Live on the Lawn 2014

Some of the Crew enjoying their Pre-Show Picnic

Live on the Lawn took place on Saturday 17th May 2014 (Summer Wk4) running for 1 hour 17 minutes. It was produced and directed by Grace Winpenny, and the assistant producers were Ellen Dunbavin and David Heaton. Matt Judge and Chris Wall presented the show.

The Live Show

Live on the Lawn (LotL) 2014 aimed for even more live content than in 2013 but kept much of the same structure. The set was 'just off the lawn' outside YSTV which meant that technical difficulties were easier to solve than if the show had been a 'real OB'. The main focus was live music acts but the show also included interviews with Kieron Moore about Union Episode 3 (which made its debut after LotL), and a Skype Interview with Emma Bew which was ever so slightly hi-jacked by two of the Union cast...

Rigging began around 12pm, and was supervised by the Tech team, but most of the actual rigging was completed by members who had attended OB Training. By the Technical Director's words of approval, it is safe to say that OB Training was effective and very useful for members with less rigging experience.

Live Music Performances

• Louise Essex: Playing guitar and singing some chilled out original songs 'Heiress' and 'By the Lamp'.
• Harriet Gibson: Playing guitar and singing upbeat covers of 'Dance Me to the End of Love' and 'Boob Song'.
• Leo James: Playing guitar and singing 'Time to Reconcile' and 'I Only Pray When I'm Desperate'.
• Vox: Vocal Acapella Ensemble performing 'Hide and Seek' and 'When I Survey'.

Additional Guests on the Show

• Kieron Moore discussing Episode 3 of Union and the challenges of taking the YourUnion Officers to the NUS Conference.
• Interview with Emma Bew, one of the Woodstock 2013 Producers, through the power of Skype.
• Andy Watts' andJames Wood's spontaneous appearance, bringing ice-cream to Matt and Chris, and even introducing Leo's performance.

VTs

From the beginning of time, the production team wanted to minimise the number and length of VTs in LotL, because they felt the emphasis should be on live content. This is because LotL is a warm-up show for Woodstock, YSTV's longest Live OB.

Title Sequence

Taking inspiration from the NaSTA award-winning Lights on Literature, the producers decided to create a stop-motion animation title sequence. This was filmed on the Wednesday before the show with Helen Hobin and Grace Winpenny moving props around whilst Tom Cheyney made miracles happen on his camera. Grace then edited the title sequence on the Thursday and the files were ready for Saturday afternoon.

Filming took place on Vanbrugh Bowl (much to the confusion of Music Students and the waterfowl inhabitants of the grass) and props were kindly lent by several YSTV members, the Props Drawer and from Dramasoc. Whilst the weather was mainly sunny, occasionally the Sun decided to hide, so there are some lighting inconsistencies. Whilst editing, it was decided that Colour Correction was too much fuss and that the differences in lighting added to the quirkiness of the title sequence. The music used in the titles, stings and credits is public domain.

Short sections of the title sequence VT were used as stings for the other VT's.

Union Episode 3 Promo

Not made for LotL but used as Episode 3 was shown straight after the show. Gave viewers chance to get to know what Union is and what to expect from this unique episode.

Woodstock 2013 highlights

When procrastination takes hold, editing happens, and VTs are made. The producers had a vague outline of the show in the weeks before LotL, and knew they wanted to talk about last year's Woodstock, so a 58 second VT was made to prompt interviews, and, once again, to bring viewers up to speed, particularly if they had not been to a Woodstock

Producer's Notes

The Good

• Most of the show was Live, and outdoors, which was one of the producers' main goals - under 5 mins of VTs were used in total.
• The Weather - taking place in the first heatwave of 2014, the weather was sunny and hot, which made for a lots of pretty shots.
• The set-up was efficient and since OB Training had taken place a few weeks before, more people were able to rig successfully and with Robert Walker's approval whilst the Tech team tended to more pressing issues.
• Part of the Producers' vision was to use a different set to our normal live shows, which usually happen in
• No Sofa - the set was pretty, but it needed to be re-arranged after acts, and ended up looking a bit messy
• Cool title sequence, looked really cool, and used public domain music
• Lovely audio recordings were recorded separately by Helen Moss which were edited into the final full version of the show by Grace Winpenny
• LotL2014 was the first show to include a live Skype interview! This is credit to of the Tech and Computing teams, particularly the day before the show.
• Props - don't let guests walk away with them though, thanks to Dramasoc and various members of YSTV for lending
• The presenters were brilliant, very natural, good response to direction and potential changes in the show's plan. Also, the producers wanted the presenters not to wear sunglasses, as eyes are the windows to the soul, and the presenters responded nicely to their requests.
• the acts were of a really high standard, future producers should contact people in the music department directly before sending out a general call for acts to perform - the response rate is much better as the acts feel more valued!
• We mostly stuck to the original schedule...
• Green Room was booked, although should have probably booked further in advance than the day before....
• Everyone listened well and was calm and co-operative.

The Bad

• Perhaps no need for lighting rig outdoors with blistering heat.
• Umbrellas would have been useful - even in sunshine.
• Comms need to be set-up earlier, esp if the sofa isn't being used! This caused much panic for the director in the hour before the show, but all issues were resolved in the final moments of preparation.
• One act didn't turn up until just about to perform, which would have meant the show had to finish early - always have a contingency plan, planned ahead of the show rather than during the show.
• Perhaps more musical acts/variety would have added more interest. We were aware of the changing microphone set-up required between Leo and Vox. This was managed beautifully by the Lawn Manager and potentially more ensemble acts could be included in future versions of LotL.
• Had ordered inflatable parrot for 89p which only arrived the Tuesday after the show, he now sits in the control room but remains nameless.
• Kenric's camera stopped working for a mysterious reason during Leo's performance, which the technical team responded to within the performance.
• The singing challenge was a little underwhelming, more planning would have been useful here.
• Ran slightly under hoped time - 90 minutes - but as we were about 5 minutes late in starting the show.
• the warmth of everything, which resulted in several melted chocolate fingers.
• Script cards should be printed out earlier and be made more pretty instead of plain white paper....

Credits

• Producer and Director: Grace Winpenny
• Assistant Producer: David Heaton
• Assistant Producer: Ellen Dunbavin
• Presenter: Matt Judge
• Presenter: Chris Wall
• Guests: Louise Essex, Kieron Moore, Harriet Gibson, Emma Bew, James Wood and Andy Watts, Leo James, Vox
• Camera Op: Rachel Burns
• Camera Op: Kenric Yuen
• Camera Op: Helen Hobin
• Vision Mixer: Peter Eskdale
• VT Op: David Heaton
• Sound Engineer: Helen Moss
• Graphics Op: Chris Parker
• Lawn Manager: Sam Nicholson
• King of the Lawn: Morrissey
• Technical & Computing: Thomas Cheyney, Nick Fury, David Heaton, Robert Walker, Lloyd Wallis, Sam Nicholson,
• Social Media: Emily Torricelli