Script For My VT Clip.

There was a huge turn out today, but for a sport that not so many people are aware happens here in England. Sled dog racing. It may be coming to the end of the annual racing season for the sport, but that didn’t discourage anybody from showing up to brave the cold and take part in this unique sport. A strong group of over 100 racers and 300 dogs gathered in Rendlesham Forest to participate and support this weekend’s competition.

The racing takes part over two days, and there are dozens scattered out across Southern England between the months of November and March every year. The atmosphere today was warm and welcoming, even to people who had no dogs of their own and simply came to watch the races take place.

Some people believe that the dogs are forced into the racing, but you only need to spend a few minutes at the start line to see how eager the dogs are to get started, and how excited they are to hear the timer counting down.

It’s a great, free day out for families and animal lovers of all ages, and is well worth a visit just to experience the atmosphere of the competition alone.

News Programme Rehearsals (3).

Yesterday, during our lesson in the live television studio, all four groups were able to rehearse for a full 45 minutes of the lesson each. Our group went first, and it managed to run far smoother than the previous week's rehearsal did. We were all in, and so we could all do our given jobs without much trouble. The first thing I did was to give Ashley - who is our art director - a floor plan of the set, so he knew how the layout of the studio was supposed to be and he could get the set and cameras set up without needing much/any help from the four members of the production team. Josh knew the lighting arrangements already, and so didn't need any assistance on setting it up, while Frankie and Deanna worked on setting up the sound for the camera operators and the two presenters.

We didn't need the presenters to rehearse for a little while, and so Steff asked me if she could go and sort something out for her group, and so I told her she could as long as she was back within five to ten minutes to be there for a short run through of the script. We also decided to change Joe and Maddie's roles around, as Joe seemed to be helping more with the lighting than Maddie was, and so she is now the runner whilst Joe helps Josh out to set up the lighting.

As all this was being set up, I approached Connor and asked for a script, and he had wrote a 'technical script', as he called it, with information about the lighting/VT clips that the presenters did not need on their scripts, as it would confuse them. So I sat with him for a little while and ran through what we needed for todays session, and helped him to quickly rewrite part of the script - extending the introduction of the show to more than only a couple of lines - and including a discussion part between the two main presenters which would feature after one of the VT clips, and they would discuss it with a few set questions to get the conversation rolling. I asked him to print it out three times - two for the presenters to have one each, and one for me to keep ahold of - and the process took a while longer than I expected it too, and instead of there being three, there was only one, and three 'technical scripts' instead, which meant that there was only one that the two presenters had to share, and none for me to show other people to explain how we wanted things to run, camera/lighting/vision mixing-wise.

We also tried to get the introduction to the show which Connor had made at home imported onto the tricaster, although we soon discovered that it had to be in the .avi format, and the clip wasn't, and so we were unable to play it through the screens and include it in the show and had to leave it until the next rehearsal that we will have - which will be after the half term.

By this point, we were extremely close to the end of our rehearsal session. I wanted to quickly have a run through of the parts of the script that we had (the introduction and the discussion) but after re-explaining to the presenters and the camera operators what we were planning to happen after they had heard differently from Connor, we had run out of time and needed to switch groups so that everyone would have an equal amount of time to rehearse their news shows.

The floor plan/set layout stayed the same from the first rehearsal we did, and we doubt that this will change now, but the new, updated cast/crew list is as follows:

Producer: Nicola Sinclair.

Director: Jemma Land.

Floor Manager: David Neale.

Script Writer: Connor Sadler.

Art Director: Ashley Hodges.

Vision Mixer: Ellis

Sound 1:  Frankie

Sound 2: Deanna

Lighting: Joshua Bates.

Lighting 2: Joe.

Camera 1: Chloe Pearce.

Camera 2: Lesley Cross.

Camera 3: Rory

Presenter 1: Steff Preston.

Presenter 2: Chris.

Runner: Corey.

Runner: Maddie.

For the second rehearsal, which was Deanna and Joe's group, I was still camera operator three from where I had taken over from Jemma one week where she wasn't in. They wanted the camera pointed at the main desk where the two presenters sat, zoomed in quite close to be able to only see part of the desk and both of the presenters, and so for around half of the rehearsal that was how the camera was positioned.

-INSERT PICTURE HERE.-

However, for the second half of the rehearsal, they decided that they would rather have it zoomed out a bit more, so that the desk and the two presenters where on the right third of the screen and you could see the red seats and part of the set to the left of them instead, and so I moved it to be positioned like it.

-INSERT PICTURE HERE.-


For the last two groups I was a runner both times. I wandered around asking people if they needed any help with anything for a while, although most of things were done. It was mainly taping wires down to the floor to make sure no one tripped over after the cameras/microphones had been moved to their correct positions, and occasionally passing messages on to people/fetching different things for the production crew. After all this was done, and there was nothing left to do, I asked the production crews if I could work on making notes for this blog on the lessons of the day and they said that I could, and so I kept on set, but slightly out of the way in case they still needed me to do something and began to write up the events of the day's lessons on my phone, keeping quiet during their run-throughs.

