Secondary research on 2 shows

Set designs:

Both shows have different lay outs, but use multi-camera for the same reason and that reason stays the same for even the smaller productions we make at college. Its all about convenience and its both most convenient for the Viewer and Vision mixer & Director. As mentioned before, these are shot live, onto a live feed and then mixed live. Its all live, unlike film where you can stop, change angle, reset, and go again. If there was a way to get the cinematic perfection of cinema, into live TV, they would have it because its more atheistically pleasing but they have worked out that making it look presentable, but managed to control the flow of information going into the feed, they can get higher ratings and thus, a better show.

Format:

All Star Family Fortune: They ask 100 people a question, and when each team answers, they have to try and guess the most common answer. The more common the answer, the more points they score. 

Top Gear: A special guest is brought into the studio and given a small interview. After the interview is done, they then watch their pre-recorded lap around the Top Gear track and once they finish their record is placed on a board against over special guest celebrities.

These two shows are seem very contrasting, through their set up to their format, but this doesn’t hinder the conventions too much. Each show is basically the same, except one is to give information (Top Gear – but in a comedic way) where as All Star Family Fortunes is just a quiz show. This is interesting because everything about a show is based around the target audience and the format and built from there yet these two shows don’t have them in common at all. Top Gears target audience is male, middle age. All Star Family Fortune is Family entertainment.  Of course, in ways the conventions differ. In Family Fortunes they have contestants, but Top gear has special guests instead. They both have a live audience on set, but again, Family Fortunes has theirs behind the camera and Top Gear has them amongst the Presenters.

Both shows have some sort of voice over, so explain something. For example, Top Gear had Jeremy Clarkson do a voice over about the analysis on the Mono car, and Family Fortunes had a voice over introduce Vernon Kay to the stage. One obviously does more then the other but they are both used to convey information. The reason they use a voice over is because its feels like a commanding voice over us, almost like an omnipotent being. So, psychologically we tune it to the voice and absorb the information given.

Each convention is there for a reason, graphics to give a professional feel and to sometimes organize the show so that the audience doesn’t get confused – also known as a transition. Interviews are again, there to give information across from a new person. Sometimes a professional in a specific field of study – normally found on formal news shows, such as: Sky, BBC, ITV.

Presenters main job is entertain and in some ways extract and breakdown information for the viewer to digest. For example, in Sky News, they will have a split screen and they will ask a question to the interviewee and if the answer isn’t clear the presenter will repeat the answer back in a formal and unobvious way. They tend to be the face of the show, with their usual charismatic characters and great humour – which both Vernon Kay and Clarkson seem to have.

Comparison between 2 professional shows (Top Gear & All Star Family Fortunes) and our College shows (Social Swap and Dan's Group):

Our of the 4 set designs, there was only one unconventional, and that was the Top Gear set. This is only because usually the audience is set seated behind the camera, where as Top Gear has the set in the middle of the studio and cameras set all around, with the audience in frame. In our shows, we one show placed against a curtain background and the other placed against a blue green (for chroma key). The supposed audience was placed behind the camera, with only the set visible in frame. This is the same with All Stars Family Fortune, they have a built set (not a digital because they have the budget for a real one), with the exact same set up as Social Swap except they had an extra camera at the back of the studio to capture a high angle reaction shot of the audience. Even for a show, I pulled out the rail system for the dolly and gave it ago for the main shot of the Presenter and for a back up of the contenders when they are speaking. Though it didn't come out great, and All Star Family Fortunes does it to a professional standard, its expected from a professional show but we still managed to achieve the same system without meaning too. 

Each of the chosen shows had a Presenter. Its needed, they help the show progress through its stages and up to the conclusion whilst keeping the audience engaged. Top Gear is well known for their presenters, Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond, with their constant witty comedic bickering. Obviously, the professional shows would have a better presenter as the presenters there would know exactly what to say, how to say and when to say it making the show have a seemless progression. One thing we didn't have in college was a link between the presenter and the studio room. Professional shows have this, to keep constant updates and to give any information about how the show looks on camera. For our shows, we do have a lot of information being pasted back and forward, and whilst the Presenters don't 100% know what they're doing, this only makes the communication between the Presenter and Studio more vital. 

Graphics is a huge part of shows, they make it look stylistic and give another method of communicating information then just the Presenter announcing it. Both the chosen professional shows use Graphics, from opening credits, to forwarding identities of people. Where as our shows didn't include any, but this isn't because we can't, the overlay options are there and its easy enough to port graphics over to the Tricaster, no one ended up doing it. So, though it never happened, there is nothing stopping us from achieving it. 

As the last convention I will be comparing, voice overs are also another common thing that our college projects are missing. Now, keep in consideration all the voice overs are either pre-recorded or post-recorded. With Top Gear, because its not actually aired live, all the voice overs are done in post to match exactly what is shown the screen. An example of this is when they do their car review, you'll get some stylistic shots of the cars with a chunk of ADR dialogue put over the top from Jeremy Clarkson explaining what it is, where it came from, and what it can do. Now, All Stars Family Fortune uses voice overs slightly different. For example, when Vernon Kay walks onto the stage, there is a voice over announcing him and then he comes on. This would be pre-recorded, as its something that is scheduled for every show and thus easier to be done before then live just in case the Voice actor makes a mistake.