Studio based factual programme
The One Show
Breakdown of the show
The One Show is described as "BBC One’s flagship topical magazine show". It promises to "inform, educate and entertain" which are key values of the BBC's programming. This shows that for our production Steal The Style - we need to embody the values of E4's programming as this is now our target channel. The One Show "combines high quality specialist factual films with entertaining high profile guests from the world of film, TV and theatre."[1]
The show begins with a title sequence introducing the show - the title sequence is produced with animated graphics to their iconic trumpet based non diegetic sound track. The title sequence being to graphics instead of being a specially shot sequence adds to the idea that this is a factual show - the topics are at the heart of the programme rather than presenters (my research into a studio based entertainment programme displayed that a specially shot title sequence of the presenters is used as their personalities are central to the entertainment of the show).
The presenters (usually Alex Jones and Matt Baker) then introduce the show "Hello and welcome to The One Show with ... and ..." - this establishes what the show is and who the presenters are straight away - as the programme is well established and the presenters are usually the same everyday, they do not need to describe who they are. As our presenters will be brand new to the audience, it may be a good idea to include a brief introduction to who they are at the top of the show. The show begins with a two shot of the presenters in their iconic studio location and the camera slowly zooms in closer to the presenters - this is really effective in drawing the audience into the show straight away. There is no teaser of what is to come in the show, instead the presenters dive straight into the first topic / guest.
In this programme, they immediately introduced their guest. Often, they use clips to introduce guests - the presenters will give a brief tease of who the guest is before showing a clip and then introducing them back in the studio. When the guest is introduced and on the opposite sofa, the camera shots cut between a two shot of the presenters, a single of the guest or a wide 3 shot of all the individuals. When talking with the guest, the presenters direct their dialogue towards them and the section works as a standard interview segment. When the presenters need to round up the interview and introduce another topic, they do a PTC to introduce either another guest or to transition into a VT. The guest / guests usually stay on the sofa once introduced and interact with the other topics of the show (even though they are unrelated to them). This is a unique point to the show as the convention in other programmes is for a guest only to stay for their specific segment.
There is a conversational tone between presenters - their discussion is very natural, chatty and bubbly - this keeps the audience engaged with the subject matter as they aren't being inundated with hoards of information, everything is kept in a simplistic conversational style. We aim for the presenters to also have a chatty, conversational style in Steal The Style as we understand there could be a lot of fashion advice being given out to the audience and we want to avoid bombarding them with information.
Occasionally there is a small studio audience for The One Show, usually consisting of people who will somehow be involved in the show - sometimes giving stories / testimonies on subjects explored within the show itself. This audience is mainly passive and just observes the show (except for the participatory element of them sharing stories). The presenters interact with the audience at home by asking them to send in things which relate to the subject they are discussing. This again helps the audience at home to relate to the show as they feel they are part of it.
The presenters attempt to link the segments they are discussing, however, these links can be very tenuous. This is something we need to watch out for with Steal The Style as our format could be considered a magazine format like The One Show. However, all the topics we will be exploring within Steal The Style will be fashion related and should therefore be easier to link.
As well as in studio segments, The One Show uses VTs to explore topics outside of the studio environment. These VTs are sometimes an expansion on what has been discussed in the studio but they can also be an entirely different subject matter all together. Again, the presenters sometime use very tenuous links to transition into these VTs but this shouldn't be an issue within Steal The Style as each of our VTs will accompany a studio segment so will naturally link. The presenters ensure that no language is repeated from the studio into the VT - this is something myself and Melissa will have to consider with our script and the VT scripts - the studio sections and VTs should flow smoothly without repetition of dialogue.
The studio set of the show is very vibrant. To accompany this, the titles and graphics for the show share the same bold colour scheme. This is something I hadn't considered before but is actually extremely important to the branding of the show. Myself and Melissa are keen to have a neutral set and a neutral / orange based colour scheme for the graphics - I will ensure to liaise with both the set design team and graphics team to ensure the branding is consistent throughout the show.
The show always finishes on a wide shot of the studio with the presenters and guests in frame as well as a TV screen displaying what is to come on the next day's programme. I think the idea of ending on a wide shot is good as it establishes the setting again for the audience - we pitched to do something similar with the beginning and ending of Steal The Style by using a jib shot for the intro and outro of the show.
