Your Public Best - Lillian Brown [104]
You may have to look where you are walking because of the many cables of different sizes snaking across the floor. Tied into various pieces of equipment, the most obvious cables are the large black sheaths connected to the cameras. I have counted as many as fourteen cables for a five-camera show.
A typical studio will have three or four cameras, some having certain distinguishing features, capabilities, and specific uses. Each camera has a large lens protruding from the front, plus a small red globe called a tally light, in addition to many little boxes and handles. Most cameras also have a square-shaped, mirrored prompter device in the front that enables you to read your script while looking at the camera lens.
You will notice that many lights hang from the ceiling, facing in various directions and at different angles. Some of the lights will be aimed at you—your key light is one of these—while other lights are aimed at the set, background, and environment in which you are being taped. Experts who control the studio lighting have switches and other devices at their disposal that enable them to contribute to the creation of a picture containing proper “colorimetry.”
The walls of the studio are usually lined with floor-to-ceiling drapes or cycloramas, which curve around the set and are used as a background. Desks, chairs, tables, podiums, plants, decorations, signs, logos, etc., comprise the rest of the set.
Television broadcasting facilities usually have the following elements in common: the control room; master control (often called “central control”); a section for editing, recording, and playback of video tapes; and at least one studio.
The Control Room. The control room, which is usually located near the studio, is where the key decisionmakers sit during a broadcast. As you walk through a station, you will notice that some of the key equipment for producing the broadcast is located in the control room, some in master control.
Seated in a row facing a wall full of monitors, clocks, and various other pieces of equipment are the director, the assistant director, and various technicians, usually the switcher and an audio person.
Producers also sit in the control room during a broadcast, usually behind the director. It is the producers who are in charge of the content and other creative aspects of the show.
The director is in charge of the production aspects of the show—it is she or he who calls the shots on such things as rolling tape, cueing people on the set when time is up, selecting camera shots and angles, fading lights or calling up theme music, and timing the show segments between any ads.
Most of the monitors that the people in the control room are looking at are black and white. There is a monitor for each facility, i.e., for each camera, video tape, remote location, etc. The few color monitors found in the control room show the program in progress from the studio. They also make it possible to preview an effect prior to using the scene.
A technician seated right beside the director is in charge of a piece of equipment called the “video switcher,” which is embedded in a large desk and has a series of colored, lighted buttons. The switcher allows for the selection of the various signals appearing on the monitors. The technician (who is often called “the switcher,” after the machine he or she is in charge of) also presses buttons that control such things as which camera is being used and the use of graphics. During the program, the director gives a constant stream of commands to the switcher, such as “key,” “matte,” “camera two,” etc.
The audio person sits in front of a console whose many knobs control the sound levels of microphones and music tapes.
Those involved in the technical aspects of the program wear headsets, which connect everyone together—the camera operators, lighting person, prompter operator, floor person, sound person, and directors. They can