Camera 1

For the final week of assessment i was on camera one. It is probably the most difficult camera to be on because there is the opening and closing moves, the constant changes of shots like MS, MCU and CU and in this last week there was also the breaking news introduced at any time during the show. The hardest part was being able to move the camera to the right spot and getting the right shot in the short amount of time in the tape inserts. I also found it hard not talking to the director. I know i could but i'm supposed to go through the floor manager which makes it easier for the director so he doesnt have multiple voices talking at him at once but it would be easier for me. One thing i could have done better is anticipating shots. On the first record session i saw the director come out with the breaking news but i wasnt sure if i was supposed to break away and when i did get told there was a few seconds pause while i got the shot. In the interview it was hard getting close ups on things when they were moving and also anticipating when they were going to talk about something that i should get a shot of. After a while i got the hang of where i had to be to get the shot without showing camera shadows or the boom mic and the MS's and MCU's. The problem was remembering when to use which but i had the sheet to tell me.

Stage Hand

The third week of assessment i was a stage hand. This job consisted mainly of cable bashing for the camera and flipping cards for the news and music sequence. One thing that you need to do as a stage hand is always have a job to do. If you didnt have a job to do you should look for a job to do. If someone took the job you were about to do then find another job. The stage hands mainly interact with the cameras like moving their cables so they dont trip or get caught and flipping cards for them with enough time for them to zoom in or out, focus and/or find a starting spot. stage hands need to help the cameras so all they have to worry about is the shot they need. I was pretty good as a stage hand but i did make one big mistake in the taping session. During the music sequence i looked away for a while then looked back at the screen and thought i had to flip my card because i thought it was on the other camera but i was wrong. So i flipped the card on air. it didnt look to bad but if i was paying attention it wouldnt have happened

Presenter

The second week of assessment i was the presenter. This was my second time in front of the camera and again i didnt like it but it is a good experience to see the production from another perspective. One thing thats different is going from one week hearing everything the director is saying to the next week hearing the director and the DA through the floor managers. Since i wasnt getting marked on my acting there wasnt much presure to do well but i did make mistakes that had nothing to do with my acting. One mistake was not talking when cued by the floor manager because the red light on the camera wasnt on. One thing i did do pretty well was during the stagger through, the floor managers were busy and forgot about queing me so i started talking when i saw the red light on the camera. When you're an actor on the floor pretty much your only communication to whats going on is through the floor manager. They tell you whats going on, ideas from the director and when to start and stop talking. Probably the hardest thing to do as the presenter was read the telepromter coherently and act happy in front of the camera. Other than that it was just listning to the floor manager and reading lines.