The Real Thing | Rehearsal #5 & Live Show ~ SP

Like the previous day, this day was also a very busy day for me. I didn't feel like I was running around the whole day as everything has been set up and ready to go. However, I did need to make sure everything was working well and Del told me not assume anything. So if I thought about everything that needed to be in place I had to make sure it was there ready. I did a lot of checking with everyone, and I made sure to talk to everyone and make sure they were happy with everything going on.

• The first thing we did was re-tape the floor. We had taped the flooring with white tape the day before, while we waited for the black tape to arrive. We had it for this day, so myself, Sammi and Nisserin re-taped the floor with the black tape, which didn't take us long.

• The lighting guys came in early and rigged everything they needed to. I was in the studio at the time so I could oversee everything going on and Ellen was there too to be of assistance to them.

• The day before, the cameras were placed in the gallery over night, while the tripods were marked and were in the gallery all ready to go for our first rehearsal at half 10.

• Everything was in place when we came back to the studio, so the morning was spent making sure everyone was ready and where they should be. 
• The cameras were all set up and attached to the system of the vision mixing desk. Everyone came onto the set ready for our first rehearsal of the day. 
• We were all really prepared, so the first part of the morning was quite calm and relaxed as every knew what they were doing.
• The lights had been set up and ready to use, so it was our first rehearsal with the lights, meaning I had to add new cues to my list. Ellen was in the room with the lighting guys so if I missed a cue she would be there to say something, but I tried to remember to cue them when I needed to.
• I worked out that the lighting cues were mainly based on the music and when the music sting at the beginning of the round was played and the same with the end of round music sting. This made things a bit easier for me as I knew that I had to say "go music" and then "go lights".
• I had previously asked James if he would like me to cue him for the lights. He told me that in a professional environment they would usually know when to come in and wouldn't need to be cued in. However, for this show we agreed that I would say "go lighting" or "go lights" and he would know what to do.
• We also set up the audience seating plan and decided on having two rows at the front, 5 rows on the left, 5 rows on the right, and 4 rows in the middle behind camera 3. Originally I wasn't a fan of this but we had to do it because of the space we had, and ultimately it looked good once the chairs were where they should be.

• Our first rehearsal was at half past 10 and we had another one 15 minutes after the first one.
• Both of these rehearsals went really well, I felt like, and I was really happy with the progress of the show. I made sure that everyone else was happy with everything, and I definitely felt a lot more confident with my role and the show in general.
• Once the second rehearsal had finished, James has asked if we could block out the show once more so he could work out everything in his room. The contestants had been standing in the wrong place for the spotlights on Round 4, so this is something we had to make sure was told to the contestants.
• Imogen had everyone on the floor help her do this, and I directed them from the gallery after the James said when he was ready to move onto the next round set up.
• Once this was done, James was happy and Del arranged to have a group meeting on the studio floor.
• Before breaking for lunch, we had a massive clean up of the studio. All the chairs were weren't using were put behind the set, and everything that we didn't want the audience to see was either thrown away or placed behind the set.
• I took this time to speak with Imogen and make sure she was happy with everything we had discussed and I confirmed what our plans were so we both agreed with everything.
• The contestants arrived, Sam and Imogen went through the set with them and told them where they should be standing, while going through some of the rounds.

We then broke for lunch.

• After we had lunch, I had a chat with Del about the show just to keep my nerves at bay and to remind myself of everything.
• We then had a group chat in the gallery explaining everything and we all chatted as a group to keep everyone calm and happy ready for the show.
• I discussed with Laura about changing the colour of the stripe in the split screen and she did so. We found that a dark red suited the split screen better as it looked like the red from the set and the logo.
• I then decided I wanted to go through the VT's again, just because of the changes made yesterday and because it had crashed a few times.

• Due to Sam being in charge of the contestants, I found it very hard and stressful to get him and others ready to do a run through of the VT's.
• When I went out to go find him, it was then that we found there was a problem. There wasn't anyone else to look after the contestants when I needed Sam to do the VT's. With some discussion I decided that the green room people would have to look after them while Sam came into the gallery, as this really needed to be done.
• Also due to Sam having another job, the green room runners needed to look after them as Sam would have to be in the gallery a good half an hour before the show started.
• Sam came into the gallery, I talked to Sammi and Paul about the sound, and everyone was ready to do a run-through.
• There were a few timing problems with the VT's, so Rosie had to adjust her timers. It's a good thing we did this run-through as we wouldn't have known the timings were wrong.
• The VT's were running smoothly, everyone was happy with them, and so was I.
• I then talked to the floor manager and made sure she had everything in place ready to go.

• Through talk back, I told Imogen to get the audience in at 2pm. She said that not everyone had turned up by then, so we waited 5 minutes for them to arrive. Then at 5 past 2 they were seated. 
• The warm up act, found by Sam, did his act while I was checking with everyone that they were all ready and standing by for the show.
• At 20 past 2 Simon and Imogen did their talks to the audience, and it was decided to leave the audience in the dark, with no music, so the tension could be increased while they waited.
• The live show then started at 2:30pm.

• My first impression of the live show, after we finished, was that it was awful and that I had done an awful job at directing. However, after a few minutes and talking to people in the gallery, I actually reflected on the show, and thought that we actually did really well.
• There were a few mistakes, but they were very minor mistakes and some of them weren't noticeable for the audience as they wouldn't know any better.
• There was a point where Laura put the emoji on the screen instead of the VT, and at first she was gutted that she made that mistake, but after taking to Helen and Del it was decided that we could edit over that and make it work.
• The pie face game broke during round 3, which obviously made us worry in the gallery as that was the whole purpose of the game and we didn't have a back up idea. Eventually, the game worked again, but that whole situation was covered well in a close up shot of that particular machine, so it didn't matter that it broke momentarily. 
• There was also a part of the show where I animated the scores graphics, and because I wanted to get a shot of the award being passed to the contestant, I cut to a different shot before hiding the graphic. This is something we probably can't fix in editing, but it doesn't look too bad.
• There was also a part where the lights were all dark, and we weren't sure what happened. Apparently George wasn't stood in the right place, and we should have at least one shot where it looks ok, but in the gallery at the time I didn't see one shot where the light was on him.
• This is something myself and Laura will look into when doing a small amount of post production on the show, but if nothing can be done about it, then we will just have to leave it.
• Even though there were a few tense moments in the gallery, I still think we were all quite calm and collective and dealt with the situations well.

• After having a goodbye talk from Simon and the audience cheering for us, we took some group pictures with the set, and then we started to de-rig the set and equipment.
• This was quite a long process and I oversaw everything, making sure things were done properly. The set was taken down quite quickly, as was the lighting equipment and the camera equipment.
• Once everything was finished and taken out of the studio, I had one last look to make sure it was all gone, and then I went back to the base room to talk to the others about the show.

Overall, I am really happy with the outcome of the show and I am so proud of everyone. I think we all did our jobs well, and on the last day we all knew what we were doing and felt confident about it.

Directing, at first, was hard for me as I doubted myself a lot, but after growing and developing into the role after every rehearsal I've definitely grown in confidence. I left the show wanting to do it again, and although when the live show was going on, I was nervous, I think that if I did that week after week I would feel a lot less nervous each time. 

I really enjoyed my time as director, and I thought, by the end of the show, I had the confidence and authority I needed to be able to do the role well.

The show went really well, the audience enjoyed it, and I think everyone was really happy with it. I'm really looking forward to watching it back and editing a few of the minor mistakes that were made.