The Dance Project

Above: The Dance Project.

"A series of 60-second videos on the theme of dance created by 25 artists."

More about the project on UCTV and on IMDB.

Lavalier Fail

By the end of a term in my TV Production class, everyone is able to successfully put a lavalier on an interview subject. We did 13 shows this semester, and used lavs in most of those, meaning there was a chance for everyone to get some practice.

So I was really surprised to see the above disaster during our skills test. I'm still not sure what happened. People get nervous, I guess.

I refrained from making any Viagra jokes, but had to take a snapshot for the "don't" file. Unless your subject is on the show for the ability to speak through his nipple, you might want that microphone aiming at his mouth, not hanging limply toward the ground.

(The student in question passed everything else, but clearly lost points here. Of course, the ironic thing is always that when a student makes a mistake like this and gets corrected, they end up never forgetting the right way.)

If It's Thursday, This Must Be TV

As we near the end of the term, my television production students are starting to seem really professional in their approach. The last few shows have been very focused. Today's show needs to be done and out live (to tape) from start to finish in one hour, though. We'll see how they do....

TV or not TV

I've enjoyed teaching TV production this term. Today, we did our fourth show for the term: an interview show. Essentially we were doing a copy version of "The Charlie Rose Show." It looks very simple, but I think by the second run-through many members of the class realized we weren't quite hitting it. The simplicity is deceiving, and pulling this off requires focus on every detail from the director and every member of the crew. As Director Ferrand says in Day for Night:

What is a film director? A man who's asked questions about everything. Sometimes he knows the answer.

Ah well: a very good learning experience for everyone. Above: an iPhone snap of today's Television Studio class.

What's My Line Again?

I was hoping to get one short documentary out into the world each month during 2010. Ambitious, I know... but I did get To Get to the Other Side out the door in January and screened, and now it has been submitted to a few other festivals.

We're at the end of February, however, and I'm officially behind on that schedule. Also, I'm not going to be participating in this year's International Documentary Challenge -- so can I get anywhere near that goal?

We'll see. Some projects are in fact moving forward, so maybe there won't be 12 new films this year, but ... well, just check back soon.

TV Party Tonight

Today was the first day of the term for my Television Studio class. I hate to have students wait to get their hands on the equipment, so we went right into switching.

I set up three cameras, then got the students into pairs: a Director and a Technical Director. They would call what camera to prepare, then what camera to cut to.

"Ready Camera 3. Take Camera 3. Ready Camera 1. Take Camera 1."

It's relatively easy to direct that sort of live switching -- until the pressure is on and you are trying to time which shot should be up. So we set the clock for 60 seconds, and tried to bring the show in from black, follow a conversation (always deciding if we should see the speaker or the reaction shot) and then back out to black on the dot.

It's harder than it sounds, in a good way.

2010

You never know how a schedule might change, but I'm hoping I'll be teaching a television production class again next term. I've been thinking about some ways to refine the projects I've given in past classes, and I have a few ideas that might be fun. We'll see.

A Limited Time Offer

Today marked the last show for the term in my TV production class. We've done several somewhat sophisticated, timing-critical, multiple-camera setups.

With Summer in the air, however, the class decided to do a "home shopping channel" style show. Fairly simple, kinda fun. It was still three-camera, but really easy.

Above: iPhone snap of a runthrough.

Live TV From Every Living Room

Boing Boing has a nice piece showing the Tricaster Studio -- a setup aimed at live Internet broadcast at a comparatively low pricepoint. Described as "a TV truck in a backpack" the unit is basically a digital switcher combined with the ability to add titles and cue video packages -- which is perfect for doing your own interview show from your back porch.

(One ironic note, however, is that I'd never seen any episodes of Boing Boing TV before and didn't realize that they can't edit worth a damn. The episode, while informational, is just a series of jump cuts. Boo. They need to hire someone who knows how to shoot and cut interviews, or -- ironically enough -- maybe they should use the Tricaster and live switch the interview....)

In any case, go and check out:

BB Video review: Tricaster, and the Future of Live Video Online

First, Cut a Hole in the Box

Wired has an article about a "television studio in a box" that I found fairly amazing. I teach a television studio class, and we use a fairly expensive setup including a large switcher, audio mixing console, monitors, etc. to do switching (live editing) on three-camera setups. So it's impressive to see the equivalent in a small package at a sane price.

TV Studio in a Box Enables Long-Tail Television

"We had to take a process that normally has 5 to 30 people creating a show and make it easy enough for one person to run, [someone] who has never run a TV show before," explained Philips. Indeed, the TriCaster allows a single operator to mix multiple cameras (higher-end models support more cameras) interspersed with graphics, pre-recorded clips, real-time effects and more than 300 three-dimensional transitions. The box outputs to the web, television stations or big screens in churches and sporting arenas.

NewTek's entry-level TriCaster, with support for three cameras, costs $4,000. That may seem like a lot, but considering that it can be used in place of a mobile production vehicle, four grand is small potatoes, relatively speaking.

In Ten... Nine...

Another image from our studio prep.

TV Party

Tuesday was another day of television studio runthroughs. On Thursday, we tape our second class project.