC UK’s service to remain free of advertisements and independent shareholder and political interest. With it being public corporation they are not out to make a profit, they have no shareholders or no owners. They were established to be a service for the public, seeing as it funded by the public they are expecting to see things produced that is family friendly and suitable for everyone. The BBC’s mission statement is inform, educate and entertain, as the programmes they show vary in genre, such as they will have programmes such as astronomy, science, gardening, housing, etc. the list is endless for the genre of programmes they produce. And they employ over 23,000 people.

The BBC is sort of like a conglomerate except it does not own any other companies. They will internally promote themselves such as they will advertise Eastenders on the radio and they will promote Radio shows on the TV.

The diversification on the BBC is that they have many different outlets of media such as Radio, TV, Books and Film.

The performance of the BBC ranges depending on what programmes they broadcast. For example the top two programmes on BBC1, week ending Many 31st were The FA Cup Final: Arsenal v Aston Villa and Eastenders and after than Eastenders had two more episodes in the top 5.

And the top two programmes on BBC2 were Springwatch and Gardeners’ World, and again Springwatch also had two more episodes in the top 5.

The BBC is vertically integrated because all of the channels are from one company, they aren’t bought in from anywhere where else.

At first the BBC didn’t used to have any competition as their channel used to be the one and only channel, then came along ITV, Chanel 4, Sky, Channel 5 and eventually cable, which became part of the global competition tend, this includes streaming, and companies such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Apple.

Some of the cons of public broadcasting are that you have to pay for a TV license even if you don’t want  to watch that particular channel and another thing is that the programmes that they are showing might not be catered to everyone’s tastes.

The BBC also sells it shows overseas however on such channels as BBC America they still have adverts but the BBC cannot collect the money for these advert as the people over seas are not paying for a license fee to watch these programme’s. In addition to this they sell their TV shows such as old episodes of Top Gear to channels such as Dave and other internal channels.

Sky – British Sky Broadcasting, was set up by Rupert Murdoch in 1990. Unlike BBC it is funded by subscription fees by customers paying for TV packages with paying extra for films and sport, also unlike BBC they offer telecommunication services such as landlines and broadband. It can start at £20 a month for the original bundle and then go up to £36 for a family bundle and then you can add the sports package for £25.50 a month on top of original bundle. And then you have extra for your broadband and phone.

With it being commercial broadcasting it generates all its money from advertising as well as the subscription fees. The reason why they have the adverts is so the audience can be informed of new products and services that are available.

Their mission statement is to entertain, excite and inspire the people who pay their subscription fees. Whereas the BBC said in their mission statement is to inform and educate the audience.

One of the cons to commercial broadcasting the advertising rates may be very expensive for example for the last episode of Friends in the US the advertising rates for just 30 seconds were up to $2 million dollars. So the more viewers/popular a programme the more expensive the advertising rates are.

An example of the performance for Sky1 is that for the week ending 31^st May, The Flash was the most popular programme that was broadcast with almost 2 million viewers for one particular episode, which was the season finale.

As for the sporting events that are shown on Sky they broadcasting sporting events such as The Ryder Cup, The Superbowl and The Masters. Whereas the BBC will only show Wimbledon and the Olympics among other sporting events such as the marathons.

Many of the channels on Sky such as Dave and Gold buy old episodes of Top Gear or Only Fools and Horses to broadcast on their channels.

Multi Camera Filming - Reflection

We arrived early on Wednesday to film our multi camera project of Hairspray.

We first started off by packing up all the equipment in the Media room to be transported down to the Performing Arts building. We tied all the wires up, placed them in boxes, packed the mixing desk up, packed all the monitors up, put cameras in the bags and decided which tri-pods we were taking. With 6 of us packing up the equipment in the gallery; it was done in no time at all. Then came the time to transport everything downstairs and into the back of a car so we didn’t need to walk it all down the performing arts, with it being in the car it made it much easier.

When we arrived we then had to unpack everything again, but when we arrived they were still rehearsing their closing song, so we couldn’t immediately go in and start setting up and had to wait for them to finishing singing.

Then the time came to unpack the car and set up the cameras and the mixing desks and the monitors. With everything being connected to the mains there was lots of wires that were going to be lying around and some would need to be taped down so no one would trip over them. We also required tables to put all the equipment on but the tables that were already in the theatre were too wide to use as there would be no room for us to move around ones everything was on it and everyone was moving around, so this required carrying narrower tables all the way from media.

