Pre Production
A studio director is the person who keeps all of the show together. He or she will work with all of the departments through pre production right up to transmission to make sure the show runs smoothly. Rather than producing the content for the show, the director is responsible for how the show looks and sounds when marrying all the technical aspects together.
In the pre-production stage, they will mainly work closely with the producers to ensure all the ideas they have for the show can be elevated and developed towards the end product for when the show transmissions. This includes help with things like script writing, branding and set design to ensure that the show all ties up with the end vision of what the director is looking to do whilst still abiding by their original concept. Another pre-production task for the director is blocking. When you are doing a show, and its live, the presenters, contributors, guests and crew must all know what there positions are for each part of the show. Camera and blocking plans are all drawn up and ran through to ensure they all work together. This includes when cameras move to different areas of the set and at what point the presenters and guests will need to move as well. You can see an example below:
Another department through pre production that the director liaises with is lighting. Once the set is drawn up and we know what areas are being used, a lighting plan can be drawn up when talking to the lighting team to work out how the set is going to be lit. This can include flooding an area with 5ks cross lighting sections, colour washing walls, lighting audience members and so on. You can view an example below:
As you can see there are several lights to one person to make sure that they are lit evenly and so that it doesn't look odd on screen. There are back lights, key lights, background lights and fill lights to make the image seem a good as it can possibly look on camera.
The Gallery & Transmission
When the director is happy with most of the pre production work, he or she will then move into the gallery where they will spend most of their time in rehearsals and the live show. The director will work closely with the vision mixer who sits next to them and will ask to cut and mix camera movements together. For example, When the director says stand by 2, the vision mixer will hold camera 2 on standby and put the shot on a preview screen. They will then say cut to 2 and the vision mixer will air the shot which will now be displayed on the transmission screen. A director will have all of the camera shots visible on monitors in front of them which will allow them to check framing and see that everything looks how it should. Because the director is in the gallery, and the camera operators, floor managers and other crew are on the studio floor, most of the crew and presenters will have a headset on called 'talk back' so that everyone can communicated with each other clearly. Sitting on the other side of the director is the P.A. which is important for everyone to listen to. The P.A. counts down each section of the show and is responsible for the show running on time so the director has to make quick decisions based on timing to make sure the show finishes when its supposed to. The director is also responsible for cueing the presenters when to start speaking, getting the music in at the right time and animating graphics on time.
A director is key throughout the whole process to make sure the show runs in the best way that it possibly can. From start to finish they are responsible for aspects of the way the show looks and sounds so its an extremely important role. Although stressful at times, its important for the director to remain calm and keep in control of the show when live in order to make quick decisions and make the show look effortless.
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