When we first started the unit I didn’t really have much of an opinion on it. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it because it was the first big group project of the class and could go either terribly or fine depending on the role I was given for the show. I asked to be the floor manager but got told to be a camera operator which was fine by me. During that waiting time between asking for a role and being told which one we got I realised that I didn’t want to be a floor manager anymore as I would need technical knowledge of how the cameras work to do my job properly and I just didn’t have that. This is why I was chosen to be a camera operator instead and I think it was a better choice for me in the long run, with this role I’d be able to get better with cameras since I didn’t have experience with them yet 

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To create ideas the class was separated into two groups to discuss. My initial idea with the show was to make a game show based on trust, at the time I wasn’t sure what type of game show it’d be since I didn’t like some of the rounds the group I was in came up with (the google feud round in particular). I was the one who came up with the name “Do You Trust Me?” as well. I chose trust because I thought there could be a lot of different ways you could take that, especially in a game show. The first production meeting had us discuss what each other's teams came up with and we took the quiz game show aspect from the other team and went on from there 

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We did research into creating game show ideas and pitching them and the different sub-genres of them to help us in creating an idea for our game show. Another thing we did was analyse and compare two different game shows ourselves to really understand how game shows work and we also looked into how multi-cameras work as we were using a specific set up for our game show (the cross-fire technique)

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The first primary research we did was a questionnaire, we had to get 75 responses on it so we had a lot of different answers. The questionnaire’s answers were very helpful since I asked about the things the team was struggling on the most (what should the rounds be, what do people associate with trust, what the set should look like, ect.), I tried to follow the answers throughout the show. I asked if the game show name was fine despite being confident in it but I actually got a few no’s and some different recommendations, which is how we ended up with the show name “Can You Trust Me?” instead. At this time we weren’t sure what the rounds would actually be which some of the people who were answering the questionnaire brought up. I had to go back and change some of the things in my questionnaire multiple times (I didn’t add an older option for ages which was a huge mistake on my part and I had to go back and write a more detailed description in the questionnaire so people would understand what it’s about better), but it was worth it because the questionnaire was the biggest help I was going off of. One of the answers I got recommended me to watch this game show called “Money”, which I later did when I was working on my research list 

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I also asked my friend for the interview as no one responded to when I asked for anyone while distributing the questionnaire. The interview didn’t help at all since I didn’t want to ask all the questions that were on the questionnaire (since I had her do that already) and her answers weren’t that helpful or descriptive. It was definitely the least effective research I did because of that. At the time the show was very different as well, we had teams of two and I asked how many people should be on each team and didn’t agree with her answer either (two teams of four people would be too many people to get for our game show, the set we had was too small) 

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Afterwards I then started on my research list. I did research into when the schedule time should be and what colours are officially associated with trust, this would help with the show’s theme colours and depending on what time it’d air it would allow us to be less kid-friendly. I then looked into existing game shows opening titles, graphics, music and set designs so we’d have an idea on what we should do for our game show. Finally, I researched different game show games we could have for our game show, how the contestants could buzz in in the show and looked into my job role (camera operator) so I could fully understand what to do for it. At the time I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do research into different games (despite it being a big problem at the time, as a group we decided to get rid of google feud as a round since it had nothing to do with trust) because I was satisfied with the answers I got in my questionnaire. I decided to do so anyway with watching the game show that was recommended to me in one of the answers for the questionnaire. I liked the game show and thought one of the games in the show could be a good fit with our game show as well, but in the next production meeting it didn’t go through as I had a fundamental misunderstanding of how the show worked at the time. The show was the team building up trust in each other and at the end they had a chance to betray each other, I thought that chance of betrayal and shaky trust was throughout the whole show. While I do think how I saw the game show would’ve made for better TV, I think the idea the director had was still fine and followed it. I’ve only improved my research portfolio in one major way, I used multiple books in my research instead of just websites and videos. While this is a small difference I think it’ll have a major impact on how I’m graded next unit 

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In production meeting 3 we decided on everything else we hadn’t finished yet: what all the rounds would be, the host’s outfit in the show and how the set would look like. We did this as our pitch was next, the group split two slides each between ourselves and I did the subgenre & mechanics slide. I personally think I did fine in my pitch, I was worried that I would mess up the mechanics slide as I had to talk a lot more for it but I did better on it than talking about the subgenre. I originally wrote a lot more for the slide and my notes, but I redid them and cut down on the word count which I think really helped. The feedback we got on the pitch helped us flesh out our new round (round 3, the boxes later called instinct) 

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Since there were multiple camera operators we had to work together to create a camera script for all of us and then we each had to do an individual camera script for our own camera. I was assigned camera 3 and was focused on the host, but there was a bit of confusion on which camera was which as I thought I would be focused on the contestants originally. Because of this we had to swap individual camera scripts on production which was slightly annoying as I purposely made my one for me to understand, but I managed fine without it. Making the camera script was a group effort we all did together and I think we worked fine on it, but it definitely could’ve been better. When I had to edit it later on I felt that the camera shots were very basic. We communicated with each other alright since we had to work as a group for the majority of pre-production and we were all confused when we got assigned different cameras on production, but we took up each others roles quickly. We probably should’ve checked with camera was which before we started making the script, but at the time we previously went into the studio to practice our roles and the camera placement of camera 1, 2 and 3 were different from before so I’m not completely sure what we could’ve done 