Risk Assessment For My VT Clip.

RISK ASSESSMENT FORM

Production Name & Number - VT Clip (Sled Dog Competition).

Shoot Dates - 01/02/2014.

Production Manager - Nicola Sinclair.

Producer - Nicola Sinclair.

P = Present / S = Severity / L = Likelihood / R = Risk Factor

	Hazard	P	S	L	R
1	Alcohol/drugs	NO
2	Animals/insects	YES	V	VL	5
3	Audiences	YES	S	VL	5
4	Camera cable/grip equipment	NO
5	Confined spaces	NO
6	Derelict buildings/dangerous structures	NO
7	Electricity/gas (other than normal supplies)	NO
8	Fatigue/long hours	YES	L	L	3
9	Fire/flammable materials	YES	L	U	2
10	Hazardous substances	NO
11	Heat/Cold/extreme weather	YES	S	VL	5
12	Laser/strobe effects	NO
13	Machinery/industrial/ crane/hoist	NO
14	Materials - glass, non-fire retardant set materials	NO
15	Night operation	NO
16	Noise – high sound levels	NO
17	Non standard manual handling	NO
18	Public/crowds	YES	S	VL	5
19	Radiation	NO
20	Scaffold/Rostra	NO
21	Smoking on set	YES	N	U	1
22	Special effects/explosives	NO
23	Special needs (elderly, disabled, inexperienced)	NO
24	Specialised rescue/first aid	NO
25	Stunts, dangerous activities	YES	M	L	3
26	Tall scenery/suspended ceilings	NO
27	Vehicles/speed	YES	L	P	2
28	Water/proximity to water	NO
29	Weapons	NO
30	Working at heights	NO
31	Working overseas	NO
32	Other risks	NO

6. Decide the action to take:

5	Very severe	Take immediate action
4	Severe	High priority
3	Moderate Risk	Programme for action
2	Low Risk	Action may be required
1	Negligible	Probably acceptable

7. Then list each risk identified

Hazard Number:	2.
Description of Hazard:	Animals/Insects.
Person(s) exposed (detail if cast/crew (C), outside company (O) or public (P) )	Crew.
Action to take:	Make sure that before approaching any animals, someone has checked to make sure that they are fine to touch. Also make sure to keep out of their way when on the track/start line/finish line.
Person/company responsible for action	Nicola Sinclair.
Hazard Number:	3.
Description of Hazard:	Audiences.
Person(s) exposed (detail if cast/crew (C), outside company (O) or public (P) )	Crew/Public.
Action to take:	There will be an audience watching the sled dog races and it may get rather busy, and so the crew should be aware of the audiences and not get in their way at all, and not leave anything around that could harm them.
Person/company responsible for action	Nicola Sinclair.
Hazard Number:	8.
Description	Fatigue/Long Hours.
Person(s) exposed (detail if cast/crew (C), outside company (O) or public (P) )	Crew.
Action to take:	The racing starts at 7am and finishes at 4pm. Frequent rests should be taken where the crew can sit, eat and drink and regain their energy throughout the day.
Person/company responsible for action	Nicola Sinclair.
Hazard Number:	11.
Description	Heat/Cold/Extreme Weather.
Person(s) exposed (detail if cast/crew (C), outside company (O) or public (P) )	Crew.
Action to take:	The weather is predicted to be rather cold with the possibility of wind and/or rain. Warm, waterproof clothing should be taken as well as having frequent breaks somewhere warm with hot food/drink.
Person/company responsible for action	Nicola Sinclair.
Hazard Number:	18.
Description	Public/Crowds.
Person(s) exposed (detail if cast/crew (C), outside company (O) or public (P) )	Crew/Public.
Action to take	Once again, there will be an audience watching the sled dog races and it may get rather busy, and so the crew should be aware of the audiences and not get in their way at all, and not leave anything around that could harm them.
Person/company responsible for action	Nicola Sinclair.
Hazard Number:	25.
Description	Stunts/Dangerous Activities.
Person(s) exposed (detail if cast/crew (C), outside company (O) or public (P) )	Crew.
Action to take	Sled dog racing can be fast and rather dangerous if someone gets in the way of the rig. Make sure to keep off the track at all times and do not distract the dogs if they are racing.
Person/company responsible for action	Nicola Sinclair.

To be completed at agreed later date -
Exposed person(s) informed?	Y	Agreed action taken?	Y	Risk removed?	Y

Completed by: Nicola Sinclair. Position: Producer/Director.

Nicola Sinclair.

Date: 31/01/2014.