Research

RESEARCH

For this LIVE project I will be curating lots of research in order to help me get a better understanding of the topic and hopefully make my production the best it could be

MULTI-CAMERA

The multi-camera setup is a method of film making and video production just like using one camera. However there are several cameras used in this style of production, it could be anywhere from 2 to 15+ cameras used at a time. Many game shows and chat shows are multi-camera as they need to capture as many angles as possible - that is the main reason for using multiple cameras.

In comparison to the multi-camera setup, many shows do still use a single camera method. A single camera is employed on the set and each shot to make up a full scene is taken individually. So if a scene was to cut between actor A and actor B, the camera will first be pointed towards A where they will do their part, it will then be turned to B to run the same scene but from a different angle. Many of the big choices for single camera programmes are made in the post production editing process - to cut back and forth between to 2 takes to make it seem as if it is a multi-camera production. Shows such as Modern Family are a single camera production.

Just like anything in the world, multi-camera setups have both advantages and disadvantages, but with more advantages then the latter. 

Using multiple cameras allows more coverage of the area that is being filmed. There can also be different shots for different cameras - a lot easier to get the perfect shot in a lot less time then you would if using a single camera. There is also the advantage of being able to capture many emotions and reactions in their pure forms as many alternate angles are being shot. The main upper hand that multi-camera sets will have is timing. Being able to capture multiple things at once makes it a lot easier for the team and the likeliness of having to re-film very slim - unlike single camera shoots.

However, the ability to film quickly also has its disadvantages. With ease comes difficulty and for multi-camera shoots that is setting up. The set up for a multi-camera scene is very time consuming and will most likely need a group of at least 4 people to complete. It is a large amount of equipment therefore will also be expensive to set up as many pricey cameras will be used. It is also only really practical for studios as its on such a large scale and will be much safer that way. The weather can not be guaranteed either so if the set had just been done and the heavens open, you're stuffed!

I will most definitely be taking this aspect of camera use in to consideration when it comes to my LIVE project.

Multi-camera is used for a handful of reasons, one of them being that less editing needs to be done as a result of it. When using multi-camera it allows editing on the go or as you go along, this is really convenient for the editor as it enables a cleaner edit. 

Whereas if it was a single camera shoot it would notably be more time consuming filming wise but also on the editing front as they would have to constantly go back and forth to get the shot they need.

It is also ideal for shows such as strictly come dancing as it needs multiple different angles of the same area - meaning the audience at home can see the dance as if they were sat there themselves. 

Deal or no Deal is yet another programme that is filmed using multiple cameras, its main goal is to capture emotion from all angles. For example when a contestant gets offered a very generous price, one camera will focus on the centre of their face whilst 2 others will be on either side of their face - thats the best way to capture raw emotion and help the audience to feel emotions for and with them.

the news

studio

The news is a prime example of a 'piece of television' that is shot in the studio. Although not fully based in the studio as there are cutaways of presenters in different countries talking about current affairs etc, the main bulk of the programme is shot in the place seen above. There are cameras placed at every angle possible so they capture every emotion and move of the presenter - this grips the audience and sets the tone. If the whole of the news was to be shot on location - there would be too many tings that could go wrong. The weather would be the most difficult element of shooting on location as it can never be guaranteed. Also setting up would become an issue - the news is in a studio with cameras perfectly placed 24/7 so is much easier to organise and film. Whereas setting up n location would be very time consuming and un-practicle for a news broadcast.

football matches

location 

Football matches, and any sport for that matter, are all shot on location and with multiple cameras. The main reason for this is so they can capture every moment of the game. If there was a camera pointing towards someone taking a free kick and they kick the ball, you won't be able to see where the ball goes without another camera coming into play. Expressions and emotion can also be captured to the highest quality with multiple cameras, therefore making the match more intimate and realistic for the people watching at home as they can see every aspect of it in great detail.

