Studio Production Under Pressure

Tight deadlines, quick production turnarounds, challenging guests - it’s all in a day’s work for journalist and broadcaster Neil Sean, whose show Be My Guest is filmed at Westminster Live Studios in London.
Making a weekly chat show can have so many problems: guests dropping out at the last minute, guests bringing huge entourages that haven't even been mentioned until they arrive, and Hollywood icons who request their Starbucks be made by their own brand of mineral water. But it is all part of the fun in hosting, producing and writing Be My Guest; a chat show which is syndicated across the globe.
We record the show at Westminster Live Studios, London, in the heart of the UK political landscape. It is the only studio with a real backdrop of the Houses of Parliament, making it aa firm favourite with leading MPs and world leaders like President Obama & David Cameron to boot. Tony Blair also recorded his now famous interview with Andrew Marr from the same studios in which we record.
Westminster Live has three studios in total, along with a wonderful Chroma Key studio, which can make you and take you anywhere in the world. It is fully HD (not great when you’re over 30!) and, of course, one of the main reasons people love being interviewed here is simple: it’s got that view…
We made a special edition of the show with singing legend Joe Longthorne on the day he received his MBE. Mr Longthorne gave us a full & frank interview, his first in years, covering his whole life story.
There was a lot of activity that day, with a crew outside the Royal Palace awaiting Joe to emerge with his medal, after which he was whipped into the studio just in time for the show.
The original idea was for a special of the show with extended versions for the DVD release, but naturally, in this business, very little ever goes to plan.
Joe had been delayed, which of course cut into screen time. Nevertheless, we fired on all cylinders and got right under way.
Our studio design team of Sharaz Ali & Daniel Howard created an appropriately theatrical look, with Joe’s name & the show’s title in a 1950’s, mock Odeon cinema style, along with great key lighting and a softer effect on the sofas to make it more relaxed.
Joe and his team had never been to Westminster Live before and were duly impressed with what we had created. Given that we were pressed for time, we got down to business straight away and Joe gave us his all, guns blazing. Sometimes during a good interview everything just clicks and you know you are producing TV gold.
The scripts are written by myself and we have a tight team of producers who work with me on every project, so we all have a fast feel of what we are hoping to achieve.
We shot the interview as we always do, on multi camera. But, as we needed a fast turnaround due to the fact it was being produced for a Christmas DVD release, our producer Juan swiftly edited it as live, creating something of a fast paced feel to it all.
All too soon the interview was over and we quickly had to switch the studio around to give a west end feel, as our next job was filming an interview with theatre impresario Bill Kenwright. In this line of work, it never stops. The culmination of everyone's hard work was apparent when we finished the edit in our edits 1 and 4, and mixed down the sound to suit Joe's quiet speaking voice.
Once finished, the files were sent down the line, as they say, and our work was done. Well, not quite...
Joe and his manager Jamie were thrilled with the result and had decided to premiere the screening at the world famous Hippodrome Theatre in the heart of London - a venue Joe had last appeared in twenty five years previous.
So, out of a small job and standard chat show interview, the format has now been sold to thirteen TV channels around the world and received a London premiere.
We are now in the process of filming his live comeback - it’s never a dull day here at Westminster Live...
Read the article in the online edition of Regional Film & Video here.
(IT/CD)