Carrie Havel was the Associate Director on GREASE LIVE. This is what she posted on Facebook. What you'll then see is the scene on the left and Carrie in the control room calling the shots on the right. Remember, this is LIVE. Truly incredible.
Here's what she posted. Enjoy.
A lot of people have asked what it means to be the Associate Director on a show like Grease Live. Here's a peek behind the curtain. Every shot in the show was designed and scripted by our director Alex Rudzinski. My job was to execute that plan. You hear me calling shot numbers and camera moves carefully coordinated with the music. My head stays in the script and Alex, to my right, keeps an eye on cameras to adjust framing and pacing.
17 comments :
Always amazed at the frenzy that goes on in the booth of a TV, much less a LIVE TV show.
Once worked with a director named Bill Hobin. Bill had been a drummer and when he directed musical numbers, he worked from the score / music sheets. That was his script. Very interesting to watch him do his thing as well.
Finest director I ever watched shoot musical numbers for TV was the late legendary Dwight Hemion. He and his producer partner Gary Smith were the very best at doing music specials for TV.
Phenomenal. And I thought MY job was hard!
When I was in high school trying to decide on a career path, my first love was music, and I was seriously moving in that direction with hopes of becoming an orchestra conductor. Then I got involved with my school's extra-curricular television program on a whim, and after directing my first live broadcast, I knew I was hooked for life, and music disappeared into the rear view mirror. Nowhere in my wildest imagination did it ever occur that the two could ever be combined into a single job.
I think that would have made a better song than the ones they added.
Cool insider post! I love live shows, it is like theatre in your living room!
...and I thought brain surgery and rocket science were complicated...
Impressive. And clearly everyone was keyed in & doing her/his job. Just in my small, limited-experience way, it was so odd hearing a director call out numbers but the numbers weren't camera numbers.
A Friday question for you.
Watching the drug co exec (not) testify before Congress today made me think of corporate malfeasance and wonder--in your radio days did anyone ever approach you with anything that resembled payola or did you ever see anybody at any station who could be bought? Don't take the 5th; the statue of limitations is up.
-30-
Wow! Just amazing! Thanks for this.
Tremendously talented folks.
I was going to tweet it, but that headline makes it look like it could be spam.
Anonymous, the answer is no. Radio stations were too cheap to provide mirrors.
When I first saw this video, I was very surprised to hear the AD counting beats toward pre-numbered shots. I know British shows have been directing musical performances this way for decades, but to my knowledge it's not very common in the US.
This method can produce a very clean show if it's well-rehearsed and the on-camera talent is fully on-board. If not, well, it can be a bit of a mess... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvoNB2vkdp0
What is this statue of limitations? A bronze of some guy holding up signs such as "keep off the grass", "No food and drink beyond this point", "You must be this tall to ride this ride"?
"When I first saw this video, I was very surprised to hear the AD counting beats toward pre-numbered shots. I know British shows have been directing musical performances this way for decades, but to my knowledge it's not very common in the US."
Interestingly this production of Grease was directed by Alex Rudzinski who has directed nearly every episode of Dancing With The Stars. DWTS is produced by the BBC and nearly all of the executives are Brits so not surprisingly the show is shot pretty much like a British show. The sequence you see in the YouTube video is pretty much what happens on every episode of DWTS.
Very cool. It's usually the case, in any profession, that what goes on 'behind the scenes' is more interesting than what is publicly visible.
Wouldn't you like to know what her heart rate was during this segment?
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