Both studio and location multi-camera shoots are practical depending on the style of shoot. From this research I have gained lots of information on the different styles and will be taking it all on board. Although I have looked into location and studio style shoots, my LIVE project will not fall under either of the categories. As the show is based in a car its not technically in a studio but the car will be my studio so to say. People would also argue that it is location then as its not set in a 4 walled studio, however it won't require the set-up and planning process that a location shoot would. Essentially my idea defies the rules of a typical multi-camera shoot and falls under its own category!

This image is a very simple diagram of a multi-camera set up. There are 4 cameras focusing on 2 subjects, which adds up to 2 cameras per subject. All 4 of the cameras will be able to capture most angles possible of both of the subject because of the way they are positioned. Camera 1's main focus will be B's face but will still manage to encapsulate the side profile of A. Similar to this diagram, when planning my LIVE project I will be creating many diagrams like this so I can grasp the angles of the people in the car that I will be getting. It will also help me a lot when it comes to setting up all of the cameras as it goes me prior knowledge as to where they need to go.

MOODBOARD

This is my finished mood board. I have chosen to go with feelings rather than aesthetics. Yellow connotes happiness and I want my project to make people laugh and feel happy, this is why there are pictures of people smiling too. Middle left there are some teenagers as well - this is due to my target audience being aged 16-25, meaning quite a few of them are teenagers. The colours blue and pastel green connote calm, this product will not be loud and in your face but it should make the audience feel relaxed and at ease watching it - almost like they're there in the car with the people.

QUESTIONNAIRE

For my main part of primary research I have curated a survey for people to fill out. Surveys are a key element of research as I get lots of helpful information back from them and can also see my audience demographic. It assists me in creating my target audience swell as I can see the majority who have answered it - their age, gender etc. This is a main reason as to why I put it on my social media as thats where my final product will be going - meaning most people who see the survey will se my project.

These are the questions that I decided to ask the members of the public






I feel as if the one question out of all of these that will give me the best information is number 7. This is because it allows the people answering to write exactly how they feel without being restricted to multiple choice answers. It will also let me take on board the reason as to why they watch game shows and I can incorporate that into my own project.


After creating my survey on survey monkey, I put it on my social medias. I did this because many of my target audience are active on social media daily and I knew that it would reach a lot of people - meaning better and more results when it comes to analysing it.

facebook



snapchat

results

From this I can see that the majority of people that have answered are female. Part of creating this survey was to help define my target audience, and from the results my gender target will be female, although it will appeal to every gender.



My target audience was always going to be 16-25 year olds and these results have just help set that in stone. I put this on platforms where the final product would go and the majority of people it reached



Many of the participants watch TV or YouTube everyday according to my survey results, this is good to know as the platform that I will be placing my product on will be YouTube. I asked this question to find out if people were still interacting with forms of media like this as if they were not I would have had to rethink where my product would go. 62% of the audience watching it everyday shows that it is possible due to the mass of people that use it.



This question was asked as a major part of my idea came from Carpool Karaoke, if the majority of he audience had never heard of it before I would maybe have had to re-think my idea as it shows my target audience isn't interested in things like that. Luckily many of them had either seen it or heard of it - meaning that my research wasn't useless!


I also asked about the gameshow 'pointless' as part of my idea is to do a gameshow in the car - pointless is a very well known gameshow and it would be similar rules to it hence why I asked about that particular gameshow. Even though it doesn't seem like a lot, 15% go my audience had never seen nor heard of the gameshow before. To me this was worrying as I expected everyone to have at least heard of it before, this will definitely make me re-think my style of multi-camera production as I want most 16-25 year olds to enjoy it.

The response to this question has also made me re-think my project, I don't want people to moderately enjoy it I want them to love it! I feel as though if I continue with the gameshow in a car style project I will not get as good of a response as I could with something else.

As you can see above and below, the majority of answers to this questions were similar. My audience enjoyed gameshows due to the interaction of them and the competition. I will be taking this on board and if I do still continue with my gameshow idea, I will make sure to make it interactive and fun. It will have to be short and sweet to avoid the viewers loosing interest and include general questions that people will most likely know the answer to.