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Making graphics was simple but very time consuming for me, especially the opening graphics. I actually did my round 4 graphic earlier than I needed to, but it was worth it as despite having the whole day to work on my opening graphics I still needed extra time afterwards to finish the end. I think it was worth it though to work on my opening graphic as much as I did as it came out almost exactly how I wanted it to. I had the idea to animate it because it would’ve been easier to work with and would’ve attracted the secondary audience (students and younger people). I thought my round 4 graphic was fine, it was quite basic though and didn’t feature the colour yellow which was part of the shows theme. I noticed while making my graphics that I focused on adding keyframes to animate different parts 

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In the rehearsals I didn’t find many things challenging, more that I needed help with how the camera worked. It was only by the time the live happened that I knew how to turn the camera on. Throughout working on this project I think I got a bit better with the cameras, but I don’t think I got better by a large amount. I was recommended to take the cameras home to do that and the one time I did take one of them home it helped me a lot more. It was fun to see the show up close since it meant I technically got to watch it and see what the contestants would do. The major problems in the rehearsals had more to do with the actual game show itself (the second round going on for too long, the host not understanding how the third round worked) rather than technical difficulties, although there were a few in the first rehearsal and the live. One of the big problems was that the host kept going off script, in the live show he didn’t but I personally think that created another problem while editing. By the time we had to do the live these problems were all fixed and the director used cuts to their advantage to clear any other mistakes in the show. I fulfilled my role fine and did what the director told me to (zooming in on the boxes in round 3 for example). The biggest thing I learned about professional game shows is that the host has to do a lot more than what it seems such as keep the pace of the show going and remember what they have to say, especially for trivia answers (one of the problems I mentioned in the rehearsals was that the answers for the trivia questions were on the board the host was reading from) 

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Afterwards we then had to edit the show ourselves and add the graphics and any music and sfx to the show. I think I did okay with editing but it definitely could’ve been polished way better, mostly with the shots used and the lack of music/sfx in the show. My peer and audience feedback also agree that the camera sometimes lingered on the host for too long, both of my peers saying that I could’ve used different shots more to cut away from the host awkwardly looking to the side. My audience feedback also mentioned that there were times were the host was obviously looking at the board and that there were a few awkward pauses because of that. This was the main problem I had with the host reading from the board, because he was reading off of it I couldn’t position my camera so he’d be facing me without getting in the way of the board or camera 1. I agree with my peers in that cutting to a different shot during these moments would’ve made this less obvious and would therefore make the show better. While talking about the shots my audience feedback mentioned that one of the scenes had a poor zoom in, I asked him to explain and he said that he was talking about the end when they reveal the boxes. I didn’t notice it at the time but I wouldn’t be able to do much about it in post regardless. My peers noticed that there wasn’t any music or SFX in the edit other than the opening and at the end of the show which was something I was worried about as well. I didn’t agree with one of the SFX I sourced at the time which was why I didn’t add it, but in hindsight I should’ve added it anyway. My peers agreed that the biggest strength of the edit was the graphic placements and they both really liked the opening as it was really creative and fit with the show. When making the graphics I wanted to focus on the answers given by the questionnaire to a specific question I asked (What do you associate with trust?), but I also wanted it to link to the show rounds. One of the answers talked about giving gifts which I thought might fit with the round 3, another one of the answers said remembering things about someone else. The audience feedback also said that at the end the maths was bad which was because in the show the host made the number up at the end. I’m not sure why it was since the lighting operator was doing the math throughout the show and I don’t understand why the host went with such a high number. I brought it up in the second rehearsal that someone really needs to keep track of the prize number for a reason. When we said that the number can be made up I meant that it’s fine as long as it was a reasonable number, saying £3000 when the contestants took away so much in the previous round was way too obvious 

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The audience also told me that the show was like a mix of The Price is Right (the second round being higher/lower, comparing each item with money), Weakest Link (the contestants voting off who did the worst in the first two rounds) and Golden Balls (the last round being split or steal) with the rounds. I’m not sure if the end product is industry standard material purely because of the awkward pauses and the lack of music, but it definitely has elements that are used in the industry. The set design is something that could be seen in professional work, albeit with a higher budget. The question marks on the wall is part of the show’s theme, Golden Balls has its wallpaper in the show literally be golden balls. We had a panel for the host and the contestants which are always seen in quiz game shows, an example of one that has this is Jeopardy. Like The Chase the opening of the show is also animated and both promote the themes of the show (The Chase having a person symbolise the chaser in the show and Can You Trust Me having two people symbolise how trust can be broken at the end of the show) 

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While I’m fine with the work done in this unit, I don’t think this is the best work I’ve produced and I didn’t really achieve much in it. When I got my role I decided I wanted to get better with cameras but I’m not sure I really did. This may have been because this was a class group project or because I just didn’t challenge myself enough, but I feel the same way about this unit as how I began it. I’m confident that my next unit will be better though as I plan to choose a topic I’m passionate about and I’ll have full control on how its run