Networking on Big Brother

On Big Brother I networked with alot of people and as I was in the Live office all the time I spent alot of time with the producers, script writers, researchers, production co-ordinators, the production manager, the production secretary as well as the other runners. I spent alot of time talking to the researchers, runners, production co-ordinators and secretary and learnt how people got into their jobs, what path they were on and where they wanted to end up. I didn't spent too much time talking to the producers and script writers as they were always very stressed and busy. I also spent time talking to the guys doing the editing and watching what they were doing. I also spent time talking to the on site medic and the health and safety officer and found out what their jobs entailed as they were both roles that I had never come across on out little projects.

I spent alot of time talking to the other runners and it was interesting to hear about what direction everyone wanted to go in. We were all doing the same job and starting off in the same position but everyone seemed to want to go off in a different direction, some people wanted to be camera ops where as others want to become producers or directors. I spoke to a few of the the runners and told them that I was interested in casing and one of them suggested that I ask to work on BOTS helping find the audience. I think I might try and do this but time is running out, I will definitely try and get on the audition tour next year and try and work with the casting team on that as I think it will be really interesting to see how they whittle down the thousands of applicants to the little group of people who actually enter the house.

I have made some really good contacts on this project and I will definitely continue to talk to people to try and get even more of an understanding into what goes into a massive production like Big Brother. 

My Summer So Far...

This summer I have been fortunate enough to work on the Live Big Brother shows. I am an office runner and so my duties are making sure everyone has a copy of the script, running order and camera script as well as making sure everyone in the office and on set are fed and watered at all times. I am also in charge of signing talkbacks in and out. I have learnt alot about how the show works already and have met some really good people.

I have also spent the day with a man called Stephen Ellis who is a freelance editor. I spent the day with him at a post production house in Soho to see what he does and what he was working on. The documentary he was working on was about a story I had seen in the newspaper a couple of months ago. It was the story about a girl who dressed up and pretended to be a boy to seduce her 2 best friends. I found this story really interesting when I read it in the newspaper and when I found out that was what the documentary was about I was really excited and intrigued to find out the whole story. The week before I went to see Stephen he had watched through all the footage and had started to fit the pieces together so that when I got there we watched through everything he had pieced together and we started to build a story together. He kept me quite involved asking me what I thought of each section and characters and if I understood what was going on. I really enjoyed spending the day with Stephen I was able to learn alot more about documentaries and was able to see how Avid software works and how you edit with it. I was also really lucky that the documentary was on a subject which I was interested in and I can't wait to see the final product on Channel 4.

Another thing I have been doing this summer is developing mine and Maddie's major project idea. We have had a couple of production meetings and the idea is really coming together now. We have been developing this idea before we even came to uni. We have always been fascinated by twins and in the beginning we wanted to make a show were we fight twins against each other in physical and mental challenges to see who the better twin is. We were going to use this idea for our AS Live project but when we found out we couldn't work together we decided neither of us were allowed to use the idea for this project and we would leave it for our major project. We have developed the idea and have decided to change it into a light hearted documentary series where we will interview the twins and set them a simple challenge to compete in. We have began blogging, writing down all our ideas, research and casting avenues we have been down.
http://twinniesdoc.blogspot.co.uk/

Big Bro Another Eviction Night

Friday 6^th July – Eviction – Live Office Runner

Call time: 9:30am

Today I was on the early shift office runner so I arrived at the studios nice and early and as soon as I got there I began my office duties as normal.

It was then time for the script run. We had new printers in which didn’t jam and Katie (the head office runner) had already printed out the schedules, camera cards and running orders the night before, so all we had to do for the meeting was the scripts. We managed to get these out to where they needed to be within 20 minutes. The scripts were read as usual in the morning script meeting and changes were made so we had to do the final script run with the new changed script.

Today I had to help Bonita (the researcher) with sorting out the prompt cards for the rehearsal. We had to make sure the script on the prompt cards was exactly the same as the main script, print out each bit of the script on stickers and then stick them on the back of the prompt cards. The prompt cards were needed in the rehearsal and so if there was any changes made we had to quickly re print the relevant card and run it over to set.

I continued my normal office duties and then it was time for my long train journey home.

