| Interview with OLTL's Director, Jill Mitwell | |
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The challenge of presenting OLTL live for five days in May has been a great group project for our company. Although there have been a few live dramatic shows on television within the past few years (ER, Fail Safe), as of course there were in the early days of television, they had a lot more rehearsal time than we will have. Of course, soaps were live for many years, but they were half hour shows and much simpler at that time than what we do today. The audience has gotten used to a slicker product, and more sophisticated production values. The actors used to have Teleprompters. The lighting, sets, music scoring is more complex. In addition, OLTL has a very small studio, in fact, it's difficult and time-consuming to reposition equipment on a regular day, much less move around quickly and silently without getting tangled up in other camera/boom cables during a live performance.
"I've been so impressed with our cast and crew." |
Gary Tomlin has been our fearless leader in this enterprise and will be directing that week as well. The writers provided us with terrific story during this sweeps week; with the climax of some ongoing storylines and the beginning of new ones. We've done a few "practice live" shows using the schedule we will be on that live week and each time we learn and make adjustments for the next. I've been so impressed with our cast and crew. It's both scary and exciting.
Usually we tape by sets, meaning that we do all the scenes in one set, then move all the equipment to the next set and continue. So I get to focus on one group at a time, and there's a moment to take a breath and go over the script and prepare for the next group while the equipment is moved to the next set and the next actors come to the floor. However for a live show, with the entire episode being done in an hour, we obviously go in a continuity order. So, for example, Act 1 might have seven different scenes in it, 1A through 1G, each with different actors and a different tone, possibly a scene with many quick camera cuts, followed by a scene with a more fluid visual style, or a comedy scene followed by a romantic scene, followed by a fight. It takes a lot of energy and focus to follow the changing rhythms and styles. There's no time to re-group between scenes. You have to be "on" for the entire hour. During the run-through and dress rehearsal, I have to keep track of any notes and adjustments for all 28 or so scenes to pass on to the cast and crew (it's obviously a lot easier to keep the notes in my head when we're just doing a few scenes at a time). My script has to be a lot neater (from my usual indecipherable handwriting) so I can see things quickly on the fly. I color coordinated parts of my script to enable me to better see and call out the camera numbers as we shifted from one scene to the next within the act.
My job always includes staging the scenes and deciding what you're going to see on the screen, but in the case of the live shows the director also has to figure out how the cameras and booms will move between sets during each act. This requires some deft choreography with attention to where the equipment cables are attached to the walls. If not planned correctly, the equipment would get stuck in front of someone else's cable and not be able to cross it to get to the next set. We also have to be aware of how much time we're allowing for each camera or boom to move between sets and if it's enough time to make the move. For example, if camera one is in 1A and 1C, 1B needs to be long enough to allow for that move. The Technical Directors' color coded charts of equipment moves for each act looked like a cross between football play charts and battle strategy. Homework followed by many pre-production meetings has been essential for all of us behind the scenes.
"Just before 2PM, the Associate Director starts counting down and we're on live..." |
During the live week, our rehearsal time per episode is not any greater than in a "normal" week. The only difference is that in order to be ready at 2PM for air, we will have to do our initial actor rehearsal the day before, and start earlier with the crew on the day of. (But our work day ends earlier than in the "normal" week). We will work with the crew in the early morning, rehearsing the technical aspects of production as we always do, i.e. going over the camera and boom moves, identifying the actor positions on the sets for lighting, working out the props, etc. We plan to have two full run-throughs of the show, each in sequence and within an hour, counting through the commercial breaks. Notes and any requested changes from the producers or director will be given to the actors. Just before 2PM, the Associate Director starts counting down and we're on live at 2PM.
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Look for part of Jill's Interview in Soap Opera Weekly, Issue # 19 on News Stands Now!
