TV Talk

Here is a list of 30 or so phrases and Words

"Fade up sound and vision"
The director is instructing the VM and Audio to dissolve into the first image and sound.

"Roll VT"
The assistant director tells the tapes operator to roll the tape to be used next

"Soft Focus"
The TD or director may use this to ask a camera person to fix their focus

"On 4 Ready 2"
The director assistant telling everyone that we are on shot 4 with camera 2 up next.

"Give me an MCU of the centre host"
The director is asking the a camera person for a medium close up of the host.

"Hold the floor"
The director may wish to have a retake or need to check something quickly but want the floor crew to remain on alert

"Patch the Mic into 21"
The sound supervisor may be asking a stage hand to plug a microphone into socket 21

"Check recording"
The director may ask the tapes operator to check that the record has done so properly.

"Permission to come onto the floor"
the director asks for permission for the the floor manager to come onto the studio floor

"Strike the studio"
the floor manager asks all crew to reset the studio to its original state

"VT rolling. 10 seconds. Standby!"
The floor manager informing the floor crew they are about to come back from a tape segment

"Break camera 1"
the directors assistant telling camera 1 to move to its next position

"Take cam 1"
The directors asking the vm for camera 1 to be put to line

"Dissolve cam 1"
the director asking the vm to cross-dissolve to camera 1

"It's in the can."
the director telling everyone the shoot is finished

-Fast camera movement sideways back and fourth-
The camera man says no

-Fast camera movement up and down-
The camera man says yes

Ped
the pedestal the camera is mounted on

Crabbing
where the cameras pedestal moves with all three wheels

Boom
the long arm contraption holding the condenser microphone

Basher
a person whose job it is to make sure the cables don't get in the way and are arranged properly

"Can we have a line monitor on the floor"
the floor manager is asking probable the TD if they could have a monitor on the floor with the signal going to air or being recored

"The level is peaking"
an input on the sound console is too high and so is distorting

"Trim the gain"
the audio supervisor asking the audio assistant to turn the input gain down a little

"Take cam 3 with super"
The vm must put camera 3 to line with the title or graphic superimposed over it.

"Watch the head room 3"
The director asking camera 3 to keep an eye on the space between the top of the subjects head the top of the frame

Stagger Through
The crew will try to go through a script of a show and stop if they have problems

"Set that shot camera 1"
The director has asked camera 1 to remember that particular shot and recall it when the situation arises

"Can we focus all camera forward for a white balance"
The TD wants to make sure all camera are focused on the white sheet to a proper white balance can be performed

"Cue Talent"
The director is telling the FM to gesture to the talent to start their speaking or movement.

"Silence on the floor!"
The FM is telling floor crew to shut up

"Pull focus to the girl"
Asks the camera person to refocus live onto a girl in the frame

"30 second wind up"
The directors assistant is asking the FM to give the wind up signal to the talent.

"Fade sound and vision"
The directors call when the show has finished

Band Lighting

There are many differences and similarities between lighting a band for a purely live performance and for a mutlicam production. I personally have created lighting for band concerts for a purely live performance. I have also been involved with trying to make to most out of filming these sorts of events. Lighting by its very nature can be extremely different even if the exact same rig is used, it can often be made or broken by it's operation and different operators may get two very different but equally good shows.

I was able to have a talk with Daniel Potter the lighting designer and operator of the last Choirboys tour who went with the band to Mornings With Bert Newton where he was able to see how the same band he had lit on stage was lit in the studio. The first comment he made was there was a lot less front lighting as he anticipated but lots of rear white was. This was in contrast to lighting the band live where there was little white wash during the performance and very directional front on spots used instead. He also noted the extensive use of ray cans from the rear. He also told me about the use of gobo-rotators attached to the end of Pacific spots. He commented it would be much more common to use a full blown intelligent light for a concert than a gobo-rotator.

I think that in lighting for cameras it would be much more important to get the angles of the white lights right as the camera can often harshly depict a face. It is also of importance to keep the white light to a higher level to assist in focusing and picture clarity.

Just as important as the design the actual operation of the lights would also be different. There would be less strobing of lights, any light chases would be slower and additionally there would be fewer changes in the colour states compared to a concert. If smoke was used it would be much thicker if for a concert.