Behind The Scenes of the show
Every morning the producer, assistant producer and research meet to discuss the evening's show. The meeting is to ensure everything is known before the show - that they have all the stats and information on the subject matter to hand so that the presenters can ask pertinent questions on air.
They will go through the script and ensure everyone knows the plan. Tweaks and changes are made before giving the script to the presenters.
The show aims to include 4 VTs a programme - which is the same number as we will have during our show. These VTs are specially shot, high quality 'films'.
They have a 5:30pm rehearsal before going live at 7pm.
The producer creates the show on paper - the director create the show on screen for the audience. This highlights the importance of my role as producer to liaise with the directors to ensure they are displaying my content / ideas in the way they were intended.
How this has informed my role and the production
- As a fashion based chat show, Steal the Style is a mixture between factual and entrainment programming. As we want our presenters to be at the heart of the programme, it would be more logical to film a specially shot title sequence rather than a graphics based one as used in The One Show.
- The trumpet based music is very iconic and immediately recognisable as The One Show - we need to ensure that the music used for the title sequence for Steal The Style is upbeat and fast paced to fit with the tone of the show but also easily recognisable to create a strong sense of branding.
- Whilst not having a teaser works for this programme, I think having a teaser would work better for Steal The Style to get the audience excited about what is to come in the show.
- Their interview set up is very simple but effective. For our interviews we should use a camera for a two shot of our presenters, a camera for our contributor and a camera for a wide shot. I like how the cameras are not static either, they are all slightly crabbing to the side to inject energy into the programme.
- The studio design matches with the graphics used throughout the programme. This keeps the branding of the show consistent and will therefore be something to keep in mind for our show.
- The show is scripted with the important, factual information but there is room for the presenters to ad lib and have natural discussion. The presenters have in ear monitors so that the gallery can communicate with them to provide them with extra information or to instruct them to do something.
- They are careful not to repeat dialogue when transitioning from studio to VT - this is due to careful scripting. We will need to ensure we are updated with the scripting for the VTs so that no dialogue is repeated in our studio script.
Overall, looking at The One Show has been helpful and informative even though Steal The Style will take a less factual approach.
As a factual magazine programme, The One Show has a well established format featuring structured interviews, PTCs and VTs. As a mixture between a factual and entertainment programme, we hope for Steal The Style to take a less structured approach and for the presenters to have more freedom with the delivery of their dialogue whilst still keeping standard elements such as PTCs and interviews.
Studio based entertainment programme
Saturday Night Takeaway
Breakdown of the show
Saturday Night Takeaway is a live entertainment studio show hosted by Ant McPartlin and Dec Donnelly. Each show consists of a variety of different segments ranging from interacting with audience members and putting on competitions to fun challenges between the presenters and performances from special guests.
Saturday Night Takeaway features a specially shot title sequence with graphics at end. This puts the presenters at the heart of the programme. Ant and Dec are a classic double act and work well at bouncing jokes off each other. As we want our presenters to have similar chemistry and also be at the heart of our show, shooting a title sequence featuring them is the idea. The style of graphics used at the end of Ant and Dec's title sequence is consistent across the rest of the graphics used in the show - the font is kept the same, the colours are kept the same and the glitzy tone is kept consistent.
The location of the studio is also important to the show as shown by an establishing shot of London to introduce the show. This then zooms into the studio and then into a wide shot of audience. This build up to the studio introduction creates excitement and anticipation which are key to the success of the show as an entertainment programme - the audience need to be engaged and excited.
Before the presenters even make their way onto stage, a teaser trailer plays to show to the audience what is to come in the show. This teaser is narrated by the 'Special Guest Announcer' who also introduces themselves and the presenters in the studio. This is a very unique part of the show as they make this announcer a prominent feature (whereas other shows usually use the presenters themselves to narrate the teaser and introduce the show). The addition of this announcer adds hype and excitement to the show - I really like this idea as it gets the audience engaged, however, I do not think it would work for Steal The Style as we are not aiming for the same energy and atmosphere. The live studio audience for Saturday Night Takeaway are very involved with the show - the audience are both appreciative and active - therefore having a special announcer to hype up the audience works for their audience. We had originally pitched for Steal The Style's audience to be active by voting for topics with Hot Or Not paddles but this has since been dropped. Now the audience will take an appreciative role by applauding the contributors and therefore do not need to be hyped up by a special announcer - the presenters will keep the audience engaged and excited with the content instead. The special guest announcer chips in on the show throughout and before commercial breaks reminds the audience of what is still to come to ensure audience engagement with the programme.
