Digital News Production: Green Screen Shoot

We began our shoot week by filming the part of the package that holds it all together, our presenter and the green screen. We'd previously decided on using a lecture room that's at a distance from our usual work space to avoid visitors and to have minimal outside noise. This room was also a good choice as once the furniture was removed, it became a spacious set.

Problems we ran into in the beginning

• Our green screen equipment arrived late - this lead to a slight domino effect delay. The time we allowed to set up the green screen before our presenter's arrival ended up having to take place once our presenter had arrived, which meant delaying our start time for filming.
• We struggled with getting the lighting exactly how we wanted it, so the time taken to set this up took a lot longer than expected.

Problems we ran into during filming

• Our main issue was unavoidable outside noise from the kitchen next door and people using the hallway. As our mic strongly picked up everything, our only option was to make sure it was silent before our presenter could talk, which meant a lot of stopping and starting.
• The only change that occurred during filming was the inclusion of a Teleprompter. Roughly a third of the way through filming, we decided to use this, which really helped our presenter to say the lines in a more confident matter and have less slip-ups.

Positives

Our only real issue that interrupted filming was the outside noise. Aside from this, filming went very smoothly. As a team our organisational skills and planning paid off to allow for a shooting day that had no real complications. Our presenter read the lines fantastically, we all communicated well to get the job done, we constantly checked our sound and camera work, and we made sure to film each segment plenty of times for good coverage.


What I would change

• The lighting on Francesca as it's slightly over exposed, I think it would look slightly less harsh if this had been the case.
• Our location. If it had been possible to get a sound proof room, we would have had no interruptions during filming.

Final result
The final result is great. It looks very clean and professional, there's plenty of coverage of each lines, it's well positioned and will make a perfect in-studio part of our package.

Presenter on camera