The First Eviction

Friday 8^th June – First eviction – Live Office Runner

Call time: 12pm

Today was the first eviction. As usual I began my day by signing out my walkie and starting my office duties. Then the script run began. The printer was still not fixed and so we had to use the printer down in BOTS again. We managed to get the scripts out quicker but they were still not on time. We had loads of runners helping run them round to all the places they need to go to.

After the script run was done it was time to get back to my runner duties.

This week it was extremely windy and rainy and therefore we were told by health and safety that because of the weather conditions the set was unsafe for us to use tonight and therefore the first eviction had to take place on the Bit on the Side set. Brian presented the whole show from this set and instead of the evicted housemate walking down the stairs to the audience she was quickly carted off from the house to BOTS whilst the show was in the ad break.

Once the show had finished it was home time.

Launch Night

Tuesday 5^th June – Big Brother Launch Night – Live Office Runner

Call time: 11 am

Today was launch night. I was really excited to get stuck into the whole atmosphere of launch night. Once I got to the studios I signed out my walk and got to work with my office duties – signing out walkies, doing tea runs and changing bins.

Once I had done all of this it was time for the script run. As it was the launch night it was important that we got all of the schedules, scripts and camera cards out as soon as possible as they were needed for the meeting and rehearsals. Again the copiers kept jamming and we solved the problem my taking a load of paper and a copy of all of the documents down to the Big Brother Bit on the Side (BOTS) offices to use their printers. The script run still took us a long time but by using the printers in BOTS the time it took us to do it was minimized.

I then carried on with my office duties – getting dinner orders and going out to collect them, making sure the office table was stocked up with drinks and snacks for the crew to take as they signed out their walkies and collected their dinner vouchers.

At 9pm the show began and the girl on the early office shift had left. I began tidying up the office – sweeping, changing bins, shredding and putting snack away whilst being able to watch the show in the office.

Once the show had finished all of the crew and runners began making their way back to the Live office to sign walkies back in. Once all the walkies had been signed in it was time to go home.

My First Day on Big Brother

Thursday 31^st May – Tech Day – Live Office Runner

Call time: 10 am

Today was my first day working on Big Brother. This morning I was really excited about getting stuck into the job and meeting the people I was going to work with but at the same I was very anxious, this was a really big opportunity for me and I just didn’t want to mess it up. When I first got to Elstree Studios, after my long train journey, I went over to the Live cabin and this is where I began to meet the other runners and the rest of the production team I was going to be working with. We all signed out our assigned walkies and made our way over to the Reality cabin to get our security passes which we would use for the run of the show. We got taken into a runner meeting to run through what was expected of us and what each of our individual roles were. We then had a whole crew health and safety meeting on set and then we were taken outside for a tour of the site. When we arrived at the Big Brother set I couldn’t believe how small it was. It defiantly looked 10 times bigger on TV and it made me realise even more the magic of cameras.

My first task was to help with the script run. We had to print schedules, camera cards in different sizes and scripts. We had lots of problems with the photo copiers as they kept getting jammed and the script run ended up taking us 3 hours. As it was the tech day we didn’t worry about it too much but it is definitely something we need to solve for the first live show.

For the rest of the day I did various office runner jobs like tea runs, booking out walkies and giving out dinner vouchers. I also had to take dinner orders from the production team and go out and buy or order whatever they wanted. I had to get money from petty cash from Penelope and make sure that I kept all receipts.

Later on that evening I got the chance to be a stand in contestant and walk out of the orbit, down the catwalk posing for the cameras, get interviewed by Brian and walk up the stairs to the house. This was like a dream come true as I had been a massive fan of Big Brother when I was young age. As there is going to be a twist on launch night I also had to be a stand in for that. All of the stand in contestants were sat on chairs behind the orbit with blind folds on, blankets over our heads and sound cancelling head phones on to see what we were aware of so that they knew what the contestants were going to be able to hear and see.

After this cars were called and it was time for us to head home.

I had a really good first day, everyone seems really nice and I just can’t wait for Tuesday for the show to actually start.

The First and Only Unsigned Live

Heres the first and only Unsigned Live episode. We all worked really hard in our individual roles.