Studio Production: Studio Camera Research - 'Loose Women'

How Could the Studio be Filmed?

As I'm on lead camera at the studio, I researched similar shows to 'What You Sayin' plus some extra shows with interesting camera work.

Loose Women

As Helen mentioned, Loose Women is one of the most relevant shows. Defined by its log line as 'Hot topical debates and top celebrity chats with a four-women panel', the show is similar to What You Sayin but instead isn't aimed at the younger audience and at a much broader, slightly older audience. Nonetheless, I watched one of the episodes online and on TV at the time and carefully watched the camera work.

Interview/Show Introduction

For this, I went on YouTube and searched for the first programme which has the start,middle and end of an interview. This one was the show back in October 2014 which has an interview with the pop star Ariana Grande (link below). Here I'll be collecting all the shots which were used in the interview, plus commenting on the camera style in general.

Pre-interview/Introduction Shot

First Shot: the panelists introducing the guest

Unlike the establishing introduction shot which the show begins with, this begins with a long, slightly low angle shot where the panelists are announcing whom the special guest is. To me, this is a standard and expected shot and the camera isn't entirely important, as the purpose for this is mainly on the content, as they're revealing who will be coming on stage.

Then rotates 180 degrees onto the guest, following him/her
until she is seated on the panel

Nonetheless, as soon as the guest is interviewed, we see the camera spin around 180 degrees (as the camera is hand-held) and follows the guest once (if they do) greet the audience and then lastly sit down to the centre of the stage. The same lead shot then continues until it leads the focus from the guest back onto the panelists. However here, the camera still focuses on the guest's movement and follows him/her as she finally sits down, leading to a long-shot of the panelists whilst the camera's positioned in the corner of the stage (see 0:15-0:32 of the video). 

The ending on the first shot - it's just finished following the guest
and has led to a long shot of the panelists.

This idea of having just one shot to introduce a guest seems quite conventional not just for Loose Women but for debate and other shows in general. For example, Celebrity Juice has one shot which begins with Keith Lemon walking down the stairs where the audience are based, up until he is placed on the panel. Nonetheless, this clearly works effectively as the camera is frequently on the guest so the audience can clearly gain a first impression as to whom he/she is. If this was to change to say 2 3 or more shots, then it may seem hard to get this 'first impression' as the camera's constantly moving.

Interview Process

Once the guest arrives on the panel, we return to the 'master' shot: the key shot which is commonly used as it shows a clear long shot of the guest and the panelists together (plus the majority of the stage). 

The 'Master shot': showing the panelists and the guest

However the camera then often switches back to a wide, medium shot of the audience as they are watching the show. This is quite interesting as the camera is watching on the audience, who are watching the show which is quite different as some shows often use audience's shots with the camera positioned in the front of the audience - not on the side. This seems much more effective as some of the audience may feel 'on edge' if they are watching a show and theres a camera positioned in front of them, whereas if it's on the side you are most likely to forget that the camera is panned on you, thus allowing them to feel relaxed. As well as this, this gives the camera more to pan if it's in the corner or on side of the audience, as if positioned correctly (like this show) the camera is able to go from the audience, to a extreme almost establishing shot of the studio.

Interesting shot of the audience: usually expect the camera to be
positioned at the front of the audience.

Linking on from establishing shots, the shot below too is interesting. As you can see, this is almost  reverse establishing shot showing the heads of the guest and panelists plus the audience. This is only evident for a couple of seconds however it may've been used just so the audience can get a better insight into the studio, as you can see literally everything (even the cameras). Nonetheless, this can also be seen in a negative way because you can see the camera and the realisation that this is a studio show, which may ruin the experience of the debate (in some people's opinions, I personally see both the pros and cons of this shot but wouldn't use it purely because you can see a cameraman).

An establishing shot of the studio: Is it good to let the audience
view the entire studio, or can it seem annoying that you see
the outskirts of the studio, including the cameraman?

Once the interview is in full swing, the camera then sticks to the conventional and expected shots showing whom is talking and then of course showing the reaction shot to whom the conversation is aimed at (so in this case it is frequently aimed at all the panelists or the guest). This can be shown in the three shots below - the bottom shot shows whom is talking, and then two reaction shots (on different occasions) of who the conversation is aimed at (therefore the reaction shot). This is a compulsory and expected studio-fliming style (which is evident in the majority of television, such as documentaries, news interviews and so on) and without it, it may seem confusing as to who is talking to who.

An 'audience POV' shot: letting those watching on TV feel
like that they're part of the show

Another interesting shot is the one shown to the right. Immediately you can tell that this long shot, positioned in the audience, is purely to show those who are watching this on television what it is like to be in the audience. This too is quite effective as it enables those watching to feel like they're part of the show as well as they get to view what this perspective is like. Additionally, shots like this help to give the show more coverage and generally reduces this repetitive style which may seem boring to some viewers. In other words, it gives the show a different perspective to look at.

End of Interview/Outro

Going from the master shot to....

In terms of the ending of the show, there is no new filming styles and simply ends with a PTP (piece to piece) - it goes from the master shot, to an audience shot, and then back to the master shot. This is quite simplistic however effective as we get this audience POV shot again - almost to act as if you are clapping for her appearance like the audience.

An audience shot, then returning back to the master shot.

General Filming Style: Pace and Use of the Camera

In terms of the vision mixer, the show follows a standard-paced style - we see the camera frequently moving to follow this 'action to reaction' style meaning that the pace of the show is entirely dependent on the guests. In this case, this followed an average-moving style: it wasn't entirely fast-moving between each camera as the general style and conversation was quite average and expected. This however can change and become fast in some cases in Loose Women as this is a debate show, meaning when a debate gets heated up, the conversation is likely to become much quicker thus the pace of the show seem faster and more relevantly 'heated'. This is likely to be very similar to our show (we don't know if there will be a heated debate, but hopefully as it's what people want to see!) considering ours too is a debate show.

Similarly, the positioning of the camera seems to conventionally be quite static: there isn't much movement with any of the cameras, in fact the only movement is the handheld camera which we see at the beginning of the interview. To me, this could be much more effective and could try to be relevant to the show itself. For example, as this is a debate show, the cameras could always be moving like the pace of the show, helping to allow the tension from the show to almost transfer onto the movement of the camera.

How Many Cameras are There?

After watching the interview, there are clearly fixed cameras and what they do, which could be:

     - The Master shot: fixed on the panelists and guest and following the guest as he/she arrives

     - POV audience shot

     - Establishing shot, showing the heads of the panelists/guests, audience and the outskirts of the 

       studio 

     - Two cameras, one on each side of the studio to create this 'action to reaction' style.

This means there are likely to be between 4 to 5 cameras, dependent on whether the POV audience shot can also be used to be the other audience shot. Nonetheless, are studio will be having 4 cameras meaning that this setup could be used. However, Helen didn't want to have an audience shot as it shows the studio plus we won't be having a large audience like this show. Below is an image where you can see 2 of the cameras: one to the left behind the audience, and one at the back middle of the studio. However, the cameras for the 'action to reaction' shots could be on the outskirts of this shot and just much more zoomed in.