Rehearsals - with focus on my role as Floor Manager

First Rehearsal - 14th March 

During the morning of the first rehearsal, the cameras were being set up along with sound. After that, the producer then sat the whole crew down and went over the script to make sure everyone know what was involved.

After that, camera and sound crew continued to set up and I sat an spoke to the Director about what she wanted me to do. I wanted to make sure that I knew where I had to stand so the Presenter knew which camera to look at. But because there were too many and I wouldn't have time to get from one camera to the next we decided that it would be best if I just stood next to the camera he has to look at when a sequence starts and finishes.

In the afternoon of this sessions, was when we properly began to rehearse the show. The Director came down onto the floor to explain to the camera crew and my self the positioning of the cameras - what we did was block out Round 1 and Round 3.

It was a good rehearsal because we went through the first 7 minutes of the show. At first I wasn't sure when I was allowed to shout out the countdown and when I had to be silent. So at first it was tricky trying to remember when but then I got the hang of it. I also felt more comfortable shouting out as time went on.

Second Rehearsal - 21st March 

Personally I feel that this rehearsal was extremely chaotic and didn't go as well as it could have. So we are lucky that we didn't have the presenter for this rehearsal.

In the morning of the rehearsals we did the usual set up of sound and cameras, but also as floor manager I taped the floor of where the set was going to be since we got the measurements and were in the proper studios.

Then very stressfully I worked with the Director for the seating arrangement. The original did not work out because of the camera layout and the fact the the audience would not be able to see any of the show.  After that we came up with a solution where all the camera would be more in the front and sideways whilst camera 3 and 5 are at the back.

Afterwards, the whole crew sat down again and we blocked out Round 3 and 4. With Dels advice the director added in a few more shots and I also had to make sure I knew when the set had to be changed. Then for the afternoon we began rehearsing.

This is where I felt it began to get complicated. I was stressed out because I was on my own changing the set around and also was not 100% if the set was correct, so when i asked on talk back if it was correct I had no response but only got one closer to the end of the VT. I know it will become easier when we have the first years but for this day and the 28th I am on my own. I noticed something which I was doing wrong which is I kept forgetting to tell the audience where to stand after the end of each round, but in all fairness the times I did, the stand ins were distracted and hardly listening.

Also, it seemed that there was something wrong with talk back that day because I could not hear the director when she said something to me but also she could not hear me when I was saying something to her - maybe it was that we were all stressed. When the director was asking if everything was ready on the floor and I responded No that someone was still setting up - there was no patience from the gallery because they would just start counting down from 5. This frustrated me very much because they could not wait. Also, the countdown would just begin without warning me and I would still be talking to the stand in presenter explaining to them what will be happening.

Never the less, I feel like this was a learning curve for all of us, to constantly stay on our toes and be tuned in all the time. I realise that we were all stressed out and it was the first time that we did whole run throughs of the show - even if there were all over the place. I have assigned myself homework for next time and that is to go over the whole script on my own and make sure I mark down where everything goes and how the layout should look - so I should be confident enough without having to ask the director.

Third Rehearsal - 28th March 

For this rehearsal we had the presenter with us to do run throughs.

The first run through was rather rusty but after the host got the hang of it and so did the director, I personally feel that it went really well.

As Floor manager - I did my job calling out the times of the VTs whilst also changing the set of the show. Considering I was on my own and managed to do it in time I believe that with a team helping me it will al run smoothly. Only thing I am not sure about is how it will go with the actual props - not worried though as I know it will not be much different.

During this rehearsal the director and I decided that it would be best if the host closes each door after opening it on round 4 - this was because we realised that it was difficult to have someone go on set and close them without being seen on camera.

One thing which was a hassle was the cream - it went EVERYWHERE! it also stung our stand in contestants eyes - which is why they will be wearing goggles. (this will come out of our personal budget).

We managed to do four run throughs of the show we the first one a practise the next two were really good and the third one was recorded for us to watch and see where we went wrong and what we could include.

A point for me as Floor Manager is to wait a bit before I start counting down the VT - this is so the sound have time to mute the microphones on the host and contestants.