Production: Highs and woes
Recently, we started production for our series on the Mediacorp Drama Channel where we invite cast members of ongoing dramas to play games/react to their own scenes. It’s the first time in a long while that I’ve been inside a studio and boy was I excited! So here’s how it went:
Stage 1: Planning and organising the shoot
Surely, the planning stage takes up the most time. It starts with getting information on the dramas from the commissioners, then planning a content release schedule of one video a week that matches the drama’s Free-To-Air runtime. Next would be to pick out several potential dates and try to arrange the studio, cast, host for those days. It sounds way tougher to do that than it seems. But you know, even if it took weeks and multiple emails, we got it done and all’s good right? Nah.
So we almost overlooked the fact that the crew and artistes have a team assigned to them (Team A&B) for our office’s segregation plan. We were not to meet with people from the other team, not without a 14-day interval. But thankfully we quickly worked that out and manage to carry on with our plan. Phew.
With the cast confirmed, I then had to plan the content for each video, keeping in mind to tailor the content/questions for each drama. So far, the concepts we went ahead with are Would you rather? Who’s most likely to? How well do we know each other? and having the cast members react to their own scenes. With this series, the idea is to let audiences better know the actors/actresses and to showcase the cast’s chemistry.
Stage 2: Prepping
We had to prepare the props, cue cards and figure out the arrangement for our equipment. We also went on-site to have a look at the studio and was pleasantly surprised that there was a lighting system, TV screens, and tripods available, which means lesser things we’ll have to bring — especially crucial for my east-west trips. The eventual arrangement for the equipment is as you see in the picture above.
Stage 3: Filming day
It’s D-Day! Starting the day early at 9am we got to setting up quickly. However, as it's our first time in the studio, setting up took us more than an hour and we were due to begin filming. As we scrambled to have everything ready, one of the cast members ended up not showing. We weren’t able to change up the content on the spot so we still had to go ahead with the shoot, though it did affect the dynamic of the video a little. As we got by the day, we realised there were not enought batteries (!) for our equipment. Panic. But thankfully the studios had a new pack. Phew. We got by the day alright and eventually had a second shoot a few days later that went much better now that we knew how to set things up quickly. And that’s a wrap for this season!
Stage 4: Editing
Now that it’s just me and the footages we got, it’s time to get down to business. Pulled my editing hoodie out and started editing the series of clips. All seemed well during the shoot, but while editing, I noticed issues like unbalanced colour, lighting, and audio dropping in and out, which took me awhile to fix but thankfully, managed to do so.
So far, there’s been 4 videos out, be sure to catch them here and subscribe for more every week https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgvSxx961Tt7iAUiGh7WZy2h_-Q4Wumo-
As you’ve read above, there surely were a number of hiccups along the way. But thanks to the crew and the rest of the team, we were able to overcome them. Meanwhile, there are so many things we could do better in the future — definitely check if the cast/hosts are Team A or B (seriously COVID-19 please go) and plan the shoots around that, also communicate with cast members before the shoot if they know when/what time to show up, always have spare batteries, equipment and recording devices in case if one fails, there’s always backup and of course, check footage+audio on the spot to fix any issues immediately. Ultimately, it was really rewarding to see the videos come to fruition despite the hiccups. (One of them even has 30k views, Yipee! Baby steps)
This is just the beginning of more to come, we’ll constantly be in production throughout the year and I’m so looking forward to that!