Ant and Dec introduce the show with jokes that bounce off of each other - their pairing as presenters is central to the success of show. The audience aren't watching the show just for the content, they are also watching for Ant and Dec's personalities and comedy. As we want Steal The Style to be factual / informative about fashion yet entertaining, it is important that we find presenters who have a natural chemistry like Ant and Dec so that our audience too want to tune in both for our fashion advice yet also for our presenters.
As the show is built from different segments, the set has to accommodate for this. Ant and Dec go out into the audience to surprise / interview different audience members - the two wide staircases stretching back through the audience allow for them to do this. For the main set of the show, there is a stage area in the middle for special guest acts to perform and two empty areas which can be manipulated into whatever is needed for the segments (e.g. sofas can be brought in for sit down sections or podiums can be brought in for challenges). There are then screens around the set which are utilised throughout the show to show images, graphics and VTs as well as being a key component for the 'Win The Ads' section. The set for our show will need to accommodate for the different elements of the show - as our show is mainly focused on talking through fashion (as a chat show) we have only planned for an area containing chairs and a table, however, we may want to consider expanding the other areas of the set to allow space for if we choose to have people modelling any clothing items etc.
The segments in Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway include; Ant Vs. Dec, I'm A Celebrity...Get Out of me Ear, Win the Ads, End of the Show Show etc. Ant and Dec have different ways of introducing the segments e.g. for Ant Vs Dec they make a point of looking menacingly into different cameras at different angles to build up the tension for the challenge. This also adds humour and excitement to the show. When introducing a challenge / segment on VT the presenters look towards the screen behind them to suggest this is where the VT will play which helps the show to flow. As we want one of our VTs to be a challenge between the presenters, it may be a good idea to take a similar approach to Ant Vs. Dec with the introduction to this challenge to keep with the light hearted tone of our show.
The show finishes with the End of the Show Show which is usually a performance from a musical act. This leaves the show on a high note and gives the audience a reason to stick around to the end of the show. As with The One Show, Saturday Night Takeaway finishes on a wide shot of the studio to establish the location to the audience.
Behind The Scenes of the show
The presenters and producer go through the script to check lines - check the presenters are happy with what's been written and see if they have any feedback.
Opening of the show always needs to be topical - the script is re-written to remain topical if any circumstances change on the run up to the show - opening has to be tight to remain engaging
Process starts on the Monday before the Saturday show - the script is usually ready for Tuesday - Script constantly changes up to Saturday - jokes constantly being changed and tweaked
Writers liaise with the presenters and ask for their feedback too - two way street - writers give content to presenters and they suggest content back.
The crew map out which cameras are the cameras for each presenter - so when told in talk back they know which cameras to look at
Rehearsals enable them to run through script - see what works and what doesn't work in practice
How this has informed my role and the production
- Ant and Dec have brilliant chemistry as presenters, this is something we aim for with our presenters. We also want our presenters to be a double act and to be at the heart of our show - they need to be able to bounce off of each other in a similar style to Ant and Dec.
- The use of a teaser and reminders during the programme of what's to come is effective in keeping the audience excited and engaged with the content of the programme. As we want our audience to stay engaged with our programme and be excited for what's to come, using a teaser would be a good idea. As our show will only be 30 minutes long, one teaser at the beginning would be sufficient - constant reminders of what's coming up in the show could be over bearing for a relatively short show.
- Our set needs to accommodate for different segments. Our segments will develop as the idea is taken forward so we need to ensure the set develops along with this.
- Ant and Dec's introductions to segments work very well for the tone of the show - their links are kept high energy and entertaining to match the content. We should consider this with our links during the show - for fun challenges, the links into these segments should take a fun spin.
- Saturday Night Takeaway always ends on a high with their End of the Show Show - our last segment is just another segment of the show - it may be worth thinking of a new, high energy idea for the end of the show to give the audience something to anticipate and also end on a high note.
Although the tone of Saturday Night Takeaway is much more high energy than our pitch for Steal The Style, undertaking some research into the area has provided some good insights into more areas to consider with our show (such as the links between segments and putting our presenters at the heart of the show). I will use this research (along with my research into factual studio programming) to inform the development of the show.
[1] https://www.bbcstudios.com/case-studies/the-one-show/
No comments:
Post a Comment