The Set

Live Show Sets.

The set is what gives the audience the first impression of a programme, and especially for children's shows, it's important for them to be eye-catching and brightly coloured. Shapes and lighting can be used to set the scene, while props aid in reinforcing the idea of the location.

It's important to understand how a set will translate onto the screen as staging for theatre and staging for TV can be very different. Where there may be room for mistakes to go unnoticed on stage, HD TV has allowed for audiences to be able to notice the smallest shortcuts that have been taken. This is why staging for television must be to such a high standard, and planned in great detail.

As part of production for Mission Control, I will be required to meet with the Theatre Design students at UCA Rochester and pitch the show to them so that they can build our set for us.

They largely have control over how the set will look but it's a good idea to give them plenty from our branding to work from, so the design and promo crew are working on a 'Style Bible' which the design team can draw ideas from. Lauren will also be making a presentation to give the theatre design team a better idea of what the show is about, but first I want to research how sets have been done on other programmes to get a better idea of what might be most practical.

CBBC Sets

Sam and Mark's Big Friday Wind Up set

Entertainment on CBBC uses extravagant and exciting sets to catch the viewers' eye but also to compliment the presenters stood in front of it and not distract from the action.
Sets for shows such as Sam and Mark's Big Friday Wind Up are bold, exciting, and full of Glitz and Glamour. Using the images of Sam and Mark as the key points of interest on the set is keeping the set relevant to the show title.
The set was designed by production designer Richard Drew. He has designed sets for other large live events such as Comic Relief and Crystal Maze. His sets are bold, energetic, and colourful, and uses lighting to make it stand out. He is a freelancer that has been working with the BBC since he graduated university in 1988 and he has made sets for both small and large studios. His style works well for children's entertainment TV as they are colourful and eyecatching.
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Perspective

When planning a set, it's important to address the perspective at which you'll be recording the show, the different angles that are needed from the cameras and what the Point of View should be for the show. For example, a music show like Later Live with Jools Holland will have a set that involves the audience and brings them in as part of the programme. It's also more inclusive as it's a music event and the audience will want to be more involved, as though it's a concert. For a show like The Chase, however, this is a more formal gameshow format, so the audience are sat out of view of the cameras. There is a separation created between the chaser, the player and the rest of the player's team mates. This makes the player seem small in comparison to the chaser (especially as the chaser looks down on the player in a dominating way) and is made to look alone as they are separated from their team. This is effective in order to add tension to an otherwise simple game. For example, if the chaser were stood at the other side of a table at the same height as the player, and the player's team mates were situated to the side of them, this would make the game a lot more one dimensional, and the set wouldn't be adding any tension.

Colour

Colour appears to be important in game show sets, especially in terms of lighting. Coloured lighting sets the mood for the show. For example, pale blue imitates a sky, creating a sense of calm and knowledge. The hot pink and blue of Strictly Come Dancing indicates 'showbiz' and excitement. The gold in Family Feud indicates that there's money involved.
Colour on sets communicates to the viewer on a subconscious level what they're going to be watching. When a viewer scrolls through channels looking for something to watch, it will first be the coloured lighting of a gameshow that catches their eye, and therefore, this is a very important aspect of a gameshow set.

Props

Props in entertainment must be influential to the programme in some way. You never see props that are totally useless in a programme. 

Props in gameshows tend to be the games themselves. The player will interact with the props in a way that develops the 'plot' of the show; even if the show doesn't have an actual underlying plot, it still has a direction in which it moves and develops depending on the actions of the player. Props also include objects that aren't necessarily used by the players, but will develop a character. For example, the wooden hand that the presenter holds in Crystal Maze is amusingly odd to the viewer as it doesn't fit in or really have a purpose (he's holding a wooden hand with his own hand). However, it communicates to the viewer that the presenter is a strange person that isn't just there to guide the players around the maze, but also gives a hint of a backstory to them. The backstory can be decided by the viewer themselves, but it adds a dimension to the presenter that is simple yet effective.

Mission Control

My vision for the set is that it will depict an enclosed room wherein the players will need to repair the different workings of a spaceship. The colours are in line with our branding with pink, purple, and blue. 

I want the shape of the set to be different to just 3 flat walls, so I designed it to have more angles, which also will make it look more futuristic and make any movement throughout the games much clearer. 

If possible I would love for colourful lighting to be incorporated but this depends on what is possible from the production design team.