From this survey I have learnt many things not only about my potential audience but also peoples view on gameshows. By putting my survey on social media it attracted the age group that I wanted it to, I wanted this group to answer mostly as my project's usually go on social media therefore they are the people who watch it. Luckily, I fall under the age bracket too (16-25) meaning it will be achievable for me to create a product that they will be interested in. Finding out that the gender who answered most was female was also interesting to me as I had expected it to be male. However this, again, helps me when it comes to producing my project as I will now target more towards the female gender, possibly having two females in the car at a time instead of a male and female. This will appeal to them as they will be able to relate to it more and will have more in common with the topics spoken about rather than boy-like topics. A gameshow in a car may also be something that I will now steer away from due to the varied response in the survey, this is because if I am going to produce something for my audience I want them to be fully involved with it and not think its mediocre.

TARGET AUDIENCE

From all of my research ( in particular my survey ) I have decided on my target audience. Another element that helped me with this is my research into different multi-camera productions and seeing where and who they get the most views from.

age  16-25

gender  female

ethnicity  white/british

income  18,000£ P/A

location   UK 

Audience Persona

GENDER ➤ Predominantly female. I have chose this gender to target more as my survey recipients were mostly female and they will relate more to the topics that will be spoken about and the two females that will be in the car.

AGE ➤ 16-25. This the age range of both the people starring in the project and also the majority of people who replied to my survey. I also feel that as I fall under that category too it will be much easier for me to create a product with themes and styles that they will enjoy.

INTERESTS ➤ Social networking, social media, socialising, going out etc. I feel as if the majority of people my age enjoy or do at least one of these things as these are common interests in young people, which is my target age.

LIFESTYLE ➤ Most likely a student, doing an apprenticeship or working part-time. Alternatively they could be in a full time job as they may have finished education. I think this because you legally have to be in full time education until you're 18 and many people go to university after this. 

SOCIO ECONOMIC GROUP ➤ either D or C2, this is because the majority of them will still be in education so either not working or working part-time meaning they won't be as skilled as full time workers.

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION ➤ Mainly the UK, this is because I am located there and it will all be filmed by me - British people are much more likely to watch a British production than any other country.

PSYCHOGRAPHIC GROUP ➤ explorers, they are young so much more open minded than older generations so they will explore all genres of film to see which one suits them best. Also many of their lives will revolve around social media therefore they may stumble upon my product or be much more likely to watch it as I will it on my social medias. 

CASH CAB

background info

Cash Cab was an American game show made in 2005 and ended in 2012. 

It has 10 cameras in the cab filming at all times (Channel Guide Magazine, 2019)

rules

the players hail down the cab (just thinking its a normal cab). Once in the cab they are told whats happening and given the rules. They have to answer trivia questions that have cash values - before they reach their destination in order to win. However, of the player answers incorrectly 3 times then they are 'kicked out' of the cab without any of their money. 

Once the drive is finished the passenger has an option to gamble all of their money on a very difficult question. If the question is answered correctly, their winnings are doubled, but if answered incorrectly then they lose it all.

My original idea came from this show. The majority of multi-camera productions are studio based which didn't particularly appeal to me, I like the fact that it isn't mobile and you can be creative with it.

Unlike many other game shows, Cash Cab is (not surprisingly) in a 'cab' or taxi. The majority if game shows are shot in a studio and tend to have a live audience - this is where cash cab differs from most. With the taxi being enclosed it adds to the tension of the game - it also puts the contestant under much more pressure. This can result in more raw answers as they will have to give the first answer that comes to their head - there is no time for bluffing. Also, unlike many game shows there is no live audience which makes it hugely unlike. The majority of game shows that are shot in studios have a live audience - this could make the contestant less swayed by certain answers from the audiences reactions.

