Big Fat Quiz of the Year | Research ~ SP

To help me with getting an idea as to what the shots of the show will look like, and to aid me in deciding on the different shots to get for our show, I watched 'Big Fat Quiz of the Year' as it has a similar style to what our show will ideally be.

The tone of this show is the wanted tone of our show, so it was important that I watched an episode or two to get a feel for the sort of vibe our show will reflect.

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Big Fat Quiz of the Year

When watching this show, the first thing I noticed was that they only use about 13 different shots and the majority of those shots are very similar in size and framing. They have about two/three different variations of wide shots that are seen from different angles of the set, they also only use one shot of the host which is a mid shot. This shot is quite tight on the host and his podium, so he fills the page while still having some background to it. The cuts are also quite quick, which is something that I want our show to have.
The cutting of our show will be quick, and the different shot sizes and purposes will be quite similar to the ones in this show. For example; they use a wide shot of the set and the audience when the audience are heard laughing or clapping, and this is something I want to add to our show. I want our audience to be seen in one shot for our show, but I don't want any close ups of them because I think they can be quite awkward and also there isn't any interactive segments with the audience, so you don't really need to see them.

Before and after VT's they show a wide shot of the set once they've mixed out of them. I really liked this idea as it gives a nice transition from video to studio and it isn't too direct, which it would be if it mixed straight to a CU of the host or contestants. Also where the audience is clapping it adds to the wide shot they have used. This is also something I will add to our show as I think it will suit it nicely.

The director of this show is Mick Thomas. He is also know for directing 'Friday Night with Jonathon Ross'. The type of shows that Thomas usually directs seems to be comedy shows or at least very chatty humorous shows. Some might be panel shows or interview shows, but they all have the same sort of tone and style.
I like Thomas' direction style as it has the same sort of structure for each show, but there are still moments were he pushes boundaries or he makes decisions based on the situation.

The tone of the show is very humorous, as I have mentioned, and it has a very clear bold approach. The humour can vary from clean humour to the opposite, but I think that only works due to the contestants being comedians or well-known celebrities. For our show, we won't be able to get well-known celebrities as our contestants, for an obvious reason, so that tone of the show may not reciprocate, but still have the ability to make the show somewhat humorous. This can be done through the choice of host, the choice of contestants, but also the dialogue in the script and any ad-lib moments that the host could potentially do.

The lighting of the show is also very vibrant and there's a mix of different colour choices in the set design and the lighting. This is something that might be bought into our show, as we decide the colour tones and the colour palette.

I think this show will be used quite a lot as inspiration for our show, as I like little aspects of the show and want them for our own show. Throughout the process of the development of the show, I'm going to keep this show in mind.