There was four cameras to set up in different positions, one in each corner, one in the middle so we could capture wide angles and one of the floor in front of the middle one so we could capture close ups.

While the finishing touches with the equipment was happening some of us sat down and watched the dress rehearsal so we knew what to expect when we actually filmed it. After the first half, we all decided on the roles we were going to do during the filming, and we were all assigned two jobs, so we would do half of filming and half being the floor manager or on the mixing or directing.

The jobs that I was assigned were floor manager and cameraperson. The most difficult job to do was the camera as I was sat on a really uncomfortable floor and my back and legs began to ache and also it is very difficult to hear the instructions from the director through the headphones as it was very quiet and it was especially hard when there were singing a song. The floor manager job was by far the easiest and towards the end of filming nothing went technically wrong and I had very little to do.

So overall the filming and everything went very smoothly and we had no difficulties apart from when one of the monitors went off and a few of the wires fell out of cameras.

Equipment List - Multi Camera Filming

4x cameras
4x tripods
4x spare batteries
mains chargers
1/4x microphones on one main camera
1 boom pole
1x mic cable
cable snakes/duct tape
spare fuses
electrical screwdrivers
8 tapes - backup just in case
1 dvd recorded

1 vision mixer
4x 10m firewire cables
preview monitor, TX transmission monitor - 5 screens with cables
1 talk back system w/ 1 microphone - with AA batteries w/ mic stand w/ 1 short mic cable
5 receivers
5 batteries
6 headphones
1 MacBook w/charger - for digital copy

Rifle shotgun mic kit
Sony HDVS w/ Song NPF960 batteries w/ Sony main chargers
Rode Microphone
Media C10 microphone stand
Seinnheiser E835
Libec Tripods
Data Video - SE800
Philips DVD Recorder

Recce - Multi Camera Filming

This is the recce that we have have created for the multi camera filming on the 10th of June. As you can see on this, we have not drawn on where the cameras are going to be placed as we do not how many cameras we are going to be using.

This is a bigger version of the floor plan with all the cameras and mixing desk added.

Risk Assessment - Multi Camera Filming

These are the risk assessments that have been filled out for the filming of our Multi Camera production on the 10th of June 2015.

Live music event/Festival

A live music event like this one or a Festival is also a multi camera filming scenario. Many of the cameras that are used at a live music event are hand held cameras. And only a few on tripods. The reason why some of the cameras are hand held on events like these is because it is easier to get close ups of the instruments and other small details. There can be up to 10 cameras capturing the show. There is usually two cameras on the stage capturing the audience in the form of an over the shoulder shot of the artist. The other camera on the stage will be getting close ups of people in the backing band. 

This is the opening shot of the Ed Sheeran video, this has been filmed with a camera that it attacked to a crane, at first it begins as a very wide shot capturing the vastness of all the people that are there to watch this one single human preform on stage. With this sort of shot and how long they zoom it in for all the other cameras can get prepared for the following shots. It then begins to zoom into the stage before cutting to the following shot:

This shot that has been used after the previous one has been captured by one of the cameras on stage, and it is almost a reverse shot from the other camera. This is also a shot that is helping to create an atmosphere for the viewer at home, or at the festival if it is being shown on the big screens.

This particular shot will have been filmed by one of the camera on a track at the front of the stage, this is also one of the same cameras that will shoot the close ups of the singer and also the camera that will capture people in the audience as it will be capable of swinging round to the opposite direction.

This is a close up angle filmed with one of the camera on a track in front of the stage, but it is being shot from the other side. With these close up shots, its shows the emotion on the singers face, and because it is a shot with his eyes closed, it almost looks as if he is lost in the music and is comfortable.

The reason why a music event such as Glastonbury is a multi camera production is because there are lots of different acts and lots of different stages to be covered in the time that it is one, so they could be filming one event to be shown later on TV while they shown another act live. And this requires lots of camera, but the smaller stages tend not to require as many cameras as the main stage. With the different camera that are set up they can cover a lot of the action of what is going on, from the audience to what is happening on stage and behind the singer - the backing band.

The visual style of these type of productions it depends on when it is being filmed, as it is being filmed during the day there is no requirement for lights etc, but if it was being filmed in the dark then the camera would have to be adjusted so it would pick up on all the details of the singer and make sure that the lighting didn't wash them out.

