Digital News Unit: Production - Presenter Pieces

Yesterday we had Jasmin come in to do the presenter's dialogue for our news channel.

Setting up the green screen; the lighting and the camera didn't take long.

View from the presenter's seat.

The crew view.

We decided to move a table from the corner of the classroom over to the presenter's chair as it was much larger than the tables attached to the seats and looked a little more professional. 

Since the camera was about 8-10 feet from the presenter's chair we placed Aimee's Mac with the script opened on one of the chair-desks and zoomed in on the document so only one box of dialogue was visible at any one time.

Jasmin arrived a little after 12pm and we briefed her on what would be happening.

We attached a shotgun mic to the PMW and I stood next to Jasmin and pointed the mic at her, I was able to get very close, right in the frame in fact, as I could be removed in editing due to the green screen. 

We filmed all lines with Jasmin seated before moving the table and chair away and getting her to re-do all of the lines whilst standing up: giving us the freedom of choosing which one would look better.

It took around about 30 - 40 minutes to film it all.

At the start she was a little off: stumbling over the lines and possibly a tad nervous but she managed to get into a stride after a short while and give all of the lines without a problem.

I feel I learnt a little more about lighting: practice makes perfect and working out the best possible angles to point the lights. Some bodging was also done in the form of placing the Mac below the PMW lens as a makeshift auto-cue.

Overall I think it went very well; the green screen shouldn't be an issue, the set up and lighting was fine and the lines well-delivered.