‘Lords, be ready all’ [Updated]

4th November 2013

Uncertain as I am about whether the details of the RSC Richard II Live from Stratford-upon-Avon production schedule are really of any interest, I took a stab at chronicling that on Sunday, and I’ll continue that today. Later today we will run a rehearsal of the full production in front of the cameras. This will allow us to test all of the equipment and the plans of screen director Robin Lough, as well to check how costumes and make-up look on screen. So let me see if I can continue to capture something of the process of getting a complex live broadcast production into (and out of) the Royal Shakespeare Theatre – and if this is your first visit, read from the bottom up.

Monday

5.50pm: One of our key concerns has been whether we have sufficient time to strike the camera equipment from the theatre and return all the removed seats before the show this evening. We had scheduled a 90-minute period for this after the rehearsal, and there had been much musing on whether this was sufficient. In fact, the crane was clear of the auditorium within 50 minutes and the whole operations was completed within 80. Job done, and we started our informal review process over a pint in the Dirty Duck. The company, however, has to play again this evening.

4.45pm: So… it’s so strange when you spend so long – and it’s pretty much a year – thinking about a project, preparing for it and planning, and then you’re finally faced with it in a first form. We ran the two parts of the production with just a 15-minute interval between them. Hard now to give any coherent sense of what I feel about seeing this first run-through on the cameras, except to say that I’m excited and that there’s a real sense of possibility and promise. There are lots of things that we can get better before the second rehearsal and the live broadcast, but there are lots of things too that are pretty much spot-on already. Indeed, there are one or two shots or sequences that feel really quite special.

We are working with a large crane inside the theatre, and it is both a blessing and a beast. @livefromSuA have posted a picture of it here. There were a number of shots in which we could see it in the frame, but the value it offers in making possible complex developing shots is wonderful. Inevitably, you sit in the OB truck seeing all of the shadows that shouldn’t be there, and the mis-framings, and the inadvertent blocking of one actor by another… but actually much of it already looks terrific, and I feel it is serving the stage production well.

12.30pm: Cast arriving and getting into costumes, before a short meeting with Greg Doran and screen director Robin Lough at 1.20, with the run scheduled at 1.30. Meanwhile, the musicians are rehearsing in the theatre with the sound crew doing their final checks. I’ll be back after the run with a few first thoughts.

11.45am: Camera checks complete, next up is an audio rehearsal with the musicians at 12.30.

10.45am: It’s a gloriously sunny morning in Stratford, but now we have to retreat into the OB van to start looking at the images the cameras can offer up. Some of the stage team are coming in to the auditorium to get a sense of what it looks like with the broadcast equipment now set. ‘It makes the place look smaller,’ is one observation.

9.00am: Everyone is back in the Ashcroft Room to continue the camera notes meeting.

8.05am: While we’re waiting to get started, here is the latest production diary with set and costume designer Stephen Brimson Lewis.

6.45am: I thought Homeland was pretty good, didn’t you? (See yesterday’s entry at 8.20pm) When Saul said gleefully, ‘We’re back in business’, I took it as a statement of intent by the producers after a very ho-hum run of episodes. Breakfast now, some e-mail, and then off to the theatre for a start around 8.30.

Sunday

8.20pm: We’re still here, although many of the crew are already back at the hotel. BUt the camera notes meeting continues and there are one or two issues about the seats in the auditorium. But we’ve solved some of the problems, including where to do the interval interviews – and the Green Room provided a very nice supper with the choice of chicken curry or vegetarian lasagne. Now my only question is whether I’ll get back to my room in time to see tonight’s episode of Homeland. We will, of course, be back tomorrow.

5.05pm: The camera notes and the lighting sessions are painstaking and protracted. Elsewhere, the radio mic circuits are being tested as are all the systems in the OB trucks and sound mobile. Such is hardly the stuff of compelling blog entries.

3.55pm: In the auditorium David Gopsill is making some subtle changes to some of the lighting states. The cameras we are working with are remarkably sensitive, even at very low light levels, but there are scenes when some minor changes are necessary for balance. The stage lighting director Tim Mitchell very kindly comes in to talk these through with David, and they spend some time thinking about the challenges of the dungeon scene towards the end. But the principle remains that what people will see on cinema screens will be as close to the theatre experience as is possible.

3.05pm: A dozen of us are sat around a table in the Ashcroft Room at the top of the theatre (above). The camera operators are here, the grips, our vision mixer and production assistant. Robin Lough begins to take everyone through a ‘scratch’ recording of the production which was shot on a single camera at the theatre dress rehearsal. The camera shots have been detailed on individual cards for the operators and now, as the recording runs on a large screen, Robin explains each set-up and each framing. This ‘camera notes’ session will last now for most of the afternoon. I should say that it feels rather exciting.

1.50pm: If you followed my blogs for the television productions of Hamlet and Macbeth in 2008, and for Julius Caesar last year, you may remember the central importance of the lunch menu. This came about because our caterers on the first two productions treated us like royalty, and readers were fascinated by the ever-more-enticing treats on offer. Different times, different dishes, and our more modest budget here restricts us to the theatre’s Green Room. Who, it must immediately be said, conjure up a choice of excellent hot pies today: beef, vegetarian and – the one I opt for – chicken and ham.

1.35pm: ‘We’re ahead of the game,’ says associate producer David Gopsill, reflecting on the schedule of getting the equipment into the theatre. Time, then, for some lunch.

1pm: From the grid above there are now fifteen microphones dangling above the stage – six in an outer ring primarily to pick up audience laughter and applause, another six omni-directional mics for the actors as well as a central cluster with a gun mic. Then there will be one further gun mic that will be set in the stalls. Assembling a full 5.1 sound mix is no simple matter.

12.25pm: The six cameras are in position now: two on tracks on the sides of the thrust stage, one (almost mounted) on the crane, two more – one of which is fixed, the other on a short track – in the stalls, and one at the front of the circle.

11.55am: The crane arm is wheeled in and similarly swung into position. This is a serious piece of equipment. You can get a sense of it here.

Meanwhile, the sound rig continues, with discreet mics being hung from the grid above, and these will pick up the audio along with radio mics concealed in the costumes of each cast member.

11:20am: This is one of the trickiest moments, as the crane base is lifted up and swung across several rows of seats to come to rest on its platform. With care and the combined strength of ten, the manoeuvre is completed with minimal fuss and no mishaps.

10.30am: The Moviebird 44 crane is being built on the stage, with protective boards beneath it to save the acting surface from being scratched.

9.30am: The unloading is underway: cameras, dollies, track, sound kit and more is carried in to the auditorium. Several rows of seats have been removed in the side areas of the stalls and also in the curve of what I think of as the horseshoe.

9am: I walk down from the hotel to the area just to side of the theatre. Two of the articulated trucks have already arrived and are parked up, the sound mobile is on its way. The area is used by the RSC for trucks to park loading and unloading sets and costumes, and the trailers fit neatly into the space. Apart from a delay to a tourist bus which cannot easily get round the corner – and this soon fixed – the arrival seems to go smoothly.