With this being an outdoor festival there is usually no restraints on the location environment as it is an open space to sprawl out with as much equipment as necessary.

This is a plan of what I think the camera set up is for Ed's Glasto set. There could be more cameras than there are on this plan.

Chat show

The Graham Norton Show is a multi camera chat show. The reason why this is a multi-camera chat show is that they have 4 or five cameras set up in different positions enabling different edits/shots. There is one camera on the presenter which is Graham Norton, then one camera which is on the guests and this will move to each guest when they are talking or it will focus on two guests. There will be another camera that gets a shot of everyone and lastly there will be one on a crane that captured the guests are they are coming up the steps and into the audience, this is also the same camera that will be used for getting shots of the audience. The reason why this and many other chat shows are filmed in a multi camera set up is because is kind of a rolling show, with it being a shot with multiple camera they don't have to stop and start to capture things from different angles as this would be time consuming. 
With a show like this they usually cover soft news stories and they don't talk about hard hitting subjects. It is intended to be fun and lighthearted.
With this being one of the big shows for the BBC channel they will usually have big A List celebs as their main selling point for people to watch the show. So for example on the above clip they have Chris Pratt who was on the show to promote the new Jurassic World film. Melissa McCarthy and Jude Law who were on the show to promote their new film Spy, and then the local celebrity that was John Bishop who was featured on the show to promote his new TV show. And everyone that is a guest on this show is interviewed altogether, so the guests have a chance to interact with one another, not like on The Jonathan Ross Show where the guests all come out to be interviewed separately.
With this being filmed in a studio, there isn't as much space for the equipment as there is at an outdoor event, so people have to be careful of wires and tripod and other equipment.

This is a plan for the cameras for the Graham Norton Show or how I envisage it to be. There could be more cameras or the cameras might not even be on tracks, and I also think that there is a camera on a crane to capture Graham at the beginning of the show when he is opening the show and introducing it, but I have not drawn that onto my plan.

Live Sporting

Sporting events are captured out on location. They require a lot of on site live editing. There will be a director sat in a gallery making live cuts, and because Sky or another channel are paying millions for the recording of the event they don't want any mistakes, and with wanting a perfectly edited show, it is highly stressful. For example for a Premier League match being broadcast on Sky Sports there will be between 10 and 24 cameras. To keep the audience intrigued there will be a range of different camera angles, not only does this create better coverage of the game it also creates at atmosphere for the fans who cannot be at the match to watch the game live.
Before or after the match and at half time they will probably cut to a studio where they will have a presenter and a pundit and experts talking about the match. The studio set up will often use a shot of the pitch in the background, but sometimes they don't even have to be at the actual pitch itself, they may just use a live feed camera to provide pictures of the stadium.
For example the studio that is used on Skysports is set up in such a way that it is appealing for men to look at, as it features blue colours and famous people from the profession. There is also the Skysports logo plastered on everything, so that the audience know who is providing the coverage for the pre-match or mid match commentary. Also when the people are being interviewed there will be a name tag and then along with that there will be onscreen graphics that contain things such as the time, goals scored, the game, what team is playing and statistics - these statistics are just information that doesn't really make much sense to the audience they are just used to fill the screen with information.
To make some of the shots in the filming of a football match they will use so many cameras on tripods and then they will have a camera which is known as a Spidercam suspended above the pitch which can moved to anywhere on the pitch and this can help create more atmosphere in the game for the audience watching on TV as the people in the stadium might not be able to see what is happening from where they are sitting.
Some of the reasons why so many cameras are used in the production of a sporting match is because its not a stop/start game, every single angle of the sport needs to be captured. 
When filming a sporting match there is usually no restraints for the cameras to be in as it is more or less and open space. But when filming in a studio they have to be mindful of the wires and everything lying around as it will be more of a trip hazard as it is in a confined space.

The plans that I have drawn are what I imagine to studio set up to be and what cameras are placed where.

This is a plan of a football pitch and the cameras that are based around it to capture the game, there could be more cameras that what I have drawn on this plan.

Production roles in a multi camera setup

Studio/Gallery

Sound - an audio superviser, also known as a sound man has the major task of mixing sound and understanding the technical aspects of music, they need to be skilled in engineering expertise and have the ability to make the artistic decisions about what sounds good.

