As Live Production: Studio Based Entertainment: The Grand Tour

The Grand Tour is an Amazon Prime Original show, accessible online which is where a lot of television is headed these days with the likes of Amazon Prime, Netflix etc. This show has inspired much of my own ideas and work, more so than its arguable predecessor 'Top Gear' (which is still running on BBC). The show has now found its feet I feel now we're into the second series. I truly love its original set design. 

Something else I really like about the Grand Tour is the way its filmed. The way its filmed and edited is nothing short of captivating. They use quick cuts for a modernistic look. They use a style called 'Outils Wolf' which is a style adopted in similar shows like 'Top Gear'.  So it will go from a normal speed pan to quick speed b-roll and back to a normal speed shot. 

I decided to give this style a go myself to help inspire my directing of VT's. Its a style I would like to test myself so I used some footage from a client project: 'The Firm Awards Opening Video' and gave this directing, filming and editing style a go:

My Own Test:

Although I am not editing the VT's , the edit will only work in coordination with the way I direct the them. I also have influence in the editing department and will sit with Alex just as I did with the practice VT's. After carrying out some father research into this style I found out that 'Top Gear' and 'The Grand Tour' both have the same editor, Dan James. According to (https://www.provideocoalition.com/aotc-grandtour) Dan "has been a long-time editor on both series" so he has adopted his own style. 

Dan says in the interview "We cut what they call the insert films. We don’t really get involved in the studio. The studio shoots are done right at the end of the year but we’re working months and months in advance, getting all the films ready". From this I gather dan focuses on the VT's which is why this style isn't endorsed in the studio parts which are edited and vision mixed live. If they had this directional and editing style in the studio sections it simply wouldn't work as well. It would look to out of place with the intentions behind the studio content (which is more 'chatty' and less about the cinematic look and design).

As camera man for the studio production I am also inspired by The Grand Tour's camera work and how they film in 4K, which is quite a challenge when filming constantly. For television Dramas and films it differnt because the shooting ratio i low but the Grand Tour film "150 or 200:1 sometimes". The in-car cameras have to roll all day. Nine hours a day on the big road trips three cameras in each car, 2 x POV and a ‘face cam’. This would take a lot of time and effort and very high end servers. 

I was very interested in the way they film 'The Grand Tour'As a part of some primary research I spoke to a Camera Operator on The Grand Tour, Phil Piotrowsky in person to get some ideas and inspiration and in-depth first hand knowledge from someone who is out filming on VT shoots and in the studio production. Given I had already research how they film in 4K i asked his opinions on this and he said "I'm not completely sold on filming everything in 4K yet, its a bit of a gimmick but the footage looks really nice" To that I said I imagine filming in RAW brings a lot of work and issues. But thats something he said "doesn't really affect me thats more for them to sort in post". I found this conversation really useful and something that I really took home with me was how the tent studio setup in The Grand Tour feels just the same as a normal studio setup which is strange because of how much different it looks on television.

Link to Phil on IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0684833/

From watching The Grand Tour, I have picked up a few things to consider for our studio production as Camera Op and my role as VT Director. The transitions between shots in the studio should not distract from the content of the show - too much variety would not fit in with this. This could be different for scripted sequences, for example, the drag act at the end of our show may be able to utilise more creative mixing.

Interviews require a level of skill to cut at the right moment to capture reactions of the hosts and interviewees.

The VT's will allow for more creative shots as we will have more time to produce them, and can be stylised properly with the additional edit in post production. But they must also be consistent with the quality of the rest of the show.

Switching shots around can be useful to provide a 'reveal' - as we saw this with the reveal of the different vehicles in Top Gear, but this could potentially work with items of clothing in Steal the Style.


Something that inspired my original studio production pitch 'Politically Incorrect' was to include a celebrity guest come on for the soapbox corner, something I felt very inspired by The Grand Tours 'Celebrity Brain Crash' on series 2 of 'The Grand Tour' where tow celebrities go head to head in a timed track race and have a discussion with Jeremy Clarkson about their lives, careers and driving experience.
We had the idea of getting in one or more celebrities for each show. For our pilot it would be difficult to get hold of even one celebrity. However, after working on BBCs 'Watchdog Live' over the summer I became good friends with its presenters, especially Nikki Fox, who said she would be happy to help me with anything in the future. I decided to try my luck by getting in touch with her to see if this studio production is something she would be interested in getting involved in. And to my great appreciation she was! She Replied:

Hello George

So lovely to hear from you and all about your project - that's a strong idea and I really like the title - those kind of irreverent show's are BIG. I really hope you get to make it, then you'll have your very own pilot and yes, count me in, I'd love too - you know the most difficult thing will be making the date work, with Watchdog and my day job, but Maidstone is nearer where I actually live, than Manchester so I'm sure we can do something. We can try and rope Steph and Matt in as well (shah).

The 'cheesy' titles for the Grand Tours 'Celebrity Brain Crash' are something we would have liked to have had for the stings in our show.
When planning our studio Production we also really liked the idea of having the audience involved on set with the presenters for a more interactive approach.They would be scattered staining and some sitting on soap boxes etc. Top Gear and The Grand Tour are very unique in the sense of having a participating audinece as its is something not very commonly used or something the you could commonly get away with; it only suites the tone of certain shows. It is more commonly found in children's shows like 'Richard Hammonds Blast Lab'.