From this show I will be taking away the style and content of it. Although my original idea was a Carpool Karaoke style I have now decided that I would rather a game show in a car. I will be asking the passenger multiple questions general knowledge based and there will be a scoring system on the bottom right hand side. The angles in this episode I will also be taking on board as it will be important for me to trial out many different ones in my practice runs. Researching into this show has really helped me develop a handful more ideas and bring my creativity out, without this I feel as if I would have really struggled with the content of the production.

GAMESHOW SUBGENRES

https://www.slideshare.net/SophiaCharalambous1/gameshow-subgenres

Whilst looking into cash cab I came across this slideshare about gameshow subgenres. This is very interestng to me as I had never thought to look that deep into them. It gave me lots of inspiration and made me ask about the sub-genres in my questionnaire which helped me massively with all of my research.

CARPOOL KARAOKE

Carpool Karaoke is a reoccurring segment on the Late Late Show hosted by James Corden. Corden invited famous musical guests to sing along to their songs with him whilst he drives. Guests such as Will Smith, Lady Gaga and Elton John. This is an interesting show to research for me as although its not exactly what I am going for, the concept of it is similar. The car is covered in 12 cameras over the front and back windscreens along with cars following it filming too, this is a huge amount of cameras and very unrealistic for me to mirror. In order to set up and make sure everything is running well on this kind of production, a huge team will be needed and for my project it will only be me! 

I like the concept of this show - famous people siting down and talking about their life / singing their most well known songs.   This was my very first idea when I heard that the project was multi-camera, I had always wanted to create my own version of it and I now could with no excuse! However, an audience who doesn't know who me or the passenger is, watching us sing wouldn't have been very interesting.  Therefore re-creating this series is not an option for me, but I will be taking many tips from it. I enjoy the way it is edited and how it jumps to and from different angles very quickly, it engages the audience and doesn't let them become bored as there is a lot going on. I could like to incorporate something like this in my project, keep flicking in between angles instead of staying on the same one for ages. 

COMEDIANS GETTING COFFEE

Episodes of this show feature Seinfield (the host) introducing a vintage car selected by a guest comedian, followed by a drive to a pre selected cafe or restaurant for some coffee, hence its title. It is a very popular show, some episodes being streamed 100 million times. I chose to research this show as its a similar style to my LIVE project and I wanted to look in to the camera angles. Unlike Carpool Karaoke where there are 12 cameras filming at one time, there are only 3 angles on this which leads me to believe there are only 3 GoPros on the windscreen. Therefore, this is more of a realistic show to look at for me as its achievable with 3 GoPros and doesn't require a team of people to set up. I also enjoy the laid-backness of this program - its not very pushy and is ultimately just 2 people having a chat in a car.

ANGLE 1



This is the first angle shown in the car in this episode, its main focus is the passenger but still manages to capture the side profile of the driver. This focuses more on one person rather than both as its much easier to see facial expressions and also breaks up the different angles. The Gopro will have been placed in the top right hand corner of the windscreen and tilted down slightly - so the windscreen isn't in frame.



In a different angle, it shows the GoPro that is facing Barack. It is attached to the screen by a suction pad. From this information I will be using suction pads too to attach my GoPros to the windscreen. I will also be trailing out this angle in one of my practice runs as previously I had not considered this, but from seeing it on the show and how well it captures both parties I like it.

ANGLE 2



The second angle shown is a mirror of the first one, but the focus is on the driver this time and not the passenger. As it virtually the same angle, what I said above applies as well, however the windscreen can be seen more in this one.

I will also be trialling out this angle in my practice run, but I will try my best to avoid capturing the windscreen as I don't like the look of it. To do this I may have to tilt the GoPro downwards slightly.

NOTES

This is a lesson we had early on about Panasonic's and the et up of the, I thought this was important to put in here as although I did not end up using one, 2 of my ideas included the use of them.

This was my first ever research checklist - this is how I managed to make sure I did what I needed to every week, I wrote out a new one every Monday. Doing this made me feel much more organised and less stressed as the tasks I needed to complete were written in front of me.