Vision mixer - vision mixers are the people who cut all the shots together when it is recorded on multiple cameras. They sit with the director in the gallery and work on a vision mixing desk, they will cut and mix between shots while the director is telling them which camera to cut too. With this job some of the skills that you must be able to: have good understanding about the transmission, have high levels of concentration, work well under pressure - as if it doesn't go correctly everyone watching the TV show will be able to see your mistake and be able to multitask.

Autocue operator - an autocue is fixed to one of the camera tripods. It is an angled 1 way mirror that reflects a mirrored version of text in such a way that a subject standing in front of the camera - such as the presenters can see the text while looking right down the lens of the camera as they deliver their lines. With looking right down the camera lens it looks as if they are addressing the audience, its almost as if they are having a face to face conversation with the audience. This can come in very handy for when it is live TV.

Director - the directors are responsible for the overall look and sound of the production and the technical standards. They work with the producer of the show and the vision mixer. They're responsible for the finished overall look of the show. To be a director of a multi camera show you must have some of the following skills: pay attention to detail, visually think about projects, have a methodical approach to work, be able to cope in a high stress atmosphere and have excellent communication skills.

Producer - the producers of the show plan out the production of both live and pre-recorded television shows. These are the people that will determine how the overall production will look, select the script for the day, choose the talent that will appear on the show and plan out how the sets, props and lighting will look. Some of the responsibilities that the producer will have is: edit scripts ready for broadcast, determine the budget, monitor the production and lead production staff meetings.


Floor

Floor manager - the responsibility of a television floor manager is to make sure that the set, props and technical equipment, such as cameras and microphones, are safe, ready to use and it the right position prior to filming. They have the task of liaising with the director and many of the different people involved in the production on the studio floor.
It is the responsibility of the floor manager to pass on cues to the presenters and guests to ensure that the timings are met and the programme goes ahead smoothly.

Camera operator - the camera operators is probably one of the most important jobs seeing as this is what the audience will be seeing, and if this isn't right then the job isn't being done correctly. The camera operator will take instructions from the director in the gallery, such as if they should zoom in, zoom out, crab left or crab right, and these instructions will be directed at each camera person on the different cameras.
But sometimes for example on the BBC 6pm News, they don't even have camera operators anymore they have the cameras set up on tracks and they're controlled electronically which will have preset directions already programmed in. 

Runner - a runner is an entry level position into the world of TV production. They overall act as general assistants to everyone on the floor and in the gallery to help complete basic tasks that are required to be completed to make sure that the production runs smoothly. Some of the responsibilities that runners have are: tea making, transporting scripts and equipment, taking messages from one person to another, looking after guests and making sure that everything is in place for the shoot. You also have to be organised, have a positive attitude, be fit - as you'll be doing an awful lot of running about, have to be able to use your initiative and be good at problem solving.

Talent - the talent probably one of the most important roles in the production of the TV show. These are the people that are going to be appearing on screen and will help carry the show as they will be discussing different subject and stories with the presenters. The talent can include: the presenters themselves, experts in their field of expertise and members of the general public which have encountered an experience, such as having a baby at a young age, being in a horrendous accident, or just a celebrity doing publicity to promote their new album or film. 

Makeup - the makeup artist is one of the people who make sure that the presenters look presentable and make sure that they look their best when they're up early in the morning when presenting the morning news. They have the responsibility of interpreting the make-up requirements of the client and use their initiative to decide what looks best for the presenter/client and make sure they don't look like a clown and make sure that their makeup looks good under the studio lighting and the HD cameras as these will show up the lines and wrinkles on the presenters/clients face even more.

Lighting - lighting technicians have the responsibility of setting up and operating the lighting equipment on all sets. This job is crucial as the lighting plays an important part in creating a suitable atmosphere of a TV show. It is a high level technical job and requires creative skills. They have to be able to do heavy lifting and also working at heights to make sure that the lights are in the correct position. And they must also be conscious of cables and be health and safety aware.

Junior rigger - these are also known as 'cable bashers' are trainee jobs within the production and they usually involve helping the cameraman with the moving of handheld camera cables by following them round so they don't trip over them. 

Warm up act - A warm up act is an individual or duo who's responsibility it is to warm up the crowd if it is a pre-recorded show like The Voice. They are usually warming up the crowd while the cameras and the talent are getting prepared. If the show requires audience participation then the warm up act will general explain what the audience should do to react. They are generally upbeat people and are have a very positive attitude and are usually a bit of a character.